Thursday, March 29, 2012 - DT 26761

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26761
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, January 13, 2012
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26761]
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

On the whole, the puzzle was not overly challenging. However, I encountered a mental block on the last few clues (although they do not appear exceptionally difficult in hindsight) and I resorted to a bit of electronic assistance to solve them.

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.

9a   Poison making ten Arabs ill (8)

Ratsbane^[5] is an archaic name for rat poison, especially arsenic oxide^[10].

10a   Request quiet, wanting heavy metal curtailed (4)

Piano (abbreviation p)^[5] is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

11a   Burglars? They pose no danger at Christmas! (12)

A bit off topic, but in the course of doing some research regarding this clue I observed an interesting difference between meanings for the word cracker in the UK and the US. In the UK, cracker^[4] is a slang term meaning a thing or person of notable qualities or abilities. In the US, on the other hand, cracker^[3] is an offensive term used either (a) as a disparaging term for a poor white person of the rural, especially southeast, United States or (b) as a disparaging term for a white person in general.

13a   Fragrance said to be evident in castle (8)

Balmoral Castle^[5] is a holiday residence of the British royal family, on the River Dee in Scotland. Although I have certainly heard of the castle, it did not readily come to mind this morning.

2d   Type in dark black showing impudence? (8)

Gazza, in his review, comments "I can’t find any reference to [boldface] meaning impudence ..." - and neither could I. However, the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia^[7] lists bold-face as meaning "One who has a bold face; an impudent person" [Note: although the cited reference from Wordnik shows the word without a hyphen, the original source does spell the word with a hyphen]. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia can be found here.

8d   See delta possibly from valley (8)

Teesdale^[7] is a dale, or valley, of the east side of the Pennines in England through which flows the River Tees. Large parts of Teesdale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) - the second largest AONB in England and Wales.

14d   Fish, angler’s first to be caught in lake (5)

The loach is a small elongated bottom-dwelling freshwater fish with several barbels near the mouth, found in Eurasia and NW Africa [Family Cobitidae and Homalopteridae (or Balitoridae): several genera and numerous species].

17d   Bird trainer once working between one river and another (8)

The River Fal^[7] flows through Cornwall, United Kingdom, rising on the Goss Moor and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth.

19d   In favour of money to set forth as a reward (8)

I had to go to my copy of The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition to find the sense of the word used here for propound, viz. to set forth as an aim or reward.

The pound^[5] (also pound sterling) is the basic monetary unit of the UK, equal to 100 pence.

24d   Confectionery from van is offered outside church? (4)

In Britain, an ice^[5] is an ice cream, ice lolly^[5] (a piece of flavoured ice or ice cream on a stick), or portion of water ice^[5] (a dessert consisting of frozen fruit juice or flavoured water and sugar).

In North America, I can not think of a single all-inclusive term for the range of treats encompassed by the term ice lolly. These would include the imaginatively-named ice cream on a stick (a flat bar of vanilla ice cream with a chocolate coating on a stick) as well as the popsicle^[5] (flavoured ice on a stick - a trademark that has become a generic term). The Creamsicle and Fudgsicle  are frozen desserts that are made in the form of a flat bar on a wooden stick. The former has a center of vanilla ice cream which is covered by a layer of flavored ice, while the latter is chocolate-flavored with a texture somewhat similar to ice cream [but which, I would say, is a bit chewier].

In Britain, water ice is another name for sorbet^[5] - although it would probably be more correct to state this the other way around, as water ice seems to be the more common term. In North America, sorbet is also known as sherbet^[5]. In Britain, sherbet is something entirely different - a flavoured sweet effervescent powder eaten alone or made into a drink. In Arab countries, sherbet is a cooling drink of sweet diluted fruit juices. In Australia, sherbet is used as a humorous slang term for beer • I went down the local pub for a few sherbets.

The Church of England (CE)^[5] is the English branch of the Western Christian Church, which combines Catholic and Protestant traditions, rejects the Pope’s authority, and has the monarch as its titular head.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[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 (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today - Falcon