Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - DT 26817

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26817
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, March 19, 2012
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26817]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26816 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, March 17, 2012

Introduction

There were several clues today where the wordplay was a bit sketchy. So much so, that even Libellule did not appear to fully have a handle on it in certain instances.

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.

11a   Cast-off clothing (8)

To understand Libellule's hint, it would help to refer back to the following which I wrote on April 23:

In Britain, a jumper^[5] is a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body (in North American terms, a sweater). What we would call a jumper, the Brits would call a pinafore^[5] (a collarless sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or [British] jumper [i.e., North American sweater]). Thus if a British lass wore a pinafore over her jumper and a North American girl wore a jumper over her sweater, they would be dressed identically.

13a   Chef, a true star cooking on French back street (12)

A restaurateur^[5] is a person who owns and manages a restaurant which I would presume may not necessarily be a chef. Like many others apparently, I have always been under the impression that there is an "n" in this word. This misconception is apparently so widespread that both Collins and Oxford specifically state that it is incorrect to include an "n"^[4,5] .

16a   Inadequate means pint drinkers avoid them (4,8)

When I first read Libellule's comment "the kind of drink you would not get in a pint glass unless of course you used two of them", I thought the pronoun "them" was referring to 'pint glasses'. However, after some considerable time spent trying to make sense of that interpretation, I have concluded that "them" actually refers to 'half measures'. The standard measure for beer in Britain is the pint, so two half measures would fill a pint glass. This distraction was not entirely without benefit, as it caused me to stumble upon a rather interesting discussion on beer measures around the world.

25a   Loan shark certain to be found in historic city (6)

Ur^[5] was an ancient Sumerian city formerly on the Euphrates, in southern Iraq. It was one of the oldest cities of Mesopotamia, dating from the 4th millennium bc, and reached its zenith in the late 3rd millennium bc.

4d  The one who should get the post (9)

In Britain, the post^[5] is (1) the official service or system that delivers letters and parcels • (i) winners will be notified by post; (ii) the tickets are in the post, (2) letters and parcels delivered • she was opening her post, or (3) [in singular] a single collection or delivery of mail • entries must be received no later than first post on 14 June. The latter definition suggests that mail is still delivered more often than once per day in Britain.

13d   Overtime pay for a barman (9)

In British legal circles, a refresher^[5] is an extra fee payable to counsel in a prolonged case • the enhanced refresher for the retrial. A refresher^[4], of course, may also be something that refreshes, such as a cold drink.

The clue is a cryptic definition which relies on the fact that "barman" could be a cryptic way to refer to a lawyer (in addition to being a bartender). A refresher is both something that a bartender might serve to a customer and an extra payment to a lawyer.

14d   Sort of ruler and a clergyman for several parishes (5,4)

In Britain, a rural dean^[5] is a member of the clergy exercising supervision over a group of parochial clergy within a division of an archdeaconry.

15d   The wages of sin — and anger (8)

This seems to be a sort of all-in-one clue where "wages" serves both as the definition and as an anagram indicator. As an anagram indicator, wages^[5] is used in the sense of the result or effect of doing something considered wrong or unwise • disasters are the wages of sin.

18d   Pungent plant the Italian found in rock climbing (6)

In Italian, il^[10] is a masculine definite article.

22   Document you take from a letter (5)

A letter is someone who lets property.

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