Monday, August 22, 2011 - DT 26563

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26563
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, May 27, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26563]
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 █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog
Notes This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page of the Saturday, August 20, 2011 edition of the National Post

Introduction

My Tool Chest sat idle on the shelf today, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the puzzle rated three stars for difficulty from Gazza. My brain certainly must have been tuned to the right frequency today.

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.

jimmy - [Collins English Dictionary] the US word for jemmy, noun a short steel crowbar used, especially by burglars, for forcing doors and windows verb to prise (something) open with a jemmy

Jimmy - noun British informal 1 an act of urination. [Origin: (1930s) from Jimmy Riddle, rhyming slang for ‘piddle’] - note Gazza's reference to "Master Riddle".

queue - noun 3 archaic a plait of hair worn at the back.

queue - noun 1. (heraldry) An animal's tail.

Appearing in Solutions:

c. - abbreviation 1 cricket caught.

CoS - [The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition] abbreviation Chief of Staff

melatonin - noun Biochemistry a hormone secreted by the pineal gland which inhibits melanin formation and is thought to be concerned with regulating the reproductive cycle.

Michael Foot - (1913 – 2010), British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992. He was deputy leader of the Labour Party 1976 to 1980, and later became the Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. ... A passionate orator, he was Labour leader at the 1983 general election when the party received its lowest share of the vote since 1918.

*Financial Times (FT) - a British international business newspaper [conspicuously published on pink newsprint]

fromage frais - noun [seemingly British] a type of smooth soft fresh cheese, with the consistency of thick yogurt. [Origin: French, literally 'fresh cheese']

kinase - noun [usually with modifier] Biochemistry an enzyme that catalyses the transfer of a phosphate group from ATP to a specified molecule.

kine - plural noun archaic cows collectively.

MO - abbreviation [2^nd entry] Medical Officer.

OC - abbreviation [1^st entry] Officer Commanding.

prise - verb [British] (US prize) use force in order to move, move apart, or open (something): I tried to prise Joe's fingers away from the stick [In my experience, this word is seldom used. Instead, one would almost invariably hear "I tried to pry Joe's fingers away from the stick."].

tail¹ - noun 2 a thing resembling an animal's tail in its shape or position , typically extending downwards or outwards at the end of something: the tail of a capital Q

Tess - noun a female given name, form of Theresa [or Teresa].

twee - adjective British excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental: although the film‘s a bit twee, it’s watchable

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

23a   Shop? One's about to join queue with hesitation (8)

The wordplay here is RE (about) + (to join) TAIL (queue) + (with) ER (hesitation) producing RETAILER (shop). It might seem that the setter could have merely clued this as:

• 23a   Shop is about to join queue with hesitation (8)

but the surface reading would not make much sense. By structuring the clue to start "Shop? One's ..." the setter not only makes the surface reading more meaningful, but adds the idea that we are looking for a particular type of shop as the clue effectively says "One type of shop is about to join queue with hesitation".

I had supposed that queue was being used in the sense of a hairstyle consisting of a single long braid (which resembles an animal's tail). However, Gazza suggests that queue is used in the heraldic sense and literally means an animal's tail. In any event, the word queue comes to us from French where it means (what else) tail.

19d   Hairstyle of doctor, one inclined to be aggressive (6)

I had little difficulty with this clue, where the wordplay is MO (doctor; Medical Officer) + HAWK (one inclined to be aggressive) giving MOHAWK (hairstyle). It may have been a little more difficult for British solvers, given that this hairstyle in the U.K. is known as a Mohican (rather than a Mohawk, the name it goes by in North America).

Oxford Dictionaries Online (which is based on the Oxford Dictionary of English) seems to have erred in its statement regarding the origin of the British name (Mohican) which it says is "erroneously associated with the American Indian people". In fact, warriors from the Mohican tribe apparently did wear their hair in a roach style (see definition below), as did warriors from a number of other Eastern North American tribes including those comprising the Iroquois Confederacy (which included the Mohawk) and the Huron.

roach³ - noun 2. A hairstyle especially among certain Native American peoples in which the head is shaved except for a strip from front to back across the top.

By an odd coincidence, the London Sunday Times puzzle (ST 4442) that appeared yesterday in the Ottawa Citizen had the following clue:

• 8d   After a short time husband with one tin is cut (7)

with the solution being MOHICAN.

Signing off for today - Falcon