Introduction
I quite enjoyed today's puzzle. I would say that it was of about average difficulty in that I was able to solve about half of it unaided and completed it fairly easily with the aid of my Tool Chest.
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
errand - [American Heritage Dictionary] noun 2. Archaic b. An oral message that has been entrusted to one
hooter - [Collins English Dictionary] noun Chiefly Brit 2. Slang a nose
up - adverb 9 formal to or at university • up at Oxford
Today's Links
Libellule's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26096].
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
25a One shed light on strike during opening (3,4)
I figured out fairly readily that the second word is LAMP. However, knowing that, in the U.K., lam means "hit hard or repeatedly", I supposed that "strike" meant LAM and I was therefore looking for a four letter word ending in P meaning "opening". Even once I had GAS LAMP, I spent some time trying to understand why GASP might mean "opening". Nevertheless, I did eventually see the light.
27a I don't care if hooter's undamaged (2,4,3,2,4)
From the checking letters, I was able to determine that the solution was of the form NO SKIN OFF MY ????. However, I do not recall ever having heard this saying expressed as "No skin off my nose". Rather, the version with which I am familiar is "No skin off my back". Furthermore, in North America, a hooter is not a nose, but (almost always used in the plural) is slang for the two prominent features of a woman's anatomy being displayed here by our Hooter's Girl, Ashley (Hooter's being a North American restaurant chain). Another common meaning for hooter is an owl (from which the restaurant chain obviously takes its name!!!). It is interesting to note from the latter link that The American Heritage Dictionary defines hooter as "one that hoots, especially an owl" while the Collins English Dictionary defines it as "a person or thing that hoots, esp a car horn". In North America, owls hoot and car horns toot (sometimes at hooters!) - but not so, perhaps, in Britain.Signing off for today - Falcon
Can I suggest an excellent site to add to your tool chest? It has the added bonus of being able to search phrase lenths such as (3,4). Check it out here:
ReplyDeletehttp://cfaj.freeshell.org/wordfinder/
The Oxford Dictionary I just tried mentions the car horn too. If Mrs B and I in the car and someone sounds their horn, we describe it has "tooting" rather than "hooting", but "tooter" would only be used as a jokey noun version.
ReplyDeleteBody parts are a marvellous source of cross-pond trouble - Brits snigger at North Americans saying things like "there are the elk, with their big white fannies" (tour guide at Rocky Mt. Nat. Park), but get laughed at in turn when telling people to "keep your pecker up", regardless of gender.