Tuesday, August 3, 2010 (DT 26226)

This puzzle, by Jay, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Introduction

I completed three out of four quadrants without too much difficulty, but needed lots of assistance from my Tool Chest in the northeast quadrant. This is also the sector of the puzzle that Big Dave reports as giving him the most difficulty. He awards the puzzle four stars for difficulty.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Clues:

tog¹ - [Collins English Dictionary] verb (often followed by up or out) to dress oneself, especially in smart clothes.

Used in Solutions:

Chancery - noun 1 Law (in the UK) the Lord Chancellor's court, a division of the High Court of Justice.

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

RE - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Engineers

tailback - noun 1 British a long queue of stationary or slow-moving traffic extending back from a busy junction or similar obstruction on the road

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26226].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

16d Propose to follow great healer's schedule (9)

The word table has vastly different meanings in the U.K. and the U.S. In the U.K., it means "present formally for discussion or consideration at a meeting: more than 200 amendments to the bill have already been tabled " whereas, in the U.S., it means "postpone consideration of: I'd like the issue to be tabled for the next few months ". In Canada, as is often the case, we tend to adopt both the British and American usages, so when something is tabled here, we have no idea whether it is being actively considered or put on the back burner.

Signing off for today - Falcon