Thursday, October 18, 2013 — DT 27227

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27227
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, July 11, 2013
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27227]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

As Big Dave says with regard to the puzzle "Avoid the pitfalls and it’s not too difficult – fall into them and it could take all day!". Well, I fell into one of them — and needed help from my electronic assistants to extricate myself.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above. The underlined portion of the clue is the definition.

Across

7a   Beginning to spout tiresome bad language (8)

9a   Endless surprise regarding aggressive woman (6)

An Amazon^[5] is a member of a legendary race of female warriors believed by the ancient Greeks to exist in Scythia or elsewhere on the edge of the known world. Today the term is applied to
a very tall and strong or athletic woman.

10a   Jailhouse  Rock? (4)

11a   Nosed around wretched dog's tail? It could be rich! (10)

12a   Select frozen sweet, not cold (6)

Here, I initially attempted to use "select" as a verb, rather than an adjective, thereby entering CHOOSE rather than CHOICE.

Sweet^[5] is the British term for (1) a piece of candy^[5] ⇒ a bag of sweets or (2) a sweet dish forming a course of a meal; in other words, a pudding or dessert. In one sense or the other — or, perhaps both — the term is applicable to ice cream.

Choc Ice

In the UK, choc ice^[5] is a small bar of ice cream with a thin coating of chocolate [similar to a Klondike ice cream bar]. From the picture, it would appear to be an ice cream on a stick without a stick — although, according to Wikipedia, "Views vary as to whether it is a choc ice^[7] if it has a stick".

14a   Sensible boy facing English in study (8)

In Britain, to read^[5] means to study (an academic subject) at a university ⇒ (i) I’m reading English at Cambridge; (ii) he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

15a   Dodgy start taking Independent newspaper (6)

The Independent^[7] is a British national morning newspaper published in London. Nicknamed the Indy, it was launched in 1986 and is one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers.

The Financial Times (FT)^[7] is a British international business newspaper [that is printed on characteristic salmon pink newsprint]. 

17a   Lie about in stench producing gas (6)

In British and Irish slang, hum can be a verb meaning to smell unpleasant ⇒ when the wind drops this stuff really hums^[5,10] or (2) a noun meaning a bad smell^[2] or an unpleasant odour^[10].

20a   Guides from peak in Andes, oddly (8)

Before resorting to a Word Finder application, the peak of a hat never entered my mind.

22a   Tired out by Conservative's reputation? (6)

Credit^[4] is used in the sense of influence or reputation coming from the approval or good opinion of others ⇒ he acquired credit within the community.

23a   Crude sign to a man provoking conflict (10)

While many may view this clue as an anagram, I am tempted to call it an inverse anagram. An anagram can be viewed as a refinement (by means of rearrangement) of a sequence of letters. Thus the indicator crude would signify the sequence of letters that existed before having been refined. In essence, the clue is directing us to a sequence of letters (i.e., word) that could be "refined" into the phrase SIGN TO A MAN. That is, the clue includes the outcome of the anagram operation and the solution is the input (fodder) to the anagram operation.

24a   Instrument's no lead instrument (4)

25a   Camp male hugging nearly everybody (6)

26a   Herald changing year embracing girl (8)

Down

1d   Starts with first of three hags (8)

2d   Shock generated by musical (4)

Hair^[7] (in full Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical) is a 1967 rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The musical's profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy. The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of "rock musical", using a racially integrated cast, and inviting the audience onstage for a "Be-In" finale.

3d   Bohemian tart after joint (6)

... continuing on with the theme established in the preceding clue!

4d   Defence of Queen's assistant for the audience (8)

Sounds like (for the audience) PALACE AIDE (Queen's assistant).

5d   Tie cargoes roughly and put into boxes (10)

As Big Dave points out in his review, there is a trap here. In addition to the desired anagram (a verb meaning "put into boxes"), the fodder would also produce another anagram which happens to be a noun meaning "boxes".

6d   Fuse in centre containing high explosive (6)

HE^[5] is the abbreviation for high explosive.

8d   Growth occurring in thyroid, rarely enlarged initially (6)

This is an & lit. (all-in-one) clue. The entire clue, when read one way, is the definition and, when read a second way, the wordplay.

13d   Sublime one with short skirt raised on counter (10)

The error at 12a got me off to a false start here.

16d   Meticulous even if handling gold (8)

Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture. In heraldry, a tincture^[5] is any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often the furs) used in coats of arms.

18d   The majority of river round island's water (8)

The River Ure^[7] is a stream in North Yorkshire, England, approximately 74 miles (119 km) long from its source to the point where it changes name to the River Ouse.

19d   Wish for a master to take power (6)

Although Big Dave has shown the definition to be "wish for", I think it may be merely "wish" — with "for" serving as a link between the definition and word play. One can "wish to achieve success" or "aspire to achieve success". However, one would "wish for success" or "aspire to success".

21d   Parade not exactly holding show (6)

22d   Put inside or execute? (6)

24d   Young woman's large bottom (4)

The wordplay is L (large) + ASS (bottom).

Ass^[3,4,11] is the North American term for the part of the body that is known in Britain as the arse^[3,4,11].

This word is clearly considered to be less vulgar in the UK than it is on this side of the Atlantic. With respect to the use of the word arse, Collins English Dictionary says:

Dating back at least a thousand years, and taboo till around the middle of the 20th century, this venerable "Anglo-Saxon" word now seems unlikely to cause offence in all but the most formal contexts. Its acceptability has possibly been helped by such useful verb formations as "to arse about'' and "I can't be arsed''.

The dropping of r before s seems to be a common fixture in North American English. In addition to the formation of ass from arse, we find cuss^[3,4,11] having been formed from curse in the same manner as well as passel^[3,4,11] from parcel.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon