Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - DT 26987

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26987
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26987]
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

The setter gives us a fairly gentle workout today. Although "Wednesday" puzzles (based on the day when they appeared in The Daily Telegraph) are invariably by Jay, it was clue 19d (one of my last to solve) that confirmed to me that this was indeed one of his.

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   Liverpool, for example, on strike and finding empathy (7)

Liverpool^[5] is a city and seaport in NW England, situated at the east side of the mouth of the River Mersey; population 454,700 (est. 2009). Liverpool developed as a port in the 17th century with the import of cotton from America and the export of textiles produced in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and in the 18th century became an important centre of shipbuilding and engineering.

9a   Orbison and top celebrities supporting the monarchy (8)

Roy Orbison^[7] (1936 – 1988) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads.

14a   Such politicians are proper moaners, with no source of help (5-7)

Whinge^[3,4] is a chiefly British term that means to complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner. The word would seem to have essentially the same meaning as whine^[3,4].

The sound samples found at the aforementioned links for these words are interesting. The American pronunciation of whine is a short, crisp WINE (like the American pronunciation of the drink)^[3,4] while the British pronunciation is WI-I-INE with a prolonged whining I (like the British pronunciation of the drink, as I discovered)^[3,4]. The American pronunciation of the former is WIN-GE while the British is WI-I-INE-GE, again with the prolonged whining I.

24a   A great crime for soldiers surrounded by hostility (8)

In the British armed forces, other ranks (abbreviation OR)^[5] refers to all those who are not commissioned officers. An enormity is (1) a monstrous offense or evil; an outrage^[3] or (2) an act of great wickedness; atrocity^[4].

3d   Pence per head for fruit (5)

In Britain, pence^[5] is a plural form of penny. Oxford Dictionaries Online advises that both pence and pennies have existed as plural forms of penny since at least the 16th century. The two forms now tend to be used for different purposes: pence refers to sums of money (five pounds and sixty-nine pence) while pennies refers to the coins themselves (I left two pennies on the table).

In Britain's current decimal currency system, a penny^[5] is a bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound (and is abbreviated p). In the system formerly used, a penny was equal to one twelfth of a shilling or 240th of a pound (and was abbreviated d, for denarius). These abbreviations apply equally to the plural as to the singular, so 2 new pence would be 2p and 2 old pence would be 2d.

4d   Artist with Popular Front colours (7)

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

A popular front^[5] is a party or coalition representing left-wing elements, in particular (the Popular Front) an alliance of communist, radical, and socialist elements formed and gaining some power in countries such as France and Spain in the 1930s.

7d   Agree bill and become silent (9)

Quiesce^[5], a word that I found to be absent from most dictionaries, means (1) to quiet down or (2) (of consonants in Hebrew) to become silent.

8d   Assumption drawn from article on Circle line (6)

The Circle line^[7] is a London Underground service on its sub-surface network. Coloured yellow on the tube map, the line serves 36 stations in 17 miles (27 km). The line east from Paddington, and continuing round the loop, is within Zone 1, and serves most of London's main line railway stations.

19d   Robot needing energy for day without using liquid (7)

This substitution type clue — in which, today, E (energy) replaces D (day) in one word to form a second word — is a signature clue in a Jay puzzle.

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