Wednesday, April 6, 2011 (DT 26445)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26445
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, January 10, 2011
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26445]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26444 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, January 8, 2011

Introduction

I was a bit surprised to see that Libellule awarded this puzzle three stars for difficulty and assessed it to be "Slightly trickier than normal?" It would appear that I must have been tuned to the right wavelength today, as I completed it fairly quickly and without recourse to my Tool Chest. It also seems that I got a bit sloppy, hastily entering SAFARI at 9a with no justification from the wordplay and then failing to review it latter. I thought I must be missing something in the wordplay at 22d - but it would seem not.

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 Solutions:

*nous - noun 1 British informal common sense; practical intelligence: if he had any nous at all, he'd sell the film rights

potato crisp - noun 1 British a wafer-thin slice of potato fried or baked until crisp and eaten as a snack [North American potato chip]

*RA - abbreviation [3^rd entry] (in the UK) Royal Academician, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts (often shortened to Royal Academy), an institution dedicated to the cultivation of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

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   Oscar’s tiptop variety of bar snack (6,6)

Potato crisp is the British name for the snack food that we know in North America as a potato chip. In Canada, at least, chips can be either French fries ("chips" in the British sense) or "crisps". Generally, the term potato chip, in the absence of other context, would signify a 'crisp' while chip would often denote a French fry - as in fish and chips or chip wagon (a mobile, or nominally mobile, canteen specializing in french fries) - although chip dip is a thick sauce or flavourful paste-like substance in which one dips 'crisps' - not 'fries'. A particularly Canadian favourite is poutine, a heart attack inducing concoction consisting of French fries and cheese curd smothered in gravy.

6d   Start court proceedings (5)

As Libellule says "How you might start every point in a game of tennis for example" - or what you might do with a subpoena.

Signing off for today - Falcon