Originally published Monday, January 5, 2009 in the Daily Telegraph
Today's Links
I have found two existing sources for solutions to today's puzzle, so - being inherently lazy - I will refrain from adding yet another. In this section, dates refer to the dates when the puzzles were published in the Daily Telegraph.
Crossword Ends in Violence (5) - (CEIV for short)
The first source can be found at Crossword Ends in Violence (5) [DT 25817]. This blog, produced by British media writer James Cary, provides a discussion of the puzzle in a self-styled "witty and engaging" manner. In some cases, the author provides hints designed to lead the reader to the solution rather than the actual solution itself. However, be on the lookout for the occasional minor typo, such as the one in 10ac today.
CEIV has published a solution for the Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword starting with DT 25788 on December 1, 2008. The author - especially in his earlier posts - provides tips for solving cryptic crosswords. Those looking for introductory material on this subject may wish to start with the December 1 blog and follow the posts through in sequence.
With DT 25812 (December 30, 2008), the format of the blog changed somewhat with Cary announcing that he could no longer continue to provide a complete solution to the puzzle on his own, but would be relying more on contributions from his readers. As has been alluded to in comments to one of my earlier posts, we will see that Cary will eventually discontinue his blog, passing the torch to another blogger.
The home page for Crossword Ends in Violence (5) promotes a book of the same title written by the author. I have yet to find a way to navigate from the home page to the Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword solution archive pages. However, from any of the links that I provide, you can navigate forward and backward within the archive pages using the navigation tools at the top of each page.
Cryptics.co.uk
The second source is Cryptics.co.uk [DT 25817]. This site began posting solutions starting with DT 25764 on November 3, 2008. It posts solutions five days per week, taking the position that it is "not cricket" to post solutions for the Saturday prize puzzle. During the Christmas period, this site ceased postings following the December 22, 2008 puzzle, resuming posts with today's puzzle. An overview of the site can be found here. As we will eventually discover (probably about two months from now), postings on this site will come to an end following a post on the puzzle published on March 5, 2009.
As for AnswerBank, there was nothing concerning today's puzzle that would add to what has been covered by the two sources already cited.
Comments on Today's Puzzle
As the solutions are quite adequately provided in the aforementioned sources, I will restrain myself to a few comments where I deem it might be useful or interesting to elaborate on a solution. In particular, I will try to note any instances where I feel the solution suggested in the sources is in error or may otherwise be found lacking as well as any obscure meanings for words or British usages or expressions that might not be obvious to North Americans.
Across
4ac - I originally penciled in IMPORTER which seemed a good fit - but I later realized there was an even better solution.
10ac - Of course, the entry at the CEIV site should read "anagram ... of 'a bustlin'" (clearly a typo)
31ac Jet - a hard black mineral that is polished and used in jewellery
Down
1d I think the CEIV post was a tiny bit sloppy with respect to this clue. A proper parsing would be:
Determined [RES|O|LUTE] /to produce\ notes [RES (as in do-re-mi ...)] {on (before)} old [O] instrument [LUTE] (8)
Although it may seem overly pedantic to quibble over whether LUTE is represented by "instrument" or "old instrument", it seems to me that it is often only through such attention to detail that cryptic crossword clues can be successfully solved.
6d I got this one incorrect. I had (with a great deal of uncertainty) settled on GRAB (as an anagram for GARB) although I was fully aware that any relationship to "inclination" was clearly tenuous, at best.
16d I missed this one as well. DONNE was the only poet I could think of that fit the _O_N_ pattern but it obviously didn't fit the wordplay.
22d The wordplay is apparently: many = large [L]
That's a wrap for today. I welcome any comments or requests to clarify solutions.
Toughie 3257
13 hours ago
22D: "many" => L comes from Roman numerals, where L=50. There's a convention in most UK cryptics that although something like many=>DIX (509) is perfectly logical, the solver shouldn't have to worry about too many(!) options, so "many" normally turns out to mean one of the single letters L,C,D,M. On a similar basis, when "unknown" means "an uknown in algebra", it's usually x, y, or z even though any letter of the alphabet could be used in theory.
ReplyDeleteSubtleties like whether "old" is part of "old instrument" are well worth watching out for. When dealing with "a dog", it might be "a word for dog", or "A + a word for dog".
Looked again at 1D. You can read the wordplay two ways. Your way, or the way that says that RE and SO (a.k.a. SOH) are both notes; so notes = RE,SO and "old instrument" = LUTE.
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