Friday, November 4, 2011 - DT 26629

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26629
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, August 12, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26629]
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 █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

If I was on the right wavelength yesterday with RayT, I was tuned to the wrong band today for Giovanni. I had to call in the reinforcements early and use them extensively. As you can see from the chart above, I had solved merely ten clues when I resorted to the use of my Tool Chest. I used electronic aids from it to solve seven of the remaining clues, which gave me enough checking letters to get the remainder on my own.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

6a   Man’s hot spirit — sadly he dislikes his fellows (13)

I got off to a disastrous start by misspelling the solution (placing the H after the P) which stymied me on the intersecting down clues until I realized my error.

14a   Not the youngest-looking prisoner in bird (7)

In British slang, a lag⁵ is a person who has been frequently convicted and sent to prison. A greylag⁴ (or greylag goose) is a large grey Eurasian goose, Anser anser, which is the ancestor of many domestic breeds of goose. The US spelling is graylag.

27a   Maybe finger the idiotic extremists (7,6)

I failed to detect the reverse anagram here which left me clueless (or, at least, without an explanation of the wordplay in the clue). To elaborate a bit on Gazza's explanation, the definition is "idiotic extremists" with the solution being LUNATIC FRINGE. The wordplay is "maybe finger" which, as Gazza points out is a reverse anagram.

To see how this works, remember that, in a cryptic crossword puzzle, FINGER could be the solution to the anagram wordplay "lunatic fringe" - i.e., an anagram (lunatic) of FRINGE. Thus, "maybe finger" indicates that FINGER might be 'an anagram of FRINGE' (or, in other words, LUNATIC FRINGE). As Gazza says, a type of clue that is difficult to explain clearly.

3d   Church has said evensong initially — so no place for this? (7)

The word "has" serves as a charade indicator in the wordplay which is CH (church) + (has) ORAL (said) + E (evensong initially; i.e., first letter of 'evensong').

6d   Merrily daft? Not a drunk seen round your old Welsh town (7,6)

Merthyr Tydfil⁷ is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales.

15d   Small room with restricted view (3)

Loo⁵ is a British word for toilet. In Britain, the word toilet seems to be used more extensively to mean a room containing a toilet fixture as well as the fixture itself. In North America, this room (especially in a residence) would likely be called a bathroom and the word toilet (referring to a room) would be used mainly only in reference to public facilities (public toilet). Even in this case, such premises would be more likely referred to somewhat euphemistically as public washrooms or public restrooms. (We North Americans just can't seem to admit that certain bodily functions exist.) Ironically, in North America, a bathroom is a room containing a toilet which may or may not also contain a bathtub or shower. This is one instance where the British are far more logical than those of us on this side of the Atlantic. My research indicates that, in the UK, a bathroom is a room with a bathtub which may or may not also have a toilet. Pity the poor North American visiting the UK who asks to use the bathroom and is handed a towel and directed to a room without a toilet.

21d   Sitting quietly on grass with nothing getting in the way (6)

In the UK, to grass⁵ is to inform the police of someone’s criminal activities or plans.

References: 
¹ - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
² - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
³ - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
⁴ - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
⁵ - Oxford Dictionaries Online (Oxford Dictionary of English)
⁶ - Oxford Dictionaries Online (Oxford American Dictionary)
⁷ - Wikipedia

Signing off for today - Falcon