CWC 14 at last

All the confusion about the winner of CWC 13 was solved and in the end it was decided that I would moderate CWC 14 as earlier.

Here's my say on the clues...

There were some last minute entries which spiced up the contest. I almost missed Govi's entry. Some have not clearly identified their official and bonus entries. I request everybody to do so in the coming editions of the CWC.

Find the clues and my remarks below.

Raapi

From behind,looks like 4 aliens share a two seat sofa.(4-1-4) - TETE-A-TETE
4 Aliens = 4 ET = ET ET ET ET
share a = ET ET (A) ET ET
From behind = TETE-A-TETE
Tete-a-tete = A sofa for two, especially an S-shaped one allowing the occupants to face each other.

remarks:
great clue, good surface reading - a top contender


Govi
early bird
1 Always the first to catch the worm (5,4) - official
Direct

Remarks:
Nice clue but lacks an interesting theme


Uttandaraman Pugalumperumal

Spurs tear apart nutrine nuggets? (5,4)

Answer - Super star

Description - Spurs tear is anagram
(Nutrine had this chocolate brand called 'Super star' that I used to love. Not sure if they still have that though!)

P.S. Thought of this clue as the spurs are playing the nuggets in the playoffs.

remarks:
Well constructed clue with a nice theme. - top contender


Vinod-
One down, Afridi is going bonkers, with many surrounding - he's the right-hand man (3,6)

Direct definition = RIGHT-HAND MAN
One down Afridi = AFRIDI - I = AFRID
"is going bonkers" is the anagram indicator for AFRID = FRIDA
FRIDA with MANY surrounding => MANY surrounding FRIDA = MAN (FRIDA)Y

remarks:
nice theme but could have been crisper


Ramanujam

Rice, Wheat and Dal made cheap by the police (3,6) Low-Priced

R,,W and D made by police = R+W+D+POLICE - Anagram
Cheap = Low-priced

Remarks:
I miss a theme here. police doesn't go well with the cereals mentioned.


Parasuram

Pointless novice in Troy made to see defeat (2,7)
Pointless novice = novice -e = novic + Troy
made to = anagram indicator.
novic troy made to see defeat = no victory.

Remark:
Nice clue, gives good reading.

Bonus Clues

Ramanujam

1) Gadget to call the hell peon? (4,5)- CELL PHONE
2) Searching a quarter in the feet for one hour(9) - ONE FOURTH

Raja-
Nice clues. I am considering his entries as bonus clues, since he hadn't identified his official entry.

Geysers put him in a spot - hot waters
Stop by here for a refill - water hole
Spring meet - water hole
Low hooter in the east - where animals meet - water hole
Jesus died on it askew id say - cross eyed
Pearls' opus - good earth
Go hot! Dear, Buck wrote - good earth
On an island, he is everything to Robinson - Man Friday
Between Thursday and Saturday, it is not a woman who cares - Man Friday
The sands of Marina and Miami - sea shores
As she ores - summer vacation spots - sea shores
Running with the rabbits and hunting with the hounds - two timing
Stabs your back with a smiling face - two timing
Shows distances along the way for the car trip - Road atlas
Book of maps for a drive to the resort - Road atlas
Seven little men for company - snow white

Vinod
The donor exposed viral germs, right away (4-5) ALMS-GIVER

Defintion=DONOR
"right away" suggests removal of R from VIRAL GERMS
"exposed" is the anagram indicator for VIRAL + GERMS - R

Govi: I liked the theme in the axe effect clues, but does 'cause' mean 'effect' as mentioned in one of the clues.

Twice moved north to Tokyo ond HongKong for the cheap nightclubs (5-4)n + n + tokyo + hk = honky-tonk

In a savaged rily beard, never a late comer(5,4)
rily + beard = early bird

Terminate and cause males to attract females (3,6)
terminate - axe
cause - effect
cause males 2 attra.... = axe effect

Empty coffeehouse madly imposes tax and fee causes males to besexually attractive (3,6)coffeehouse - cafe.. empty - cfecfe + tax + fee = axe effect

"doesn't matter", it is of no consequnce (5,4) - never mind

Triviality Kobain's way (5,4) - never mind
Curt Kobain - nirvana... one of the famous albums...

Mend the right vein, need not regard it (5,4) - never mind
mend + r + vein = never mind

Congeal jewish god head in a pod giving candy (5,4) -jelly bean
congeal = jell
lewish god - yehovah head so.. ypod = bean

Ahinav
novices have trouble changing gods :neophytes(neo+phytes, etymologically same meaning from old latin);this one i made really simple will try and make it a little more shrouded!

Winner:
In my view, the winner of this edition of CWC is Uttandaraman Pugalumperumal.

Congrats raman.

CWC 15 is all yours now. I hope you come up with an exiting contest.

Living a dream

It takes lot of perseverance and will-power to live a dream and I personally do not know many who have done it. That way, I am happy to be amongst the personal phonebook of Cheralathan, my good old friend who recently graduated from the Kilpauk Medical College.
We both nourished the same ambition in our school days, and both ended with the same fate after our highsecondary exams. That was when our individual characters tookover us. I fell for the easy option of engineering, while he was loyal to his doctorial aspirations and waited for one more year.

That he managed to endure the ordeal of staying at home for an entire year and earned himself a place in KMC the following year are by themselves inspiring stuff for the Toms, Dicks and the Harrys. But he did not stop with that. The manner in which he conducted an intercollegiate quiz competition as a sophomore brought him accolades and also similar requests from as far as Thanjavur Medical College.

Now he has again stuck to his dreams, by letting go an opportunity to practice in the United Kingdom for pursuing a Masters degree in surgery. It is obvious that he has got miles to go, but everyone of my friends and all my family members are confident that he would leapfrog his way to excellence.

I would be one of the happy souls on earth when Chera scales the peak.

Dude, I am extremely happy for you and wish you the very best in all your endeavours.

Getting bitter and bitter

That is how my life feels right now. I am extremely disgusted with the way my life is getting along nowadays. With every passing day, my conscience is getting heavier and heavier for not doing anything worthwhile.

As a matter of principle, I am refraining myself from getting into the details of my professional life in my personal blogspace. Not because of the fear that I might be reprimanded by my employers, but I just want to keep the two entities as disjoint as possible.

Its been nearly eight months since I did something worth mentioning. It really pains to idle away the precious moments of my life the way I am doing now. With me having no control over these things, I can only hope that things get better in the future.

May be not

It seems that CWC 13 may not be over yet.

Muthu, the moderator of CWC 13 has missed quite a few entries and hence has requested someone to reconsider all the entries and announce the winner.

CWC 14 stays on hold until then.

Oops!...I did it again

Yes, I managed to win the 13th edition of CWC (Clue writing contest). For the sake of record, this is the 3rd time my entry is finding a place in the CWC Hall of Fame and this puts me alongside the stalwarts Raapi and Shyam.

The biggest honour in winning the CWC is that the winner gets to moderate the next CWC. So this time its me.

Thought of making this edition a bit more interesting.

So here goes CWC#14

People will have to frame the clues based on the following rules

1) The answer to the clue should be 2 words and not one word. (like
"well-done", "good morning" etc)
2)The sum of the letters in the 2 words should be 9.
3)It can also be an hyphenated word
4)Participants can break it up any way they wanted (2,7...5,4...etc)
5)Make sure the words go well with each other and also with the clue.

I hope the participants find the new rules interesting.


BTW, the prize winning entry of CWC#13 is

"Ad show undone in an unilluminated area (6)" - SHADOW

Toughest Thing to do

Do you know what is the toughest thing to do...

-Driving at 9 o'clock traffic in Mount Road
-Seeing the girl next to you chat with her boy friend on cell phone
-Watching Cheran's "Autograph" for the second time
-Getting up early in the morning
-Washing dishes after a heavy lunch
-Paying the bill after hosting a big treat
-Standing at the Southern Railways Reservation counter
-Watching 3 mega serials at the same time in 3 different channels
-Spending the horrendous moments in a Giant Wheel
-Walking the stretch of Ranganathan street on a rainy day


But I tell you the toughest thing is being forced to stay indoors on all through the long weekend with an empty wallet (IT deductions in the month of March), a faulty DVD player, a TV without Set Top Box, tough Crosswords in The Hindu and a mobile phone which had received nothing more than the promotional messages from Aircel.