The Sunday London Times Puzzle Number ST 4405 | |
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Publication Date in The Sunday London Times Sunday, October 31, 2010 | |
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4405] | |
Times for the Times Review Written By Talbinho |
Introduction
Even once I had all the correct solutions entered in the grid, I remained puzzled as to the wordplay in a few clues. As always, I was able to find the answer at Times for the Times.
Today's Glossary
Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle
Appearing in Clues
corporation - noun 3 dated , humorous a paunch
David Ellis - this may be an invented name; although Wikipedia provides a half dozen possible candidates, they seem far too obscure to be the person to whom the clue refers.
Sir Winston Churchill - British painter, perhaps better known as the Prime Minister who led Britain through World War II
express 1 - verb 2 press out (liquid or air)
poll - noun 4 old use the head
time - noun 2 British the moment at which the opening hours of a pub end: the landlord called time
Appearing in Solutions
decree nisi (from the Latin nisi, meaning "unless") - a court order that does not have any force until such time that a particular condition is met, such as a subsequent petition to the court or the passage of a specified period of time
This form of ruling has become a rarity in recent times, with one exception: in some jurisdictions it is still a standard stage of divorce proceedings. In England and Wales, section 1(5) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 provides that "Every decree of divorce shall in the first instance be a decree nisi and shall not be made absolute before the expiration of six months from its grant", and section 9(1) allows any person (including the Queen's Proctor), before the decree is made absolute, to "show cause why the decree should not be made absolute by reason of material facts not having been brought before the court".don 1 - noun 1 British a university teacher, especially a senior member of a college at Oxford or Cambridge
fell 3 - noun a hill or stretch of high moorland, especially in northern England
fell running - also known as mountain running and hill running, the sport of running and racing, off road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty
Huntingdon - a market town in the county of Cambridgeshire in East Anglia, England
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.
1a Having more than enough of a corporation? (8)
I could understand Canadians and Americans having enough of Bell (the name of large telecommunication companies in both countries), but the Brits! As best as I could discover, the Bell name has never been used extensively in Britain - certainly not like it is in North America. In the clue, however, "corporation" has nothing (aside from the surface reading) to do with the name of a company. It is slang for a potbelly. Apparently, the term is not even specifically British - just old-fashioned.
9a Express poll, support unchanged (2,2)
I must confess that I failed to see the wordplay in this clue - but, then again, it was a mystery to Talbinho as well. A visitor to Times for the Times explains it as:"express (to force out or emit) poll (head) of basis (support) = as is (not changed)".
2d Trip to Danube beginning in Strasbourg is this (9)
I missed the anagram here, supposing the clue to be a cryptic definition (which hardly seemed cryptic). This is, in fact, a semi & lit. (or all-in-one) clue. The entire clue provides the definition. The wordplay is an anagram (trip, likely in the sense of 'to dance') of {TO DANUBE + S (beginning of Strasbourg)} giving EASTBOUND.
Signing off for this week - Falcon
With 9A, I wondered if it was possibly linked to "assize", which has as one of its more obscure definitions a potential list (poll) of jurors in a trial. But for that to be true, one possible pronunciation of "assize" would have to be a word that makes a sound like ("express") "as is" and in none of the dictionaries I found was that an allowed pronunciation. (Maybe all the George W Bushisms are still to catch up in the same dictionaries that grudgingly allow "noo'-cyu-luhr" as a variant pronunciation for "nuclear".)
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