Thursday, July 7, 2011 - DT 26525

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26525
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26525]
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 █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

I raced quickly through today's puzzle but became hung up with two clues left to solve. However, my trusty Tool Chest made short work of them. While I certainly should have solved 16a without assistance, 7d was a totally new expression to me. Even once I had the solution, I could not decipher the wordplay without Big Dave's hint and a subsequent extensive dictionary search.

I offer a sincere apology to Gnomethang for my mistaken observation yesterday on one of the hints in his review. It would seem that too much time had passed between the time when I solved the puzzle (very early morning) and the time when I composed the blog (very late evening). As a consequence, I seem to have gotten confused [a senior moment, perhaps, per the discussion today at Big Dave's site] with a clue in another recent puzzle in which "Henry" was, in fact, used to clue H (the symbol representing the physics unit of inductance, the henry). As Gnomethang points out in the second of his comments on yesterday's blog, in the clue which appeared yesterday the word Henry was used as a proper name to clue its diminutive version HAL.

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.

dummy - noun 2 [2^nd entry] British a rubber or plastic teat for a baby to suck on. [North American pacifier or soother]

Appearing in Solutions:

ben¹ - noun Scottish (especially in place names) a high mountain or mountain peak: Ben Nevis

comforter - noun [2^nd entry] British a baby's dummy. [Search Chambers characterizes this meaning of comforter as old use]

flower - cryptic crossword convention river (i.e., something that flows)

Job's comforter - noun a person who aggravates distress under the guise of giving comfort. [Origin: (mid 18th century) alluding to the biblical story (Job 16:2) of the patriarch Job]

*or² - noun gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture.

*RE - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Engineers, the field engineering and construction corps of the British army

Savile Row - a shopping street in Mayfair, central London, famous for its traditional men's bespoke tailoring. The term "bespoke" is understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers. The short street is termed the "golden mile of tailoring", where customers have included Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson and Napoleon III.

*U³ - adjective British informal (of language or social behaviour) characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes: U manners. [consequently socially acceptable]

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   Where I might grow river grass? (7)

I kicked myself for not getting this one without the help of my Tool Chest. Perhaps it could be viewed as a regular cryptic clue, where the definition is "where I might grow" with the solution being FLOWERPOT and the wordplay FLOWER (river; i.e., something that flows) + POT (grass; i.e., marijuana). To my mind, the definition would be a bit wanting under that interpretation. Therefore, I prefer to see it as a semi-all-in-one clue where the entire clue provides a cryptic (and somewhat vague) definition of a FLOWERPOT with the wordplay (as above) providing a second (and more precise) route to the solution.

26a   What to use to calculate climb after slipping? (7,5)

Big Dave's hint would seem to imply that SLIDING SCALE is another name for a slide rule in Britain. However, none of my three favourite British dictionaries list it as such, giving definitions along the lines of "a variable scale according to which specified wages, tariffs, prices, etc., fluctuate in response to changes in some other factor, standard, or conditions" (Collins English Dictionary).

7d   One aggravates the situation and posts dummy to England (once) (4,9)

The definition is "one aggravates the situation" for which the solution is JOB's COMFORTER. The wordplay is JOBS (posts) + COMFORTER {dummy to England (once)}. Comforter is an archaic (once) British (to England) word meaning dummy (a rubber or plastic teat for a baby to suck on) or what, in North America, would be called a soother.

18d   Green's new leader embracing a bit of mystery (7)

The clue is presumably referring to Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. However, there would be no harm done should Canadian readers chose to think of Elizabeth May, leader (and - like her British counterpart - sole Member of Parliament) of the Green Party of Canada.

The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) (Welsh: Plaid Werdd Cymru a Lloegr) is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. The party currently has one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, Caroline Lucas, who represents the constituency of Brighton Pavilion, and who is also the current party leader.

Signing off for today - Falcon