Thursday, August 6, 2009 (DT 25888)

This puzzle was originally published Saturday, March 28, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I found this to be a fairly difficult puzzle with many false leads to send one down the wrong path. I finally threw in the towel with one clue left unsolved. While I have become quite adept at tracking down obscure British towns and deciphering British colloquialisms and regular slang, it would appear that Cockney rhyming slang is still beyond my limit.

As a footnote to yesterday's puzzle, I have updated my comments regarding "co-ed". It seems I had to ponder it overnight (I was going to say "sleep on it", but that might be inappropriate given the context) before the wordplay sank in.

And, finally, welcome to recent new followers pjxwords and Rosie, as well as to crosswordcat who left a comment earlier this week.

Today's Glossary

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

Abednego - In the Bible, a young man who with Meshach and Shadrach emerged unharmed from the fiery furnace of Babylon

banger - colloq. a sausage

dab - slang fingerprint (entry 1, noun, defn. 4)

dab - an expert (entry 3)

East Grinstead - a town in England located in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex near the East Sussex border [I must say that I love this directionally convoluted description]

Joanna - Cockney rhyming slang piano

keen as mustard - very enthusiastic

san - short form for sanitorium (UK) or sanitarium (US): an establishment for the care of convalescent or chronically ill people

Sleaford - a town in Lincolnshire, England

Today's Links

It being a Saturday prize puzzle in the Telegraph, there was heavier than normal traffic on Answerbank, where I found eleven questions discussing today's puzzle. They (together with the clues to which they relate) are:

• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-a: 26ac, 17d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-b: 6ac, 5d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-c: 3d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-d: 11ac, 1d, 2d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-e: 16ac, 4d, 5d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-f: 6ac
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-g: 4d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-h: 12ac, 16ac
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-i: 18d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-j: 4d
• AnswerBank [DT 25888]-k: 8ac, 1d

Again, since this was a Saturday prize puzzle in the UK, Big Dave provides hints at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25888]-Hints and Peter Biddlecombe provides a full review at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25888]-Review.

While obvious, I will invoke my unofficial role as long-after-the-fact proofreader of Big Dave's blog to point out that there should be two "P's" in LAMPPOST (17d).

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

23ac Pester doctor in case (6)

Lots of dead ends for the unwary in this clue. I was sure that "doctor" was an anagram indicator, but could not decide whether it worked on "pester" or "in case". It turned out to be neither. Nor, as it turned out, was a "case" to be a "valise".

24ac Fine work affected dandy (3)

I consider this clue to be a rather fine piece of work, with some charade-type wordplay ("fine work") producing a word meaning a "dandy", a type of person known for their "affected" mannerisms.

25ac Animals I removed from canvas sheet (8)

Another clue leading me down a dead end. My first (and erroneous) approach was that "I removed" might be a direction to "delete I" from a word meaning "canvas sheet" (e.g., "sailcloth") to get a word meaning "animals".

26ac Gratify said animal (6)

I initially thought that the animal in question might be a panther, but then I realized that it is actually what some people in Britain (and Boston) might call a panda.

4d Lady, not one on piano, started exercises (6)

This is the clue on which I threw in the towel. I had assembled a virtual harem of ladies (Bonnie, Connie, Joanne, Joanie, and Ronnie) all vying for the position. However, I was unable to make a proper selection as I had no idea that Joanna was Cockney rhyming slang for piano. Of course, it only rhymes if you pronounce piano as pianna.

Signing off for today - Falcon