Monday, July 18, 2011 - DT 26533

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26533
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, April 22, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26533]
Big Dave's Review Written By Crypticsue
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
Notes This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page of the Saturday, July 16, 2011 edition of the National Post

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Giovanni is one of his less challenging efforts. The solution process will be eased if you keep in mind that this puzzle appeared in the U.K. on Good Friday. I needed a little bit of help from my Tool Chest, mainly because I had entered ALUM (short for alumni) at 17a. Of course, I had no explanation whatsoever for the wordplay, and so was not surprised to discover that it was wrong. I also had no idea of the significance of the word "mechanical" in 16a, but discovered from Crypticsue's review that one would have to be familiar with the finer points of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to have any hope of fully understanding this clue.

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.

flower - cryptic crossword convention river [i.e., something that flows]

*wide - noun (also wide ball) Cricket a ball that is judged to be too wide of the stumps for the batsman to play, for which an extra [for definition, see Appearing in Solutions below] is awarded to the batting side.

Appearing in Solutions:

advert¹ - noun British informal an advertisement.

anna - noun  a former monetary unit of India and Pakistan, equal to one sixteenth of a rupee.

Annas [also Ananus or Ananias], son of Seth (23/22 BC–66 AD), was appointed by the Roman legate Quirinius as the first High Priest of the newly formed Roman province of Iudaea in 6 AD; just after the Romans had deposed Archelaus, Ethnarch of Judaea, thereby putting Judaea directly under Roman rule.

Annas officially served as High Priest for ten years (6–15 AD), when at the age of 36 he was deposed by the procurator Gratus 'for imposing and executing capital sentences which had been forbidden by the imperial government.' Yet while having been officially removed from office, he remained as one of the nation's most influential political and social individuals, aided greatly by the use of his five sons and his son-in-law as puppet High Priests until his assassination in 66 AD for advocating peace with Rome.

Annas appears in the Gospels and Passion plays as a high priest before whom Jesus is brought for judgment, prior to being brought before Pontius Pilate.

*B³ - symbol 1 chess bishop.

*extra - noun [4^th entry] Cricket a run scored other than from a hit with the bat, credited to the batting side rather than to a batsman. [With a wide being but one example of an extra.]

hooter - noun 1 chiefly British [a] a siren or steam whistle, especially one used as a signal for work to begin or finish. [b] the horn of a motor vehicle. 2 [chiefly British (Ref. Collins English Dictionary)] informal a person's nose. 3 (hooters) North American vulgar slang a woman's breasts.

NUS - abbreviation (in the UK) National Union of Students.

RI - [2^nd entry] abbreviation Rex et Imperator (King and Emperor) or Regina et Imperatrix (Queen and Empress). [Latin]

runner - noun 8 a runner bean, 1 a climbing plant which produces bright red flowers and long green edible beans. 2 the bean this plant produces.

runner - cryptic crossword convention river [i.e., something that runs]

Note: I am very familiar with flower being used in this way, but this usage of runner is new to me.

Signing off for today - Falcon