Monday, December 6, 2010 (DT 26335)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26335
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, September 2, 2010
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26335]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ***	Enjoyment - ****
Falcon's Performance ***

Introduction

It was a good workout today. You may have noticed a new entry in the table above, entitled Falcon's Performance. It shows how well (or how poorly) I performed on the puzzle. I base the number of stars on how much of the puzzle I have correctly solved before I resort to using the electronic aids in my Tool Chest. A single star would be less than 25%, two stars would be 25-49%, three stars 50-74%, four stars 75-99%, and five stars 100%. My performance should vary inversely with Big Dave's level of difficulty rating. It will be interesting to see how the two metrics compare in practice. I thought this might give readers another metric against which to judge their own performance.

Today's Glossary

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

Appearing in Clues:

Gordon Brown - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from June 2007 until May 2010

Hackney - a borough of London, England [Note: at least, that is what it is in the surface reading]

international - noun 1 British

• a game or contest between teams representing different countries in a sport.
• a player who has taken part in an international game or contest

NT - [Collins English Dictionary] abbreviation 3. Northern Territory (of Australia)

pitman - [Collins English Dictionary] noun Chiefly Scottish and northern English a person who works down a mine, especially a coal miner

Appearing in Solutions:

all-rounder - noun British a versatile person or thing, especially a cricketer who can both bat and bowl well

cap ¹ - noun 1 British

• a cap awarded as a sign of membership of a particular sports team, especially a national team: he has won three caps for Scotland
• a player to whom a cap is awarded: a former naval officer and rugby cap

Frank Capra (1897 – 1991) - a Sicilian-born American film director

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

L - [Collins English Dictionary] symbol 8. Currency a.  usually written £. pound

no oil painting - British informal (of a person) be unattractive

RA - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Academician, an artist who is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts

Thea - name:  a female given name (rare: 1 in 20,000 females; popularity rank in the U.S.: #1371)

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.

22a Urchin gets a cake after scrap (10)

Although readers on opposite sides of the Atlantic are apt to think of different types of cake when solving it, the clue still works well in either location. The Brits would likely envisage what North Americans call an English muffin - but which to the Brits is simply a muffin. I'm not sure whether the food that we refer to as a muffin even exists in Britain. If it does, I wonder if they call it an American muffin?

28a Like Van Gogh, producing French art around his work place (7)

Our mystery setter stumped me on the wordplay here. The definition is "like Van Gogh" who was famously EARLESS (at least, he was missing one of his ears). The wordplay is ES (French art) containing ARLES (his work place; i.e., Arles, France). But I could not figure out how the setter possibly gets ES out of "French art" - searching in vain for some obscure French art movement of that name.  Big Dave reveals the secret. It comes from the second person singular of the verb être (to be) which is 'tu es' meaning 'you are' in modern day English or 'thou art' as one might find it in the King James Bible.

4d International artist, creator of great pictures (5)

For a North American, this clue has four points of difficulty - three Briticisms and a reference to a personality from the past. But first, lets look at solving it. The definition is "creator of great pictures" for which the solution is film director Frank CAPRA. The wordplay is CAP (international) + RA (artist). The clue is a charade containing two elements, each of which is itself a substitution. In the first substitution (international → CAP), both the source and target are Briticisms. In the second substitution (artist → RA), the target is a Briticism. Finally, film director Frank Capra (while admittedly having produced many well-known works) last released a film nearly fifty years ago. I'm not suggesting that any aspect of the clue is unfair, I'm merely observing that, for a North American, the confluence of all these factors in a single clue may make it an especially difficult one to solve.

13d One puts one's heart into playing dual role getting runs (3-7)

The imagery in the surface reading is related to cricket. This is also an & lit. (or all-in-one) clue. The entire clue provides the definition, where the word "one" serves as a placeholder for the solution. Read as a definition, the clue tells us that we are looking for a spirited individual who plays multiple roles in a cricket match, including scoring runs. Read in an alternative fashion, the clue provides instructions to the solver (and the word "one" changes hats and becomes a placeholder representing the solver). In this reading, the clue states that the solver must put N (one's heart) into an anagram of DUAL ROLE to which has been added (getting) R (runs). The solution, ALL-ROUNDER, is a British term for "a versatile person or thing, especially a cricketer who can both bat and bowl well".

Signing off for today - Falcon