Thursday, March 3, 2011 (DT 26413)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26413
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, December 2, 2010
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26413]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - **	Enjoyment - **
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog

Introduction

My Tool Chest gathered dust today - understandable given that the puzzle merited only two stars from Gazza for difficulty.

Today's Glossary

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

[Items marked with an asterisk are from a Cumulative Glossary of entries appearing, since the beginning of this year, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

The meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

blooming - adjective [attributive] British informal used to express annoyance or for emphasis: of all the blooming cheek!; [as submodifier] a blooming good read

attributive - adjective Grammar (of an adjective or other modifier) preceding the word that it modifies and expressing an attribute, as old in the old dog (but not in the dog is old) and expiry in expiry date. Contrasted with predicative

silver - [Collins English Dictionary] verb 1. to coat with silver or a silvery substance: to silver a spoon

Appearing in Solutions:

PR - abbreviation 1 proportional representation [I was a bit surprised to find this abbreviation in several dictionaries, three British and two American]

Tate Gallery - a national museum of art at Millbank, London [England], founded in 1897 by the sugar manufacturer Sir Henry Tate (1819–99) to house his collection of modern British paintings, as a nucleus for a permanent national collection of modern art. It was renamed Tate Britain in 2000, when the new Tate Modern gallery opened.

Trent - the chief river of central England, which rises in Staffordshire and flows 275 km (170 miles) generally north-eastwards, uniting with the River Ouse 25 km (15 miles) west of Hull to form the Humber estuary

uni - noun U.K. education (informal) Same as  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.

5d   Lucky chap - pyjamas fitted (5)

Gazza comments "I wouldn’t have said that this word means the same as lucky, but Chambers has “lucky” as the first meaning against it so I can’t really argue". Perhaps in the sense of 'a happy coincidence' which means the same as 'a stroke of luck' [I see that Jemux on Big Dave's site has made a very similar observation].

24d   Heading off for a meal - this could be stimulating (5)

I was able to make progress here as soon as I realized that I shouldn't be expecting 'dinner'.

Signing off for today - Falcon