Friday, April 15, 2011 (DT 26453)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26453
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26453]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog

Introduction

We are currently experiencing a bit of unseasonably cold weather in the Ottawa area, so my brain may have been frozen today. At any rate, it took me a long time to make any progress on today's puzzle. The performance chart above certainly fails to portray the complete story.  Despite eventually solving all but two clues unaided, I struggled mightily in doing so. In fact, for quite some time it appeared that I might not be able to solve more than a mere handful of clues. So it was rather disheartening to see Big Dave characterize the puzzle as being one "that is not too difficult".

Today's Glossary

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

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

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.

plate - noun 3 [6^th entry] a light horseshoe for a racehorse

Appearing in Solutions:

black - British dated adjective 5 (of goods or work ) not to be handled or undertaken by trade union members, especially so as to express support for an industrial dispute elsewhere: the union declared the ship black; verb 2 refuse to handle (goods), undertake (work ), or have dealings with (a person or business) as a way of taking industrial action: the printers blacked firms trying to employ women

Con. - abbreviation British [1^st entry] Conservative (denoting the political affiliation of a Member of Parliament)

earth - noun 3 British electrical connection to the ground, regarded as having zero electrical potential: ensure metal fittings are electrically bonded to earth [cf. ground¹ - noun 7 North American electrical connection to the earth]

Equity - [under equity] noun 4 (in the UK, US, and several other countries) a trade union to which all professional actors must belong: [as modifier] an Equity card

*U² - abbreviation [2^nd entry] British universal (denoting films classified as suitable without restriction)

whites - [under white] noun 1 [3^rd entry] white clothes, especially as worn for playing cricket or tennis, as naval uniform, or in the context of washing: wash whites separately to avoid them being dulled

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.

12d   Rational support for listening to terrible fear of a clockmaker (11)

The definition is "of a clockmaker" with the solution being HOROLOGICAL. The wordplay is LOGICAL (rational) following (support) HORO {sounds like (listening to) HORROR (terrible fear)}. A couple of items likely merit some explanation. First, it being a down clue, the supporting element (LOCIGAL) comes after - i.e., below - the element that it supports (HORO). Second, taking into consideration the soft British R, HORROR (Pronunciation: /ˈhɒrə/) would sound like the first two syllables of HOROLOGICAL (Pronunciation: /hɒrəˈlɒdʒɪk(ə)l/). Even if one can't read phonetic notation, one can see that the pronunciations would be identical.

Signing off for today - Falcon