Tuesday, February 16, 2010 (DT 26072)

This puzzle was originally published Thursday, October 29, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I thought today's puzzle was of a medium level of difficulty. However, I did make an error on the solution to one clue.

Today's Glossary

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

Bath - a city in Somerset, England

nick - verb 2 Brit. informal steal.

nit - noun informal 2 Brit. a stupid person.

rot - noun 5 informal nonsense; rubbish: don’t talk rot.

short - noun 1 Brit. informal a strong alcoholic drink, especially spirits, served in small measures. [In North America, this would be called a shot]

Today's Links

Libellule's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26072].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11a Conductor's chosen stick, eager to start (9)

Here "chosen" means ELECT, in the sense of, for example, "President elect" (the status of the winning candidate between the American presidential election in November and the inauguration the following January).

19a Crew right to welcome mature person in charge (7)

Here, one must determine whether "crew" is a noun or a verb. If it is a noun, it would indicate men; however, if it is a verb, it would be man. In this clue, despite being a noun in the surface reading, "crew" is a verb in the cryptic reading.

4d Note impression on Bath after getting out (5,4)

The capital letter on Bath may be an attempt to misdirect us to the city of Bath, although the clue, in reality, seems to concern a bath tub. "Note impression" is a cryptic reference to a mark on a note (or, more specifically) the paper on which the note is written.

20d Bill for work before leaving (6)

In this double definition, the solution is NOTICE, one definition is "bill" (as an advertising poster), and the second definition is "work before leaving". In the second definition, the word notice is used in a sense related to the way it is used in "give notice (to an employer of an intention to quit one's employment)". I have a couple of ideas regarding the usage here - which seems rather unusual to me. My first thought was that the word notice may be used in Britain to designate the period between when notice is given and employment terminates. However, I was not able to confirm that in any of the sources that I consulted. Another theory is that a letter of resignation (notice) is a written work (as a novel might be called a work of fiction) that is produced "before leaving".

23d Join keen beginner and fool (4)

Libellule's review informed me that the solution is not KNOT - which made me feel like a nit.

Signing off for today - Falcon