Tuesday, June 9, 2015 — DT 27680

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27680
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27680]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza
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

In the lead-up to Christmas, the setters are playing musical chairs this week. It would seem that the puzzle set by the mystery "Tuesday" setter was published on Monday, December 22, 2014 (that is the puzzle that appeared in the National Post yesterday). Today's puzzle by Jay (the regular Wednesday setter) was published on Tuesday, December 23, 2014. If you read the comments on yesterday's puzzle at Big Dave's site, you will know that Rufus, who normally sets the "Monday" puzzle, created a special Christmas themed puzzle which appeared on December 24, 2014. So you may wish to stock up on rum and eggnog and get yourself in the Christmas spirit for tomorrow's puzzle.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

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.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (&lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//). Definitions presented in blue text are for terms that appear frequently.

Across

1a   Some brass // elephants might do it (7)

5a   Model son // works out in America (7)

It did not immediately strike me that model and figure are synonymous — and I'm still having difficulty accepting that to be the case.

The Chambers Thesaurus tells us that:

• synonyms for model include example, pattern, design, standard, ideal, epitome, paragon, perfect example, embodiment, mould, original, type, prototype, sample, template, and version; while
• synonyms for figure include diagram, illustration, picture, drawing, sketch, image, representation, symbol, sign, emblem, design, and pattern. 

Well, pattern and design do appear in both lists. So, one might argue that model and figure must be  synonyms based on the logic that  if A equals C and B equals C, then A must equal B. However, I would argue that both pattern and design are used with different meanings in the two lists of synonyms above.

Figure^[5], used in the sense to calculate or work out (an amount or value) arithmetically, is a North American usage ⇒ my accountant figured my tax wrong.

9a   Settle /for/ a short welcome (5)

10a   Learning // to recognise advantage getting over fifty (9)

11a   Evangelistic // young woman one meets on a railway (10)

12a   Somewhat disheartened by a single // wine (4)

Asti^[7] (formerly known as Asti Spumante) is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba. Since 1993 the wine has been classified as a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and as of 2004 was Italy's largest producing appellation.

14a   A bit of a cold fish, accepting she /is/ a weak point (8,4)

18a   Does // alteration in pants (5-7)

In Britain, the word pants^[5] does not mean trousers. Rather, it refers to underwear — specifically men's undershorts or women's panties (otherwise known as knickers to the Brits). Thus if I were to take my pants off in the UK, I would be far more exposed than if I were to do so in North America!

In the UK, do^[5] is an informal term for swindle ⇒ a thousand pounds for one set of photos — Jacqui had been done.

21a   This bird // left Noah's ship (4)

22a   Original models /of/ sports cars found on bridge (10)

The wordplay fell into place — once I had determined that the solution is not PROTOTYPE.

The Jaguar E-Type^[7] (a.k.a. Jaguar XK-E) is a British sports car, which was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1975.

Delving Deeper

Its combination of good looks, high performance and competitive pricing established the Jaguar E-Type as an icon of 1960s motoring. More than 70,000 were sold. In March 2008, the marque ranked first in a The Daily Telegraph online list of the world's "100 most beautiful cars" of all time. In 2004, Sports Car International magazine placed the E-Type at number one on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s.

25a   A cheat /is/ almost back after round of cards (9)

26a   Worked up // fee to go east of Italy (5)

"Italy" = I (show explanation)

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Italy is I^[5] [from Italian Italia].

hide explanation

27a   Quoted on the air /as/ having vision (7)

28a   Germany -- first to reach limit /and/ undergo inflation (7)

"Germany" = D (show explanation)

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Germany is D^[5] [from German Deutschland].

hide explanation

Down

1d   Shock /of/ putting up pictures on university graduate (6)

2d   Turns out to cover European // riots (6)

3d   British cities in chaos after curtailing request /for/ referendum (10)

4d   Catch up, admitting fine /is/ minimal (5)

5d   Office design // defect reported on most of factory (5,4)

This is one of those British homophones that does not travel well. The word "floor", when pronounced in a non-rhotic^[5] (show explanation) British accent, sounds like "flaw" — or, at least, like the way a Brit would say "flaw".

Non-rhotic accents omit the sound < r > in certain situations, while rhotic accents generally pronounce < r > in all contexts. Among the several dozen British English accents which exist, many are non-rhotic while American English (US and Canadian) is mainly rhotic. This is, however, a generalisation, as there are areas of Britain that are rhotic, and areas of America that are non-rhotic. For more information, see this guide to pronouncing < r > in British English.

hide explanation

As you can see from the comments and discussion on Big Dave's site, this homophone does not work for many Brits — let alone most of us on this side of the pond.

6d   Sell up /to get/ a game (4)

7d   Artist serves // salad vegetables (8)

"Artist" = RA (show explanation)

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[5]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5], an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain. 

hide explanation

8d   Policemen /from/ small area of London housed by friends (8)

EC1 is a postcode^[7] district [postcode being the British counterpart of the Canadian postal code or American zip code] within the EC (Eastern Central) postcode area^[7] in central London, England.

Special^[5] is another term for special constable^[5] which (in the UK) is a person who is trained to act as a police officer on particular occasions, especially in times of emergency.

13d   Finds out // in case star gets worried (10)

15d   The insider trading with no shares finally // came into money (9)

16d   Cuts off // one's love on night shifts (8)

"love" = O (show explanation)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

hide explanation

I did not find this usage of late as a noun in any of the dictionaries that I consulted. As Gazza explains, late is an informal term among shift workers for one of their shifts — although he suggests that it is not normally applied to the night shift.

17d   Saving // a place to display notices (8)

Although I easily found the correct solution, I discovered later that I did not understand the British usage of the latter definition.

When I solved the puzzle, I naturally assumed that hoarding^[10] refers to a temporary wooden fence erected round a building or demolition site — which would almost certainly be plastered with posters. However, hoarding is also a British name for a billboard.

19d   Drug // ring runs from hijacker (6)

"runs" = R (show explanation)

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation R^[5] denotes run(s).

hide explanation

20d   Bags screened to remove odd ones /and/ take off (6)

23d   Ran, /but/ hurt, losing minutes (5)

In British usage, hare^[5] means to run with great speed ⇒ he hared off between the trees.

24d   Parody /of/ king in pose (4)

"king" = K (show explanation)

K^[5] is an abbreviation for king that is used especially in describing play in card games and recording moves in chess.

hide explanation

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