Friday, August 24, 2012 - DT 26889

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26889
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, June 11, 2012
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26889]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26888 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, June 9, 2012.

Introduction

Three quadrants were completed quite easily but the northwest corner put up quite a fight. I needed lots of electronic assistance there. I also made the task difficult by putting the second S in the wrong spot in 7d which held me up on 14a.

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   Sea-mist represented by painter (7)

Henri Matisse^[7] (1869 – 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. 

11a   Underwriter? (10)

This is a whimsical cryptic definition — a Rufus specialty — whose nature is clearly flagged by the question mark. The setter supposes that a subscriber must be someone who writes (scribes) under something (as indicated by the prefix sub-).

18a   Insured vehicle — it went west (7,5)

Cover (in reference to insurance) means to protect against a liability, loss, or accident involving financial consequences • your contents are now covered against accidental loss or damage in transit. While the same verb form is used in both Britain and North America, we use a different form of the noun on this side of the pond. In the UK, cover^[5] means protection by insurance against a liability, loss, or accident • your policy provides cover against damage by subsidence. This is equivalent of the North American term coverage^[5], the amount of protection given by an insurance policy.

22a   Shop Irishman is opening, with Republic’s backing (10)

In cryptic crosswords, Scotsmen are almost invariably named Ian and Irishmen are nearly always called Pat.

Eire^[5] is the Gaelic name for Ireland, and was the official name of the Republic of Ireland from 1937 to 1949.

28a   Proceeds, thanks to royalty (7)

Ta^[5] is an informal British exclamation signifying thank you • ‘Ta,’ said Willie gratefully. In Britain, takings^[5] is the amount of money earned by a business from the sale of goods or services • the big test for the shop’s new look is whether it’ll boost takings. In North America, one would likely use the term earnings in this situation, although income, revenue or receipts might also be used.

2d   Close — doubly close in fact (6)

I am rephrasing Libellule's explanation slightly, the goal being to bring out the subtlety in the clue. The solution is a word that means "not far away or close at hand". If split (4,2), each part would also mean the same thing.

3d   Cor, blow me! (6,4)

Cor^[8] is the French word for horn. The first part of the clue constitutes inverse wordplay. That is, the setter gives us the result of the wordplay and we must find the wordplay that would produce it (a setter might use the phrase "French horn" to clue the letters COR). The latter part of the clue tells us that the solution is something that can be blown — in this case, a wind instrument in the orchestra.

The surface reading would be meaningful to readers in the UK, although likely not to most North Americans. Cor^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm • Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got! and blow^[5] is a British euphemism for damn • ‘Well, blow me’, he said, ‘I never knew that.’

6d   Thermal insulation units for clothes (4)

Tog^[5] is a British unit of thermal resistance used to express the insulating properties of clothes and quilts. The name comes from togs^[5] (clothes) on the pattern of an earlier unit called the clo (first element of clothes).

7d   Runs slap into traffic jams (5-3)

When all else fails, read the instructions. I carelessly entered SNARLS-UP (rather than SNARL-UPS) which caused much gnashing of teeth on 14a.

20d   Parts always carried by sea-going vessel (6)

Today's "sea-going vessel" is the usual steamship (abbreviation SS^[5]).

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