Friday, March 11, 2011 (DT 26423)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26423
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26423]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26420 through DT 26422 which were published in The Daily Telegraph from Friday, December 10, 2010 through Monday, December 13, 2010

Introduction

This puzzle didn't strike me as a Giovanni - and come to find out, it isn't. The National Post has made another leap forward today, perhaps in anticipation of the switch to Daylight Savings Time on the weekend.

Today's Glossary

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

[Items marked with an asterisk are from a Cumulative Glossary of entries appearing, since the beginning of this year, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

The meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

confinement - noun 2 dated the condition of being in childbirth: the pros and cons of home versus hospital confinement;  my grandmother's last six confinements

confinement - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 2. the period from the onset of labour to the birth of a child

George Martin - Sir George Henry Martin CBE (born 3 January 1926) is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he owes to his work as producer of all but one of The Beatles' original albums.

guy¹ - verb make fun of; ridicule: she never stopped guying him about his weight

Sweeney - noun (the Sweeney) British informal the members of a police flying squad. Origin: (1930s) from rhyming slang Sweeney Todd, a barber who murdered his customers

The Sweeney - 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London.

• flying squad - noun British a division of a police force or other organization which is capable of reaching an incident quickly

Appearing in Solutions:

b - abbreviation [3^rd entry] Cricket (on scorecards) bowled by: AC Hudson b Prasad 146

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

*E² - abbreviation 1 Earl

minim - noun 1 Music, British a note having the time value of two crotchets or half a semibreve, represented by a ring with a stem.  Also called half note.

mudskipper - noun a goby (fish) with its eyes on raised bumps on top of the head, found in mangrove swamps from East Africa to Australia. It moves about on land with great agility, often basking on mud or mangrove roots. Periopthalmodon and related genera, family Gobiidae: several species, including the common and widespread P. schlosseri (or barbarus)

nick¹ - noun

• 2 (the nick) British informal prison.
• a police station: he was being fingerprinted in the nick

nick¹ - verb

• 2 British informal steal: she nicked fivers from the till
• (nick someone for) North American informal cheat someone of (a sum of money): banks will be nicked for an extra $40 million
• 3 British informal arrest (someone): Stuart and Dan got nicked for burglary

Scotch egg - noun British a hard-boiled egg enclosed in sausage meat, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried

so - conjunction 4 [2^nd entry] introducing a question following on from what was said previously: so what did he do about it?

un - French a

very good (see dictionary entry for very well) - phrase used to express agreement or consent:

• oh very well then, come in 
• very well, you may join me 
• very good, sir, will that be all?

wee¹ - adjective chiefly Scottish little: when I was just a wee bairn; the lyrics are a wee bit too sweet and sentimental

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.

5a   English crowd fed very good coffee (8)

I missed the fact that "fed" (meaning 'inserted into') is a containment indicator here, and thus did not comprehend the wordplay completely. I don't believe that this is the first time we have seen very good (or perhaps it was very well) as a synonym for so. Oxford Dictionaries Online gives as one of its examples of usage the phrase "Very good, sir, will that be all?", something that might well be said by a British butler. Some one a bit less refined might express this same idea as "So, will that be all?".

According to Gazza's interpretation, the definition is "coffee" and the wordplay is E (English) + {PRESS (crowd) contained in (fed) SO (very good)}. An alternative interpretation is proposed by Beangrinder (appropriately enough) in which the definition is "good coffee" and the wordplay is E (English) + {PRESS (crowd) contained in (fed) SO (very)}. Here, "so" and "very" are adverbs, as in "I am so tired", "I am very tired", or "I am so very tired". Of course, in either case, the solution is ESPRESSO.

10a   Attempt to nick ring in ancient city (4)

In Britain, the word nick has several slang meanings. As a verb, it can mean 'to steal' (apparently used slightly differently than the way it is in North America) and the second is 'to arrest'. I believe it may be the latter meaning which gives rise to its use as a containment indicator, in that 'arrest' means 'to take into custody' or 'to hold'. As a noun, nick can mean either 'a prison' or 'a police station'. In his hint for 20d, which also uses "nick" as a containment indicator, Gazza suggests that nick can mean 'to imprison' although that may be an extension of the meaning to arrest (someone who has been arrested may well - but not necessarily - find themselves in a cell).

13a   Note short skirt (4)

I solved this correctly despite music being far from my forte - not to mention the added complication of the British musical nomenclature used in the clue. I won't give away the solution as you really should visit Big Dave's site - if for no other reason than to feast your eyes on the trademark Gazza illustration for this clue.

Signing off for today - Falcon