Thursday, June 25, 2009 (DT 25858)

This puzzle was originally published Saturday, February 21, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Tip of the Day

Today, I believe we have an example of a clue where a word is doing "double duty".

8d One who revises stories removing first and last bits democratically initially within (6)

In this clue, the word "revises" is part of the definition for EDITOR ("one who revises") as well as serving as an anagram indicator for the string TORIE (what remains after deleting the first and last letters from STORIES). In parsing the clue, I have included the word "revises" twice to illustrate this point.

8d One who revises [EDITOR] /\ {revises (anagram indicator)} {STORIES removing first and last bits (delete first and last letters) → [_T^ORIE_]} {democratically initially (first letter) → [D]} {within (containment indicator)} (6)

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

Littleport - a village in Cambridgeshire

ram-raid - crash a vehicle into a shop to facilitate looting

up-and-under - a type of kick in rugby

Today's Links

It being a Saturday prize puzzle today, there is heavy traffic on AnswerBank. Aside from a carry over from yesterday of the discussion regarding the DT's "screw up" of the online puzzle and a rather spirited sparring match between Big Dave and Beatrice, it is the usual AnswerBank fare. Due to the large number of questions (there being some fourteen of them), I am providing only a link to a Google search list:

• AnswerBank [DT 25858]

Big Dave's day-of-publication hints for today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25858] - Hints and Libellule's post-submission-deadline review is available at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25858] - Review.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

18ac Allowed to return during visit at this home (7)

I may be way out in left field (as I often find myself), but I have to question the structure of this clue. The solution, STATELY, would appear to be an adjective which replaces the word "this" in the clue. This would seem to violate the convention that the solution replaces either the first or last component of the clue. I don't see how STATELY could be considered to replace the phrase "this home" which is a noun - although the problem could be resolved (in my mind) by rewording the clue as:

Allowed to return during visit at this type of home (7)

where I think STATELY could legitimately be used as a substitute for "this type of home". Perhaps the argument may be that we should implicitly perceive "this type of home" when we see "this home".

23d This speaker is strongly audible (4)

Essentially the same device is used in this clue where the solution is obtained by substituting LOUD for "this". It may be inconsistent on my part, but I find it more acceptable in this clue - perhaps merely because "this" is the first word in the clue.

6d Composer mainly hidden (4)

Although I got the reference to an "iceberg", I must admit that I read this clue quite literally thinking that "mainly" meant merely "for the most part", missing the subtle wordplay involving the fact that "main" is also a synonym for "sea".

Solution to Today's Puzzle

For a full review of today's puzzle, see the link to Big Dave's site above.

Signing off for today - Falcon