Saturday, October 22, 2011 - Parlez-vous français?

Introduction

In today's puzzle, Cox and Rathvon present a selection of French expressions. They should not give most solvers too much difficulty as most are well known with many of them having entered the English language.

You may also notice that I have introduced a new symbol today in Solution to Today's Puzzle, where I use a dagger (†) to indicate that a word is explicitly contained in the clue.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue

Across

1a   AU COURANT - AN (article) contained in (in) {A (†) + U (university) + COURT (†)}

Here we have the first of today's French phrases, "au courant" meaning informed or up-to-date.

6a   G|ALAS - G (gee) + ALAS (too bad)

9a   ALP|HA - ALP (peak) + HA (reaction to a gag)

Fraternities and sororities (from the Latin words frater and soror, meaning "brother" and "sister" respectively) are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. The term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States. The terms fraternity and sorority are ambiguous in that some organizations of each type are coed. Furthermore, some all-female organizations style themselves as fraternities for women.

The names of fraternities and sororities generally consist of two or three Greek letters, often the initials of a Greek motto, which may be secret. For example: Phi Beta Kappa (Society), from phi (φ) + beta (β) + kappa (κ), initials of the society's Greek motto, "φιλοσοφια βιου κυβερνητης" (philosophia biou kybernētēs), meaning "philosophy is the guide of life". The main thought behind the use of Greek letters is that the fraternities and sororities have a Hellenic way of thinking.

Fraternities and sororities are referred to by the encompassing term "Greek letter organization" and described by the adjective "Greek", as seen in phrases such as "Greek community", "Greek system", "Greek life", or members as "Greeks". An individual fraternity or sorority is often called a "Greek house" or simply "house," terms that may be misleading, since it could be taken to refer to a chapter's physical property, whereas many fraternities and sororities do not have a chapter house. "Chapter" and "organization" are used in these contexts, with the latter referring to the group as a collective entity, and the former referring to a specific division of such entity, though not all fraternities and sororities have multiple chapters.

The use of Greek letters started with Phi Beta Kappa (then a social fraternity and today an honor society) at the College of William & Mary. Several groups, however, do not use Greek letters. Examples include Acacia, FarmHouse, and Triangle, as well as final clubs, eating clubs, secret societies at some Ivy League colleges, such as Skull and Bones at Yale and the military affiliated fraternity the National Society of Pershing Rifles.

10a   C'EST LA VIE - anagram (apart) of IT CLEAVES

"C'est la vie" is French for "That's life" or, in other words, "That's the way the cookie crumbles".

11a   HO|RATIO - HO (laughter, à la Santa Claus) + RATIO (share)

This is a case where one must read the wordplay as an entire phrase to properly understand it - "ho ratio" equating to "share of laughter". Horatio is a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, a friend of Prince Hamlet from Wittenberg University.

12a   {A|BETTOR}~ (or {A|BETTER}~) - sounds like A (†) + BETTER (superior)

13a   MENAGE A TROIS - anagram (ruined) of A TIRESOME NAG

A ménage à trois (literally 'household of three') is a love triangle, a relationship in which three people, such as a married couple and a lover, live together and have sexual relations.

18a   MADE|MO(I)SELLE - MADE (produced) + {MOSELLE (wine) containing (around) I ([Roman numeral for] one)}

Mademoiselle is a title or form of address used of or to an unmarried French-speaking woman, corresponding to Miss. Moselle is a light medium-dry white wine produced in the valley of the River Moselle (a river of western Europe, which rises in the Vosges mountains of NE France and flows 550 km (346 miles) north-east through Luxembourg and Germany to meet the Rhine at Koblenz).

21a   _TER MINI_ - hidden in (some) shorTER MINIskirts

23a   BU(STAR)D - STAR (celebrity) contained in (ticked into) BUD (pal)

I am not familiar with the expression 'ticked into' - perhaps it was meant to be 'tucked into' (meaning to have consumed food heartily). A bustard is a large, heavily built, swift-running bird, found in open country in the Old World. The males of most bustards have a spectacular courtship display. [Family Otididae: several genera and species, including the great bustard (Otis tarda), which is the heaviest flying land bird].

25a   BON (MARCH)E - MARCH (parade) contained in (dressed in) BONE (white colour)

Bon marché means cheap or inexpensive. It literally means 'good market' and I would understand it to equate to the English expression 'a good buy' rather than tawdry.

26a   MA|SON - MA (mother) + (and) SON (child)

27a   E(LOP)E - EE (Cummings) containing (eats) LOP (prune)

E. E. Cummings (1894 – 1962) was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. His name is often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings (in the style of some of his poems), although this is apparently not a style that he himself encouraged.

28a   N'EST-CE PAS - anagram (awful) of APE'S SCENT

This anagram even gives us the apostrophe! "N'est-ce pas" means "Isn't it".

Down

1d   A(NATHEM*)A - {anagram (new) of ANTHEM} contained in (in) AA

AA is almost certainly meant to be Alcoholics Anonymous, although in the UK it could be the Automobile Association (the British counterpart to the CAA or AAA in Canada and the US respectively).

2d   CAPE|RING - CAPE (Batman's attire) + RING (jewelry)

Batman (known as "The Caped Crusader") is a fictional comic book superhero, who has also been portrayed in films and on television.

3d   UNAPT* - anagram (mobile) of PUN AT

Mobile is the third most populous city in the US state of Alabama.

4d   AN|CHOR(AG)E - AN (†) + CHORE (onerous job) containing {AG ([chemical symbol for] silver)}

Anchorage is a city in the US state of Alaska and is the northernmost major city in the United States. The most notable community named Silver City would appear to be a town in the US state of New Mexico which is the home of Western New Mexico University. However, there are several other communities of the same name in the US and Canada.

5d   _TOS|CA_ - hidden in (essential to) alTO'S CAreer

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini  that premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900.

6d   GALLERIES - GALL (offend) + ERIES (members of the Cat Nation)

The Erie were a Native American people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio. They were decimated by warfare with the neighboring Iroquois in the 18th century. The Erie were absorbed by other Iroquoian tribes, particularly the Seneca, and gradually lost their independent identity. Erie, in the Iroquois language, means "long tail," referring to the panther, from which circumstance they are often referred to as the Cat Nation.

7d   LEV(IT)Y - IT (†) contained in (covered by) LEVY (tax)

8d   STEERS - double definition; "cattle" & "guides" (the latter as a verb)

14d   GRAVITATE* - anagram (repaired) of A GREAT TV I

15d   ROOT (BE)ERS - BE (†) contained in (among) ROOTERS (fans)

16d   C(LEANS) UP - CUP (coffee holder) contains (collects) LEANS (tips)

17d   P(END)ANTS - END (stop) contained in (wearing) PANTS (trousers)

This clue may present a bit of a challenge to any British readers who happen to drop by. In the UK, the term pants means specifically underpants and there the garment known in North America as pants would be called trousers. In Canada, at least, the terms pants and trousers are used interchangeably. Here the term pants might sometimes be used to mean underpants, but only where the meaning would be clear in the particular context. For example, if one were undergoing a medical checkup while wearing nothing but underpants, the doctor might say at some point in the examination, "You can remove your pants now".

19d   STAB|LE - STAB (guess) + LE (the French; i.e., French word meaning 'the')

Le is the French definite article meaning 'the'.

20d   BR(AND)O - AND (†) contained in (in) BRO (brother)

Marlon Brando (1924 – 2004) was an American movie star who played the title role in the 1972 film The Godfather. Brother, on the other hand, would appear to be a figment of the setters' imaginations - although there are Russian and Japanese films with that title.

22d   IN|CAN - IN (†) + CAN (jail)

An Incan (or Inca) was a member of the group of Quechuan peoples of highland Peru who established an empire from northern Ecuador to central Chile before the Spanish conquest. Judging by dictionary entries, only the Inca form is used as a noun in British English (with Incan being solely used as an adjective) whereas in North American English either Inca or Incan can be used as a noun to refer to this people.

24d   SUMAC< - reverse (flipped) of CAMUS (French author [Albert Camus])

Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century.

Signing off for today - Falcon