Sunday, March 7, 2010 (ST 4366)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on January 31, 2010

Introduction

A couple of clues in the northwest quadrant held me up for a while today. I see that this is also the same area of the puzzle that gave talbinho the most difficulty. Furthermore, I was not able to completely decipher the wordplay to one rather convoluted clue.

Today's Glossary

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

rate - noun 5 (rates) (in the UK) a tax on commercial land and buildings paid to a local authority

Royal Engineers (abbreviation RE) - also known as sappers: noun 1 military engineers who lay or detect and disarm mines. 2 Brit. soldiers in the Corps of Royal Engineers.

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4366].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

10a There's nothing left to tax but talk (5)

The definition is "talk" and the solution is ORATE. As for the wordplay, I have come up with a couple of possible variations on the explanation.

Variation #1: O (nothing) to the left of (there's ... left to) RATE (tax). In this cryptic reading, the phrase "there's nothing left to ..." would be equivalent to saying "nothing is to the left [with respect] to ..." or, in other words, "nothing is to the left of". Here rate is used as a noun, in the sense of "noun 2 b rates" where rates is defined as "plural noun 2 in the UK until 1990: a tax payable by each household and collected by a local authority to pay for public services based on the assessed value of their property ...". My interpretation of these cascaded entries is that, when used in this sense, the word would usually be written in the plural (rates), but might occasionally be written in the singular (rate).

Variation #2: O (nothing) to the left of (there's ... left) RATE (to tax). In this cryptic reading, the phrase "there's nothing left ..." would be equivalent to saying "nothing is to the left" signifying the first element in a charade type wordplay. Here rate is used as a verb, in the sense of "in the UK until 1990: to determine the value of property for the purposes of assessing the rates (sense 2) payable on it."

Interestingly, in Canada, taxpayers are often referred to as ratepayers, but we use the term property taxes rather than rates. I had always supposed that the term ratepayer was merely a derivation from the term tax rate (where rate is used in a more general sense "noun 3 a price or charge fixed according to a standard scale"). However, although the British terms rates and ratepayer may well have originally been derived from this general meaning of rate, I have to suspect that we have retained only the term ratepayer while discarding the term rates.

14a Nationals dressing in snow gear (10)

The definition is "nationals" and the solution is NORWEGIANS, with the wordplay an anagram (dressing) of IN SNOW GEAR. This is a lovely clue, as the surface reading also readily invokes the image of Norwegians. Often this type of clue might produce seemingly unlikely solutions like JAMAICANS or GHANIANS. That is not to say that such an unusual result would be unheard of, as demonstrated by the Jamaican bobsled team or Ghanaian skier Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, nicknamed The Snow Leopard.

23a Unskilled chaps initially ignore an apprentice (6)

The definition is "unskilled" and the solution is "menial". Talbinho's explanation of the wordplay is MEN (chaps) IA (initially ignore an; i.e., the first letters of the words "ignore an") L (learner; i.e., apprentice).

I arrived at the solution via a slightly different route, which may or may not be valid. I interpreted the wordplay as MEN (chaps) I (initially ignore) A L (a learner; i.e., an apprentice). I am sure I have encountered clues in the past where one has had to substitute "a" for "an" based on the preceding type of rationale where there would be no other way to explain the "a"). However, as always, I stand to be corrected.

1d Lower breed of islander (7)

This is a double definition where the second definition is "islander" and the solution is FRISIAN (a resident of the Frisian, or Friesian, Islands - as well as a resident of the remainder of Frisia, or Friesia, located on the mainland). The first definition ("lower breed") is cryptic and indicates a "breed of cattle (animals that low)". While reference sources commonly show the spellings Frisia and Frisian being interchangeable with Friesia and Friesian when referring to the geographic location and its inhabitants, the spelling Friesian seems to be far more prevalent when referring to the breed of cattle (although I was able to find a few sources that showed Frisian as an alternative spelling of the name of the cattle breed).

Friesian cattle imported from Holland came to be known in North America as Holsteins. Today, "usage of the word Holstein is used to describe North American stock [including those exported to] Europe. Friesian, denotes animals of a traditional European ancestry. Crosses between the two are described by the term Holstein-Friesian."

3d Restive steed, on arrival, is stalled (8)

I wrestled with this clue for a long while before the penny dropped. Usually, in a down clue like this one, "A on B" signifies AB (i.e., A on top of B, it being a down clue). However, in this case, "on" is used in the sense of added on to or appended to and "A on B" indicates BA (i.e., A appended to B). Thus, the definition is "stalled", the solution is ARRESTED, and the wordplay is ESTED {an anagram (indicated by "restive") of STEED} appended to (on) ARR (arrival).

8d His lines uplift, agreed, with content first used in 13 down (7)

Although I recognized that "his lines" is a reference to a poet (and I even managed to guess the correct one) and that "with content first used in 13 down" is a reference to the solution to clue 13d, I was not able to figure out the wordplay completely. Kudos to anyone who managed to get it fully. If, like me, you failed to decipher it, talbinho provides a full explanation in his review.

Signing off for this week - Falcon