Friday, January 28, 2011 (DT 26382)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26382
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26382]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - **	Enjoyment - ****
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┐ ████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┘

Introduction

Today Jay demonstrates that a puzzle doesn't need to be difficult to be enjoyable. And, while my Tool Chest enjoyed the day off, a few of the clues did demand some intense concentration in order to decipher the wordplay.

Birthday Greetings

Today Big Dave's Crossword Blog celebrates its second anniversary of existence. I would like to extend congratulations to Big Dave on reaching this milestone for what is truly an awesome site.

Today's Glossary

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

Appearing in Clues:

flog - verb 2 British informal sell or offer for sale: he made a fortune flogging beads to hippies

While I don't believe that the use of the term flog in this sense is unheard of in Canada, it is more apt to be used in the sense of "to sell an idea" or "to publicize aggressively" (e.g., an author making the rounds of the talk shows to flog a book).

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.

Appearing in Solutions:

cor - exclamation British informal expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm: Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got!

Leeds - an industrial city in West Yorkshire, northern England; population 441,100 (est. 2009). It developed as a wool town in the Middle Ages, becoming a centre of the clothing trade in the Industrial Revolution.

rubicon - noun a point of no return: on the way to political union we are now crossing the Rubicon

The Rubicon is a stream in NE Italy which marked the ancient boundary between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul. Julius Caesar led his army across it into Italy in 49 bc , breaking the law forbidding a general to lead an army out of his province, and so committing himself to war against the Senate and Pompey. The ensuing civil war resulted in victory for Caesar after three years.

stoppages - 3 British deductions from one's wages by an employer for the payment of tax, National Insurance, and other costs: £6.40 an hour before stoppages

Test¹ - noun 2 short for Test match, an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries: the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies

ulster- noun a man's long, loose overcoat of rough cloth, typically with a belt at the back; Origin: (late 19th century) from  Ulster, where it was originally sold

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.

4a   Student turfed out of Boston, for example, being a foreigner (8)

The wordplay is a reference to the Boston Strangler and uses L as standard cryptic shorthand for student (which derives from the symbol that British student drivers must display on their vehicles). If L is removed from (turfed out of) STRANGLER (Boston, for example, being), the remainder is STRANGER (a foreigner).

I had originally parsed the clue differently, thinking that "Boston, for example" stood for STRANGLER and "being a foreigner" represented STRANGER. Of course, the problem with this is that Boston is not an example of a strangler.

I even considered that the removal indicator might be merely "turfed" and that "out of Boston, for example" might stand for STRANGLER. However, that would lead to a clue reading 'Student turfed strangler' which does not work, either.

It was only as I was writing (and rewriting) this entry for the blog that I realized what seems to be the correct (though somewhat stilted) explanation. It is "Boston, for example, being" (meaning a being - i.e., a personage - from Boston, for example) that stands for STRANGLER.

15d   Popular hand-out leads to new contract and exceptional inactivity (9)

This clue may be a charade, but "leads to" is not appearing as a charade indicator. Rather, its role is to indicate that we are to take the first (leading) letters of "N(ew), C(ontract) and E(xceptional)". One might suppose that we could obtain the letters N, C and E as abbreviations. However, while N is an accepted abbreviation for "new", I am not aware that the other two are recognized abbreviations.

The definition is "inactivity" having the solution INDOLENCE. The wordplay is IN (popular) + DOLE (hand-out) + N + C + E.

20d   Grounds for execution in America (6)

While not truly the last clue to be solved, this was the last entry to actually be written into the grid. I correctly suspected that the solution might be STATES, and even recognized the connection between 'estates' and "grounds". However, I continued to resist filling in the grid, not seeing how one might get from 'estates' to 'states'. Finally, the penny dropped, as I remembered that one of the fundamental laws of Cryptic Crosswordland is that "executions are almost invariably accomplished through beheading". Thus "grounds for execution" signifies 'estates beheaded' (i.e., with the leading letter deleted).

Signing off for today - Falcon