Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - DT 26921

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26921
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26921]
Big Dave's Review Written By Pommers
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

Jay must have been listening to Billy Joel while he compiled this puzzle, as he seems to be in a New York State of Mind. In the puzzle, there are two appearances of NY and one of Long Island.

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   Damned fortunate! (7)

Blessed^[4], when appearing as an adjective, is a euphemistic word for damned, used in mild oaths ⇒ I'm blessed if I know. Brian Blessed^[7], whose image Pommers uses to illustrate the clue, is an English actor.

10a   Friendly sailor in a four-minute race? (7)

In the Royal Navy, able seaman (abbreviation AB)^[5], is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman.

17a   Style of song sung by the ferryman? (4,5)

In Greek mythology, Charon^[5] is an old man who ferried the souls of the dead across the Rivers Styx and Acheron to Hades.

22a   Mock food (5)

In Britain, it seems that scoff^[4] —  in addition to being a verb meaning to eat (food) fast and greedily — can also be a noun denoting food or rations.

27a   Artilleryman loses head in city convent (7)

In his review, Pommers makes mention of the Arsenal Football Club^[7] (whose nickname is The Gunners), an English Premier League football [soccer] club based in Holloway, London.

1d   Form One initially chose a literary masterpiece (7)

In Britain, a form^[5] is a class or year in a school, usually given a specifying number. Thus the fifth form would be the linguistic counterpart to the fifth grade in North America and Form One would be like saying Grade One.

2d   A French prison on the outskirts of Nancy — that’s weird (7)

Un^[8] is the masculine singular form of the French indefinite article. Nancy^[7] is a city in the north-eastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, and then the French province of the same name.

3d   Yarn from the west of Long Island? (5)

The Tourist Trophy (TT)^[5] — mentioned by Pommers in his review — is a motorcycle-racing competition held annually on roads in the Isle of Man since 1907.

5d   Crows? Lots flying over the top of roof (5)

Bags^[4] is an informal term meaning lots or a great deal. Judging by its dictionary appearances (or lack thereof), it may be primarily a British term.

7d   Recover from awful bore drowning in drink (5,2)

As a verb, sup^[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i) she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii) he was supping straight from the bottle. As a noun, it means (1) a sip of liquid ⇒ he took another sup of wine or (2) in Northern England or Ireland, an alcoholic drink ⇒ the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery.

14d   Stitch up after prison term for specified period (4,5)

Although I got the correct solution from the definition, I could not make sense of the wordplay. It turns out that stitch-up^[5] is British slang for an act of placing someone in a position in which they will be wrongly blamed for something, or of manipulating a situation to one’s advantage ⇒ (i) he called the deal a stitch-up and said other companies were prevented from submitting higher bids; (ii) to put it bluntly, the election was tantamount to a stitch-up.

18d         Ideal tent pinched by posh Scotsman (7)

In Britain, U^[5] is used informally as an adjective with respect to language or social behaviour meaning characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes (U manners). The term, an abbreviation of  upper class, was coined in 1954 by Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics, and popularized by its use in Nancy Mitford's Noblesse Oblige (1956). Almost invariably, Scotsmen appearing in cryptic crossword puzzles are named Ian. The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition defines top^[1] as meaning a circus tent with Big Top being the main tent. I was very familiar with this very specific latter term but not the more general former one.

21d   Does daughter sidle off after dinner starts? (7)

In Britain, do^[5] is an informal term for swindle ⇒ a thousand pounds for one set of photos — Jacqui had been done.

24d   Relaxed when lying in grass (topless) (5)

The Brits all appear to have supposed that "grass" is intended to be WEED (marijuana). Quite frankly, this possibility never even occurred to me, and I had assumed that it was meant to be REED.

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