Tuesday, October 20, 2009 (DT 25946)

This puzzle was originally published Thursday, June 4, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I thought that today's puzzle exhibited an average level of difficulty - fairly readily solvable with the aid of my Tool Chest.

I see that Gazza has commented on my post from last Tuesday. Apparently, I was incorrect in my assertion that "dust" means garbage in Britain. Since I did find that definition in a couple of sources, I presume that the word must have been used in that sense at one time. As Gazza mentions, that meaning still exists in compound words such as dustbin and dustman. I have noticed that many of the dictionaries on the Internet rely on editions (some dating to the 19th century) for which copyrights have expired and that have consequently entered the public domain. They therefore often contain usages that are no longer current and omit usages that have come into existence within the last century. While these dictionaries sometimes denote usages as archaic, this may mean that these meanings were already archaic in the 19th century!

Today's Glossary

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

pit - (noun, defn. 9) Brit. a bed

pitta - Brit. pita

short - (noun, defn. 1) Brit. a strong alcoholic drink, especially spirits, served in small measures (which, in North America, would be called a "shot")

TA - abbrev. Territorial Army; British volunteer army

top - (verb, defn. 5a) (likely Brit.) to kill, especially by hanging

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25946].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

17a Top do (7)

Although the initial image evoked by this clue was of the guillotine, it turns out that "top" is slang for "to kill, especially by hanging". While I could find no explicit reference to this being a British expression, I assume that it likely is - given that I found this meaning only in British dictionaries.

21a One graduated by short steps (5)

My first attempt here proved to be incorrect. I had A MBA (one graduated) by S (short) to give SAMBA. This was basically the right approach - just the wrong graduate, the wrong short, and the wrong dance.

Signing off for today - Falcon