This puzzle was originally published Thursday, May 28, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph
Introduction
A fairly easy puzzle with some nice wordplay to get me back into my usual routine after a long weekend away.
The National Post, which did not publish yesterday, it being Thanksgiving Day in Canada, has skipped the puzzle that normally would have appeared in yesterday's edition.
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
contraflow - Brit. a temporary arrangement by which the lanes of a dual carriageway or motorway (i.e., divided highway) normally carrying traffic in one direction become two-directional
dust - (noun, defn. 7) Brit. rubbish readied for disposal
nick - (noun, defn. 2) Brit. slang a prison or police station
nick - (verb, defn. 2) Brit. slang to arrest (a criminal)
OR - abbrev. (defn. 3) military other ranks (therefore, soldiers)
Today's Links
Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25940].
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
11a Philosophy that's central to budget hospitals (5)
Not only is the answer hidden, as Gazza points out in his review, but if one closely examines the phrase "to budget hospitals", one will find the answer located in the central position, with six letters preceding it and six letters following it.
22a Displayed route maps without old contraflow (8)
The surface reading of this clue would likely be lost on most North Americans. In Britain, contraflow refers to the temporary rerouting of traffic on a divided highway so that both directions of traffic use lanes normally used for a single direction (usually necessitated by highway maintenance activities or an accident). The cryptic reading is "contra flow" (or against the flow) as in a river.
16d Particularly high wind? (4,5)
In Britain, "dust" can mean garbage or trash - a "dustbin" being a garbage can and a "dustman" a garbage collector - the later immortalized in song by Lonnie Donegan and Herman's Hermits (although I could find only a snippet of a performance by Peter Noone - tacked on to the end of a performance of East West). Interestingly enough, I did not find dust defined in this sense in either Chambers or Oxford, although both defined dustbin and dustman.
In this cryptic definition, I believe that "particularly high" probably refers to the characteristic odour emanating from a dustbin - although I did also consider the possibility that "dust" might be a reference to an illicit drug such as cocaine or Angel Dust.
Signing off for today - Falcon
NTSPP 771
12 hours ago
I take your point on 11a, where I should have picked up the significance of "central", but I think you've got it wrong on 16d. "Dust" in the UK does not mean garbage (in spite of derived words such as dustman, dustbin and dustcart). "High wind" is STORM and "particularly" has the connotation of "consisting of particles", i.e. DUST.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Gazza
Thank you for the comments Gazza. I defer to your call on dust. I must admit that I seem to have missed that "particularly" is a clue to particulates (dust).
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I took my cue that dust means garbage in Britain from references found at the link given in the blog. In the first entry (from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition), at noun (defn. 7) dust is defined as "Chiefly British Rubbish readied for disposal". In the second entry (from Collins English Dictionary, Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition), at noun (defn. 10), dust is defined as "ashes or household refuse". While the former is an American publication, I believe the latter to be British. Nevertheless, I did point out that I was unable to find a similar definition in either Chambers or Oxford.