Monday, March 19, 2012 - DT 26752

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26752
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26752]
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 █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

A not too taxing exercise to start the week. The bird at 20a was new to me and the boy's name at 1d did not come readily to mind.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

10a   Woke up before a period ended (4,2,1,4,4)

The punctuation mark that North Americans refer to as a period would be called a full stop^[5] in Britain.

11a   Devious slash (7)

While we are on the topic of punctuation marks, the British might also refer to a slash as an oblique^[5].

12a   Generous artist included in defamatory publication (7)

RA^[5] is the abbreviation for Royal Academician, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5], an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

18a   Comic strip character, duck, backing America (5)

In cricket, a duck^[5] is a batsman’s score of nought • he was out for a duck.

20a   Ornate thing by grate, a nocturnal bird (8)

My first thought here was NIGHTOWL. Fortunately, the solution to 16d quickly showed me the errors of my ways. A nightjar^[5] is a nocturnal insectivorous bird with grey-brown camouflaged plumage, large eyes and gape, and a distinctive call. [Family Caprimulgidae (the nightjar family): several genera, especially Caprimulgus, and many species, including the European nightjar (C. europaeus), which has a chirring call. The nightjar family also includes the nighthawks, pauraques, poorwills, whippoorwills, and chuck-will’s-widow.]

In Britain, bird^[5] is an informal term for a young woman or a man’s girlfriend - thus Gazza's reference to a nightjar being a bird "of the feathered kind".

25a   Medical complaint, chronic fatigue syndrome, affected sales (7)

Chronic fatigue syndrome is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or myalgic encephalopathy (abbreviation ME)^[5].

27a   Handle party at last in negotiation (6)

I hardly think that a treaty^[5] (a formally concluded and ratified agreement between states) is the same thing as a negotiation^[5] (discussion aimed at reaching an agreement).

22d   In the existing circumstances, arsenic may be used on Italian island (2,2,2)

In the UK, it^[5] is an informal, dated term for Italian vermouth • he poured a gin and it [a cocktail containing gin and Italian vermouth].

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today - Falcon