Tuesday, March 29, 2011 (DT 26437)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26437
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, December 31, 2010
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26437]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gnomethang
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★★	Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog

Introduction

My Tool Chest almost got the day off, but not knowing the meat at 10a caused me to seek help from it. I note that this grid has the fewest number of clues (27) of any that I can recall.

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 Solutions:

Covenanter - noun (in 17th -century Scotland) an adherent of the National Covenant (1638) or of the Solemn League and Covenant (1643), upholding the organization of the Scottish Presbyterian Church.

H² - [1^st entry] abbreviation hard (used in describing grades of pencil lead): a 2H pencil

Op. (also op.) - abbreviation Music opus (before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication)

opus - noun 1 Music a separate composition or set of compositions. 2 an artistic work, especially one on a large scale.

OTT - abbreviation British informal over the top: presenting him as a goalscoring Superman seems a bit OTT

Po - a river that flows eastward across northern Italy, from Val Po (in the Cottian Alps) to the Adriatic Sea near Venice.

pogo - a dance where the dancers jump up and down, while remaining in the same location; the dance takes its name from its resemblance to the use of a pogo stick, ... pogo dancing is most associated with punk rock, and is a precursor to moshing.

R² - [4^th entry] abbreviation Regina [queen] or Rex [king]: Elizabeth R [or George R]

Ra¹ (also Re) - Egyptian Mythology the sun god, the supreme Egyptian deity, worshipped as the creator of all life and typically portrayed with a falcon's head bearing the solar disc. From earliest times he was associated with the pharaoh.

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.

12a   One wanting religious liberty? Witches aren’t different (10)

The question mark may indicate that the definition (one wanting religious liberty) is somewhat suspect. "The Covenanters are so named because in a series of bands or covenants they bound themselves to maintain the Presbyterian doctrine and polity as the sole religion of their country [Scotland]." [Wikipedia: Covenanter] Thus, it would appear that they cared little for religious liberty - other than their own.

16a   Old ploughmen as investors in company? (12)

If the wordplay is not already clear, it should become so from the following excerpt from an article on the Plough:

Among the aborigines of North and South America the plough appears to have been almost entirely unknown. The Peruvians, who were the most skilled in agriculture, employed ... a rude substitute constructed of a strong, sharp-pointed stake, traversed by a horizontal piece 10 or 12 in. from the point, on which the ploughman might set his foot and force it into the ground. Six or eight strong men were attached by ropes to the stake and dragged it forcibly along, accompanied by women, who followed to break up the sods with their rakes.

21a   Travel beyond river to jump up and down (4)

Like several of the Brits, I was not aware that the pogo is a dance, and assumed that the clue was merely a reference to the use of a pogo stick. Having read the comments at Big Dave's site, it seems that I am also not the only one to be surprised at seeing the Po River relocated to China in Gnomethang's review. In response to a flurry of comments, he somewhat sheepishly responds "If you all wish to think of the incredibly well known traditional Italian river rather than the incredibly tiny and possibly non existent Chinese one that’s fine! ".

3d Crticises a levy in speech (7)

The typo in the first word of the clue has survived the trip across the Atlantic. According to the review and comments at Big Dave's blog, this error was present in both the online and printed versions of the puzzle in the U.K. Strangely enough, I never noticed its existence while I was solving the puzzle.

Signing off for today - Falcon