Saturday, June 29, 2019 — Canada Day Potpourri

Introduction

I failed to notice any clear theme in today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon other than several specific Canadian references that may give our friends south of the border some difficulty — or a chance to learn more about Canada.

I posted a link to the puzzle on Saturday from my tent in a rustic off-grid campground. Of course, my software would pick that very inopportune time to act up making posting a bit of a challenge. Now that I am back at home, I've prettied things up a bit.

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

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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 █ - yet to be solved

Click here for an explanation of conventions and symbols used in explaining the parsing of clues.

The purpose of this article is to explain the conventions and symbols that I use on this blog in explaining the parsing of clues.

Legend: The following symbols are used in reviews: "*" anagram "~" sounds like "<" indicates that the preceding letters are reversed "( )" encloses contained letters "_" replaces letters that have been deleted "†" indicates that the word is present in the clue

The review of a clue takes the following general structure:

#a/d   Clue containing parsing markup (num^*)

---

^* num = numeration

Explanations pertaining to the wordplay (or first definition in a double definition)

(Horizontal separator)

---

Explanations pertaining to the definition (or second definition in a double definition) and solution.

Explanatory Box

An explanatory box provides additional information about the clue. In most cases this information will not necessarily help in solving the clue but provides information about the clue. In the case of the weekday syndicated Daily Telegraph puzzles, such information is often intended to help the North American solver appreciate how the clue may be perceived by a British solver. These boxes may also provide information on people, places, films, television program, works of art and literature, etc. mentioned in the clue. Although the titles of these boxes will usually be drawn from a standard list, I do occasionally throw in a title specifically suggested by the subject at hand. The standard titles include: Scratching the Surface - an explanation of the surface reading of the clue Delving Deeper - in-depth information pertaining to a subject mentioned in an explanation The Story Behind the Picture - for weekday puzzles, information about an illustration found on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What did he/she/they say? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a remark made in a review or comment on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What are they talking about? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a discussion on Big Dave's Crossword Blog One box that may provide information that could prove helpful in solving the clue is the following: Here and There - for weekday puzzles, discusses words whose British meaning differs from their North American meaning

Note that there are many types of cryptic crossword clue and it is not my intention to exhaustively go through all of them here. I will only deal with clue types to the extent necessary to explain the conventions and symbols used on the blog. Furthermore, be aware that, in the world of cryptic crosswords, there seems to be an exception to every rule.

With one exception that I can think of, cryptic crossword clues provide two routes to the solution. These are commonly referred to as the definition and wordplay. While these terms serve well for most clues, there are some cases where the more formal terms of primary indication and subsidiary indication may be more appropriate.

Most cryptic crossword clues consist of a definition (primary indication) and wordplay (subsidiary indication). The definition may be:

• a "precise definition": a definition that is either taken directly from a dictionary or at least phrased in a non-misleading fashion similar to one that would be found in a dictionary
• a "cryptic definition": a definition misleadingly phrased so as to misdirect the solver either with respect to the meaning of the definition as a whole or to an incorrect sense of a word used in the definition (for example, defining topiary as "clip art")
• a "whimsical definition": a definition "invented" by the setter often by extrapolating a non-existent meaning for a word from a similar word (for example, defining a bird as a "winger" [something possessing wings] or a river as a ''flower" [something that flows] or to extrapolate that, since disembowel means 'to remove the innards of ', that discontent must mean 'to remove the contents of')
• a "definition by example": the presence of one of these is often flagged with a question mark (for example, defining atoll as "coral?" where an atoll is but one form that coral may take).

The only type of clue that I can think of where there are not two ways of finding the solution are those in which the entire clue is a cryptic definition.

I identify precise definitions by marking them with a solid underline in the clue and other varieties of definition (such as cryptic definitions, whimsical definitions, definitions by example, etc.) by marking them with a dotted underline.

In clues in which both definition and wordplay are present, the two parts of the clue combine to provide an overall meaningful statement (the surface reading) which usually bears no relationship to the underlying cryptic reading of the clue. In some cases, an extra word or phrase will be inserted into the clue to create a meaningful link between the definition and wordplay. I define clues which contain such a link word or link phrase as having an explicit link and clues which contain no link word or link phrase as having an implicit link.

I mark the existence of an explicit link by enclosing the link word or link phrase between forward slashes (/link/) and mark the existence of an implicit link with double forward slashes (//) positioned between the definition and wordplay.

Examples

A few examples may help to illustrate these points more clearly.

The first example is a clue used by Jay in DT 28573:

• 4d   Fellow left work // a failure (4)

Here the definition is "a failure" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as F (fellow; abbrev.) + L (left; abbrev.) + OP (work; abbrev. used in music) which gives us the solution F|L|OP. The double forward slashes (//) between the definition and wordplay indicate the existence of an "implicit link" between the two parts of the clue (that is, no extra words are inserted into the clue to form the link).

The second example is a clue used by Giovanni in DT 28575:

• 29a   Female going to match // travels with mother in advance (10)

Here the definition "female going to match" is cryptic (the setter is attempting to misdirect our thoughts to a sports event rather than a marriage ceremony) and thus is marked with a a dotted underline. The wordplay is {RIDES (travels) + (with) MA (mother)} contained in (in) BID (advance) giving us the solution B(RIDES|MA)ID. As in the first example, the double forward slashes indicate the presence of an implicit link.

The third example is a clue used by Rufus is DT 28583:

• 18d   Knight caught by misplaced big blow /is/ staggering (8)

Here the definition is "staggering" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as N ([chess symbol for] knight) contained in (caught in) an anagram (misplaced) of BIG BLOW producing the solution WOBBLI(N)G. Finally, forward slashes mark the link word (/is/).

I also use distinctive underlining to mark &lit.^[7] and semi-&lit. clues. Note that the reviewers on Big Dave's Crossword Blog generally prefer to refer to these clue types by the less pretentious names of all-in-one or semi-all-in-one clues respectively.

In an &lit. clue^[7] (or all-in-one clue) the entire clue provides not only the definition (when read one way), but under a different interpretation also serves as the wordplay.

In future, I will mark such clues with a combined solid and dashed underline. Although this is a departure from past practice, it would seem to make more sense than using a dotted underline as I have in the past). Henceforth, the dotted underline will be reserved for cryptic definitions.

In a semi-&lit. clue (or semi-all-in-one clue), either:

• the entire clue acts as the definition while a portion of the clue provides the wordplay; or
• the entire clue acts as the wordplay while a portion of the clue provides the definition.

For these clues, I will mark the definition with a solid underline and the wordplay with a  dashed underline. This means that a portion of the clue may have a solid underline, a portion of the clue may have a dashed underline and a portion of the clue may have a combined solid and dashed underline.

One final clue type is what I characterize as a cryptic definition comprised of a precise definition combined with cryptic elaboration. For example, in DT 28560 (setter unknown) the following clue appears:

•  26d   Heroic exploit, whichever way you look at it (4)

As the entire clue is a cryptic definition, it is marked with a dotted underline. The 'precise definition' is "heroic exploit" and is indicated by a solid underline.

Given the numeration, the precise definition could give rise to at least two solutions, DEED or FEAT. However, the 'cryptic elaboration' ("whichever way you look at it") indicates that the solution is a palindrome thereby immediately eliminating one of the two obvious choices.

Note that the part of the clue that I have called 'cryptic elaboration' does not provide a second independent route to the solution (as the wordplay would do in most other types of clue). Rather it merely provides a piece of additional information (elaboration) related to the 'precise definition'.

Again, this approach is a departure from past practice, but like the other changes mentioned previously is intended to remove inconsistencies in the way that I have been applying parsing markup to clues. The markup rules that I have been using until now evolved bit-by-bit over a long period of time resulting in some degree of internal inconsistency.

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Across

1a	Family /of/ fifty in jail (4)

C(L)AN — L ([Roman numeral for] fifty) contained in (in) CAN (jail)

3a	One’s jail room, among many // odds and ends (10)

M(I|S|CELL)ANY — {I ([Roman numeral for] one) + S ('s) +CELL (jail room)} contained in (among) MANY (†)

10a	Massage in a top-grade // Caribbean place (5)

A(RUB)A — RUB (massage) contained in (in) {A (†) + A (top-grade [on an academic assignment or test])}

11a	A pop swore, /and/ gently tapped (9)

PER|CUSSED — PER (a pop; each) + CUSSED (swore)

12a	Ornate // ring in archaic boat (7)

BAR(O)QUE — O ([letter that looks like a] ring) contained in (in) BARQUE (archaic boat)

13a	Rob // tossed old pies (7)

DESPOIL* — anagram of (tossed) OLD PIES

14a	Rogue /in/ church space overheard (5)

KNAVE~ — sounds like (overheard) NAVE (church space)

15a	Twilights // happening at mid-month (9)

EVENT|IDES — EVENT (happening; noun) + (at) IDES (mid-month)

18a	Sought // quote within firm (9)

SOLI(CITE)D — CITE (quote) contained in (within) SOLID (firm)

20a	Said, “I’ll // row” (5)

AISLE~ — sounds like (said) I'LL (†)

22a	Eccentric married // fan (7)

ADMIRER* — anagram of (eccentric) MARRIED

24a	Vermin eating Brie wrecked // cheesy dish (7)

RA(REBI*)T — RAT (vermin) containing (eating) anagram of (wrecked) BRIE

25a	Understanding /of/ popular college payment (9)

IN|TUITION — IN (popular) + TUITION (college payment)

26a	Leaders of Nootka and Ojibwe mistook Inuit // girl’s name (5)

N|A|O|M|I — initial letters of (leaders of) Nootka And Ojibwe Mistook Inuit

Scratching the Surface

The Nootka[5] are an indigenous people of Vancouver Island, Canada. The Ojibwe[7], Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people of Canada and the United States. The Ojibwe are believed to have originated from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River on the Atlantic coast of what is now Quebec from where they migrated westward. They are now found on both sides of the US-Canada border from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia. The Inuit[5] are an indigenous people of northern Canada and parts of Greenland and Alaska.

27a	Strangely drone tune’s // subtle notes (10)

UNDERTONES* — anagram of (strangely) DRONE TUNES

28a	Drink of orange, // brown, and green (4)

TANG — TAN (brown) + (and) G(reen)

Tang^[7] is an artificially flavored drink mix that was first marketed by General Foods Corporation in 1957. The Tang brand is currently owned by Mondelēz International, a 2012 North American company split off of Kraft Foods Inc.

Down

1d	Patties filled with meat /for/ cookouts (9)

C(LAMB)AKES — CAKES (patties) containing (filled with) LAMB (meat)

2d	Fish tanks, // as in song (7)

A(QUA)RIA — QUA (as; in the capacity of) contained in (in) ARIA (song; operatic solo)

4d	Tool // some simple men tweaked (9)

IMPLEMENT* — hidden in (some) sIMPLE MEN Tweaked

5d	Made hollow // cable for listeners (5)

CORED~ — sounds like (for listeners) CORD (cable)

6d	Lunatic insults our late // 1950s P.M. (5,2,7)

LOUIS ST LAURENT — anagram of (lunatic) INSULTS OUR LATE

Louis St. Laurent^[7] (Saint-Laurent or St-Laurent in French, baptized Louis-Étienne St-Laurent; 1882–1973) was the 12th prime minister of Canada, from November 1948 to June 1957.

7d	Terribly bad cons // escape and hide (7)

ABSCOND* — anagram of (terribly) BAD CONS

8d	Went ahead with Yiddish lament, returning // off-peak call? (5)

{YO|DEL}< — reversal of (returning) {LED (went ahead) + (with) OY (Yiddish lament)}

Yodel^[10] denotes an effect produced in singing by an abrupt change of register from the chest voice to falsetto, especially in popular folk songs of the Swiss Alps.

9d	Alien acquires jet car /for/ explorer (7,7)

{JACQUES CARTIER}* — anagram of (alien) ACQUIRES JET CAR

Jacques Cartier^[5] (1491–1557) was a French explorer. The first to establish France's claim to North America, he made three voyages to Canada between 1534 and 1541.

16d	Dee can run all over, /showing/ stamina (9)

ENDURANCE* — anagram of (all over) DEE CAN RUN

17d	Covering // old New York stadium object (9)

SHEA|THING — SHEA (old New York stadium; former home of the New York Mets) + THING (object)

19d	Box top keeps little bug // confined (7)

LI(MITE)D — LID (box top) containing (keeps) MITE (little bug)

21d	Brother in southern USA // secretly (3,4)

S|U(B RO)SA — BRO (brother) contained in (in) {S(outhern) + USA (†)}

22d	Stop wearing gold // so long (5)

A(DIE)U — DIE (stop) contained in (wearing) AU ([symbol for the chemical element] gold)

23d	Greek character carries in // African beast (5)

RH(IN)O — RHO (Greek character; seventeenth letter of the Greek alphabet) containing (carries) IN (†)

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by the solutions to 27a and 3a.

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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)
^[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon