Monday, April 9, 2012 - DT 26770

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26770
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Setter Petitjean
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26770]
Big Dave's Review Written By Gazza
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★★	Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ 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 █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

Today we are served up a very challenging puzzle by Petitjean, one that seems to have far more than the usual quota of rather obscure Briticisms.

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.

7a   Electronic instrument lacking mains lead in it (7)

A theremin^[5] is an electronic musical instrument in which the tone is generated by two high-frequency oscillators and the pitch controlled by the movement of the performer’s hand towards and away from the circuit. [named after Lev Theremin (1896–1993), its Russian inventor]

A main^[5] is a principal pipe carrying water or gas to buildings, or taking sewage from them or a principal cable carrying electricity. In Britain, the mains refers to the source of public water, gas, or electricity supply through pipes or cables • (i) the camcorder can be run directly off the mains; (ii) [as modifier] • switch off the mains supply.

8a   Present-day Romeo in pickle with new temptation rearing its head (7)

Romeo^[5] is a code word representing the letter R, used in radio communication.

10a   Russian city where one may get fleeced (9)

Astrakhan is a Russia city on the Volga River delta. According to the American Heritage Dictionary the city is located in southwest Russia^[3] while both Chambers 21st Century Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary claim it to be in southeast Russia^[2,4]. The Oxford Dictionary of English refuses to join the debate, placing the city simply in southern Russia^[5]. Astrakhan^[5] is also the name of the dark curly fleece of young karakul lambs from central Asia (named after the city of Astrakhan, from which the fleeces were exported).

13a   ‘Little Woman’ makes internet reports on radio for man in street (3,6)

Little Women^[7] is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). The novel follows the lives of four sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March – and is loosely based on the author's childhood experiences with her three sisters.

In British slang, Joe Bloggs^[4] is an average or typical man. The equivalent expression in the US, Canada and Australia would be Joe Blow.

18a   Bubbly creature’s game, self-contained — and old (9)

Lambrusco^[5] is a sparkling red wine made from the Lambrusco grape, a variety of wine grape grown in the Emilia-Romagna region of North Italy.

By the way, just in case you were wondering, The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition does list s/c as the abbreviation for self-contained.

20a   Returned cloudy vermouth containing no mixer (5)

In the UK, it^[5] is an informal, dated term for Italian vermouth • he poured a gin and it [a cocktail containing gin and Italian vermouth]. The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition lists c as a meteorological abbreviation for cloudy.

21a   Ball seen rarely these days traps West Indian opener prompting expression of delight (5)

I had no idea — and very little chance — on this clue. To begin with, I was positive that the Brits would spell 7d with an S not a Z. Second, I had never — much to my regret — laid eyes on Miss Ball. I did get the "West Indian opener" bit, not that it helped much.

Zoë Ball^[7] is an English television and radio personality, most famous for becoming the first female host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show and for her earlier work presenting the 1990s children's show, Live & Kicking. When Gazza refers to her as a ladette, he is using British slang for a young woman who behaves in a boisterously assertive or crude manner and engages in heavy drinking sessions [in other words, acts like a young man!].

23a   Previously lost Whistler’s Tate’s fourth (9)

The surface reading of this is hard to fathom — at least it was for me. I presume that Whistler is a reference to American-born British painter James McNeill Whistler^[7] (most famous for his painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, commonly known as Whistler's Mother). Tate would likely refer to the Tate Gallery^[5] (or simply the Tate) which is a national museum of art at Millbank, London, founded in 1897 by the sugar manufacturer Sir Henry Tate (1819–99) to house his collection of modern British paintings, as a nucleus for a permanent national collection of modern art. It was renamed Tate Britain in 2000, when the new Tate Modern gallery opened. Thus, in more a more verbose manner, the surface reading of the clue could be expressed as "The previously lost painting by Whistler is the Tate's fourth example of his work." As is often the case, the apostrophe-esses do not necessarily have the same meaning in the cryptic analysis as they do in the surface reading. In this clue, the first instance of an 's is a contraction for is in the surface reading and a contraction for has in the cryptic reading. The second 's indicates the possessive in both readings.

24a   Due to be carved as ham may be (7)

Being neither a British actor nor a chef was my downfall here. In Britain, to be resting^[5] is an expression used euphemistically by actors to indicate that they are out of work • she was an actress but doing domestic work while she was resting. Resting (also known as carryover cooking) is a cooking term that refers to the process of letting meat rest after cooking before carving it.

Meat continues to cook when removed from any heat source such as an oven, and — if left to sit — the temperature of the meat may increase 5 to 15ºF. Referred to as carryover cooking or resting, this process involves a time when the meat finishes the first stage of cooking and begins to rest in order to allow juices to be redistributed throughout the meat while the meat reaches its highest temperature before beginning to cool. As the meat is being cooked, the muscle fibers within the meat tighten which pulls the juices toward the center of the meat. As the meat rests, the muscle fibers begin to loosen which enables the fibers to absorb more of the juices so they are redistributed throughout the meat to make the pieces carved and then served more tender and juicy.

1d   Spirit trapped before it gets beaten (10)

In Britain, kettle^[10] is used as an noun to denote an enclosed space formed by a police cordon in order to contain people involved in a public demonstration and as a verb to mean (with reference to a police force) to contain (people involved in a public demonstration) in an enclosed space.

6d   Preventing core emission (4)

An obsolete meaning for vent^[9] is (a) the act or fact of venting; (b) emission or discharge.

7d   Mad rant by old writer associated with timeless pop is a downer (13)

I did have the correct word - I just spelled it in what I thought would be the British manner, with an S instead of a Z. That left me totally at a loss to sort out the wordplay pertaining to the tail end of the solution as I had never heard of Tizer^[7], a red-coloured soft drink sold in the United Kingdom. However, I am familiar with the drink's stablemate Irn-Bru^[7]. The "mistake" here also hampered me severely on 21a.

16d   Her mobile primarily has call-back locked (8)

Cite^[4] is used in the sense of to summon to appear before a court of law.

17d   Threshold where dripping may go on? (8)

I had supposed that this clue was merely referring to someone coming in out of the rain. However, I was to learn from Gazza that, in Britain, doorstep^[5] means a thick slice of bread • [as modifier] doorstep sandwiches. Dripping (US [and Canada] drippings) refers to fat that has melted and dripped from roasting meat, used in cooking or eaten cold as a spread • bread and dripping.

22d   Police No 1 was first that features Sting (4)

Sting^[7] (born Gordon Sumner) is an English musician who, prior to starting his solo career, was the lead singer and bassist of the rock band The Police^[7].

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)

Signing off for today - Falcon