Tuesday, December 3, 2013 — DT 27262

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27262
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27262]
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

As scchua reported was also his experience, it was the southwest quadrant that gave me the most trouble today.

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   Part of theatre for cleric worried by attire (5,6)

Dress circle^[5], according to Oxford Dictionaries Online, is the British name for the first level of seats above the ground floor in a theatre. A similar definition for dress circle^[3,4,11], is found in both The American Heritage Dictionary and the Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, as well as in Collins English Dictionary — with all three making no mention of the term being British. The Farlex Trivia Dictionary notes that it is so called because it is a circular row of seats at an entertainment, the spectators of which are expected to be in dress clothes.

9a   Stopped protecting the setter, and made improvements (7)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as compiler, setter, author, writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

10a   Accommodate  force (6)

12a   This city within city that's constant? (7)

The history of Rome^[7] spans more than two and a half thousand years, since its legendary founding in 753 BC. Rome is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Europe. It is referred to as "The Eternal City", a notion expressed by ancient Roman poets and writers.

However, this clue did manage to generate a lot of confusion. In his review, scchua comments "The clue doesn’t seem right, as the answer in the grid is another name for a city containing or outside (not within) another smaller City." My reaction to the wordplay was that it would be an excellent indication for Vatican City. Amazingly, Jay (the setter of the puzzle) comments "the confusion has arisen because of my own incompetence in failing to check the definition of the 'Eternal city'. I had mistakenly taken it to be the Vatican. My apologies to all".

Before looking at the comments at Big Dave's site, I had pursued another theory. The city of Kyoto, Japan — or, more precisely, the historical Heian-kyō^[7] district within it — has been dubbed Yorozuyo no Miya ("The Eternal City"). Thus Heian-kyō, a city within the city of Kyoto, would seem to fit the clue very well.

13a   Complain a look gets cow cross (7)

Lo^[5] is an archaic exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event ⇒ and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.

A beefalo^[5] is a hybrid animal of a cross between cattle and buffalo.

14a   American blokes investing energy in flops (5)

Bloke^[5] is British slang for a man ⇒ he’s a nice bloke.

Dude^[2] is a colloquial North American, especially US, term for a man.

15a   Toast, bed and drink (7,2)

As a verb, sup^[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i) she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii) he was supping straight from the bottle. As a noun, it means (1) a sip of liquid ⇒ he took another sup of wine or (2) in Northern England or Ireland, an alcoholic drink ⇒ the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery.

17a   Courier, or person in train, having me for father (9)

20a   Just brilliant, losing head! (5)

22a   Nothing is found in pictures but insects (7)

I have observed that, if one doesn't like the result found in one dictionary, one often needs merely to consult a different dictionary to get a result more to one's liking.

Oxford Dictionaries Online gives the plural of imago^[5] as imagos or imagines, while The American Heritage Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, and the Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary all have the plural of imago^[3,4,11] as imagoes or imagines. The Chambers Dictionary covers all the bases by including all three spelling variants — imagines, imagos, and imagoes.

24a   One of three allowed on excursion (7)

25a   Join coppers, missing nothing in pursuit of son (6)

26a   Accommodation for busy workers (7)

27a   Practical Greens seen to be troubled (11)

Down

2d   Nonsense surrounding study on small beavers, for example (7)

3d   Burden on reserve's attachment to bike (9)

Bag^[5] is used in the sense of to succeed in securing (something) ⇒ (i) we’ve bagged three awards for excellence; (ii) get there early to bag a seat in the front row.

4d   Thoroughly search around middle of Don Valley (5)

While several streams in England and Scotland take the name River Don, the mention here is most likely to the River Don^[7] in South Yorkshire, England. It rises in the Pennines and flows for 70 miles (110 km) eastwards, through the Don Valley. It originally joined the Trent, but was re-engineered in the 1620s, and now joins the River Ouse.

However, the construction of the clue is a bit of misdirection. We actually need to identify quite a different type of valley.

Coomb^[5] is an alternative spelling of combe (which can also be spelled coombe), a British term for a short valley or hollow on a hillside or coastline, especially in southern England.

5d   Finished up accepting story in stand-out work (7)

Relievo^[10] is another name for relief^[10] which in sculpture and architecture is (1) the projection of forms or figures from a flat ground, so that they are partly or wholly free of it or (2) a piece of work of this kind.

6d   Record Germany's positive response on case of mass stoppages (3,4)

In German, ja^[8] means yes.

7d   Remained confused after supporter's deception (11)

8d   Saw both sides of bridge maintained (6)

11d   Tricky problems for osteopath to put right (3,8)

16d   It should be under the record (9)

18d   Cleaner's familiar fizzy drink (7)

Shampoo^[Wiktionary] is a humorous slang term for champagne.

19d   Selfishness of work in different times (7)

20d   Answer found in additions to contract for corporate attackers (7)

21d   French impudence since dropping the odds (6)

23d   Gangster never holding back (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