Monday, November 25, 2013 — DT 27256

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27256
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27256]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By scchua
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

I found this to be a very enjoyable puzzle — but certainly more challenging than scchua's 1.5 star difficulty rating would lead one to expect. After the first read through, I had only two or three solutions filled in. However, based on that beachhead, I was able to complete most of the puzzle on my own before calling in my electronic reinforcements to to help conquer the few remaining holdouts.

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

1a   Victims of loose links (10)

Remember this meaning of "links". One never knows when one may encounter it again.

6a   Prison record from the East covering start of action (4)

In Britain, gaol^[5] is a variant spelling of jail.

10a   Legislation on parking agreements (5)

11a   Dog, for example, during affectionate dressing-down (9)

Carpet^[5] is British slang meaning to reprimand severely ⇒ the Chancellor of the Exchequer carpeted the bank bosses.

12a   The home designed by born monster (8)

13a   The principle of men being banned from apartment block (5)

In Britain, the word tenement seems not to carry the negative connotation that it does in North America. In Britain, a tenement^[4] is merely a room or flat [apartment] for rent, whereas in North American, a tenement^[3,11] is generally regarded as a rundown, low-rental apartment building — often overcrowded and located in a poor section of a large city — whose facilities and maintenance barely meet minimum standards.

15a   Marksmen executed demonstrators (7)

I have observed that an execution in Crosswordland almost invariably involves beheading.

17a   Speak with authority of French demand (7)

In French, de^[8] is a preposition meaning of'.

19a   Fellow worried about international criminal (7)

Lowlife is another word that seems to have different shades of meaning on either side of the Atlantic. In North America, a lowlife^[3] is a person of low social status or moral character (but not necessarily a criminal). In Britain, on the other hand, the term lowlife^[4] seems to refer specifically to a member or members of the underworld.

21a   Strikingly unauthorised act, perhaps? (7)

22a   Credit son getting correct marks (5)

In Britain, tick^[5] (used in the phrase on tick) means on credit ⇒ the printer agreed to send the brochures out on tick. The term apparently originates as a short form for ticket in the phrase on the ticket, referring to an IOU or promise to pay.

24a   Suffering mainly attached to confined military headquarters (8)

27a   Drugs coming from church beset by criminal actions (9)

I spent too much time in the wrong church.

28a   Put forward work at home before the end of June (5)

In music, Op. (also op.)^[5] is an abbreviation meaning opus (work). It is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication.

29a   Great number  killed (4)

30a   Changing trains, chap gets bitter (10)

Down

1d   Do better than expected initially, finding something to wear (4)

2d   Races around Washington, now dismissing new inviolate institution (6,3)

3d   Land in water after a passage (5)

4d   Lots besieging terribly coy businessmen of great power (7)

5d   Her date goes off and gets grounded (7)

In Britain, earth^[5] is used as a noun to mean an electrical connection to the ground, regarded as having zero electrical potential ⇒ ensure metal fittings are electrically bonded to earth and as a verb to mean to connect (an electrical device) with the ground ⇒ the front metal panels must be soundly earthed. The equivalent term in North American is ground^[5] (both as a noun and a verb).

I can't help but note the irony that Oxford Dictionaries Online displays in defining earth as a British term meaning an "electrical connection to the ground" and ground as a North American term meaning an "electrical connection to the earth".

7d   Foreign article admitting fabrication (5)

8d   To run away before one final check is valid (10)

Leg it^[5] is an informal British expression meaning to run away ⇒ he legged it after someone shouted at him. Ironically, the term can also mean to travel by foot or walk ⇒ I am part of a team legging it around London.

In chess, check^[10] is the state or position of a king under direct attack, from which it must be moved or protected by another piece. Checkmate^[10] (often referred to as simply mate^[10]) is the winning position in which an opponent's king is under attack and unable to escape.

9d   Active moves covering right and left upright (8)

14d   A few drops of the hard stuff? (10)

16d   Discharge coming from Eastern embassy (8)

18d   Hermit's answer -- it must be found in new task (9)

An anchorite^[5] is a religious recluse.

20d   Voids member with links supporting Spain (7)

I hope you took my advice at 1a.

In many Commonwealth countries (including Britain and Canada), a member of the House of Commons or similar legislative body is known as a Member of Parliament^[10] (or MP^[5] for short).

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Spain is E^[5] (from Spanish España).

21d   House turns on Tory with no limits (7)

The House of Windsor^[7] is the royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V by royal proclamation on 17 July 1917, when he changed the name of his family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (a branch of the House of Wettin) to the English Windsor, due to the anti-German sentiment in the British Empire during World War I.

In the UK [as is also the case in Canada], a Tory^[5] is a member or supporter of the Conservative Party. Originally, the term referred to a member of the English political party opposing the exclusion of James II from the succession. It remained the name for members of the English, later British, parliamentary party supporting the established religious and political order until the emergence of the Conservative Party in the 1830s.

23d   Remedy protecting independent physicist (5)

Marie Curie^[5] (1867–1934), a Polish-born French physicist, and her husband Pierre Curie (1859–1906), a French physicist, were pioneers of radioactivity. Working together on the mineral pitchblende, they discovered the elements polonium and radium, for which they shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with A.-H. Becquerel. After her husband’s accidental death Marie received another Nobel Prize (for chemistry) in 1911 for her isolation of radium. She died of leukaemia, caused by prolonged exposure to radioactive materials.

25d   A wheat, perhaps, that has future growth potential? (5)

Here we encounter yet another example of common words that have significantly different meanings in Britain and North America. The plant known in North America (as well as Australia and New Zealand) as corn^[5], is called maize^[5] in the UK. In Britain, corn refers to the chief cereal crop of a district, especially (in England) wheat or (in Scotland) oats.

As the proverb states, "Great oaks from little acorns grow."

26d   Fellow trapped in the broken lift (4)

From the perspective of the surface reading, lift^[5] is the British name for an elevator^[5].

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