Friday, November 26, 2010 (DT 26328)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26328
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26328]
Big Dave's Review Written By Crypticsue
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - **	Enjoyment - ****

Introduction

Crypticsue awarded this puzzle just two stars for difficulty. This does not surprise me, as the electronic aids in my Tool Chest saw very little service today. And, as she notes, it is a very enjoyable puzzle.

Today's Chamberisms

The 'bible' for the Daily Telegraph puzzle is The Chambers Dictionary, 11th edition. Although Chambers does have an online site, it is based on a different dictionary, The Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (a somewhat smaller tome with considerably fewer entries that focuses primarily on words in everyday use). Therefore, given that setters love to use archaic or obscure words, the website may sometimes not contain words appearing in the puzzles. Such seems to be the case today, even with a word that hardly seems terribly obscure.

I won't repeat my 'mistake' of the other day when I flagged a spelling as a possible error only to be informed by Big Dave that the spelling did, in fact, appear in Chambers. However, I will note that sometimes Chambers contains spellings that seem to exist nowhere else - with the following clue serving as a case in point.

Since most solvers on this side of the Atlantic would likely not possess their own copy of Chambers, I think it is worthwhile pointing out instances (such as we see today) where the spelling (in this case, specifically the numeration) appears to vary from the norm. Consequently, rather than label such instances as errors, I will dub them Chamberisms (on the assumption that they can be found in the famous red book).

9a Layer of subsoil difficult to sift (4-3)

The solution to this clue is undoubtedly far more commonly spelled without a hyphen. In fact, an investigation into the spelling of the word reveals:

• the word does not appear in the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary online in either form - hyphenated or unhyphenated
• both Oxford Dictionaries Online (hyphenated version, unhyphenated version) and the Collins English Dictionary (hyphenated version, unhyphenated version) show the word as existing only in the unhyphenated form
• a search at Onelook Dictionary Search for the unhyphenated version of the word shows that it appears in 20 general dictionaries as well as a number of specialized dictionaries
• a search at Onelook Dictionary Search for the hyphenated version of the word provides two links - one to Wordnik and one to Wikipedia. However, upon following the link to Wordnik, one is informed "The definitions below are for [the unhyphenated version of the word]. The examples and other data are for the variant you requested, [the hyphenated version of the word].". Thus, there are no dictionary entries for the hyphenated version - only examples of it having been [mis?]spelled that way in general use. The Wikipedia link redirects to an article in which the word is consistently spelled without a hyphen.

Even some of the Brits writing on Big Dave's site questioned the hyphenation of this word. However, Gnomethang and Big Dave confirm that the word is hyphenated in The Chambers Dictionary, 11th edition.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Clues:

biscuit - noun 1

• British a small baked unleavened cake, typically crisp, flat, and sweet: a chocolate biscuit [in North America, known as a cookie]
• North American a small, soft round cake like a scone

Lord North - Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, KG, PC (1732 – 1792), more often known by his courtesy title, Lord North, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782, leading Great Britain through most of the American War of Independence.

Appearing in Solutions:

bloater - noun a herring cured by salting and light smoking

bye ¹ - noun 2 cricket a run scored from a ball which the batsman has not hit or touched.
bye-law - alternative [likely primarily British] spelling of bylaw [Collins] or by-law [Oxford]

According to Wikipedia, "In the context of local laws, “bylaw” is more frequently used in this context in Canada, the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, whereas in the United States, the words code, ordinance or regulation are more frequent".

ginger - adjective 2 a said of hair: reddish-orange in colour; b reddish-brown in colour.

I believe that the term ginger is also used in North America in reference to hair colour, although the American dictionaries that I consulted seemed to mention it only in terms of colour in general, whereas the British dictionaries also specifically mentioned it in relation to hair colour. However, the precise hue seems to vary somewhat form dictionary to dictionary: Chambers: reddish-orange (specifically for hair) or reddish-brown; Collins: reddish-brown or yellowish-brown; Macmillan: orange-brown; Oxford: light reddish-yellow; American Heritage Dictionary: a strong brown; Encarta: a yellow color with an orange or brownish tinge; Random House: yellowish or reddish brown; Webster: a sandy or reddish-brown color

ginger nut - noun British a hard ginger-flavoured biscuit [i.e., cookie; in Britain, also called a ginger snap, the name by which it is known in North America]

read - verb 5 chiefly British study (an academic subject) at a university: I'm reading English at Cambridge; [no object]: he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics

reader - noun 4 (Reader) British a university lecturer of the highest grade below professor

uni - [likely British] informal university

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

10a Herring or puffer fish? (7)

I struggled with trying to understand the wordplay here. I presume that it is a double definition with the second being a somewhat cryptic (as flagged by the question mark). A bloater is "a herring cured by salting and light smoking" (some dictionaries say "herring or mackerel"). Although new to me, the term appears in both British and American dictionaries. A puffer fish is "any of several tropical fish capable of inflating their spine-covered bodies to become almost spherical, in response to attacks by predators" - which I suppose could be considered being a bloater (although I was not able to find such a connection explicitly referenced in any dictionary). I thought that I might be onto something when I discovered that pink puffer and blue bloater are medical slang for those afflicted with emphysema and chronic bronchitis respectively. In fact, googling these two words produces almost nothing but hits reflecting this usage. However, in the end, this idea turned out to be nothing but a "red herring".

23a Former Prime Minister executed by one from the Middle East (7)

Just remember that, in Cryptic Crosswordland, execution is almost invariably by beheading.

22d Lord North's warning? (5)

Either this is a very simple - yet elegant - clue, or I am a very simple and obtuse solver today. It took me forever to see the wordplay here, which is simply SIRE (lord) + N (north)! The question mark is an indication that the setter is playing mind games with us.

Signing off for today - Falcon