Monday 15 July 2013

No.10825, Monday 15 Jul 2013, Mover

Tarts (11a and 17a answer), trollop, streetwalker, ...  Mover seems to be on the move !

ACROSS
1 Gigantic  // ship Down Under? (7) TITANIC DD,CD
          This was one Monday without that sinking feeling ...
5 Increase recombined mutagen (7) AUGMENT (MUTAGEN*)
          Remembered the Augmentin used for treating bacterial infections
9 Beginning note changes in handrails for cylindrical containers (9) CANISTERS (BANISTERS-B+C)
10 Tie torn coats (5) ASCOT (COATS*)
          To learn how to tie this, you have to travel back in time...  to June 23,2013 : 11a
11 Head swallows pastry tart (7) TROLLOP (TOP around ROLL)
12 Pilfered fruit cake, we hear (7) STOLLEN (~STOLEN),
          The clue seems to lead to STOLEN, but that is 6 letters...
13 Reportedly remained sober (5) STAID (~STAYED)
15 Preventing objectionable person in case (9) THWARTING (WART in THING)
          Not sure if case=thing works
17 Having advantage in the race, leads a streetwalker (4,5) HEAD START (HEADS TART)
19 Fling // bedspread (5) THROW 2
21 Box put on line for bird (7) SPARROW (SPAR on ROW)
23 Monitor leading young man (4,3) HEAD BOY
          He leads a hundred and fifty asses !
25 Fibre extracted from Scottish thistles (5) ISTLE (T)
26 Sound insincere  like a cracked bell? (4,5) RING FALSE CD
27 & 28 Brazil may be a difficult problem to solve (4,3,2,5) HARD NUT TO CRACK (CD)
          Reminded me of Uncle Fred and the Brazil Nut in the beginning of Cocktail Time

DOWN
1 Ancient historian understood America (7) TACITUS (TACIT US)
2 Got an awkward dance (5) TANGO (GOT AN)*
3 Fitted inside surrounding beginner; arranged in cosy position (7) NESTLED (NESTED around L)
          Like those Russian dolls !
4 Pale actor playing Antony’s lover (9) CLEOPATRA (PALE ACTOR)*
          Julius, where art thou ?
          Goscinny and Uderzo put it as: C LEO PAT RA in Asterix the Gladiator with the definition as "Caesar loves the whole of me"
5 Fools the Proletariat after banning Marx’s Capital (5) ASSES (mASSES)
6 Thousand in the morning surrounds extreme evil next to our glitzy beauty (7) GLAMOUR (G (L) AM OUR)
7 Surpasses number one yellow-coloured wood shavings (9) EXCELSIOR (EXCELS I OR)
8 Showing disapproval, oriental nag could yield zinc alloy (7) TUTENAG (TUT E NAG)
          A word of Tamil ancestry. Anything to do with Toothukudi ?
14 White stone flower follows a dog (9) ALABASTER (A LAB(rador) ASTER)
16 Used to ward off a spell when bird follows hag (9) WITCHKNOT (WITCH KNOT)
          I can't understand this witchery ! Wiki tells me it is to put a spell and not ward off one.           
          Though untying one seems to do the trick.  But then, I was quid-ditched out of Hogwarts for bad spelling before Rowling came there bowling.

17 Has His Highness started cannabis? (7) HASHISH (T) or rather HAS HIS Highness
18 Swell operating doctor (7) SURGEON (SURGE ON)
          If operating doctor is taken as def, then operating would be on double duty
19 Craft, if employed in trade (7) TRAFFIC (CRAFT IF)*
20 Painful result of craning to see a woodpecker? (7) WRYNECK (CD),DD See comments
          In India, if you want to see 'rubber necks' just look at an accident scene
22 Sausage, we hear, is least favoured (5) WURST(~WORST) or is it  WORST (~WURST)
          Even money on both. Though I favour the first option because it lets me remember the knockwursts in 'Allo 'Allo
24 Fragrant resin endlessly yields wood (5) BALSA (BALSAm)
          Wood used for making gliding model aircraftThis reminded me of the bicycle repairman who, after examining my free-wheel,  told me in the vernacular: "Aapke baalsa kharaab ho gayen hain"

31 comments:

  1. 20D, WRYNECK is also a bird similar to a woodpecker, so a DD

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Europese_Draaihals.jpg

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I had 'discovered' that through Google but forgot to link it.

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  2. I think one of the tags for this post should be Jul 15 or 15 Jul 13 (after the Col's style).

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    Replies
    1. The Col. gives the date in the main heading as Monday, 15 Jul 13, which I have aped. Also, he gives the tag as Jul 13, which too I have chimpanzeed. Anything more ?

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    2. Maybe something to be orangutaned?

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    3. Let us not monkey around !

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    4. Being primarily primate...

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    5. I get momentarily confused when I see the American dates eg., 9/11 as 11 Sep or 9 Nov

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    6. The safest way is to express the month in three-character abbreviation first, followed by the date and then the year. There should not be any confusion. e.g., Jul 15, 2013 or '13

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    7. I always use the Date/Month/Year configuration

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    8. That is what we continue to use. The Label part is being done on a month basis. Having a label for everyday is easy, but will create too many labels !

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    9. Instead of 15 Jul 13 in the main heading, we can use 15 Jul 2013.

      Delete
  3. 8D Tutenag was a new word to me. But surprised at the connection as Zinc is called Thuthanagam in Tamil. And also another word with a strange etymology. Hashish is apparently the root for Assasin. Could not verify this though.

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  4. I understand only now that the tag at the end of the post relates to the month and year. In which case Jul 13 is OK. I would have had no difficulty in thinking it was the month and year if it had been July, 2013 or Jul 2013 or Jul '13.

    As for the date in the header, I think it will be better if it is modified so there is no confusion. When my eye takes in 15 Jul 13, I tend to think it is the 13th of July as there is no comma after Jul.
    (Often in my searches here I have to be very conscious about the date style.)

    To remove the possibility of any confusion, it will be nice if it is Jul 15, 2013 or Jul 15, '13 where it's clear the date is 15 and the year is 2013. If it is 15 Jul, 2013 it will be still better. Every element is clear.

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    Replies
    1. I wrote my post before I saw Kishore's.

      The unanimous preference for the date in the header seems to be

      15 Jul 2013

      Here there is no confusion that it is 15th July.

      And it doesn't go against the Col's own configuration Date/Month/Year.

      Only the insertion of 20 before 13 is needed.

      Delete
  5. Date/Month/Year configuration without commas - as the Col gives in the header - seems to be the practice in the defence services.

    The typist may leave the date part vacant and the officer before signing will enter the date manually.

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  6. Just wondering if the Col had any piquant situation in his life from confusion caused by dates - the calendar dates. .

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    Replies
    1. You men like missing a date ?

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    2. CV @ 9:58. Bingo. It's hard to change that practice, having done it for 30 years while I was in service.

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    3. Kishore @ 10:10,

      Biting the unintended bait or was it intended, I thought you were a man too !!

      Delete
    4. CV @ 10:04,

      No such piquant situations except when I did a train booking for one which left Bangalore city at 11:45 PM and came to the station near my house at 12:05 AM as a result of which I found that the booking I made was for the previous days train at my station.

      Delete
    5. CG@1039:

      ;-)

      Typo for mean

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  7. The confusion over 'tying' or 'untying' in 16Dn recalls to mind how Perry Mason proves in a case that the suitcase was not being 'packed', but 'unpacked'.

    CV probably finds history sweet because it is full of dates!

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  8. 19 - A - Don't one require a sound indicator, for this clue?

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    Replies
    1. No. It is not a homophone clue.

      It is a DD.

      Fling = THROW = bedspread.

      However, we in India don't use the word in the sense of 'bedspread'.

      I came to know of this sense of the term when I was on a visit to the US.

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  9. TUTENAG,ISTLE and WITCHKNOT : All these three words not found in my "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary" (New 8th Edition)! Also Word Web in PC does'nt list them. I could fill in the first two, as for the third one, could get "witch" but not "knot" ! Wikipedia does'nt give Witchknot but Google Search mentions Collins Dictionary and the answer is found at last ! So Moral of the Story is, to be a successful solver, one should have not only a PC but also a set of three dictionaries, preferably CHAMBERS,COLLINS and OED !!! JAI HIND !

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  10. MB: Always trust your imagination while solving and never refer to a dictionary or reference book or uncle Google, before hand There will be too many possibilities thrown up like a spell checker alternatives.. Once your answer is put in , albeit serendipitous, check to make sure that you had the correct one and relish the satisfaction of finding it so. Experience over a period will assist you in developing that gut instinct. Setters have this naughty habit of throwing red herrings and set you in dreadknots.Like yesterday's Miss Anandi Nolan !! See my comments as inder posted yesterday's Special.

    Did any one try and seek MISS ANANDI NOLAN in the Google? I found a few hits to seek this miss !

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