Tuesday, April 5, 2011 (DT 26443)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26443
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, January 7, 2011
Setter Giovani
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26443]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
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

I found that today's puzzle varied markedly in difficulty between the lower half (which I completed unaided) and the upper half (where I was able to solve merely 4 or 5 clues before resorting to assistance from my Tool Chest).

Today's Glossary

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

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

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.

{Placeholder Text}

Appearing in Solutions:

champers - noun British informal champagne

Conference pear - [Collins English Dictionary] a variety of pear that has sweet and juicy fruit

*(River) Dee - a 70-mile (110 km) long river in the United Kingdom that travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries (also any of several other rivers by that name in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia)

laudanum - noun an alcoholic solution containing morphine, prepared from opium and formerly used as a narcotic painkiller. - Doctors would give babies phenobarbital for colic and laudanum (a form of opium) for teething.

ling² - noun the common heather of Eurasia

LSE - abbreviation London School of Economics

noddy - noun 1 dated a foolish person

NUM - abbreviation (in the UK) National Union of Mineworkers

Palladian - adjective Architecture relating to or denoting the neoclassical style of Andrea Palladio, in particular with reference to the phase of English architecture from circa 1715, when there was a revival of interest in Palladio and his English follower, Inigo Jones, and a reaction against the baroque

*sup¹ - noun

• a sip of liquid: he took another sup of wine
• Northern English & Irish alcoholic drink

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.

13a   Viewpoints put down in advance on and off? (12)

Despite having found the correct solution, I was puzzled by the wordplay until I had read (and re-read) Gazza's explanation. The clue is a double definition where the two definitions are "viewpoints put down in advance" and "on and off". As I had figured out, the latter are examples of PREPOSITIONS. For the former, I had correctly taken POSITIONS to mean "viewpoints". However, I had assumed that "in advance was directing us to prefix something to the front of it, and I vainly searched for some way to make PRE mean "put down". In fact, I originally had entered DISPOSITIONS since DIS could very well mean "put down".

The correct explanation of the wordplay is that PRE-POSITIONS (a bit of inventive use of language by the setter, methinks) are positions which are taken (put down) in advance.

22a  …perhaps this one location being reported (6)

The ellipses (...) at the end of the previous clue and the beginning of this clue indicate a linkage between the clues. In this case, we must make use of the solution to 21a in order to understand this clue. Thus, "perhaps this one" is to be interpreted as "perhaps this fish" as "fish" is the solution to 21a.

7d   Explore region of London including Lambeth and Bow (6)

There is a fair amount of discussion at Big Dave's blog concerning this clue. Lambeth and Bow are both districts of London. The definition is "explore" with the solution being SEARCH. The wordplay is SE (region of London including Lambeth) + (and) ARCH (bow; misleadingly capitalized in the clue). The discussion at Big Dave's site revolves around whether Lambeth is in southeast London. Gazza says "the Borough of Lambeth is in the South rather than South-East (and its Town Hall has a SW postcode)." However, Wikipedia says that Lambeth "is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast of Charing Cross" which "since the second half of the 18th century ... has been seen as the centre of London".

Signing off for today - Falcon