Monday, November 5, 2012 - DT 26950

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26950
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Setter Unknown [possibly Petitjean (John Pidgeon)]
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26950]
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 was able to complete the left hand side on the first sitting, but made limited headway on the right hand side. After putting the puzzle aside for several hours, the remaining clues succumbed to a renewed attack.

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   Production of Lear — the first of many in the area (5)

King Lear^[7] is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king.

4a   Passionate about pub, shortly getting blurry (9)

This was one of my last ones in, as I was trying to decode "pub shortly" as PU (pub with the final letter deleted). Pub^[5] itself is actually a shortened form of public house^[5] — which apparently can be abbreviated (shortened) as PH (although I failed to find it listed in any of several dictionaries that I consulted).

18a   Skin disease revealed in phone call by creep (8)

Gazza supposes that "creep" and "worm" are synonyms as verbs. True enough, but they also mean pretty much the same thing when employed as nouns. A creep^[5] is a detestable person  ⇒ I thought he was a nasty little creep; while a worm^[5] is a weak or despicable person (often used as a general term of abuse) ⇒ (i) it was unbearable that such a worm could be so successful; (ii) you ungrateful little worm!.

20a   PM not working with Coalition’s third image-maker (6)

David Cameron^[7] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the British Conservative Party.

23a   This’ll slay you : a wag less than sincere! (7)

Gazza seems to raise an eyebrow (inferred from his question mark) at "wag" being used as an anagram indicator. While I wondered about this as well, I concluded that "wag" does make a good anagram indicator. Wag means to shake — thus "wag less than sincere" indicates that we shake (wag) the letters SINCER {sincere with the final letter deleted (less than)}.

1d   Cream endlessly perform American smash (4-5)

The solution is a term that is used in North America, but not in the UK — thus explaining why the definition is "American smash". A rear-ender^[3] is known in Britain as a shunt^[5], a motor accident, especially a collision of vehicles travelling one close behind the other ⇒ a lorry [truck] shed its load, causing an eight-vehicle shunt.

Cream^[7] were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker. Their sound was characterised by a hybrid of blues rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock, combining the psychedelia-themed lyrics, Eric Clapton's blues guitar playing, Jack Bruce's voice and prominent bass playing and Ginger Baker's jazz-influenced drumming. The group's third album, Wheels of Fire, was the world's first platinum-selling double album. Cream are widely regarded as being the world's first successful supergroup.

3d  Hopelessly romantic with no time for big name in radio (7)

Guglielmo Marconi^[7] (1874 – 1937) was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy". As an entrepreneur, businessman, and founder of the The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in Britain in 1897, Marconi succeeded in making a commercial success of radio by innovating and building on the work of previous experimenters and physicists.

Marconi is probably known in North America primarily as an historical figure. In Britain, on the other hand, the name would likely be well known as a result of the operations of the company which bore his name. The company would be far less well known on this side of the Atlantic, as its North American operations were acquired by RCA in 1920. Although branches of the company involved in supplying telecommunications carriers and the military did operate in North America more recently, these would certainly not have had the same public profile as would a consumer electronics company.

The Marconi Company^[7] was a British telecommunications and engineering company that existed from 1897 until 2006, undergoing numerous changes, mergers and acquisitions during that time. The company was founded by the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi and was originally known as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company. The company was a pioneer of wireless long distance communication and mass media broadcasting, eventually becoming one of the UKs most successful manufacturing companies. In 1999, its defence manufacturing division, Marconi Electronic Systems, merged with British Aerospace to form BAE Systems. In 2006, extreme financial difficulties led to the collapse of the remaining company, with the bulk of the business acquired by Ericsson.

4d   River Thames is empty following bitter warnings (6)

The Thames^[5] is a river of southern England, flowing 338 km (210 miles) eastwards from the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire through London to the North Sea.

In Britain, bitter^[5] is beer that is strongly flavoured with hops and has a bitter taste ⇒ a pint of bitter.

6d   Front of horse in Christmas show followed by James Bond character in musical? (7)

The Phantom of the Opera^[7] is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. It is considered by many to be the most successful musical of all time and is also the longest running show in Broadway history.

Panto^[5] is short for pantomime^[5], a British theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story, usually produced around Christmas.

M^[7] is the code name of a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series; the character is the Head of Secret Intelligence Service—also known as MI6.

7d   Timely piano in poor composition and melody (9)

The piano must surely be, by far, the most popular musical instrument in Crosswordland as it seems to make an appearance virtually every day. Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either soft or quiet (as an adjective) or softly or quietly (as an adverb).

22d   Structure of sporting body with British in charge (6)

The Football Association^[7], also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of association football [soccer] in England. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in England.

25d   I made clear home help’s back (5)

India^[7] is a code word representing the letter I, used in radio communication. Thus, the letter "I" is made clear in radio communication by substituting the word "India" in its place.

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