Thursday, December 6, 2012 - DT 26977

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26977
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, September 21, 2012
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26977]
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

Like Gazza, I thought this offering to be a bit atypical for a Giovanni puzzle. But then again, are not setters entitled to a bit of variety in life?

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.

8a   The male artist presenting goddess (4)

In Greek mythology, Hera^[7] is a powerful goddess, the wife and sister of Zeus and the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She was worshipped as the queen of heaven and as a marriage goddess.

 A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA^[5]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts^[5], an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

9a   Consume beef maybe (not starter though) (3)

Starter^[5] is a chiefly British term (but one not unheard in Canada) meaning the first course of a meal.

11a   Beware of sailors en masse in old Liverpool club! (6)

Cave^[5] is dated British school slang meaning "Look out!" [from Latin, imperative of cavere 'beware']. Is the fact that this expression is considered ' dated' an indication that the teaching of Latin in dying out in British schools?

The Royal Navy (abbreviation RN)^[5] is the British navy, the most powerful navy in the world from the 17th century until the Second World War.

The Cavern Club^[7] is a rock and roll club which opened in 1957 in Liverpool, England and is renowned as the venue where Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles perform in November 1961.

15a   Kitchen item not working with its required temperature not quite attained? (7)

I may have had my brain freeze on this one as I was trying to construct an explanation involving FREEZE meaning "not working" (as my computer sometimes does) and RT being an abbreviation for "required temperature" (which, quite naturally, I failed to find mentioned in any reference source).

The correct wordplay is FREE (not working; available to hire) + ZER[O] (its [the freezer's] required temperature) with the final letter deleted (not quite attained). As Gazza comments, "[w]e are presumably working in degrees Fahrenheit here" as the temperature in a freezer should be more like -20°C than 0°C.

17a   Silver Circle like a cruise ship going nowhere fast! (7)

Silver Circle may be a reference to a group of corporate law firms headquartered in London, United Kingdom which are each outside of the Magic Circle [the five leading UK-headquartered law firms], and have a substantially lower turnover than the members of that group, but have an average profit per equity partner (PEP) and average revenue per lawyer (RPL) considerably above the UK average. The term was first coined by The Lawyer magazine in 2005.

The symbol for the chemical element silver is Ag^[5].

20a   Sad spinster's art weirdly representing symbols of a nation (5,3,7)

What a spectacular clue this would have been had Betsy Ross^[7] in fact been a spinster. However, in reality, she was thrice-married. On other aspects of her history, there is less clarity. Apparently, there is "no credible historical evidence" that she actually made the first American flag and the claim that Ross once lived at the Betsy Ross House (one of the most visited tourist sites in Philadelphia) is a matter of dispute.

3d   Have one last exotic trip, using various seaplanes indeed (3,6,3,3)

The expression in the solution would seem to come from (or, more properly, via) German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

I won't say another word about the beauties of the city and its situation, which have been described and praised often. As they say here, "Vedi Napoli e poi muori! — See Naples and die!" One can't blame the Neapolitan for never wanting to leave his city, nor its poets singing its praises in lofty hyperboles: it would be wonderful even if a few more Vesuviuses were to rise in the neighbourhood.

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, journal entry (3 March 1787), published in Italian Journey [1786 - 1788]; as translated by W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer (1962).

5d   The men suffering with agitation making demand for measured progress (3,5,2,1,4)

The wordplay is an anagram (suffering) of {THE + MEN + (with) AGITATION}. Gazza comments that he is "not keen on anagrams where the indicator appears in the middle of the fodder". However, it is a style of clue that we do occasionally encounter, and so must be prepared for. Personally, I find this construct acceptable, since it is analogous to the statement "Lemonade is made from water and lemons stirred with ice" which could very well mean that one adds lemons and ice to water and then stirs the resulting mixture.

6d   Work involving short performance with one famous actor (6)

Sir Derek Jacobi^[7] is an English actor and film director who became internationally well-known through playing the title role in the BBC series I, Claudius.

16d   Drivel from flipping historian (3)

In the surface reading, flipping^[5] is an informal British expression used for emphasis or to express mild annoyance ⇒ (i) are you out of your flipping mind?; (ii) [as submodifier] it’s flipping cold today. Of course, in the cryptic interpretation, it becomes a reversal indicator.

18d   Writing about life after death (8)

I quite liked this cryptic definition. In his review, Gazza makes mention of "... someone who’s recently died (and is no longer in a position to sue for libel!)." Oh, but might not the estate bring action?

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