Monday, November 23, 2009 (DT 25994)

This puzzle was originally published Thursday, July 30, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

Today the National Post skips over a couple of puzzles (DT 25992 and DT 25993, published in the UK on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 and Wednesday, July 29, 2009 respectively).

One might say that it was a rather gentle puzzle today. However, one that generated a lot of controversy about some of the unusual (to put it charitably) anagram indicators to be found in this puzzle. I had marked this as an item worth commenting on - but the Brits have already said everything I had in mind - and more.

Making a Case ...

Today, we see several examples of clues which indicate that one should discard all but the first and last letters of a word. In 3d, we have "court case" signifying that we need the exterior letters of "court" (i.e., CT). In 18d, "refuse to be disheartened" indicates that the interior letters of "refuse" are to be deleted, leaving RE. Finally, in 19d, "those outside" tells us to use the outer letters of "those", namely TE.

Today's Glossary

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

Inspector Morse - Fictional British detective

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25994].

My apologies for the screw-up on Friday's blog in the link to Big Dave's site. The problem has now been rectified.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

24a Pollution caused by cats and dogs? (4,4)

This clue generated a fair amount of negative comment from visitors to Big Dave's site. The major complaint seemed to be that while "cats and dogs" effectively clued the "rain" part of ACID RAIN, there seems to be no wordplay to account for "acid". May I dare to suggest that reworking the clue a bit to give "Pollution caused by biting cats and dogs?" might satisfy the critics.

Signing off for today - Falcon