Friday, February 8, 2013 — DT 27030

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27030
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, November 22, 2012
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27030]
Big Dave's Review Written By pommers
BD 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's offering from RayT certainly doesn't push the needle on the difficulty meter very high — nor, for that matter, the needle on the raciness meter. Nevertheless, it is quite an enjoyable solve. I started out by immediately writing in the solutions to the first four clues — something that I don't recall ever having done before.

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.

7a   Common man grabbing hot bird (8)

To fully appreciate the surface reading of this clue, keep in mind that bird^[5] is British slang for a young woman or a man’s girlfriend.

9a   Bliss from Mathieu to Piaf (6)

From a factual standpoint, perhaps, these two French singers might have been listed in the reverse order. However, this is a cryptic crossword, not a history book.

Édith Piaf^[7] (1915 – 1963) was a French singer who became widely regarded as France's national popular singer, as well as being one of France's greatest international stars.

Mireille Mathieu^[7] is a popular French singer with international appeal. Hailed in the French press as the successor to Édith Piaf, she has recorded over 1,200 songs in nine different languages, with more than 120 million records sold worldwide.

10a   Native American belief's not dead (4)

The statement in pommers' review that the Cree "live in Canada" should probably be amended to "live almost entirely in Canada"). According to Wikipedia, a tiny portion of the Cree population spills over into an area of Montana hugging the Canadian border, just south of Alberta and Saskatchewan^[7].

11a   Enrage former Queen, bit embracing snake (10)

RayT inserts his trademark "Queen" clue fairly early in today's puzzle. By tradition, the ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs use initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus the cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

17a   Bambi's around with one more innocent (6)

Bambi, a Life in the Woods^[7] is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten which traces the life of Bambi, a male roe deer, from his birth through childhood, the loss of his mother, the finding of a mate, the lessons he learns from his father and experience about the dangers posed by human hunters in the forest. The story is probably better known from Bambi^[7], a 1942 American animated film produced by Walt Disney which was based on the book.

24a   Bum  a fag end? (4)

As pommers' makes allusion to, the first definition of butt^[5] is "an American term" or as Oxford Dictionaries Online puts it "chiefly North American". Therefore, the term would seem to be somewhat familiar to the Brits.

On the other hand, Collins English Dictionary characterises fag^[4] in the sense of cigarette as being British (although it is a commonly used term in Canada and this meaning appears in the entry from The American Heritage Dictionary to be found at this same link).

We also see from Collins English Dictionary that fag^[4] or faggot^[4] as a derogatory term for a male homosexual is chiefly a North American usage.

25a   Bolt setting record in sprint (6)

Usain Bolt^[7] is a Jamaican sprinter widely regarded as the fastest person ever. He currently holds the world records in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (together with his teammates) the 4×100 metres relay. He won gold medals in all three events at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

26a   Mess for officers fighting resistance in destruction (8)

The illustration in pommers' hint is of Private James Frazer^[7], a fictional Home Guard platoon member and undertaker portrayed by John Laurie on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. He is noted for the phrase "we're doomed!". I'm sure that the choice of illustration is related to the word "destruction", and has little (if anything) to do with "mess for officers".

1d   Tasteful porcelain after tea (8)

In Britain, char^[5] (or cha or chai) is an informal name for tea. In his review, pommers alludes to the fact that, in the UK, char^[5] is also another name for a charwoman^[5], a dated term for a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office. 

2d   Caught, then time for pen (4)

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c^[5] indicates caught (by) ⇒ ME Waugh c Lara b Walsh 19.

This above example shows, as I understand it, that a ball hit by batsman "ME Waugh" was caught by "Lara". The ball had been bowled by "Walsh". The number "19" indicates a number of runs, but it is unclear to me whether that is the number of runs that ME Waugh scored during his time batting or if it is the total number of runs that his team had accumulated at the time he was out.

I also think that there must be an error in the illustration found in the article How to read a scorecard for which I provide a link above. I would presume that the annotation below "Graeme Smith" on the scorecard should read "Batsman" rather than "Bowler".

3d   Snapper and artist arrived first (6)

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. 

4d   Doubt sentence ends around American prisons (8)

In these puzzles, we often encounter British words and expressions that are unfamiliar to North Americans. However, from time to time, we also find that words and expressions which we regard as common everyday speech are apparently not used by Brits. Today, we discover the word penitentiary (and its shortened form pen)^[5] to be one of those words. Thus there may well be an extra element of misdirection in this clue for British solvers in that they would tend to think of a pen as an 'American prison' rather than merely a 'prison'.

6d   'Beam', part of personnel in Telegraph (6)

The Daily Telegraph^[7] is a daily morning broadsheet conservative-leaning newspaper, published in London and distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. From 1986 to 2004, this paper was owned by Canadian businessman Conrad Black through his holding company Ravelston Corporation. It is also, of course, the paper which syndicates the crossword puzzle about which I am writing.

Beam is the pseudonym of today's setter, Ray Terrell (or, as he signs himself on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, RayT), when setting Toughie crosswords in The Daily Telegraph. The Toughie is a more difficult cryptic crossword puzzle that appears Tuesday through Friday in The Daily Telegraph.

8d   Artist consumed by insides, a shock! (6)

The artist from 3d reprises his role. Tum^[4] is an informal or childish word for stomach. I note that this word is absent from The American Heritage Dictionary. I would expect North Americans to say either tummy or tum-tum rather than tum.

16d   An undergarment dropped in taste for farce (8)

There would appear to be an error in pommers' hint. I am sure he meant to say "Take an undergarment (1,4) ..." indicating that you must decode the phrase "an undergarment" as a unit because of the change in the form of the indefinite article.

In Britain, an undershirt is is known as a vest^[10] (and what North Americans generally think of as a vest would be called a waistcoat).

19d   Star of Wimbledon initially getting award (6)

In his review, pommers states that the indicator "initially" applies to both "of" and "Wimbledon" to get the O and the W. I used a different interpretation, supposing that the word "of" was cluing O based on o'^[5] being short for of, used to represent an informal pronunciation ⇒ a cup o' coffee.

22d   Extra performance from Poulenc or Elgar (6)

Sir Edward Elgar^[5] (1857–1934) was an English composer known particularly for the Enigma Variations (1899), the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900), and for patriotic pieces such as the five Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901–30).

Francis Poulenc^[5] (1899–1963) was a French composer, a member of Les Six, whose work is characterized by lyricism as well as the use of idioms of popular music such as jazz, and includes songs and the ballet Les Biches (1923).

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