Tuesday, July 6, 2010 (DT 26196)

This puzzle, crafted by Jay, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Introduction

I would have to say that the clues in this puzzle were well balanced - for a third of them, the solution came readily, another third required some concentrated thinking, and the final third necessitated the use of the contents of my Tool Chest.

The Queen makes an appearance (or maybe a couple of them) in today's puzzle. Appropriate timing, as she and the Duke of Edinburgh have just concluded a State Visit to Canada. Unlike in 3d, she was warmly received here. Not only were Canadians welcoming to their Head of State but the temperature soared to well above 30 degrees Celsius.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Clues:

queen - noun 5 an adult female cat that has not been spayed.

rum² - adjective British informal, dated odd; peculiar.

Used in Solutions:

CID - abbreviation Criminal Investigation Department, the detective branch of the British police force.

ER - abbreviation Queen Elizabeth [from Latin Elizabetha Regina].

form - noun 7 British informal a criminal record.

gaffer - noun 1 British informal a person in charge of others ; a boss.

loo¹ - noun British informal a toilet.

MBE - abbreviation (in the UK) Member of the Order of the British Empire.

RE - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Engineers: the field engineering and construction corps of the British army

A Makeover for Oxford Dictionaries Online

I noticed a few days ago that the Oxford Dictionaries Online website has undergone a substantial makeover. As this site has been a source that I have relied on heavily in creating this blog, this is of particular interest to me. When I saw that the structure of the URLs has changed significantly, I wondered whether the old URLs that I had incorporated into my blog would still work. I conducted a couple of tests with mixed results. I arbitrarily picked a past posting, which happened to be Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (DT 26055). That posting had two links to Oxford Dictionaries Online, one for duck's arse and one for tranny. The former link no longer works, although the latter one does. However, if one enters "duck's arse" in the search field on the Oxford website, the definition is found. The conclusion would seem to be that some links to Oxford from past posts may now be broken.

I have also observed that definitions are displayed in a new format. I would guess that some sort of algorithm has been developed to automatically transform information from the old format to the new format. However, it would seem that this, at times, produces rather bizarre results. For example, take the entry cited today for ER, which appears (effectively) as:

abbreviation
North American

• emergency room
• King Edward [from Latin Edwardus Rex]
• Queen Elizabeth [from Latin Elizabetha Regina]

I am fairly certain that this entry should have appeared:

abbreviation

• North American emergency room
• King Edward [from Latin Edwardus Rex]
• Queen Elizabeth [from Latin Elizabetha Regina]

As another example, take a look at the seemingly curious structure of the entry for form also referenced in Today's Glossary. I can only conclude that the bullets are all wrong. In a numbered item, the bulleted sub-items would not seem to be subsidiary in rank to the initial sub-item as implied by the format, but rather to be equivalent in rank. In my view, either all sub-items should be bulleted (which would probably look ridiculous) or none should be bulleted (which would no doubt require some adjustment of formatting, but could likely work).

I believe the British have a term for something done badly or inefficiently - perhaps we should let Oxford have the last word.

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26196].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

24d What might be left in dishing out rice? (5)

As Big Dave explains, the wordplay here is clearly L (left) contained in (in) an anagram (dishing out) of RICE, with the result being RELIC [RE(L)IC*]. It may be a personal idiosyncrasy, or a North American versus a British sensibility, but I do not see "what might be" as a definition for relic. For me, "what might be" could perhaps be a definition for omen. I assumed that the definition in this clue is "what might be left" which, to me, describes relic rather well. If my interpretation is correct, this would mean that the word "left" is doing double duty in the clue, acting as part of the definition as well as part of the wordplay. I seem to recall having encountered clues in the past where a word has appeared to play two roles. I also seem to recall that suggestions to that effect have sometimes created controversy.

Signing off for today - Falcon