Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - DT 26945

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26945
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26945]
Big Dave's Review Written By Scchua
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 introduces a new contributor in the person of Scchua who becomes the regular Wednesday reviewer on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — with Pommers and myself moving to the Thursday slot.

As you will see when you visit Big Dave's site, Scchua introduces quite a different style to his review — somewhat pedantic and far less chatty than other reviewers. While I have not read ahead extensively in the postings on Big Dave's site (remember that the puzzles appear in the UK three months before they are published in the National Post), I have gleaned — as a result of reviews that I have written for Big Dave over that last few months — that the reaction from readers was not entirely positive. Over the next few weeks, I will be most interested to find out exactly what transpired and to see what adjustments Scchua makes in response to it. One innovation that he introduced — the underlining of the definition in the clue — seems to have been very well-received and other reviewers — including myself — have since adopted this practice.

Despite finishing with an error, I would concur with Scchua's two stars for difficulty as I completed this puzzle without resorting to help from my electronic assistants. However, his two stars for enjoyment was a bit harsh in my opinion.

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.

9a   Difficult task, with no hotel for the most loyal supporters (4,4)

Hotel^[5] is a code word representing the letter H, used in radio communication.

16a   Seasoning for the girl’s starter of broccoli (4)

Starter^[5] is a chiefly [but certainly not entirely] British name for the first course of a meal.

17a   Reject, with time for new jet (5)

The substitution in this clue is a quintessential Jay device, with "time for new" indicating that T (time) replaces N (new). Thus, starting with SPURN (reject) and replacing the N with a T, one obtains SPURT (jet). I had mistakenly come to the conclusion that the wordplay was SHUN (reject) + T (time), rationalizing that shunt must mean "new jet" in some sense known only to the Brits.

23a   Bad feeling gift wrapping new clock? (12)

In the cryptic reading, clock is used as a verb.

26a   One’s twice a goddess! (4)

In Egyptian mythology, Isis^[5] is a goddess of fertility, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. Her worship spread to western Asia, Greece, and Rome, where she was identified with various local goddesses.

27a   Go with European academic, excited (6,2)

A don^[10] is a member of the teaching staff at a university or college, especially at Oxford or Cambridge.

2d   Story of a code ten violation (8)

I searched in vain to identify what might be meant by a "code ten violation". In the end, I concluded that it is likely just a convenient invention by Jay. The only even remotely plausible explanation that I could find is the ten-codes^[7] set of code words used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly by US law enforcement and in Citizens' Band (CB) radio transmissions.

The development of the 10-codes began in 1937, when police radio channels were limited, to reduce use of speech on the radio. Credit for inventing the codes goes to Charles "Charlie" Hopper, communications director for the Illinois State Police, District 10 in Pesotum, Illinois. Hopper had been involved in radio for years and realized there was a need to abbreviate transmissions on State Police bands. Experienced radio operators knew the first syllable of a transmission was frequently not understood because of quirks in early electronics technology. Radios in the 1930s were based on vacuum tubes powered by a small motor-generator called a dynamotor. The dynamotor took from 1/10 to 1/4 of a second to "spin up" to full power. Police officers were trained to push the microphone button, then pause briefly before speaking; however, sometimes they would forget to wait. Preceding each code with "ten-" gave the radio transmitter time to reach full power.

Ten-codes, especially "ten-four", first reached public recognition in the mid- to late-1950s through the popular television series Highway Patrol, with Broderick Crawford. Crawford would reach into his patrol car to use the microphone to answer a call and precede his response with "10-4". Ten-codes were adapted for use by CB radio enthusiasts during its pop culture explosion in the late 1970s. The hit 1975 song "Convoy" by C. W. McCall depicting conversation among CB-communicating truckers put phrases like 10-4 meaning "understood" and what's your twenty? (10-20) for "where are you?" into common use in American English. A 1978 movie Convoy, loosely based on the song, further entrenched ten-codes in casual conversation.

3d   Runs off after teachers on beach to get the basic facts (4,3,5)

The National Union of Teachers (NUT)^[7] — a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man — is the largest teachers' union in Europe. [I would imagine that British school children do not fail to avail themselves of the obvious possibilities presented by this acronym.]

5d   You and supporter of course may hold hands at first (4)

Here "supporter of course" is a fairly common cryptic construction which describes an object used on a golf course to support a ball — the word "of" meaning belonging to or associated with.

6d   Weaponry for a mother trapped in lease (8)

In British informal speech or dialect, mam^[5] denotes one’s mother ⇒ (i) my mam would have had a fit if I’d gone out dressed like that; (ii) [as name] it was better when Mam was alive.

19d   Couple of errors in a complex trial of major routes (8)

I tried hard to force fit ARTERIES in as the solution. This was based on mistakenly concluding that the definition would be "major routes" and that a "couple of errors" must be EE (but not necessarily together). I should have realized immediately that error^[3] is a baseball term and not likely to be used by the cricket-obsessed Brits.

It eventually dawned on me that, in reality — if cryptic crosswords can be considered to represent "reality", the definition is "of major routes" (making it an adjective) and a "couple of errors" refers to the first two letters of the word "ERrors".

24d   Country bearing anger (4)

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

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