Monday, September 19, 2011 - DT 26587

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26587
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, June 24, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26587]
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 sailed through this puzzle quite quickly until I foundered in the south-west quadrant. I needed assistance from my Tool Chest for 22a and 18d. Not that these clues were any more difficult than others in the puzzle - I just seem to have developed a mental block concerning them. At this point I must have become really dense, as (even after having solved 18d) I needed Gazza's hint to decipher the (not very difficult) wordplay.

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.

Bill [Clinton] - American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

eminence - noun 3. formal or literary a piece of rising ground: an eminence commanding the River Emme

*grass - verb 2. British informal inform the police of someone's criminal activities or plans: [i] someone had grassed on the thieves; [ii] she threatened to grass me up

loo¹ - noun British informal a toilet: [as modifier] loo paper

murmur - verb 1. [2^nd entry] (murmur against) archaic express one’s discontent about (someone or something) in a subdued manner: now they do not simply murmur against him, they quarrel noisily with him

Appearing in Solutions:

bomb - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 6. British slang a large sum of money (especially in the phrase make a bomb)

*char³ - (also cha or chai) noun British informal tea.

Charon - 1. Greek Mythology an old man who ferried the souls of the dead across the Rivers Styx and Acheron to Hades.

Chelsea - an area of West London, England. Chelsea's modern reputation as a centre of innovation and influence originated in a period during the 19th century, when the area became a Victorian artists' colony. It became prominent once again as one of the centres of 1960s "Swinging London".

Chelsea [Clinton] - only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

dutch - noun (usually one's old dutch) British informal (especially among cockneys) one’s wife. [Origin: (late 19th century) abbreviation of  duchess]

haematologist - noun British (US hematologist) a practitioner in the branch of medicine involving study and treatment of the blood.

paddle steamer (also paddleboat) - noun a boat powered by steam and propelled by paddle wheels. [Note: I have always heard this type of vessel referred to as a paddle-wheeler.]

[St] Paul - (died circa 64), missionary of Jewish descent; known as Paul the Apostle, or Saul of Tarsus, or the Apostle of the Gentiles. He first opposed the followers of Jesus, assisting at the martyrdom of St Stephen. On a mission to Damascus he was converted to Christianity after a vision and became one of the first major Christian missionaries and theologians. His epistles form part of the New Testament. Feast day, 29 June.

repine - verb literary feel or express discontent; fret: you mustn’t let yourself repine

spacer - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 3. Astronautics a person who travels in outer space.

*st - abbreviation [1^st entry] stone (in weight), noun 4. (plural same) British a unit of weight equal to 14 lb (6.35 kg): I weighed 10 stone

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.

3d   Poor woman losing pair of spectacles in the loo! (5)

The definition is "loo", a British term meaning bathroom or PRIVY. The woman in the clue is name Ivy, so that the wordplay is POOR IVY with OO deleted (losing pair of spectacles). The use of "spectacles" to clue the letters OO is known as a visual clue because these letters look like a drawing of a pair of glasses.

In North America, bizarrely, a bathroom is a room containing a toilet (which may or may not also contain a bath). A room containing just a toilet and sink might be referred to as a half bath (generally when enumerating the total number of facilities in a dwelling, such as in a real estate listing; a split-level with two and a half baths). Judging by dictionary entries, a bathroom in Britain would appear to be a room with a bath. Other North American euphemisms for a toilet are washroom and restroom. The former term may well not be used by Brits and the latter seems to have quite a different meaning in the U.K.

Signing off for today - Falcon