This puzzle was originally published Friday, January 16, 2009 in the Daily Telegraph
Introduction
I would like to welcome Big Dave who left a comment in response to my post on Tuesday. It is immensely gratifying to have a solver with so much more experience than myself affirm my point of view. Big Dave is a frequent contributor on both AnswerBank and Crossword Ends In Violence (5). He has established his own blog dealing with the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword starting with puzzles that should be appearing in the National Post in about a month from now. I plan to link to his site once the National Post reaches that point in the series.
I thought the puzzle today had a medium level of difficulty and I was able to solve it completely. James Cary (author of Crossword Ends in Violence (5)) thought that "it seemed a bit easy".
"Briticisms" and "Americanisms"
Today's puzzle had a fair number of British expressions and references. Such expressions are likely so familiar to those in the UK that they think nothing of them but they can be very foreign to those of us in North America. Of course, the opposite undoubtedly holds true when the shoe is on the other foot. However, even when the setter introduces Americanisms into the puzzle, he or she can do so in a way that turns the "Americanism" into a "Briticism" for those of us on this side of the pond. A case in point occurred in yesterday's puzzle, "28ac American butts (7,7)". The wordplay in this clue was quite incomprehensible to me until I discovered in the Oxford dictionary that the expression "butt" (in the sense of "buttocks") is specific to North America.
Briticisms appearing in today's puzzle include:
George Best - renowned former British football (soccer) player
Berks - short form for Berkshire (county)
H - (King) Henry (I believe, as ER = "Elizabeth Regina", HR = "Henry Rex")
vesta - match
gn - guinea (abbrev.)
nick - arrest
tic-tac - bookmaker's signals
Today's Links
1. Crossword Ends in Violence (5) [DT 25827]: CEIV provides a nearly complete solution to today's puzzle. Solutions to the missing clues are provided below.
There are three questions in AnswerBank concerning today's puzzle:
2. AnswerBank [DT 25827]-a: 10ac
3. AnswerBank [DT 25827]-b: 6ac
4. AnswerBank [DT 25827]-c: 7d
Today's Puzzle
Here are solutions to the clues omitted by CEIV (as well as a couple where the solution was incomplete or misidentified there):
Across
1ac - SECOND BEST
9ac - MAD|RAS - crazy [MAD] reckless [RASH] {for the most part (delete last letter) = [RAS]}
23ac TAOISM - MAOIST with sides (first and last letters) swapped
28ac SPELLCHECK - cryptic definition
Down
22d STA(B)LE - past its best [STA^LE] {collecting (outside)} 1 across grade [B]
Since the solution to clue "1 across" is "second best", "1 across grade" is "second best grade" or B.
Explanations Available on Request
If you would like a clarification on the solution to any clue in the puzzle, please leave a comment and I would be more than happy to provide an explanation.
Signing off for today.
Toughie 3255
15 hours ago
H=henry: I can't remember seeing HR for Henry Rex (or maybe Henricus Rex - a male first name is often Latinized in this context - e.g. Georgius Rex). There's another explanation - h. stands for the henry, an SI unit of measurement.
ReplyDeleteI think vesta for match is old-fashioned rather than British - although we have a famous brand called Swan Vestas, anyone shown a box and asked what it contained would just say "matches".
With respect to the rationale I put forth for H = Henry, it was pure speculation on my part (as I attempted to indicate by the qualifier). I concede that you are undoubtedly correct that it actually is the abbreviation for the henry, an SI unit of inductance.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to your second point, my source is an article I found on Wikipedia that indicates that Vesta is a brand name for matches that, as a result of a series of corporate reorganizations, passed through the hands of a succession of British match companies and finally ended up with Swedish Match.