Thursday, March 18, 2010 (DT 26099)

This puzzle was originally published Monday, November 30, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

The National Post has skipped DT 26098 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, November 28, 2009

Introduction

It was not a terribly hard puzzle today, but one that required a bit of effort (and the use of a few tools) to crack. Most visitors to Big Dave's blog seemed to find it a bit more difficult than the normal British Monday puzzle.

Updating the Tool Chest

It has been a long time since any new tools have been added to the Tool Chest. I would like to thank puzzgal for suggesting the addition of Chris F.A. Johnson's WordFinder and Anagram Solver.

A site that has been in the Tool Chest for a long time, but for which I keep finding new uses, is Onelook Dictionary Search. Not only does it allow one to search across multiple dictionaries, and to conduct wildcard searches, but it allows one to limit the search to words with certain meanings. Thus one could enter a search string such as "B??D E*:bird" which would return the name of a bird that consists of two words, the first having the pattern B??D and the second starting with E (answer: BALD EAGLE).

Today's Glossary

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

eyewash - noun 2 informal nonsense

It - Italian vermouth, as in the cocktail Gin and It [Note: previously encountered in DT 25953]

tuck - noun 2 Brit. informal food eaten by children at school as a snack

Today's Links

Rishi's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26099].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

30a Direction given in arms (7)

In his review, Rishi indicates that this is a double definition having the solution BEARING where the two definitions are (presumably) "direction" and "in arms" (bearing meaning carrying in the arms). I, as did a number of visitors to Big Dave's site, took the second definition to be "arms" meaning a coat of arms [Collins English Dictionary, noun 10b]. I presumed that "given in" is used in the clue as a linkword phrase. Even though there are different interpretations, at least - as Big Dave puts it - "it is good that all roads lead to the same answer".

27d Support one throughout (4)

This clue has a bit of a tricky construct. For the cryptic reading, one must split the final word into two parts, as follows:

Support one through out

The definition is "support" and the solution PIER. The wordplay is I (one) contained in PER (through). The cryptic meaning is "one, through out" or, in other words, "one [with] through out[side]".

Signing off for today - Falcon