Monday, March 17, 2014 — DT 27340

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27340
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27340]
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 █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

Despite my best efforts, I needed help from my electronic assistants to make it over the final couple of hurdles 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   Area for recycling hops came top after review (7,4)

9a   Tolerant eastern province in time of fasting (7)

Northern Ireland^[5] (abbreviation NI^[5]) is a province of the United Kingdom occupying the northeast part of Ireland; population 1,775,000 (est. 2008); capital, Belfast.

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, Northern Ireland is the only major division of the United Kingdom to hold the status of province, with England^[5] and Scotland^[5] being considered countries, and Wales^[5] a principality.

10a   Dash for second hot meal (6)

12a   A religious organisation's Oedipus complex (4,3)

In Freudian theory from the field of psychoanalysis, Oedipus complex^[5] refers to the complex of emotions aroused in a young child, typically around the age of four, by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and wish to exclude the parent of the same sex. (The term was originally applied to boys, the equivalent in girls being called the Electra complex.)

Opus Dei^[5] (trademark) [from medieval Latin, literally 'work of God'] is a Roman Catholic organization of laymen and priests founded in Spain in 1928 with the aim of re-establishing Christian ideals in society.

13a   Order maintained initially in sound offensive (7)

14a   Way of calling head of police in island (5)

Skye^[5] is a mountainous island of the Inner Hebrides, now linked to the west coast of Scotland by a bridge; chief town, Portree. It is the largest and most northerly island of the group.

Skype®^[10] is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls over the Internet.

15a   Commercial activity suffering after return cut by 50 per cent (9)

17a   Tribunal's joint activity pursued by lover (9)

20a   Chest wrapped in old man's jacket (5)

Ark^[5] is short for the Ark of the Covenant^[5] which, in the Bible, was the wooden chest which contained the tablets of the laws of the ancient Israelites. Carried by the Israelites on their wanderings in the wilderness, it was later placed by Solomon in the Temple at Jerusalem.

The term ark^[5] (or Holy Ark) is also used for a chest or cupboard housing the Torah scrolls in a synagogue.

22a   Obscure East European importing magazines (7)

These magazines are not ones containing the printed word.

24a   Roast oddly smothered in wild rice is hit-and-miss (7)

25a   Star players getting nothing right (6)

In astronomy, Castor^[5] is the second-brightest star in the constellation Gemini, close to Pollux. It is a multiple star system, the three components visible in a moderate telescope being close binaries.

26a   Teacher returned with German chap's food (7)

It is common practice for British school students to call their male teachers "Sir", as in To Sir, with Love^[7], a 1967 British drama film starring Sidney Poitier that deals with social and racial issues in an inner-city school.

In Crosswordland, Otto is certainly one of the most common — if not the most common — name for a German man.

Risotto^[5] is an Italian dish of rice cooked in stock with ingredients such as vegetables and meat or seafood.

27a   I'd get in a rut working for a total lack of appreciation (11)

Down

2d   Finished with most of performance for two, but late (7)

3d   Head of family planning's first chair -- art nouveau (9)

Art nouveau^[5] [from French, literally 'new art'] is a style of decorative art, architecture, and design prominent in western Europe and the USA from about 1890 until the First World War and characterized by intricate linear designs and flowing curves based on natural forms.

4d   Girl from South America, west of Nicaragua (5)

In Crosswordland, things are not always as they appear — in fact, more often than not, they are not as they appear.

Here Jay pulls a cryptic crossword device from the setter's bag of tricks in which he uses South America to clue SUSA [S (south) + USA (America)]. You might also see it used to clue SUS [S (south) + US (America)] or you might find South American used for the same purpose [S (south) + US (American)].

5d   Man bound to be in business? (7)

Harry Houdini^[5] (1874–1926) was a Hungarian-born American magician and escape artist; born Erik Weisz. In the early 1900s he became famous for his ability to escape from all kinds of bonds and containers, from prison cells to aerially suspended straitjackets.

6d   A religious leader -- one arguing from known facts (1,6)

A prior^[5] is the male head of a house or group of houses of certain religious orders, in particular the
man next in rank below an abbot or the head of a house of friars.

A priori^[1] [Latin, 'from what is before'] (adjective and adverb) is the term applied to reasoning from what is prior (logically or chronologically), e.g. reasoning from cause to effect, from a general principle to its consequences, or even from observed fact to another fact or principle not observed, or to arguing from pre-existing knowledge, or even cherished prejudices [a characteristically cheeky Chambers' definition!].

7d   Clouds broke over Dracula, for one (11)

Dracula^[5] is the Transylvanian vampire in the 1897 novel Dracula by Irish writer Bram Stoker (1847–1912). It is a variant of names given to Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler), a 15th-century prince of Wallachia renowned for his cruelty.

8d   Twelve might be discussing offender's damage (6)

Although I had the feeling that I must have missed something in the wordplay, I could gain no further insight from the review and discussion on Big Dave's blog.

While I can see where JURY comes from in the wordplay, I don't fully understand the IN part. I thought that "in jury" might conceivably be a legal term to describe the deliberations of a jury panel, analogous to "in camera" being used to describe a private meeting held in a judge's chambers. However, I could find no evidence to support that conjecture.

I also note that while its members are attempting to reach a verdict, the jury is said to be out (the jury is out^[5]). Therefore, would it not be an "out jury" — rather than an "in jury" — that might be discussing an offender?

11d   Prepare to leave who in charge for restructure? (5,6)

16d   Hush-hush tense operations on Crete going wrong (3,6)

Crete^[5] is a Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean; population 630,000 (est. 2009); capital, Heraklion. It is noted for the remains of the Minoan civilization which flourished there in the 2nd millennium BC. It fell to Rome in 67 BC and was subsequently ruled by Byzantines, Venetians, and Turks. Crete played an important role in the Greek struggle for independence from the Turks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming administratively part of an independent Greece in 1913.

18d   Forget a French student with merit (7)

In French, un^[8] is the masculine singular form of the indefinite article.

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction. 

19d   Person offering advice from quiet street in row (7)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

20d   Found the words to express in stages protecting right (7)

I think one could consider the phrase "to express" to be either part of the definition (as scchua has chosen in his review) or a link phrase between the definition and the wordplay (as I have opted for).

21d   Alternate charge binding books (6)

The word "books" is often used to clue either the Old Testament (OT) or the New Testament (NT).

23d   Losing leader, feel sorry for flier (5)

The egret^[5] is a heron with mainly white plumage, having long plumes in the breeding season.

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)

Happy St Patrick's Day — Falcon