Friday, July 9, 2010 (DT 26206)

This puzzle, by Rufus, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Monday, April 5, 2010

The National Post has skipped DT 26199 through DT 26205 which were published in The Daily Telegraph from Saturday, March 27, 2010 through Saturday, April 3, 2010.

Introduction

Today, the National Post has skipped over a week's worth of puzzles, taking us to a themed puzzle published in the U.K. on Easter Monday.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Solutions:

gin² - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 3. a trap for catching small mammals, consisting of a noose of thin strong wire.

lily - worn at Easter by Irish republicans to commemorate their war dead since the 1916 Easter Rising.

Mothering Sunday - noun British the fourth Sunday in Lent, traditionally a day for visiting or giving a present to one's mother.

simnel cake - noun British a fruit cake, often coloured with saffron and covered with a layer of marzipan, traditionally eaten in Lent or at Easter.

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26206].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

10a Bert and Jack seen in church (5)

Apparently Bert equates to Al because they are both nicknames for Albert. So, by that reasoning, I guess Rob equates to Bob, Ted to Ed, Rick to Dick, Jack to Johnny, and Bill to Will or Liam. And that is not to mention other variations of these nicknames such as Robby, Bobby, Teddy, Eddy, Ricky, Dicky, Billy, and Willy.

6a Knock back some gin (4)

A gin would appear to be another term for a leghold trap (or perhaps a particular type of leghold trap). I recall that Gazza included an image of one in his review of DT 26192. However, the picture he provided looks very unlike the description found in Collins English Dictionary that I have provided above in Today's Glossary. Further research, though, has convinced me that Gazza seems to be correct and Collins is possibly in error (unless there are perhaps different flavours of gin).

21a They become high when there's more than one (4-3)

This is one of those clues that just doesn't quite seem to work for me. The intent of the setter appears to be that a collection of two or more deep seas would be called the high seas, whereas a single deep sea would not. The problem with the clue is that the word deep-sea is an adjective (even though Collins English Dictionary defines it as a noun and then provides an example in which it is used an adjective!), while the term high seas is a noun. The clue (as explained earlier) only seems to work if one splits the adjective deep-sea into two words deep sea (adjective plus noun).

By the way, the word sea can be a synonym for ocean or it can mean a "region of water within an ocean and partly enclosed by land, such as the North Sea." The American Heritage Science Dictionary has this to say on the subject:

The word ocean refers to one of the Earth's four distinct, large areas of salt water, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic Oceans. The word can also mean the entire network of water that covers almost three quarters of our planet. It comes from the Greek Okeanos, a river believed to circle the globe. The word sea can also mean the vast ocean covering most of the world. But it more commonly refers to large landlocked or almost landlocked salty waters smaller than the great oceans, such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Bering Sea.

26d It's purely symbolic, especially for Irish Republicans after Easter (4)

Yet again today, a careless final scan of the puzzle before visiting Big Dave's site caused me not to notice that this clue remained unsolved. The solution being fairly obscure, I may not have been able to find it anyway.

Similar to the way Canadians wear a poppy on Remembrance Day, Irish Republicans wear a lily (which may sometimes, if not always, be in the form of a pin) at Easter to commemorate their war dead from the 1916 Easter Rising.

The words "purely symbolic" seemingly refer both to the lily as a symbol of purity as well as to the underlying symbolism of the pin.

Signing off for today - Falcon