Friday, December 31, 2010 (DT 26358)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26358
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26358]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ***	Enjoyment - ***
Falcon's Performance * (did not finish)

Introduction

I failed to solve one clue. However, I take some consolation in discovering that the elusive solution is a European trademark that is used rarely - if at all - in North America. I also note that several of the Brits have commented that they thought the puzzle deserved more than the three stars that Big Dave awarded it for difficulty.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Clues:

Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Company - a porcelain manufacturer, based in Derby, England. The company, particularly known for its high-quality bone china, has produced tableware and ornamental items since approximately 1750.

Appearing in Solutions:

barney - noun British informal a quarrel, especially a noisy one.

hunter - noun [seemingly British] 5. a watch with a hinged metal lid or case (hunting case) to protect the crystal. Also called hunting watch.

noddle¹ - [Collins English Dictionary] noun Informal chiefly British the head or brains: use your noddle!

Perspex^® - [Collins English Dictionary] noun [Trade Mark, seemingly chiefly European] any of various clear acrylic resins, used chiefly as a substitute for glass.

Qu. - abbreviation 2 question.

tickler - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 1. Informal chiefly British a difficult or delicate problem.

W³ - abbreviation 8 won, the Korean currency unit.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

11a Burnt residue on bottom of grim food (4)

This might have worked better as a down clue ("bottom of grim" meaning last letter in "grim").

15a Charming woman accepting setter overweight? (5,6)

In one interpretation, the definition is "charming woman" for which the solution is FEMME FATALE and the wordplay is FEMALE (woman) containing (accepting) {ME (setter) + FAT (overweight)} = with "woman" doing 'double duty' (used in both the definition and wordplay).

If the entire clue could be taken as a definition for femme fatale, then this could be considered to be a semi & lit. (all-in-one) clue (a semi & lit. since the word "charming" does not participate in the wordplay). However, I don't think it is reasonable to interpret the clue this way.

On those points, I appear to be in agreement with Big Dave, who comments "I don’t think this works as an all-in-one and, if not, then “woman” is doing double duty".

Possibly, a third interpretation is that the clue is a cryptic definition - an idea that is supported by the question mark at its end. A cryptic definition does not have to adhere to the strict parsing rules of other types of clues. Thus we are looking for a term meaning a "charming woman"; in particular, a woman containing a sequence of letters specified by "setter overweight".

Perhaps this argument could be seen as splitting hairs - or grasping at straws. In any event, I would say that had the clue parsed correctly, the setter could have omitted the question mark. However, since it doesn't parse according to normal conventions, the setter throws in a question mark to alert us to the fact that there is something out of the ordinary about the clue. I think one has the choice of characterizing the clue as having a word (woman) doing 'double duty' or to say that it is a cryptic definition.

19a Friendly officer has one for the Queen (6)

The definition is "friendly" for which the solution is GENIAL and the wordplay is GENERAL (officer) has I (one) [substituted] for ER (the Queen).

I have to confess that I missed the wordplay here. I was initially looking for a word ending in -IER { I (one) + (for) ER (the Queen)}, thinking that "for" might possibly be a charade indicator. This messed me up for quite some time on 16d. When I finally solved 16d, I saw the solution to 19a from the definition. However, I then tried to figure out how AL might mean "the Queen".

6d Material seen through glasses, reportedly (7)

I was totally stumped by this clue. Perspex^® is a trademark for poly(methyl methacrylate), better known in North America under the trade names Lucite^® and Plexiglas^®. Perspex was originally the trade name for this material used by Imperial Chemical Industries (a British company), Lucite by Dupont (an American company) and Plexiglas by Rolm and Haas (another American company). The trademarks Perspex and Lucite now both appear to be owned by Lucite International, a division of Mitsubishi Rayon, which seems to use the former name in Europe and the latter in North America. As definitive evidence of the obscurity of this name on this side of the Atlantic, when was the last time you heard a hockey announcer say, "The game will be delayed while arena staff replace the Perspex panel shattered by Shea Weber's cannonading slapshot". [Shea Weber is reputed to have one of the hardest shots in the NHL.]

16d Crown Derby manufacturer (8)

In the surface reading, "Crown Derby" is a British porcelain manufacturer. Big Dave makes a half-hearted attempt to explain the wordplay, but not to my satisfaction - nor to his. As he says, "a hat has a crown" - but how that fits into the wordplay is pretty tenuous. Some visitors to his blog suggest that "crown" refers to the 'crown of the head', thereby signifying that "derby" refers to a hat (something worn on the crown), "not the city Derby, not the horserace Derby". This distinction is probably more important for the Brits, as "derby" (pronounced 'durby' as opposed to the British pronunciation 'darby') is an American term for a particular type of hat - one that the British call a "bowler". Thus this would appear to be intended as a cryptic definition for a "[hat] manufacturer" with the solution being MILLINER. However, it seems a poor fit as a derby (or bowler) is a man's hat and a milliner is 'a person who makes or sells women's hats'.

21d Led off after show of agreement from head (6)

Luckily the wordplay takes one directly to the correct solution (which is a new term for me). I was only familiar with a head being called a NOODLE, not a NODDLE. I wonder if there is some link between the two terms?

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year - Falcon