Wednesday, June 8, 2011 (DT 26501)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26501
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26501]
Big Dave's Review Written By Pommers
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

I was able to complete this puzzle without electronic assistance. This achievement is largely attributable to having had several hours to work on it without access to my Tool Chest - not to mention that Pommers awards it only two stars for difficulty.

As I will be away from home for most of the next week, I expect that the blog may be somewhat abbreviated and perhaps sometimes late during that period.

Signing off for today - Falcon

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - DT 26500

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26500
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Setter Shamus (unconfirmed)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26500]
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

I worked on this puzzle during several sessions throughout the day - eventually completing it without electronic assistance. However, I did not understand the wordplay for a few clues. I managed to track down the film couple at 5d on Google but needed Gazza's hints to sort out the wordplay at 25a and to identify the uncle at 26d.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

Ismail Merchant - (1936 – 2005) was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director (and Merchant's longtime professional and personal partner) James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards.

Appearing in Solutions:

doner kebab - noun a Turkish dish consisting of spiced lamb cooked on a spit and served in slices, typically with pitta [North American pita] bread.

I was only familiar with with a variation of this food, called a donair, developed and popular in Atlantic Canada and which has since spread to other parts of Canada.

Eros - statue atop the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain located in Piccadilly Circus, London, England. While the statue is generally believed to depict Eros, it was actually intended by the sculptor to be an image of his twin brother, Anteros.

Indian - noun 3 British informal an Indian meal or restaurant.

James Ivory - American film director, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant [Ivory's longtime professional and personal partner], and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards.

K² - abbreviation [6^th entry] king (used especially in describing play in card games and recording moves in chess): declarer overruffed with ♦K and led another spade; 18.Ke2

Kir - noun trademark a drink made from dry white wine and cassis.

R² - abbreviation [4^th entry] Regina [Queen] or Rex {King]

*read - verb 5 chiefly British study (an academic subject) at a university: I'm reading English at Cambridge; [no object] he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

*Reader - noun 4 British a university lecturer of the highest grade below professor

Uncle Remus - a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form in 1881.

rheumatics - plural noun [usually treated as singular] informal rheumatism; rheumatic pains.

rota - noun 1 British a list showing when each of a number of people has to do a particular job: a cleaning rota

Rye - a small town in East Sussex, England, which stands approximately two miles from the open sea and is at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. In medieval times, however, as an important member of the Cinque Ports confederation, it was at the head of an embayment of the English Channel and almost entirely surrounded by the sea. ... Medieval maps show that Rye was originally located on a huge embayment of the English Channel called the Rye Camber, which provided a safe anchorage and harbour.

swish - adjective British informal impressively smart and fashionable: dinner at a swish hotel

yob - noun British informal a rude, noisy, and aggressive youth.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

25a   Academic institution found shortly in middle of suburbs (10)

It would seem that the solution to this clue could be nothing other than UNIVERSITY. However, the wordplay is a different matter. I must admit that I didn't figure it out on my own, and I even needed to re-read Gazza's hint a couple of times before the penny dropped.

This would almost seem to be an inverse semi-&lit. (a term I have never actually seen - so I may be coining a new term). In a semi-&lit. clue, the entire clue serves as the definition while a portion of the clue provides the wordplay (as compared to a true &lit. clue where the entire clue constitutes both the wordplay and the definition)  In this clue, the entire clue serves as the wordplay but only a portion of the clue forms the definition. The definition is "academic institution" and the wordplay (provided by the entire clue) tells us that an abbreviation - or short form (shortly) - for the required academic institution is to be found in the middle of (sub)U(rbs).

Signing off for today - Falcon

Monday, June 6, 2011 - DT 26499

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26499
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, March 14, 2011
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26499]
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 █ - 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 26498 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, March 12, 2011

Introduction

Today we are presented with a highly enjoyable puzzle from Rufus that is full of lovely cryptic definitions. Rufus is surely the master of this genre of clue - and today he is at the top of his form. I worked on this puzzle intermittently throughout the day between other activities. I eventually solved all but one clue without electronic assistance - and the lone holdout quickly succumbed when I called my Tool Chest into action. Nevertheless, I did feel a bit chagrined to have solved all those fairly difficult cryptic definitions only to stumble over a simple, straight-forward charade.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Solutions:

master¹ - noun 2 a man in charge of an organization or group, in particular:.

• British a male schoolteacher: the games master

*RA - abbreviation [5^th entry] (in the UK) Royal Artillery

[Sir] Winston [Churchill] - (1874–1965), British Conservative statesman, Prime Minister 1940-5 and 1951-5; full name Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.

He served as Home Secretary (1910–11) under the Liberals and as First Lord of the Admiralty 1911–15, but lost this post after the unsuccessful Allied attack on the Turks in the Dardanelles. A consistent opponent of appeasement between the wars, he replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of the coalition government in 1940 and led Britain throughout the war, forging and maintaining the alliance which defeated the Axis Powers. His writings include The Second World War (1948–53) and A History of the English - Speaking Peoples (1956-8); he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

20d   Small party in southern courtyard (5)

I spent a good deal of time searching for a charade of S (small) plus a four-letter word meaning party that might be a southern courtyard. With the aid of my Tool Chest, I identified a list of only five words that match the checking letters. It was then evident that I should have been looking for a charade of S (southern) plus a four-letter word meaning courtyard that would be a small (military) party.

Signing off for today - Falcon

Saturday, June 4, 2011 - Hey Guys!

Introduction

In today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon, we meet a couple of Guys - one who was a Royal Canadian and the other who was once a Montreal Canadien - each of whom were considered among the best in their respective fields of endeavour.

On a housekeeping note, you will see a new notation in the Solution to Today's Puzzle section where I have marked entries appearing in Today's Glossary with a double dagger (^‡).

By the way, the cropping of the right border in the image is a carry over from the paper (as was the case last week).

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

Chico [Marx] - (1887 – 1961) American comedian and film star and one of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.

left field - noun 1 Baseball the part of the outfield to the left of the batter when facing the pitcher: a high fly to left field [abbreviation LF (frequently seen in tables on sports pages, for example)]

Appearing in Solutions:

aught¹ (also ought) - archaic anything at all: know you aught of this fellow, young sir?

Usage: The verb ought is a modal verb, which means that it does not behave grammatically like ordinary verbs. In particular, the negative is formed with the word not alone and not with auxiliary verbs such as do or have. Therefore the standard construction for the negative is he ought not to have gone. The alternative forms he didn‘t ought to have gone and he hadn’t ought to have gone, formed as though ought were an ordinary verb rather than a modal verb, are found in dialect from the 19th century but are not acceptable in standard modern English.

[John] Dos Passos - (1896 – 1970), American novelist and artist.

draught (US draft) - noun 2 [3^rd entry] literary or archaic a quantity of a liquid with medicinal properties: a sleeping draught

flytrap - [American Heritage Dictionary] noun 2. An insectivorous plant, such as the Venus flytrap.

Guy Lapointe - retired Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played for the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League. He currently serves as Coordinator of Amateur Scouting with the NHL's Minnesota Wild. Along with defencemen Larry Robinson and Serge Savard, Lapointe was a member of the "Big Three" and played a key role in the Canadiens' winning the Stanley Cup six times in 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979. Lapointe was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993. In 884 NHL games, Lapointe recorded 171 goals and 451 assists for 622 points. He still holds the Montreal Canadiens' record for most goals in a season for a defenceman (28), and most goals for a rookie defenceman (15).

Guy Lombardo - (1902 – 1977), Canadian-American bandleader and violinist. He and his band, The Royal Canadians, known for creating "The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven", were a staple of New Year's Eve celebrations across North America for several decades in the 20^th century. Their recording of Auld Lang Syne still plays as the first song of the new year in New York City's Times Square.

Harpo [Marx] - (1888 – 1964) was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). Marx frequently used props such as a walking stick with a built-in bulb horn, and he played the harp in most of his films.

Hyde Park - the largest British royal park, in west central London. It contains the Serpentine, Marble Arch, the Albert Memorial, and Speakers' Corner.

Igor (or sometimes Ygor) - traditional stock character or cliché hunch-backed assistant or butler to many types of villain, such as Count Dracula or a mad scientist, familiar from many horror movies and horror movie parodies, the Frankenstein series and Van Helsing films in particular.

marabou - noun 1 (also marabou stork) a large African stork with a massive bill and large neck pouch, which feeds mainly by scavenging (Leptoptilos crumeniferus, family Ciconiidae).

om - noun a mystic syllable, considered the most sacred mantra in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. It appears at the beginning and end of most Sanskrit recitations, prayers, and texts.

Oprah [Winfrey] - American television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world's only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted
	"‡" see entry in Today's Glossary

Across

1a   BORED|OM - BORED (drilled) + OM^‡ (mantra)

5a   BE(MUSE)D - MUSE (Greek goddess) contained in (in) BED

9a   {DO|S PAS|SOS}^‡ - DO + SPAS (health resorts) + SOS (help)

10a   _R|OUTS - R (last of fouR) + OUTS (excuses)

11a   {GUY LOMBARDO}*^‡ - anagram (mixed) of GOOD ALBUM RY

14a   IN|APT - IN (popular) + APT (apartment)

15a   IM|POUNDED - IM (I am; i.e., I'm) + POUNDED (beaten)

17a   HYD(RANG)E|A - RANG (buzzed; as called on the telephone) contained in HYDE^‡ (London park) + (with) A

19a   BRA|IN - BRA (underwear) + IN

20a   {GUY LAPOINTE}*^‡ - anagram (confused) of AN UGLY POET I

24a   W|OVEN - W (with) + OVEN (roasting place)

25a   R(AINT)IGHT - RIGHT (proper) containing (clothing) AINT (isn't commonly; i.e., ain't - an expression commonly heard in place of isn't)

26a   _SC|RAT|CH_ - hidden in (in) videodiSC RAT CHewed

27a   {FL|YTRAP}<^‡ - reversal (in recession) of {PARTY (gathering) + LF (left field^‡)}

Down

1d   BO(D)Y - BOY (kid) containing (possessing) D (low-grade; for cryptic reading, interpret as 'low grade')

2d   RUSH - double definition; "marsh plant" & "step on it" (i.e., hurry)

3d   {DR|AUGHT}^‡ - DR (Doctor) + AUGHT^‡ (anything whatever)

4d   MISTY|PING - MISTY (indistinct) + PING (sonar sound)

5d   BASS|O - BASS (fish) + O (doughnut)

6d   MAR|ABOU_^‡ - MAR (blemish) + ABOU {mostly on; i.e., most (all but the final letter) of ABOUt (on)}

7d   SQU(A|RE D)EAL - SQUEAL (inform) containing (about) {A + RED (radical)}

Note: in the cryptic reading, the 's is interpreted as a contraction for is.

8d   DISCORDANT* - anagram (awfully) of CANDID SORT

12d   NIGH|T(G)OWNS - {NIGH (near) + TOWNS (cities)} containing (around) G ($1000)

13d   HARD|L(Y) EVER - Y (fork; as a fork in a road) contained in (wedged in) {HARD (tough) + LEVER (fulcrum tool)}

16d   PLAIN|TIFF - PLAIN (obvious) + TIFF (argument)

18d   A|GAIN|ST - ST (saint) following (after) {A + GAIN (benefit)}

19d   BREATHY* - anagram (oddly) of THE BRAY

21d   OPRAH<^‡ - reversal (sent back) of HARPO^‡ (Chico's^‡ brother)

22d   {IG|OR}^‡ - IG (Inspector General) + OR

23d   S|TOP - S (small) + TOP (lid)

Signing off for today - Falcon

Friday, June 3, 2011 - DT 26497

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26497
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, March 11, 2011
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26497]
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

Today the puzzle was solved during several sessions spread over the day. I eventually managed to reduce it to  a lone unsolved clue (10d). While I quickly determined - with the help of my Tool Chest - that there seemed to be only a single possibility that fit the checking letters, it took a considerable period of wracking my brain to see the wordplay. I always find these substitution type clues to be difficult to figure out.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

agony aunt (or agony uncle) - noun British informal a person who answers letters in an agony column.

agony column - noun British informal a column in a newspaper or magazine offering advice on personal problems to readers who write in; dated a personal column.

Appearing in Solutions:

Au - symbol the chemical element gold.

bot. - abbreviation [2^nd entry] bottle

*CE - abbreviation [1^st entry] Church of England

des [de + les] - French some

mall - noun 2 a public promenade, especially one that is broad and tree-lined.

Marne - a river of east central France, which rises in the Langres plateau north of Dijon and flows 525 km (328 miles) north and west to join the Seine near Paris. Its valley was the scene of two important battles in the First World War. The first battle (September 1914) halted and repelled the German advance on Paris; the second (July 1918) ended the final German offensive.

*RE - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Engineers, the field engineering and construction corps of the British army

Signing off for today - Falcon

Thursday, June 2, 2011 (DT 26496)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26496
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, March 10, 2011
Setter Ray T
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26496]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

Although I completed - or, at least, thought I had completed - the puzzle without electronic assistance, my paper was littered with question marks prompting me to verify that some of the solutions that I had constructed from the wordplay actually do exist or to investigate meanings of words in order to understand some bit of wordplay. I was to discover that my initial efforts were faulty in a couple of cases - having put SPRIT in at 10a and RAROTONGA at 14d.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

brief - noun 2 [3^rd entry] British informal a solicitor or barrister: it was only his brief's eloquence that had saved him from prison

crew¹ - [The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition] noun a gang

Oliver Hardy - (1892–1957), together with partner Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson) (1890–1965) made up the American comedy duo Laurel and Hardy . British-born Stan Laurel played the scatterbrained and often tearful innocent, Oliver Hardy his pompous, overbearing, and frequently exasperated friend. They brought their distinctive slapstick comedy to many films from 1927 onwards.

[Anthony] Hope - (1863 – 1933), English novelist and playwright. Although he was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels, he is remembered best for only two books: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau (1898). These works are set in the contemporaneous fictional country of Ruritania and spawned the genre known as Ruritanian romance.

*motor - noun 2 British informal a car

peak¹ - noun 2 [2^nd entry] British a stiff brim at the front of a cap.

smack - noun (a smack of) a flavour or taste of: anything with even a modest smack of hops dries the palate

style - verb 2 [with object and complement] designate with a particular name, description, or title: the official is styled principal and vice chancellor of the university

Appearing in Solutions:

*CE - abbreviation [1^st entry] Church of England

*DI - abbreviation [2^nd entry] (in the UK) Detective Inspector

Within the British police, inspector is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

[Margaret] Drabble - English novelist, biographer and critic.

eglantine - noun a fragrant species of wild rose, the sweet-brier.

Fr¹ - abbreviation 3 (Fr.) French.

GR - [2^nd entry] abbreviation King George. [from Latin Georgius Rex]

*M² - abbreviation 10 British Motorway, followed by a number, as in M1.

*or² - noun gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture.

posse - [The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition] noun a gang or group of (especially young) friends (slang)

postbag - noun 1. Chiefly British another name for mailbag

R - [The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition] abbreviation Rector

*Romeo - noun 2 a code word representing the letter R, used in radio communication.

Ruritania - an imaginary kingdom in central Europe used as a fictional background for the adventure novels of courtly intrigue and romance written by Anthony Hope (1863–1933).

scut¹ - noun the short tail of a hare, rabbit, or deer.

Tamar - a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west).

Ur - 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 .

V² - abbreviation 2 victory.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

13a   'Marine! Get moving, bud!' (9)

The definition is "bud" and the wordplay is an anagram (moving) of MARINE GET producing the solution GERMINATE. While bud and germinate hardly mean the same thing in a literal sense, they can be synonyms in a figurative sense - as developing ideas may be described as either budding or germinating.

25a   Smacks and spanks gripping end of thong (5)

In the surface reading, "smacks" is a verb. However, in the cryptic reading it is a noun. Judging by the comments at Big Dave's site, a great many of the Brits not only missed this subtlety, they failed to realize (as did I before consulting a dictionary) that smack can function as a noun as well as a verb.

Signing off for today - Falcon

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 (DT 26495)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26495
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26495]
Big Dave's Review Written By Pommers
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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

This puzzle will surely whet your appetite - not to mention, satisfy your sweet tooth. Although I have dim recollections of it having been served in a previous puzzle, I am not so familiar with the Victorian breakfast dish at 19a which was introduced to England by British colonials returning from India. However, I was able to decipher it correctly from the wordplay.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle.

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

presenter - noun British a person who introduces and appears in a television or radio programme.

sweet - noun 1 British a small shaped piece of confectionery made with sugar: a bag of sweets  2 British a sweet dish forming a course of a meal; a pudding or dessert.

Appearing in Solutions:

anchor - noun 4 chiefly North American an anchorman or anchorwoman, a person who presents and coordinates a live television or radio programme involving other contributors.

de - preposition French of

Edam² - noun a round Dutch cheese, typically pale yellow with a red wax coating.

French loaf - noun a loaf of French bread.

*it¹ - pronoun 8 (usually ‘it’) informal sexual intercourse or sex appeal

kedgeree - noun cookery 1 a European, but especially British, dish, now usually a mixture of rice, fish and eggs. 2 a dish, originally from India, consisting of rice cooked with butter and dal, flavoured with spice and shredded onion, etc.

lemon - noun 4 informal an unsatisfactory or feeble person or thing: car-makers cannot afford to create lemons

Plymouth Hoe - (referred to locally as the Hoe) a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and it commands views of Plymouth Sound, Drake's Island, and across the Hamoaze to Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Hoe, a sloping ridge shaped like an inverted foot and heel.

pudding - noun 2 [3^rd entry] Chiefly British, informal a fat or stupid person: away with you, you big pudding!

ring² - verb 2 British call by telephone: [with object] I rang her this morning; Harriet rang Dorothy up next day; [no object] she rang to tell him the good news

steak Diane - noun a dish consisting of thin slices of steak fried with seasonings, especially Worcestershire sauce.

summer pudding - noun British a pudding of soft summer fruit encased in bread or sponge.

Signing off for today - Falcon