Thursday, May 21, 2020 — DT 29190

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 29190
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, October 24, 2019
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29190]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Kath
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

Slightly more testing than the puzzles from the prevous couple of days, but still relatively easy considering that it is a RayT.

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.

Markup Conventions
"//" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present "/[link word or phrase]/" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present	"solid underline" - precise definition "dotted underline" - cryptic definition "dashed underline" - wordplay "double underline" - both wordplay and definition
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	Hunt // enemy bottling scrap (6)

4a	Poles taking strain /making/ camp (8)

Rack^[10] (also, in this sense, spelled wrack) is used in the sense of to strain or shake (something) violently, as by great physical force ⇒ the storm racked the town. To rack one's brains^[10] is to strain in mental effort, especially to remember something or to find the solution to a problem.

Did you know ...

The relationship between the forms rack[5] and wrack[5] is complicated. The most common noun sense of rack, ‘a framework for holding and storing things’, is always spelled rack, never wrack. In the phrase ‘rack something up’ the word is also always spelled rack. Figurative senses of the verb, deriving from the type of torture in which someone is stretched on a rack, can, however, be spelled either rack or wrack: thus ‘racked with guilt’ or ‘wracked with guilt’; ‘rack your brains’ or ‘wrack your brains’. In addition, the phrase ‘rack and ruin’ can also be spelled ‘wrack and ruin’.

9a	Clothed by Armani, male/'s/ sensual (6)

10a	Mini mart's apparently keeping back // smoked beef (8)

Pastrami^[5] is highly seasoned smoked beef, typically served in thin slices. The recipe for pastrami^[7] as we know it today was developed in the latter half of the 19th century in New York by Jewish immigrants from Romania.

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Origin: Despite appearances, the word pastrami is not — as I had always supposed — of Italian origin. Rather the word comes from Yiddish pastrame which in turn derives from Romanian pastrama. The modified “pastrami” spelling was probably introduced in imitation of the American English salami (a word which is of Italian lineage).

12a	Weight /of/ a vast rig collapsing (8)

13a	Outside of garden houses headless // statues (6)

15a	Price and label are changed /becoming/ priceless (13)

18a	Thought // to do in with arsenic strangely (13)

22a	Blunder along with // job (6)

24a	Drink, // drink! Time to swallow volume (8)

"volume " = V [symbol used in physics and chemistry]

In physics and chemistry, V^[5] is a symbol used to represent volume in mathematical formulae ⇒ pV = nRT.

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26a	United // tie letting in own goal (8)

In soccer, the abbreviation o.g.^[10] stands for own goal^[10], a goal scored by a player accidentally playing the ball into his or her own team's net.

27a	Enlightenment /from/ a mountain in centre of Asia (6)

Mountain may be a bit of an overstatement^*. A tor^[7] is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. In the South West of England, the term is commonly also used for the hills themselves – particularly the high points of Dartmoor in Devon and Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.

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^* On this point, I get support from the Brits in the thread arising from Comment #15 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, where HoofItYouDonkey comments "I never associated a tor with a mountain, more a hill" to which furlinda adds "The ones on Dartmoor and in Glastonbury barely qualify as hills".

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In Buddhism, the term satori^[5] denotes sudden enlightenment ⇒ the road that leads to satori.

28a	Show off about one's // life to come (8)

29a	Queen's after extravagant // fur producers? (6)

"Queen " = ER [regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth]

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

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"extravagant " = OTT

OTT^[5] (short for over the top) is an informal British expression denoting excessive or exaggerated ⇒ presenting him as a goalscoring Superman seems a bit OTT.

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Down

1d	Edge /of/ tart topping, say, lifted (6)

The wordplay parses as FLAN (tart) preceding (topping; in a down clue) a reversal of (lifted; in a down clue) EG (say; for example).

2d	Damage // pants out in rain (9)

As an anagram indicator, pants^[5] is used in an informal British sense meaning rubbish or nonsense ⇒ he thought we were going to be absolute pants.

3d	Artisan // beginning to get more lethargic (7)

5d	Open /with/ two aces holding jack and king (4)

"ace " = A [playing card]

A^[5] is an abbreviation for ace (in card games).

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"jack " = J [playing card]

J^[5] is an abbreviation for jack that is used in describing play in card games.

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"king " = R [abbreviation for Rex]

In the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms^*, Rex^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for king] denotes the reigning king, used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, King George — often shortened to GR) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Rex v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

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^* A Commonwealth realm^[7] is a sovereign state that is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares the same person, currently Elizabeth II, as its head of state and reigning constitutional monarch, but retains a crown legally distinct from the other realms. There are currently sixteen Commonwealth realms, the largest being Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with the remainder being smaller Caribbean and Pacific island nations.

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6d	Regret accepting European money /for/ train (7)

"European " = E [as in E-number]

E^[1,2] is the abbreviation for European (as in E number^*).

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^* An E number^[1,4,10,14] (or E-number^[2,5]) is any of various identification codes required by EU law, consisting of the letter E (for European) followed by a number, that are used to denote food additives such as colourings and preservatives (but excluding flavourings) that have been approved by the European Union.

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Tin^[5] is a dated informal British term for money ⇒ Kim’s only in it for the tin.

7d	Appeal /of/ Daily Mail's leader (5)

The initial letters of "Daily Mail" are misleadingly capitalized to suggest the name of a British newspaper. This is an instance where the solver must "lift and separate", that is, split a clue fragment that appears to be a single entity into two independent components. The term is a play on a phrase taken from a Playtex brassiere advertising campaign from the 1960's.

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Daily^[5] (noun) is a dated British term for a woman who is employed to clean someone else’s house each day.

Char^[5] is an informal British term for charwoman^[5] (or charlady^[5]), a dated British name for a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office.

Scratching the Surface
The Daily Mail[7]  is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper. First published in 1896, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun.

8d	Old maid // almost strict covering legs (8)

11d	Tasted // more than enough in empty spread (7)

14d	Old man catching nude // show (7)

I had initially supposed that cat was a well-known bit of slang from the world of jazz:

• Cat^[5] is an informal North American term (especially among jazz enthusiasts) for a man ⇒ (i) this West Coast cat had managed him since the early 80s; (ii) the cat went crazy on the horn.

However, on reading Kath's review, I see that she has unearthed a different explanation:

• Cat^[1] is an old slang expression for a showily dressed man.

16d	Collar raised everywhere /in/ Indian city (9)

Bangalore^[5] is the former name (until 2014) for Bengaluru^[5], a city in south central India.

17d	Arrest nabbing gang for // 'special cap' (8)

I searched in vain for a reason to explain why this item should be labeled a 'special cap'. I had to conclude that it is just another way of saying 'a particular type of cap'. Still, I can't help but think that the term might have some meaning to the Brits that would make the surface reading meaningful. I see that Rabbit Dave at Comment #2 and Beaver at Comment #7 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog seem equally perplexed by this clue.

However, RayT (the setter) clears up the mystery (and confirms my suspicion that there is more to the clue than meets the eye) at Comment #30 where he informs us that "17d was a reference to Peaky Blinders…".

Peaky Blinders^[7] is a British period crime drama television series. Set in Birmingham, England, the series follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family in the direct aftermath of the First World War. The fictional family is loosely based on a real 19th century urban youth gang of the same name, who were active in the city from the 1890s to the early twentieth century.

A Peaky Blinder wearing
the gang's "special cap".

The Peaky Blinders^[7] were an urban street gang based in Birmingham, England, that operated from the end of the 19th century and after the First World War. The group, which grew out of the harsh economic deprivations of working class Britain, was composed largely of young men of lower to middle-classes. They derived social power from robbery, violence, racketeering, illegal bookmaking and the control of gambling. Members of this gang wore a signature outfit that included tailored jackets, lapel overcoats, button waistcoats, silk scarves, bell-bottom trousers, leather boots, and peaked^* flat caps. The gang was highly organized with its own systems of hierarchy.

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^* Peak^[5] is a British term for a stiff brim at the front of a cap [and not a pointed top, as I had always supposed].

19d	Dieting furiously /getting/ fired up (7)

20d	Hazy // account kept by single following (7)

21d	Seconds to go round lake /in/ train (6)

Although the abbreviation s can stand for either second (1 s) or seconds (2 s), here the setter uses "seconds" to clue two instances of the word "second".

23d	Initially 'received' often generating extra response (5)

The entire clue is both wordplay and definition. As wordplay, it calls for the initial letters of the five final words in the clue. As cryptic definition, it specifies that the solution is a code word used in radio communication to acknowledge that a message has been received. The acknowledgement of the initial message may well be followed either by a response from the recipient or a follow-on message by the sender.

25d	The lady's // man's coming across resistance (4)

"resistance " = R [symbol used in physics]

In physics, R^[5] is a symbol used to represent electrical resistance in mathematical formulae.

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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 Advanced 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