Thursday, May 19, 2011 (DT 26485)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26485
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, February 25, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26485]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
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 █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

I did fairly well today, despite an error at 21a which then handicapped me at 21d. However, with the assistance of my Tool Chest, I was able to resolve the mess.

It is a not uncommon occurrence that I am able to complete some piece of wordplay by assuming that the missing component is a bit of British slang that I have never before encountered. It is surprising how often this proves to be correct. However, not today. At 21a, I had entered TIDY - thinking that "being in organisation" might be a cryptic way of saying that something is 'tidy' and that 'tid' might be a new (to me) bit of British slang. Well, at least the final two letters were correct. However, the first two stunk - almost as much as those in the real solution.

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:

amine - noun Chemistry an organic compound derived from ammonia by replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms by organic radicals.

Bow - an area of London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a built-up, mostly residential district located 4.6 miles (7.4 km) east of Charing Cross, and is a part of the East End.

*CH - abbreviation  [1^st entry] (in the UK) Companion of Honour.

River Exe - English river which rises near the village of Simonsbath, on Exmoor in Somerset, near the Bristol Channel coast, but flows more or less directly due south, so that most of its length lies in Devon. It reaches the sea at a substantial ria, the Exe Estuary, on the south (English Channel) coast of Devon.

Sir Isaac Newton - (1642–1727), English mathematician and physicist, considered the greatest single influence on theoretical physics until Einstein.

Palermo - the capital of the Italian island of Sicily, a port on the north coast; population 659,433 (2008).

penny - noun (plural for separate coins pennies, for a sum of money pence) 1 [1^st entry] (abbreviation: p) a British bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound. [2^nd entry] (abbreviation: d) a former British coin and monetary unit equal to one twelfth of a shilling and 240th of a pound.

quarto - noun Printing [a] a size of book page resulting from folding each printed sheet into four leaves (eight pages). [b] a book of quarto size.

*RE - abbreviation religious education (as a school subject).

*sup¹ - noun [a] a sip of liquid: he took another sup of wine [b] Northern English & Irish alcoholic drink

yr - abbreviation [3^rd entry] your.

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.

16a   People like you wanting new money rather than old, we gather! (7)

The definition is "we gather" for which the solution is REAPERS. The wordplay is READERS (people like you; i.e., the setter is characterising solvers of the puzzle as readers [of the newspaper]) with P (the abbreviation for penny in the new British monetary system) replacing D (the abbreviation for penny in the old British monetary system).

Signing off for today - Falcon