Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (DT 26055)

This puzzle was originally published Friday, October 9, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I found the puzzle to have split personalities today, clearly delineated by a diagonal line drawn from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. I completed virtually all of that part of the puzzle lying above this line fairly readily. However, completing the part below the line was like pulling teeth. I completed the puzzle with one incorrect solution (27a) and with three or four clues for which I had only a partial understanding of the wordplay.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

all but - ... very nearly ... • He all but drowned.

duck's arse (in North America, duck's ass, and - in either case - abbreviated DA) - noun informal a man’s hairstyle in which the hair is slicked back on both sides and tapered at the nape [I must say that I don't remember ever having heard it called this. To me, it was a ducktail.]

retail therapy - noun Jocular the action of shopping for clothes, etc. in order to cheer oneself up

tranny - noun informal 1 chiefly Brit. a transistor radio 2 a transvestite

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26055].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11a Salt a runner used in run? (9)

While this clue seemed to give many of the Brits difficulty, I solved it quite handily. It did, on a couple of counts, give rise to a lot of discussion on Big Dave's blog. The first had to do with cycle meaning run. To my mind, a run can be a series, and a cycle is one repetition (run) of a repeating series.

The other question arose from a lack of familiarity on the part of many writers with the term cyclamate. Growing up in a home with a diabetic father, I was well aware of the existence of artificial sweeteners. In the sixties, as I recall, the two leading types were cyclamate and saccharin. Since then, additional options have appeared on the market.

The U.S. banned cyclamate in 1969 over claims (apparently now refuted) that it causes cancer. Wikipedia reports,"Although the FDA has stated that a review of all available evidence does not implicate cyclamate as a carcinogen in mice or rats, cyclamate remains banned from food products in the United States." Through some strange twist, artificial sweeteners that are formulated with saccharin in the U.S. (where cyclamate is banned) are formulated with cyclamate in Canada (where saccharin is banned to all but diabetics). The problem would apparently occur not from ingesting one or the other of these substances but from ingesting a mixture of the two. It appears that one country has chosen to ban the first, while the other country has banned the second. It would seem that the only ones at risk are those who regularly cross the border, thereby (unknowingly?) ingesting both. At the time of the cyclamate cancer scare in the sixties and seventies, I seem to recall that the labels of products such as diet soft drinks would prominently proclaim "Contains no cyclamates".

27a God dressed like a tranny, all but (5)

Auto buffs may think that the reference is to a transmission, but it really is to a transvestite. However, it seems that the Brits may have envisioned a transister radio. A rather limited knowledge of Indian deities also proved to be a handicap for me here.

The use of "all but" in this stand-alone fashion seems a bit questionable. Chambers clearly shows it is to be used in the middle of a phrase such as "He all but drowned".

3d Spent time in place, struggled to get around it (7)
Well said! I certainly spent time on this clue and struggled to get my mind around the wordplay. My problem was that I incorrectly thought the solution was of the form VIS(IT)ED, rather than VI(SIT)ED where, had I been correct, the "it" in the clue would be the contents in this container-type clue.

5d Artist arrived in front of audience, being filmed (2,6)

Like Gazza, I was puzzled by the lack of instructions for ordering the elements in what appears to be a charade-type clue, that would seem to parse as:

RA (artist) CAME (arrived) ON (in front of audience) /\ ON CAMERA (being filmed)

However, a visitor to Big Dave's site suggests that this may not be a charade-type clue at all (or, if it is, that it doesn't parse as I have shown above). Rather, one must perform a phrasal substitution, where:

"Artist arrived in front of audience" = "On came the artist" = ON CAME RA (Royal Academician)

Signing off for today - Falcon