Friday, August 6, 2010 (DT 26232)

This puzzle, by Jay, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The National Post has skipped DT 26229 through DT 26231 which were published in The Daily Telegraph during the period Saturday, May 1, 2010 to Tuesday, May 4, 2010. Among the missing puzzles is the milestone 1000^th puzzle of Rufus (Roger Squires) published in The Daily Telegraph, that appeared in the U.K. on Monday, May 3, 2010 and which I mentioned in yesterday's blog.

Introduction

I felt a mild sense of accomplishment this morning as I completed this puzzle totally unaided (although not without a couple of lingering questions regarding some finer points of the wordplay). Of course, my sense of elation was somewhat tempered by the suspicion that Big Dave would undoubtedly award it only two points for difficulty - which is exactly what he did.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Clues:

Home Counties - plural noun the counties [located in South East England] around London, including Essex, Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire.

Used in Solutions:

eleven - noun 6 a) a set or group of eleven people or things; b football, cricket, hockey, etc a team of players. [Note: Chambers being a British dictionary, hockey refers to field hockey rather than (ice) hockey].

elevenses - plural noun British informal a short break for light refreshments, usually with tea or coffee, taken at about eleven o'clock in the morning.

MB - abbreviation 1 Medicinae Baccalaureus (Latin), Bachelor of Medicine.

outcrop - noun 2 an appearance or occurrence. [Note: a similar definition also appears in Collins; but neither dictionary (Chambers or Collins) includes sudden in the definition]

read - 5 chiefly British study (an academic subject) at a university: I'm reading English at Cambridge

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26232].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

12a Delicacies that may come after wedding? (5)

As Big Dave says, this is "one of those only slightly cryptic definitions". In the wordplay, the setter may be playing with two possibilities. The cake is cut and served after the wedding ceremony and the word "cake" comes after the word "wedding" in the phrase "wedding cake".

17a 'A" might be a vampire (5,4)

The Brits were divided on this clue. Some hated it (including Big Dave) and some loved it. It is a double definition where the definitions are "A" and "might be a vampire" with the solution being BLOOD TYPE. The idea, as I interpret it, is that a "blood type" would be someone who likes blood (as opposed to, say, a beer type or a wine type).

4d Order pay to be doctored - about time to become exploitive (9)

The wordplay here seemed to stand out like a sore thumb - an anagram (to be doctored) of ORDER PAY containing (about) T (time). Unfortunately, the first sore thumb that I noticed, namely PORTRAYED, proved to be incorrect. I eventually discovered that this patient had two sore thumbs and that I needed to focus on the other one.

17d Shell directors provide cover for doctor (7)

In the British system of medical education, the degree needed to practice medicine is called a Bachelor of Medicine (MB) whereas in North America the equivalent degree is called a Doctor of Medicine (MD). Despite not holding a doctoral degree, medical practitioners in Britain are still referred to as doctors.

The following excerpt from an article in Wikipedia explains the divergence between the two systems of education:

Historically, Bachelor of Medicine was also the primary medical degree conferred by institutions in the United States and Canada, such as University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, University of Toronto, University of Maryland, and Columbia. Several early North American medical schools were (for the most part) founded by physicians and surgeons who had trained in England and Scotland. University medical education in England culminated with the Bachelor of Medicine qualification, and in Scotland the Doctor of Medicine, until from the mid-19th century when the public bodies that regulated medical practice at the time required practitioners in Scotland as well as England to hold the dual Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees. Throughout the 1800s, North American medical schools switched to the tradition of the Ancient universities of Scotland and began conferring Doctor of Medicine rather than Bachelor of Medicine, the first institution to make such a switch being King's College (now Columbia University) in New York.^[2]

In the countries that award bachelors' degrees in medicine, however, Doctor of Medicine denotes a holder of a higher doctorate and is reserved for medical practitioners who undertake research and submit a thesis in the field of medicine. Nevertheless, those holding Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery are usually referred to by the courtesy title of "Doctor" and use the prefix "Dr".

21d Rufus studied, lacking a brain (7)

The name Rufus comes from the Latin, meaning redhead. Is the clue a dig by Jay at his fellow setter who just celebrated his 1000^th puzzle being published in The Daily Telegraph?

23d Golf, unfortunately provides sporting occasions (5)

Golf is the code word for the letter G in the ICAO spelling alphabet (also known as the NATO phonetic alphabet or the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet).

Signing off for today - Falcon