Thursday, October 25, 2012 - DT 26941

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26941
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, August 10, 2012
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26941]
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 did better with this puzzle than I might expect to on one with a four star difficulty rating. It did take some time to find a starting point, and progress was by no means swift. II was able to work out the solutions to several clues from the wordplay and then had to look them up in the dictionary to confirm that such words or expressions actually exist. Among these were the fish at 6a, the synonym for disappointing at 15a, the Burmese fighters at 7d, and the phrases at 22a and 3d. Moreover, the wordplay for 4d totally eluded me.

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   Go round with Kingsley in haze as one distinctly single-minded? (10)

Kingsley Amis^[7] (1922 – 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher who wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism.

6a   Fish not happy — caught to be eaten (4)

Scad^[5] is another name for the jack^[5], a marine fish that is typically laterally compressed with a row of large spiky scales along each side, important in many places as food or game fish. Also called pompano. On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] indicates caught (by) ⇒ ME Waugh c Lara b Walsh 19.

9a   Computer work? Some of the French start to kill time before it (7)

Des^[8] is the form of the French word for some that is used with a plural noun.

10a   English newspaper has stories about socialists maybe (7)

The Financial Times (FT)^[7] is a British international business newspaper [conspicuously published on pink newsprint].

14a   Sequence by that old American writer (6)

Damon Runyon^[7] (1880 – 1946) was an American newspaperman and author. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era.

15a   Disappointing architectural city? Call back (8)

Bath^[7] is a city in Somerset in South West England. The city was first established as a spa by the Romans sometime in the AD 60s about 20 years after they had arrived in Britain (AD43), although oral tradition suggests that Bath was known before then. Much later, it became popular as a spa town during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone.

22a  Period associated with madness? Ages and ages (4,3,2,4)

Time out of mind^[10] means from time immemorial.

24a  Distinguished artist starts to envisage new things (7)

Tracey Emin^[7] is an English artist and part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs (Young British Artists).

Highlights of her work include Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, a tent appliquéd with names, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and My Bed (shown at right), an installation at the Tate Gallery consisting of her own unmade dirty bed with used condoms and blood-stained underwear.

26a  Pudding — last item for dinners in the past (4)

Sago^[5,7] is an edible starch which is obtained primarily from the sago palm as well as from any of a number of other palms or cycads. The pith inside the trunk is scraped out, washed, and dried to produce a flour or processed to produce the granular sago (sago 'pearls') used in the West. Sago pudding (which may also be called simply sago) is a sweet dish [dessert] made from sago and milk. While I am personally not familiar with sago, I am certainly well acquainted with tapioca which is apparently very similar.

2d  Support American army when environment is evil (7)

In the UK, the Territorial Army (TA)^[5] is a volunteer force locally organized to provide a reserve of trained and disciplined manpower for use in an emergency.

3d  Sinus-clearing drops will irritate you (3,2,4,4)

Get up someone's nose^[5] is British slang meaning to irritate or annoy someone ⇒ I bet it really gets up your nose that I’ve been so successful.

4d  Very enthusiastic about university course being planned (6)

Perhaps I didn't know this university course because I didn't study the subjects which it covers. More likely, though, my ignorance is due to not having studied at Oxford. PPE^[5] is the abbreviation for philosophy, politics, and economics (a degree course at Oxford University). However, despite this, I managed to get the correct solution (with a little help from my electronic friends) based on the definition and checking letters.

5d  English composer having a very bad upset featured in tabloid (8)

Sir Arthur Sullivan^[7] (1842 – 1900) was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.

The Sun^[7] is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom by the News Group Newspapers division of News International, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

7d  Indian brought into court, one who fought in Burma (7)

A Chindit^[5] is a member of the Allied forces behind the Japanese lines in Burma in 1943-5.

13d  Bringer of fire could make me ‘super-hot’ (10)

In Greek mythology, Prometheus^[5] is a demigod, one of the Titans, who was worshipped by craftsmen. When Zeus hid fire away from man Prometheus stole it by trickery and returned it to earth. As punishment Zeus chained him to a rock where an eagle fed each day on his liver, which grew again each night; he was rescued by Hercules.

16d  List goes up after match — one plans for the next generation maybe (8)

In Britain, a rota^[5] is a list showing when each of a number of people has to do a particular job ⇒ a cleaning rota.

A Test (short for Test match)^[5] is an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries ⇒ the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies.

18d  I am beginning to plough into heather, making progress with difficulty (7)

Ling^[5] is another name for the common heather of Eurasia.

20d  American state with fashionable princess sadly departed (7)

Diana, Princess of Wales^[7] (1961 – 1997), was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne and those of the Commonwealth realms.

23d  Money in the post, as you might say? (4)

A cent^[10] is a monetary unit of American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe. It is worth one hundredth of their respective standard units.

It is not a term used in the United Kingdom, where one hundredth of a pound is known as a penny^[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