Monday, January 28, 2013 - DT 27021

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27021
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, November 12, 2012
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27021]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
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

It is becoming rather difficult to predict what puzzle will appear in the National Post. This week, neither the "Saturday" nor the "Monday" puzzle have been skipped. It remains to be seen what lies ahead for the rest of the week. I would certainly concur with Libellule's assessment that today's puzzle is a bit more difficult than usual for a Rufus puzzle.

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.

10a   He keeps mum in order (8)

A Trappist^[5] is a member of the Trappist order, a branch of the Cistercian order of monks founded in 1664 and noted for an austere rule that includes remaining silent for much of the time.

12a   Fastener for a jumper (4)

A frog^[4] is a decorative fastening of looped braid or cord, as on the front of a 19th-century military uniform.

22a   Underground  TV (4)

The Tube^[5] (British trademark) is (1) the underground railway system in London, England ⇒ a cross-London trek on the Tube or (2) a train running on the Tube ⇒ I caught the tube home. In Britain, underground^[5] (often the Underground) means an underground railway, especially the one in London ⇒ travel chaos on the Underground.

25a   Ascot  starter? (6)

Ascot^[5] is a town in southern England, south-west of Windsor. Its racecourse is the site of an annual race meeting. Starter^[5] is a chiefly British term [but one also encountered in Canada] meaning the first course of a meal.

The Brits, of course, should have easily recognized Ascot as being a racecourse. However, the opportunity for misdirection lies in the solver mistakenly assuming that a "starter" is either a racecourse official or a horse that starts a race.

26a   Cinerama spread from the States (8)

As the clue indicates, Cinerama did originate in the United States. Cinerama^[7] is the trademarked name for a widescreen motion picture process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen. The first Cinerama film, This Is Cinerama, premiered on 30 September 1952, at The Broadway Theatre in New York.

The original Cinerama system involved shooting with three synchronized cameras sharing a single shutter. This was later abandoned in favor of a system using a single camera and 70mm prints. This latter system lost the 146° field of view of the original system and the resolution was markedly lower.

Cinerama films were shown in specially-modified or purpose-built theatres — very few of which remain today.

Although most of the films produced using the original Cinerama process were full feature length or longer, they were mostly travelogues or episodic documentaries. Only two films with traditional story lines were made, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won. In addition, a number of films shot using other widescreen processes were converted for presentation in Cinerama theatres.

Finally, apropos to today's clue, it has been suggested that Cinerama could have been an intentional anagram of the word American; but an online posting by Dick Babish, describing the meeting at which it was named, says that this is "purely accidental, however delightful." 

1d   Scatter-brain child (5)

In the Scottish and Northern English dialects, bairn^[5] means a child.

2d   Extra large, troublesome delivery (6)

In this double definition, not only is the latter one a cricket term — it is a dated cricket term, to boot. Bumper^[5] is another term for bouncer^[5], a ball bowled fast and short so as to rise high after pitching. Judging by the comments on Big Dave's blog, the former term is still current in Australia — and, futhermore, the Brits seem to have forgotten that they apparently once used it!

3d   A gremlin disposed to swing the lead (8)

Swing the lead^[5] is a British expression meaning to shirk one’s duty or malinger. [with nautical allusion to the lump of lead suspended by a string, slowly lowered to ascertain the depth of water]

16d   When to have a drink and perhaps eat? (3-5)

The wordplay here ("perhaps eat?") clues an inverse anagram. This wordplay is telling us that we need to find something that could produce the word "eat" — which just happens to be an anagram (BREAK) of TEA. In other words, the solution to the clue consists of an anagram indicator (BREAK) preceded by its fodder (TEA) and the clue itself contains the outcome of the anagram operation, namely "eat". For a discussion of inverse wordplay clues, see my posting for Thursday, January 17, 2013 - DT 27013.

In Britain, a tea break^[5] is a short rest period during the working day, in which people typically drink a cup of tea or coffee ⇒ the men were on a tea break. On the other hand, according to Oxford Dictionaries Online, a coffee break^[5] is a short break during the working day, during which people typically drink a cup of coffee or tea.

By the way, not a single one of my favourite British dictionaries spell tea break with a hyphen.

18d   How the skipper may be caught unawares? (2,3,3)

In Britain, on the hop^[10] means unawares or unprepared ⇒ the new ruling caught me on the hop.

19d   A jolly girl's joined the fighting ships (7)

Jolly^[4] is British slang for a member of the Royal Marines (RM)^[5], a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances.

A single armada alone would contain many fighting ships, so multiple armadas would certainly constitute a considerable number of ships.

23d   'Gay Lib' -- the novel (6)

As usual, the quotation marks seem to have perished during the ocean crossing (and perhaps were buried at sea). Moreover, as best that I could determine, this novel does not exist outside Crosswordland.

Blithe^[5] can mean either (1) showing a casual and cheerful indifference considered to be callous or improper ⇒ a blithe disregard for the rules of the road or (2) [in literary usage] happy or carefree ⇒ a blithe seaside comedy. It is the latter sense which is of interest to us today.

24d   Girl getting over a fever (5)

Lassa fever^[5] is n acute and often fatal viral disease, with fever, occurring chiefly in West Africa. It is usually acquired from infected rats.

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