Sunday, November 29, 2009 (ST 4351)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on October 18, 2009

Introduction

I completed today's puzzle still having question marks in my mind concerning a few of the clues.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

afters - singular noun, Brit colloq dessert; pudding.

ladette - noun Brit. 1. A young woman who behaves in a manner similar to a young man, namely being boisterous and loud and drinking to excess.

polythene - noun chiefly Brit. a tough, light, flexible plastic made by polymerizing ethylene, chiefly used for packaging. ORIGIN contraction of polyethylene. Beatles fans will surely remember Polythene Pam.

RSC - abbreviation 1 Royal Shakespeare Company: a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, England

TV - abbreviation 2. Slang transvestite.

wind up - noun 1 Brit. informal an attempt to tease or irritate someone. [Note that Oxford spells it wind-up, with a hyphen]

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4351].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

27a Forgetting one's complaint (8)

Talbinho seemed to like this clue fairly well, "... a much better CD." However, it took me quite a while to get my head around it - perhaps I am just obtuse. I finally came to the conclusion that the thrust of the clue is that if one is suffering from amnesia, they may well be unable to remember what illness they have (forgetting one's complaint) - and therefore would be described as being AMNESIAC.

4d Angry lady's maid on TV (5-7)

I did get the correct answer; but I was definitely puzzled by the wordplay. I looked in vain for a British television show called (or dealing with a) CROSS-DRESSER. It did not help that I did not think that a dresser is necessarily a "lady's maid". My understanding was reinforced by the fact that every reference I consulted defined it similar to Oxford, namely "noun 2 a person who looks after theatrical costumes". I initially thought that "lady's maid" might be an abigail.

19d Two-piece practised here with explosive results (6)

A ''two-piece" is a BIKINI, and clearly the latter part of the clue relates to Bikini Atoll, a U.S. nuclear test site from 1946-1958. I was not convinced that I fully grasped the wordplay and thought that Talbinho might provide some guidance. However he was not much impressed with this clue, stating "Bikini Atoll was a nuclear testing site, but the second definition ('practised here with explosive results') is horribly worded."

At that point, I decided to undertake some further research which led me to think that it perhaps is not such a bad clue - if one understands a bit about nuclear physics. In an atomic (fission) bomb, two sub-critical masses of fissile material are combined into a single super-critical mass (the amount of material needed to start an exponentially growing nuclear chain reaction). Thus could "two-piece" refer to the bomb (consisting of the two sub-critical masses of fissile material) that was tested ("practised") at Bikini Atoll "with explosive results". It still may not be the smoothest reading clue but perhaps it is not as bad as it originally might seem.

Should this reading of the clue be correct, then it would not be a two-part clue at all, but rather a cryptic definition with "two-piece" also serving as an additional reference to the swimsuit.

By the way, I found the story of the origin of the name bikini for the swimsuit rather interesting. "[T]he bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946. The two-piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the first nuclear test on the atoll, and the name of the island was in the news. Introduced just weeks after the one-piece 'Atome' was widely advertised as the 'smallest bathing suit in the world', it was said that the bikini 'split the atome'."

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, November 22, 2009 (ST 4350)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on October 11, 2009.

Introduction

It was a rather busy weekend and I still have not had time to complete the Sunday cryptic crossword. However, I am posting the link to Times for the Times for the benefit of those who may be looking for it.

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4350].

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, November 15, 2009 (ST 4349)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on October 4, 2009

Introduction

Although this puzzle was quite a quick solve, and the wordplay was anything but obscure, I found the puzzle to be very entertaining with most of the clues being very nicely phrased.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

Midshipman Easy - a 1935 British adventure film

mo - Brit. a short while, a moment

prat - the buttocks

rum - Brit. odd, peculiar

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4349].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11a See out trial runs? Impossible in this game (7,8)

Talbinho writes "another good anagram, but lacking an indicator". I (as did a number of those leaving comments on Times for the Times) supposed that "impossible" is intended to be the anagram indicator.

26a Lively guy involving women in lark? (7)

Surely, given that the solution is SWINGERS, this is a clue on which the imagination could really run wild. I wondered whether the word has the same connotation in Britain as it does in North America. Oxford provides the following definitions (among others) for the verb swing: "be lively, exciting, or fashionable" and "swap sexual partners or engage in group sex". While the setter may have intended the former, I would expect that the later may well be the more common understanding in North America.

2d Twist and Shout succeeded for many (9)

Although I was not able to find a reference, apparently S is an abbreviation for succeeded. I presume that this would be in the sense that Elizabeth II succeeded George VI, and that you might find this notation in tables of royal lineages, as an example. Nevertheless, I do not rule out the possibility that I may be informed that it is a cricket or football term.

7d Jack, perhaps, is, in short, behind (5)

I guess that I couldn't see the wordplay for the commas - surely, this clue contains almost the highest density of commas possible in a sentence. More to the point, I had no idea that prat is slang for the buttocks.

13d Midshipman not staying relaxed (4-3)

In my search for an explanation as to why midshipman equates to easy, I found a reference to the 1935 British film, Midshipman Easy (see Today's Glossary). However, talbinho's review hints that easy may, in general, be a term for a midshipman - though I was not able to find it in a dictionary. If that is indeed the case, the name of the film may actually have been derived from this association, or - on the other hand - perhaps the term arose from the film (or the book on which the film was based).

22d M East national upset in a short time (5)

In this clue, "upset" is not an anagram indicator, but rather it is a reversal indicator and "short time" is not a min (minute) but a mo (moment).

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, November 8, 2009 (ST 4348)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on September 27, 2009

Introduction

A fairly average puzzle - but one that seems to have provided quite a bit of grist for the blog.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

CH - abbrev. Companion of Honour: a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, an order (decoration) of the Commonwealth realms

dress circle - a circular or curving division of seats in a theater, opera house, etc., usually the first gallery, originally set apart for spectators in evening dress

Hansard - an official printed daily report of what has happened in the British (or Canadian) parliament

hock - Brit. a dry white wine from the German Rhineland

quarrel - a short heavy square-headed arrow or bolt for a crossbow or arbalest

The Order of the Companions of Honour

Most dictionaries state that this is a British order, and I have written in another blog that it is an order of the Commonwealth of Nations. It would appear that the former assertion is incomplete and the latter, upon reflection, is an overstatement. This seems to be a case of that which is concise not being true and that which is true not being concise. As near as I can determine, the correct interpretation would be that it is an order of the Commonwealth realms (a fairly small subset of the nations within the Commonwealth of Nations), being those members of the Commonwealth who have the Queen as their Head of State. Although even the Queen's own website is vague on this point, it would appear that the Queen makes these awards in her respective roles as sovereign of each realm. Thus, when she confers the honour on a citizen of the UK, she does so as Queen of the United Kingdom. Equally, when she confers the honour on a citizen of Canada, she does so as Queen of Canada. Therefore, it can be said that this is a British order for some recipients, a Canadian order for other recipients, an Australian order for yet others, etc. Therefore, the dictionaries' statement that this is a British order would seem to be - at best - incomplete. I believe if this were considered to be a British honour, then Canadian citizens would be forbidden from accepting it (remember Conrad Black who relinquished his Canadian citizenship in order to accept a British knighthood).

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4348].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11a She's returning us to hospital for a brief spell (5)

Whether you favour the British spelling (sanitorium) or favor the American spelling (sanitarium), "a brief spell" (abbreviation) of this hospital remains the same.

19a Its ugly facial features resultant from a growth? (7)

There is an anagram in this clue, although I managed to overlook it - perhaps because the checking letters pretty much gave the solution away.

28a Keen, clear-cut incisiveness needed, in this position? (5-4)

Even after solving this clue, it continues to cry out to me that I have overlooked some nuance in the wordplay - and it would appear that talbinho feels the same way.

5d Hock - his and her new, alternative tipple (7)

I had questions about the wordplay in this clue, essentially the same ones raised by talbinho.

16d Providing her services with small charge (9)

I, as did talbinho, found the wording of this clue somewhat questionable. In my opinion, it would have been better worded "One providing her services with small charge".

18d Shrank from having quarrel end nastily outside (8)

I figured out that "shrank" is NARROWED where "end nastily outside" accounts for the N...ED (anagram of END as a container). But I mistakenly presumed that "quarrel" is ROW, leaving me perplexed as to where the AR comes from - having never before encountered the other meaning of "quarrel" as an ARROW. I expected that talbinho's review would clear up the confusion, but as he accepted "arrow" without comment, I was forced to do some additional research.

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, November 1, 2009 (ST 4347)

This puzzle was "originally" published in The Sunday London Times on September 20, 2009

Introduction

In the text above, you may have observed that I placed quotation marks around the word originally. The reason for doing this is that talbinho, in his blog at Times for the Times, has identified that much of the puzzle is not at all original, having been recycled from a puzzle published in the Times in July 2008 (which would have subsequently appeared in the Citizen in the late summer or early fall of 2008). This was before I started this blog and I do not remember doing the puzzle myself. In any event, I certainly do not profess to have the remarkable power of recall that talbinho so obviously possesses. Since the puzzle was as good as new to me, I rather enjoyed doing it. I also enjoyed reading the comments on Times for the Times, especially sotira's anecdote about the newspaper astrology columnist fired for recycling predictions.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

Arkle - a famous Irish Thoroughbred racehorse

sp - abbrev. starting price: horse-racing the final odds that are offered on a horse just before the race begins

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4347].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

17a Problem about copper - short, fat and beefy (8)

Although I got the correct solution, I was not able to fathom the wordplay. I discovered from talbinho's review that my difficulty arose from blindly assuming that "about" must be a container indicator, when, in reality, it is a reversal indicator.

4 Boy's final poem (6)

Even after determining the correct solution, I had to ponder the wordplay in this clue for quite a while before understanding it. As has been pointed out to me (probably on more than one occasion), "'s" (apostrophe-s) can have several meanings; among which are the possessive, an abbreviation for "is", and an abbreviation for "has". In this case, it is the latter. Thus the clue is equivalent to, "Boy has final poem" and the wordplay is SON (boy) has (charade indicator) NET (final). I have noticed that the word "has" often seems to be used as a charade indicator (as though it meant "plus").

Signing off for this week - Falcon