Tuesday, December 15, 2009 (DT 26016)

This puzzle was originally published Tuesday, August 25, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

While not a terribly difficult puzzle today, I did manage to stumble over one clue.

Today's Glossary

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

describe - [American Heritage® Dictionary ] tr.v. 4 To trace the form or outline of: describe a circle with a compass

MB - abbreviation 1 Bachelor of Medicine, Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus

nurse¹ - verb 3 treat or hold carefully or protectively

sister - noun 5 (often Sister) Brit. a senior female nurse

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26016].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

2d A wit badly described by brand new U.S. novelist (4,5)

It took a bit of pondering to figure out why "described" is a container indicator. It is used in the sense of to form the outline of. Thus MARK (brand) and N (new) form the outline of TWAI, an anagram (badly) of A WIT.

9d Nursing home's senior nurse left (8)

A couple of Briticisms in this clue did me in. In Britain, a senior female nurse is a Sister. While I knew that "home" is IN (as "at home"), I didn't recognize "nursing" as a container indicator. Furthermore, I was working on the mistaken notion that "left" was an instruction to delete some letters. All the British dictionaries provide a definition for nurse along the lines of "to hold carefully or protectively", a sense of the word that I did not find in American dictionaries. My best effort attempt at a solution was MINISTER, on the basis that nurses minister to the needs of their patients (although in North America, one might be more apt to use this word in relation to a member of the clergy than to a nurse). Of course, I learned from Gazza's review that the right solution ironically is SINISTER.

Signing off for today - Falcon