Thursday, April 5, 2012 - DT 26767

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26767
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, January 20, 2012
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26767]
Big Dave's Review Written By Digby
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 Big Dave's Crossword Blog welcomes a new reviewer, Digby. While new to the reviewing team, he is not new to the blog, having been a regular contributor to the daily discussion that occurs there.

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.

5a   Rover may be left here behind shop? (3,4)

I made a bit of a misstep here, initially entering OUT BACK which really hampered me on 1d and 5d. However, I eventually got back on track.

I quickly realized that we were dealing with an automobile rather than a dog. The vehicle that came to mind is the Range Rover^[7], a large luxury four-wheel drive sport utility vehicle (SUV) produced by British car maker Land Rover^[7]. This British car manufacturer which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) group.

I was intrigued to see that Digby refers to "a vehicle now manufactured by the Chinese". In an effort to understand this reference, I discovered that Rover automobiles may not currently be manufactured by anyone. Rover automobiles were manufactured in Britain from the early 1900s until 2005. During that time, ownership of the brand passed through many hands. In its early days the manufacturer was known as the Rover Company^[7] which, in 1967, was sold to Leyland Motor Corporation (later to become British Leyland Motor Corporation). When British Leyland divested its other divisions in 1986, the remaining piece of the company was renamed Rover Group and was subsequently sold to BMW in 1994. In 2000, part of the Rover Group business was sold off by BMW to a group known as the Phoenix Consortium and renamed the MG Rover Group. However, BMW retained ownership of the Rover brand which it licensed to MG Rover. Also in 2000, BMW sold the Land Rover business to Ford. MG Rover was liquidated in 2005 and its key assets were purchased by the Chinese company Nanjing Automobile Group. The assets acquired by Nanjing did not include the Rover brand name which BMW sold to Ford. The rights to the dormant Rover brand were sold by Ford, along with the Jaguar Land Rover business, to Tata Motors in 2008. So it would seem that the Rover brand is now owned by Tata but that no Rover automobiles (not to be confused with Land Rover vehicles) have been manufactured since 2005.

7a   Dye for hair takes girl hour — about! (5)

I'm not quite sure what Digby is getting at with his parenthetical statement "as opposed to a common girl’s name". In any event, if I may be excused for being pedantic, the wordplay is actually a reversal (about) of {ANNE (girl) + H (hour)}.

9a   Country doctor enthralled by goddess (6)

In Britain, the degree required to practice medicine is a Bachelor of Medicine^[7] (MB, from Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus), which is equivalent to a North American Doctor of Medicine (MD, from Latin Medicinae Doctor). The degree of Doctor of Medicine also exists in Britain, but it is an advanced degree pursued by those who wish to go into medical research. Physicians in Britain are still addressed as Dr. despite not having a doctoral degree.

In Greek mythology, Gaia^[5] (also Gaea, Ge) is the Earth personified as a goddess, daughter of Chaos. She was the mother and wife of Uranus (Heaven); their offspring included the Titans and the Cyclops.  Granted my knowledge of Greek mythology is certainly rather rudimentary, but I would have to think that Gaia was hardly "the mother of all the Gods" as Digby characterises her. While she was the mother of many gods, there were also quite a number of primordial deities, among them Eros, and their descendents who were not her offspring. Nevertheless, her story is rather intriguing.

"Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to render the universe comprehensible in human terms and explain the origin of the world. The most widely accepted version at the time, although a philosophical account of the beginning of things, is reported by Hesiod, in his Theogony. He begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus), and the Erebus. Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans — six males: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus; and six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys. After Cronus was born, Gaia and Uranus decreed no more Titans were to be born. They were followed by the one-eyed Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handed Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by Uranus. This made Gaia furious. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of Gaia's children"), was convinced by Gaia to castrate his father. He did this, and became the ruler of the titans with his sister-wife Rhea as his consort, and the other Titans became his court.^[7]

13a   One of pair lost in wash? Blow! (4)

In the surface reading, "Blow!^[5]" is an informal British exclamation meaning damn • (i) [as imperative] ‘Well, blow me’, he said, ‘I never knew that.’; (ii) [with clause] I’m blowed if I want to see him again.

14a   New Stone Age hut is found in residential group of buildings (7,6)

In Britain, a residential area in which the houses have all been planned and built at the same time is called a housing estate^[5] • a growing number of new housing estates. The equivalent term in Canada would likely be subdivision. Collins English Dictionary defines a subdivision^[4] in the US and Canada as a tract of land for building resulting from subdividing land but charactises the use of this term for a housing development built on such a tract as purely Canadian.

19a   Forester from Tiger Island? (8)

Tiger Island^[7] may refer to El Tigre, an island located in the Gulf of Fonseca off the Pacific coast of Honduras. Alternatively, one might choose to think of Tiger Island^[7] as a wildlife attraction at the Dreamworld amusement park in Australia. Or, more likely, it is just a fictitious place invented by the setter. On the other hand, there is no doubt about the Isle of Man^[5], an island in the Irish Sea which is a British Crown dependency having home rule, with its own legislature (the Tynwald) and judicial system.

22a   Shrub in middle of canal repeatedly swamped by water (5)

Oggin (which appears in Digby's review — and to which he adds an apostrophe, for some reason unknown to me) is British navy slang for the sea. [Reference: ENCYCLO Online Encyclopedia]

23a   Go wild in game, getting fellow knocked over, all right? (3,4)

Rugby union (RU)^[5] is a form of rugby played in teams of fifteen, in contrast to rugby league^[5], which is played in teams of thirteen.

1d   A timid person half hidden on account of horse (4)

My favourite British dictionaries all show that, in the UK, a novice or poor performer at a game or sport might be referred to as a rabbit^[4]. However, only The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition and Chambers 21st Century Dictionary include the additional definition of a timid person^[1,2].

2d   Dancer has a hat perched up on untidy hair (4,4)

Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" Zelle (1876 - 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari^[4], was a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy who was executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I.

5d   Bird with 18 crossing river (5)

The number "18" in the clue is a cross reference to clue 18. Insert the solution to clue 18d (it must be 18d as there is no clue 18a in today's puzzle) into this clue in place of the number "18" to form the complete clue.

6d   Sort of teacher who could be more helpful and good, terrible ranter (13)

I'm surprised that the solution to this clue didn't elicit a rant from the Brits. Oxford shows kindergartner^[5] as being an American spelling (the British spelling being kindergartener). The American Heritage Dictionary also has a listing for kindergartner^[3].

8d   Thing left half hidden under lorry (7)

In Britain, lorry^[5] is another name for a truck (I presume that the word truck is also used in Britain, given that Oxford uses it in the definition). Artic^[5] is an informal British term for an articulated lorry.

14d   That man, one we heard in Paris, is very wicked (7)

Nous^[8] is the French word for "we".

18d   Stiff person’s scruple (5)

I searched long and hard to justify this one — having found the correct solution without understanding why. Scruple^[5] is a verb (used with no object, with an infinitive, and usually with a negative) which means to hesitate or be reluctant to do something that one thinks may be wrong • she doesn’t scruple to ask her parents for money. The American Heritage Dictionary provides a similar meaning for stick^[3], namely to scruple or hesitate • she sticks at nothing — no matter how difficult.

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