Tuesday, February 1, 2011 (DT 26384)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26384
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, October 29, 2010
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26384]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ***	Enjoyment - ****
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┐ ████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┘

Introduction

Although it is definitely a very enjoyable puzzle today from Giovanni, solving it is not unlike untangling a snarl of string - one must first find a starting point but, once found, the solution progresses quite readily. I often see comments at Big Dave's sites promoting the merits of starting with the down clues versus the across clues. For my part, I tend to work in a very random fashion. I first scan the clues looking for a clue that I can solve. I find that clues having short solutions or multi-word solutions are often productive starting points. Once I have solved a clue, I then concentrate on the clues which intersect it. Thus I may sometimes complete the puzzle quadrant by quadrant. At other times, I progress by establishing strings of linked solutions across the grid.

Today's Glossary

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

Appearing in Solutions:

CE - abbreviation [1^st entry] Church of England

Che (Ernesto "Che" Guevara) (1928 – 1967) - commonly known as El Che or simply Che, an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist who was a major figure of the Cuban Revolution

Deadwood - a city in South Dakota, United States

Herm - the smallest of the Channel Islands that is open to the public and is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey

it¹ - pronoun 8 (usually ‘it’) informal sexual intercourse or sex appeal

p³ - [American Heritage Dictionary] abbreviation 1. piano² adverb & adjective Music in a soft or quiet tone (used chiefly as a direction).

Peter Pears (Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE)  (1910 – 1986) - English tenor and the life partner of the composer Benjamin Britten

pikelet - noun a thin kind of crumpet

RAC - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Automobile Club, a private "gentlemen's club" whose main clubhouse is located on Pall Mall in London. Like most other "gentlemen's clubs" in London today, the Royal Automobile Club now has women as well as men as members.

RAC plc - a breakdown company in the United Kingdom supplying products and services for motorists. Its predecessor organization was originally established by the Royal Automobile Club, who sold it to Lex Service plc in 1999. In 2005 RAC plc was bought by Aviva.

RE - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Engineers, the field engineering and construction corps of the British army

ramp - noun 4 British informal a swindle, especially one involving a fraudulent increase of the price of a share; verb 4 [with object] British drive up the price of (a company's shares) in order to gain a financial advantage [late 20th century: of unknown origin; a 19th-century slang use of the term was ‘rob, swindle’]

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.

13a   Car recovery folk in units along the road achieving wonders (8)

The definition is "wonders" with the solution being MIRACLES. The wordplay is RAC (car recovery folk) contained in (in) MILES (units along the road). RAC plc is a British company that provides towing and other roadside assistance to motorists. Originally an arm of the Royal Automobile Club, it is now a separate entity, having been sold off in 1999. The Royal Automobile Club is a "gentlemen's club" (although such establishments now count women among their members) and definitely seems a fair cut above the AAA or CAA.

26a   Famous 11 has power, with listeners hanging on (5)

In this clue, "11" is a cross-reference to clue 11a. To construct the full clue, one must replace the cross-reference indicator (11) by the solution to clue 11a (tenor), thereby obtaining:

• Famous tenor has power, with listeners hanging on (5)

29a   U.S. city personnel contributing nothing? (4-4)

I presume that the 'big red book' (The Chambers Dictionary, 11th edition) must spell the solution to this clue as dead-wood. However, according to the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (not to mention the Oxford Dictionary of English), it should be dead wood. Meanwhile, the American Heritage Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary (among other sources) prescribe deadwood. The only source that I could find for dead-wood is an entry on Wordnik citing the Century Dictionary (a late 19th century dictionary which was last revised in 1911).

Signing off for today - Falcon