Monday 30 December 2013

No.10969, Monday 30 Dec 2013, Gridman



ACROSS
1 State owns one article producing utter speechlessness (7) APHASIA (AP HAS 1 A)
5 American Indian on a street is clever (6) ASTUTE (A UTE on ST)
9 Pi(pic)c (5) INSET CD Picture in Picture
          Remember those TVs that advertised PIP in days of yore
10 Timely old joke having left end of punchline (9) OPPORTUNE (O  PUN having PORT, E)
11 Idle scribbler drooled excitedly (7) DOODLER (DROOLED*)
12 Movie VIP has something to chew over: pie (7) CUSTARD (CUD around STAR)
13 Holy man gets female a French cocktail (5) FAKIR (F A KIR)
14 One new rooftop collapses in Italian village (9) PORTOFINO (1 N ROOFTOP)*
16 Not controlled immediately? (3,2,4) OUT OF HAND 2
19 Banter from fellows following tea (5) CHAFF (FF after CHA)
          A popular repast among the customers here
21 A vessel that’s run aground would want to … (7) REFLOAT CD
23 Rough action on good layer (7) COATING (ACTION* on G)
24 He is raw; we interrupted — Help me remember what I was talking about (5,3,1) WHERE WAS I (HE IS RAW WE)*
25 Lines about fast-breaking, no small meal (5) IFTAR (IR FAsT)* (IR about FAsT*)
26 Prohibit surrounding some tree (6) BANYAN (BAN around ANY)
27 Straight sign on the road (2,5) NO TURNS CD

DOWN
1 If you’ve this, you wouldn’t ask anyone else for thoughts (1,4,2,4,3) A MIND OF YOUR OWN CD,DD
2 Fool pawned church cushion (7) HASSOCK (HOCK around ASS)
3 Colonist’s decisive blow? (7) SETTLER 2
           Would a Welshman who pays up be a settler or a welsher?
4 Strange approach surrounding the last of crazy unorthodox books (9) APOCRYPHA (APPROACH* around Y)
5 A small, small photograph of jellied dish (5) ASPIC (A S PICture)
6 Avails oneself of stint on aircraft: no learner (5,2) TURNS TO (TURN STOL-L)
7 Time-out: I mustn’t fall around the extreme part of Goa – there’s coastal disaster (7) TSUNAMI *(I MUSTNt A)*
8 One with this is good at arithmetic (4,3,7) HEAD FOR FIGURES CD
          And possibly sculpture too
15 Introduce different cut (9) REDUCTION (INTRODUCE)*
17 Industrialist gets female to iron crisp fabric (7) TAFFETA (TATA gets F FE)
18 Senseless behaviour (7) FOOLERY (E)
          Easy for me!
19 Talk about river goddess’ vehicle (7) CHARIOT (CHAT about RIO=river) Can also be CHAT about R and IO, with only vehicle as def.  CV has confirmed the latter
20 Pilot takes a number to a mountain (7) AVIATOR (A VI A TOR)
22 Time to take god in coach (5) TRAIN (T RA IN)
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35 comments:

  1. Richard30 December 2013 at 08:44

    25A - Lines about fast-breaking, no small meal (5) IFTAR (IR FAsT)*

    There is a minor error in highlighting which needs to be corrected - 'no small' represents deletion and 'meal' is definition.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kishore30 December 2013 at 08:49

    I am also having trouble uploading the cartoon. I have forward the same to DG for help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath30 December 2013 at 09:01

      I did upload it, don't know where it's gone. Will add it again

      Delete
  3. Richard30 December 2013 at 08:49

    24A - Remembered the scene from Rowdy Rathore wherein Akshay Kumar, after a brief digression during conversation with Sonakshi Sinha, asks 'Where was I?' and she points at the exact spot...

    ReplyDelete
  4. VMA Nair30 December 2013 at 08:51

    19 D

    (CHA R IO T)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore30 December 2013 at 08:54

      I mulled over this, Ajeesh and took 'goddess' vehicle as definition.

      Not that your anno is wrong. It seems to work both ways. River as R and Goddess as IO or River as RIO and goddess as part of defn.

      Delete
  5. Deepak Gopinath30 December 2013 at 09:15

    Cartoon reloaded

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mukundala Balasubramanyam30 December 2013 at 09:49

    No Monday blues ! A nice puzzle. Thanks, Gridman. My first take on 1 Across was APHONIA, later corrected, as the wordplay clearly leads to APHASIA

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chaturvasi30 December 2013 at 09:52

    After my return from BNG I have been a bit busy attending to some personal affairs (please don't read too much into this word!) and also going to the temple in the mornings for some help around and then to the kutcheris in the Academy - where the canteen is an attraction for tiffin or mini meal and where I bump into my former colleagues and musical friends.
    Kishore, I am yet to read the blog fully, but a glance at your alternative anno for CHARIOT took my breath away. (Splutter.) It works but I didn't see it when I wrote the clue. Or I have forgotten which was my intended anno!
    Happy New Year to all my friends, followers and foes (if any).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Chaturvasi30 December 2013 at 10:43

    (After some reflections - without any mirror in front of me...
    As a chariot is not necessarily used by gods and goddesses alone, and as a chariot my bear a King or President or a mere mortal just as it does a god or goddess, I would not have given ''goddess' vehicle" as the def.
    So my breakup and treatment would have been CHA(R IO)T.
    I was happy with the collocation 'river goddess'.
    In sum, the compiler's def is just 'vehicle'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore30 December 2013 at 11:23

      Thanks, CV. Thought so too, but thought I would air the alternative theory.

      Delete
  9. Padmanabhan30 December 2013 at 11:09

    CV must have thought about Kishore's figure(s) while writing a clue for 8D!
    w.r.to left & right exchanges between Kishore & Richard, I draw their attention to 27A.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Padmanabhan30 December 2013 at 11:12

    Liked the way 9A was put across. PIP - nowadays it is picture(s) in picture(s) with lots of msgs.thrown into the confusion, with the result that you tend to miss everything.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mukundala Balasubramanyam30 December 2013 at 11:37

    6 Avails oneself of stint on aircraft: no learner (5,2) TURNS TO (TURN STOL-L)

    I just wonder how could one get STOL i.e. a type of 'short takeoff and landing' aircraft to solve the above clue !? I tried WIKI typing 'aircraft' and gave up after a laborious search in vain !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore30 December 2013 at 12:16

      IMO, instead of aircraft, a type of aircraft would have been better

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam30 December 2013 at 12:45

      Tried that too and no success ! Like in CD clues "either you know it or don't", similarly here it's "either you get it or don't" !!

      Delete
    3. Kishore30 December 2013 at 12:55

      Nope, I was not suggesting your search phrase. I was suggesting wording of the clue.

      Delete
    4. Mukundala Balasubramanyam30 December 2013 at 14:48

      Yes, I agree with you.

      Delete
  12. VMA Nair30 December 2013 at 12:11

    Gridman is missing at top

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mukundala Balasubramanyam30 December 2013 at 12:14

    25 Lines about fast-breaking, no small meal (5) IFTAR (IR FAsT)* (IR about FAsT*)

    IR = Lines ? Don't get it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore30 December 2013 at 12:26

      Indian Railways

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam30 December 2013 at 12:39

      Thanks, Kishore. I too thought of Indian Railways but to make sure I visited Abbreviations list of WIki and Suchi's list too and found nothing there. Hence my query ! :)

      Delete
    3. Kishore30 December 2013 at 12:55

      Indian setters' licence. Like we use RAW, NSG, IB, CBI etc. ;-)

      Delete
  14. Chaturvasi30 December 2013 at 17:13

    Wrt 24a, there is grim humour in today's Laugh with the ToI joke from the Internet in the paper's Chennai edition.
    I am not sure if the same joke appears in all editions.

    ReplyDelete
  15. raju umamaheswar30 December 2013 at 17:16

    Enjoyed Gridman's construction. The words and phrases fall in their places in symphonic consonance. Effect of his atending cutcheries? Flavoured like vintage cognac !
    Take a BOW quet , CV !!

    ReplyDelete

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