Saturday, August 14, 2010 - At the Olympic Games

Introduction

In today's puzzle, Cox and Rathvon take us to the Olympic Games - seemingly (judging by 1a) to the 2004 games held in Athens. We get to see eight Olympic events, including one which will not be included in the 2012 games in London.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

Used in Clues:

Dapper Dan - 1. A very swanky and neatly-groomed man. [Warning: Those who are not broad-minded may wish to avoid following this link as, in addition to the definition cited, the site contains some sexually explicit definitions for this expression.]

Paul Tracy - Canadian race car driver.

Used in Solutions:

corncob - the hard cylindrical core that bears the kernels of an ear of corn [thus the inner part of an ear of corn].

fungo - baseball a fly ball hit for fielding practice by a player who tosses the ball up and hits it on its way down with a long, thin, light bat.

Indra - [Collins English Dictionary] Hinduism the most celebrated god of the Rig-Veda, governing the weather and dispensing rain.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

1a Drive off before sound of a bell in Athens event (8)

Why Athens specifically? Who knows. I think it could just as well be any Olympics.

4a Dapper Dan's latest attorney (5)


Sometimes a reference in a clue is obvious or readily tracked down. In other cases, it can entice one off on quite a protracted investigation.

The latter is the case today as I pondered the question "Just who or what is Dapper Dan?" Is he, perchance, an American cousin to Desparate Dan, the west west character in the British comic The Dandy, who makes frequent appearances in The Daily Telegraph puzzles. A search at Onelook.com returns only a single hit, a link to a Wikipedia article on American actor Dan Duryea (which, unfortunately, provides no elaboration on the connection of this expression with the actor). That article does provide a cross reference to an article on American underworld figure "Dapper" Danny Hogan. A Google search returns a host of possibilities, but few, if any, definitive sources. The expression has obviously been in use for a long time in a variety of contexts. Given this seemingly widespread and longstanding use, I was surprised that I did not find the term defined in any major dictionary. The one source that I could find is the Urban Dictionary, hardly what I would consider to be the most reliable or definitive source of information. One of the definitions given there is "A very swanky and neatly-groomed man", which closely matches my preconceived image of what the term might mean. It also contains several other definitions - but more on that later.

Among the usages that I managed to glean from these various sources are:

• "Dapper Danny" Hogan (also apparently known as Dapper Dan) was a charismatic underworld figure and boss of Saint Paul, Minnesota's Irish Mob during Prohibition;
• Dapper Dan Charities is a major charitable organization in Pittsburgh benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania;
• Dapper Dan is a doll manufactured by the Playskool division of Hasbro;
• Dapper Dan is a toy (similar to a Wooly Willy) in which metal filings are moved about with a magnetic wand to add features to a cartoon face;
• Dapper Dan Coon Jigger is a wind-up child's toy manufactured by the Louis Marx Company in the early years of the twentieth century (one that would surely be regarded as extremely politically incorrect today);
  
• Dapper Dan is a fictitious hair pomade mentioned in the Coen brothers 2000 comedy film O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

As for the latter reference, here is a bit of dialogue from the film in which the hair product is mentioned:

General Store Clerk: I can get the part from Bristol. It'll take two weeks. Here's your pomade.

Everett: Two weeks? That don't do me no good.

Clerk: Nearest Ford auto man's Bristol.

Everett: Hold on, now. I don't want this pomade. I want Dapper Dan.

Clerk: I don't carry Dapper Dan. I carry Fop.

Everett: Well, I don't want Fop, goddammit. I'm a Dapper Dan man.

Clerk: You watch your language, young fella. This is a public market. If you want Dapper Dan, I can order it for you, have it in about two weeks.

Everett: Well ain't this place a geographical oddity! Two weeks from everywhere! Forget it! [slams money on the counter] I'll have a dozen hair nets.

While this dialogue is seemingly innocuous, the choice of the name Dapper Dan may be a crude gag perpetrated by the screenwriters of the film. According to the Urban Dictionary, a Dapper Dan is a kinky sex practice involving the hair (graphically described here). The more sensitive members among my readership may wish to skip this link (or, at least, take a peek when no one is looking). However, I expect that fans of the Coen brothers' are not likely to be offended and may find that it provides an additional layer of context for the bit of dialog shown above.

Finally, Dapper Dan is song by Michael Jackson:



13a Vehicles picking up a cold one in world capital (7)

To a Canadian, the phrase "a cold one" has to refer to a beer. However, that is not the case (or even a single bottle) today.

29a Fat slob mistakenly left game (8)

Ironically this women's sport left the Olympics (or, more accurately, was ejected) following the 2008 Beijing Olympics - a decision many consider a mistake. Then again, perhaps the solutions to clues 1a and 29a, when taken together, are a reference to the removal of this sport.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"CD" Cryptic Definition; "DD" Double Definition
	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted

Across

1a SHOO|TING - SHOO (drive off) + (before) TING (sound of bell)

5a P(RIM)AL - PAL (buddy) containing (taking) RIM (lip)

9a _UL|TRA_ - hidden in (exhibited by) paUL TRAcy

10a TAEKWOND*|O - {anagram (changed) of TAKEDOWN} + {O (start of Olympic; i.e., the first letter in the word "Olympic")}

12a ARCHERY* - anagram (disturbed) of HEAR CRY

13a CAR(ACA)S - CARS (vehicles) containing (picking up) {A C (cold) A (one)}

14a EQUESTRIAN* - anagram (new) of REQUEST IN A

17a STUN - reversal (on the way back) of NUTS (fans)

19a SO|H|O - SO (extremely) + H (hot) + O (old)

20a TRAM|POL(IN)E - TRAM (streetcar) + {POLE (Eastern European) containing (takes inside) IN (?)}

23a C|OR|NCO|B - C (captain) + OR + NCO (sergeant, perhaps; i.e., an example of a non-commissioned officer or NCO) + (with) B (bee)

24a FEN|CI(N)G - FEN (wet area) + {CIG (smoke; i.e., cigarette) containing N (new)}

26a BAD|MINT|ON - BAD (ill) + MINT (fortune) + ON (concerning)

27a AU|D(I)O - {I (one) contained in (in) DO (party)} following (pursuing) AU (chemical symbol for the element gold)

28a TEN(AN)T - TENT (simple shelter) containing (acquiring) AN (article)

29a SOFTBAL*|L - {anagram of FAT SLOB} + L (left)

Down

1d SA(USA)GE - SAGE (wise) containing (about) USA (Yankee)

2d OPT|I|C - OPT (choose) + I (current; i.e., symbol used in physics to represent electrical current) + C (camera's front; i.e., first - or front - letter of the word "camera")

3d TRA<|VERSE - reversal (retrograde) of ART (painting) + (and) VERSE (poetry)

4d N|ATTY - N (Dan's latest; i.e., last - or latest - letter in the word "Dan") + ATTY (abbreviation for attorney)

6d REWARD< - reversal (returned) of DRAWER (artist) 7d MANIC|OT|TI< - {OT (overtime) + reversal (flipped) of IT (Italian)} following (after) MANIC (frenzied) [Note; the setter uses an inverted sentence structure which, for sake of clarity, I have ignored]
8d LO(OKS) ON - LOON (Canadian diver; i.e., a diving bird emblematic of Canada which appears on our one dollar coin) containing (gains) OKS (endorsements)

11d E(XC)L|AIM - {XC (Roman numeral for ninety) contained in (aboard) EL (city train; most famously, the elevated railway operated by the Chicago Transit Authority)} + AIM (point)

15d US|HERE|D IN - US (our group) + HERE (in this place) + DIN (loud noise)

16d R|ARE|BIT - R (piece of Romano; i.e., first letter of the word "Romano") + ARE + BIT (nibbled)

18d DOWN|CAST* - DOWN (feathers) + an anagram (agitated) of CATS

19d SACK|BUT - SACK (fire) + BUT (save; as in "All, save two, of the cakes were eaten.")

21d EGGROL*|L - anagram (ordered) of LOGGER + L (large)

22d _ACTION - FACTION (contingent) with the first letter deleted (with no leader)

24d FUN|GO - GO (run) following (after) FUN (enjoyable)

25d INDRA - IN (popular) + DR (doctor) + (connected with) A

Signing off for today - Falcon