Thursday, August 2, 2012 - DT 26869

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26869
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, May 18, 2012
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26869]
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

Often one's enjoyment of a puzzle is directly proportional to its perceived difficulty. I think one derives more satisfaction from solving a more difficult puzzle. So today, it would seem that I found the puzzle a bit more difficult than did Gazza — and also a tad more enjoyable.

Gazza comments that there "seemed to be a lot of clues in this puzzle where we have to chop off a leading or trailing letter". He is correct on that point. There are four clues (12a, 13a, 19a, and 1d) where a trailing letter is deleted, two (20d and 26d) where a leading letter is dropped, and one (22d) where an interior letter is removed. Since some of these clues are clustered together, they may also stand out more.

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   Firm has obligation to entertain top lady in camp (7)

The "top lady" is Her Majesty, the Queen. By tradition, British monarchs use initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus Queen Elizabeth's initials (or cypher, as the Brits like to say) are ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

21a   Conclude wearing what an ethical person wouldn’t wear, as they say (5)

Obviously, "they" would be PeTA^[7].

23a  One has to exist with exceptional rain in part of Europe (7)

I would say that the definition here has to be "in part of Europe" and not merely "part of Europe". Iberian^[5] means relating to or denoting Iberia, or the countries of Spain and Portugal. Used in the phrase "an Iberian city" (a city in Iberia) it would mean "in Iberia" — and, since Iberia is part of Europe, "in part of Europe".

2d   Material adding weight to bottom of bed (6)

In Britain, a small bed with high barred sides for a baby or very young child is called a cot^[5]. In North America, such a bed would be known as a crib^[5]. In Britain, the term cot can also be used for a a plain narrow bed^[5] or a collapsible or portable bed^[4] (although Oxford says that the use of the word to mean a camp bed — a folding portable bed, typically made of canvas stretched over a metal frame — is North American^[5]).

3d   Changeable island that gets cold I love — and not just me on my own! (10)

This was my second to last one in. I had mistakenly convinced myself that "changeable" must be an anagram indicator and that the definition must be all, or part of, "not just me on my own". Therefore, I was expecting something like a synonym for 'cooperatively' to be the solution. I eventually came to realize that "changeable" is the definition and that the lengthy phrase "not just me on my own" clues the very concise pronoun US.

4d   Monster appears — ship therefore capsizes (6)

As is commonly the case in cryptic crosswords, today's "ship" is a steamship (abbreviation SS^[5]). 

5d   Article that’s a nuisance crushing a foot (8)

An anapaest^[5] (US spelling anapest) is a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable.

Strangely enough, this word did occur to me (albeit rather dimly from the deep recesses of my mind) but I rejected it, as it did not fit in its American spelling. Although I seemed to recall it had something to do with a foot, I was thinking that it might be a biological term rather than a poetic one.

6d   Alternatively a learner will get a test (4)

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

7d   Thunderous character in request for superabundance (8)

In Scandinavian mythology, Thor^[5] is the god of thunder, the weather, agriculture, and the home, the son of Odin and Freya (Frigga). Thursday is named after him.

13d   Squeals when catching cold — money lost! (10)

It took me a while to twig to the fact that "cold" is cluing the word 'chill' and not the letter 'c'. At first, I had supposed that shillings — in addition to being former British coins — must somehow also be British slang for squeals.

Until the introduction of the euro in 2002, the schilling^[5] was the basic monetary unit of Austria, equal to 100 groschen.

24d  Enthusiastic about religious books, I love to collect such (4)

I note that the level of interest (or degree of enthusiasm) in this clue has picked up markedly during its trip across the Atlantic. In Britain, judging by Gazza's review, the clue began "Interested in religious books, ...".

In cryptic crossword puzzles, the word "books" is often used to clue either OT (Old Testament) or NT (New Testament). Here, Giovanni gives us an additional push in the right direction by using the phrase "religious books".

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