Sunday, June 27, 2010 (ST 4382)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on May 23, 2010

Introduction

I worked on this puzzle while doing maintenance on my computer - taking advantage of the lengthy wait times required for the computer to repeatedly reboot or perform other seemingly endless tasks - which no doubt spoiled much of the enjoyment of the puzzle for me.

Today's Glossary

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

Appearing in Solutions

OB - abbreviation 1 old boy: noun 1 Brit a former male pupil of a school.

Solway Firth - a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland.

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4382].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

10a Eye part of the maize cob, you'll hear (6)

As best as I can tell, this is meant to be a homophone (sounds like) clue. I know that the Brits are known to add aitches (or should that be h'aitches) to the beginning of some words and drop them from others. As well, they drop the letter R from the end of words and add it to others.

Apparently, EAR pronounced by a Brit comes out sounding something like ee-AH. Therefore, CORN EAR sounds like CORNEA.

24a Girl lives with boy (6)

The definition is "girl" for which the solution is ISABEL. The wordplay is IS (lives) + (with) ABEL (boy).

26a The first note from poetic song to her (6)

The definition is "her", with the clue calling for a girl's name as the solution. The girl is ODETTE and the wordplay is T (the first; i.e., the first letter of the word "the") + TE (note; as in do, re, mi, ...) following (from) ODE (poetic song). I think "from" signifies following as in the phrase "From the time I was a child ...". With this interpretation, the word "to" would seemingly be a link word joining the wordplay to the definition.

I also considered (and rejected) an alternative interpretation in which the words "from" and "to" might be used in combination to denote the idea of following.

Note that there appears to be a typo on Times for the Times, where the solution is shown as ODETTA - even though the explanation leads to the correct solution ODETTE.

19d Flier taking a route over rocky height? (7)

I may be mistaken (given that no one commented on this point on Times for the Times), but I thought that "route" meaning VIA was more than a bit iffy. Route is either a noun or a verb, while via is a preposition - so I fail to see how they can be equivalent.

Signing off for this week - Falcon