Monday, June 4, 2012 - DT 26815

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26815
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, March 16, 2012
Setter Giovanni
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26815]
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

I needed considerable assistance from my Tool Chest – in the lower portion of the puzzle, in particular – so I was glad to see that Gazza had awarded four stars for difficulty.

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.

1a   Mystic charm deployed in right-wing movement (11)

McCarthyism^[7] is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1950 to 1954 and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.

10a   Inspiring wonder in a fan (5)

The Brits seem to have had no difficulty accepting that a fan is a wing. I searched long and hard before finding a thesaurus entry to support this meaning. I think the equivalence may exist in the sense of a vane on a windmill.

12a   Happy to be going round islands at end of June frozen! (9)

The Channel Islands^[5] are a group of islands in the English Channel off the NW coast of France, of which the largest are Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney. Formerly part of the dukedom of Normandy, they have owed allegiance to England since the Norman Conquest in 1066, and are now classed as Crown dependencies.

24a  Where you’d find bosses sounding uninterested, cold once (9)

Most dictionaries define rheum^[5] as a watery fluid that collects in or drips from the nose or eyes. However, The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition also includes "a cold in the head" (a meaning which it characterises as obsolete).

26a   See me in club naughtily hugging old mistress from Italy (9)

Columbine^[5] is a character in Italian commedia dell’arte, the mistress of Harlequin. Commedia dell'arte^[5] was an improvised kind of popular comedy in Italian theatres in the 16th-18th centuries, based on stock characters. Actors adapted their comic dialogue and action according to a few basic plots (commonly love intrigues) and to topical issues.

27a   Part of capital city Hitler almost destroyed (5)

Leith^[5] is a district and former municipal burgh to the north of the city of Edinburgh at the mouth of the Water of Leith in Scotland. It has long been regarded as Edinburgh's port. It lies on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, in the unitary local authority of the City of Edinburgh.

28a   Risky business investment? (6,5)

In Britain, extra payment for working under dangerous conditions is called danger money^[5] – rather than danger pay, as it is in North America.

2d   Country church in Austria (5)

A^[5] is the International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Austria.

6d  What if huge Austrian composer comes round? (7)

The sizes of clothing that North Americans would describe as plus-size^[7] (or often big and tall in the case of men's clothing) would be called outsize (OS^[5]) in Britain.

Franz von Suppé^[7] (1819 – 1895) was an Austrian composer of light operas who was born in what is now Croatia during the time his father was working in this outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As you may gather from remarks in Gazza's review, the clue appeared on the Daily Telegraph with "American composer" instead of "Austrian composer". This is a rare occasion in which an error has actually been corrected in the syndicated version of the puzzle.

8d   It’s very unpleasant in Cornish river, English sailors admitted (8)

The River Fal^[7] flows through Cornwall, United Kingdom, rising on the Goss Moor and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth.

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