TIB #19

Social message this Diwali – Do not endorse products exploiting child labour.  To show our support to this cause, Cryptonyte – who is still very much a child in terms of clueing experience, has not contributed anything to this puzzle.

Happy Diwali to all you crackers 🙂

Interactive version available here

ACROSS – Diogenes

1) Difficult to imitate a printer’s handiwork? (4,4)
5) Score falling short by eight dozen (6)
10) One used to give a sound hiding? (7)
11) Reporter coming in or going out of crack house (7)
12) Bill Clinton nearly turned in an improvised performance (2,3)
13) What a singer might be at the end of a performance? Discordant (3,2,4)
14) Tenable cash spelt out around the end of tenure? (7,5)
18) What’s applicable to all colleges admitting a student (12)
21) Slippery one pocketing 90, loaned capital (9)
23) Lincoln had nothing against Democrat in house (5)
24) Published material not beginning to appear in general examination (4-3)
25) View round the wing of a bird (7)
26) Screw up, lacking confidence to go outside for a drink(6)
27)They may ruin masts at sea right away (8)

DOWN – Diogenes

1) Henry’s manly rendering of an anthem (6)
2) Trouble-maker not close to upending a lottery (6)
3) Party bachelorette lacking hot moves (9)
4) Play tapes or reels on this (8,6)
6) Husband hugged by spouse mostly has female smell (5)
7) Enticed to consume drug, one’s out of action (8)
8 ) They possibly go around part of a golf course chasing Asian canines (3-5)
9) Jerky leg actions suit animated hand movements (14)
15) Employment status (9)
16) Broad-spectrum drugs? (4-4)
17) Daughter is about to miss show (8)
19) On which a speaker may be starting to preach hatred (6)
20) A game played in nets (6)
22) Dare soldiers to hold up failure (5)

Wordly Pleasures

We’re taking a break this week on TIB. But here is an enjoyable word game for you. You can find this and other word games which belonged to its set here. (Caveat: This was used for the word games competition at Spring Spree – The annual cultural fest of NIT Warangal. Some of the content may be objectionable to some people. User discretion is adviced)

The Cunning Linguist

There are two sets of words – set (1) and set (2). The five letter word in set (1) is obtained by adding one letter to the four letter word from set (1) and anagramming it. (Similarly the five letter word in set (2) is obtained by adding one letter to the four letter word from set (2) and anagramming it.)

Proceed to finally get a ten letter word from set (1) and a nine letter word from set (2)

Find an(other) anagram of the ten letter word and the nine letter word to get a phrase which is analogous to Worldly Pleasure (hint : evil temptation).

Ten points per blank. Twenty points for filling fully. Thirty points for the phrase.

I hate doggies!

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. I beg to differ. If one _ _ _ _ _ _ _₍₂₎ the imbecilic things they do, they are nothing more than huge pains in places you don’t want to mention. For one, they make too much _ _ _ _ _ ₍₁₎ at the mere sight of anything strange. Even more irritating is their tendency to meddle with your wardrobe for no apparent reason when they are irritated! Nothing is spared – not your shoes, nor your trousers, shirts, _ _ _ _ ₍₂₎ – not even your underwear! Just last week I had to throw away my new Nike shoes because my stupid dog ripped out the _ _ _ _ _ _ ₍₁₎

My friend Arsene Wenger thinks dogs are worked up when they have too many fleas on them. He _ _ _ _ _ ₍₂₎ the example of the noodle incident. (Of course I’m not allowed to talk about that, you can ask Mr.Watterson yourself if you like.) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ₍₁₎ my dog became top priority upon hearing this. I soon discovered that it was no mean feat. It is not like there are just one or two fleas – the _ _ _ _ _ _ ₍₂₎ multiplies and forms _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ₍₁₎ of fleas and most of them are war-trained. Finally upon Arsene’s advice, I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ₍₂₎ my dog clean using a vacuum cleaner. It didn’t help one bit! Arsene is a jackass!

People claim that it is fun to walk a dog. Well it’s not! The stupid creatures move in a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _₍₁₎ manner. It is almost as if they read De Bono’s Lateral Thinking books! And of course they chase anything and everything and they run like mad. Believe me when I tell you this – I once had to chase my dog across two _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _₍₂₎ ! The _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ₍₁₎ indicated that we were in a different time zone altogether! That’s how much we had run. I haven’t given my dog a walk in _ _ _ _₍₁₎ . Hmmm may be I should! Doggy!!! Where are you??