Monday, February 25, 2013 — DT 27041

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27041
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27041]
Big Dave's Review Written By scchua
BD 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 you didn't do well on today's puzzle, you would be hard pressed to blame it on the Briticisms — which are virtually nonexistent. Yet I still struggled a bit with the middle portion of the puzzle.

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.

1a   Showing caution about church's aggressive slogan (3,3)

The War Cry^[7] is the official news publication of the Salvation Army.

The clue that we find in the National Post differs ever so slightly from the one that appeared in the UK (at least in the online edition of The Daily Telegraph), which was:

• 1a   Showing caution about churchman's aggressive slogan (3,3)

23a   Speculator's tense -- gold pinched in robbery (8)

 Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture. In heraldry, a tincture^[5] is any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often the furs) used in coats of arms.

3d   Pointed remark suppressed by sources in Radio Hallam and University is nonsense (7)

In North America, rhubarb^[5] denotes a heated dispute ⇒ rhubarbs often broke out among these less than professional players. However, in Britain, the word means nonsense ⇒ it was all rhubarb, about me, about her daughter, about art. This meaning likely comes from British theatrical usage where rhubarb means the noise made by a group of actors to give the impression of indistinct background conversation, especially by the random repetition of the word ‘rhubarb’.

Radio Hallam is the former name of Hallam FM^[7], an independent local radio station serving South Yorkshire from studios in Sheffield, England.

14d   Reprimanded by annoyed American (6,3)

In the UK, to tick someone off^[5] means to reprimand or rebuke someone ⇒ he was ticked off by Angela. In North America, this expression means to make someone annoyed or angry ⇒ Jefferson was a little ticked off, but he’ll come around.

18d   Back down and negotiate in support of engineers (7)

The Corps of Royal Engineers (RE)^[5] is the field engineering and construction corps of the British army.

Treat^[3] is used in the sense of to engage in negotiations, as to reach a settlement or agree on terms ⇒ Both sides nonetheless are quite willing to treat with [the king] (Gregory J. Wallance)

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