Thursday, May 30, 2013 — DT 27125

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27125
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, March 14, 2013
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27125]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ 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

After a couple of days of inactivity, my electronic assistants were called upon today. I also noted that today's offering has probably the fewest clues (26) that one is likely to encounter in a 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.

Across

7a   Hearing and seeing red piano going (7)

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

8a   Restaurant's big cheese hotel disposed of (6,1)

10a   Our panic developed about company's wealth (10)

11a   Swear experiencing initial temperature change is hassle (4)

I must confess that I failed to detect that the clue was referring to a temperature scale. The only explanation that I could come up with was that we were expected to change C (cold) to F (froid; cold in French).

12a   A redneck's vacuous articles about South American (8)

14a   No case for Lib Dems crushing Independent in the same place (6)

The Liberal Democrats^[7] (Lib Dems^[5]) are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which was formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. Following the 2010 general election, in which no party achieved an overall majority, the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister and other Liberal Democrats taking up ministerial positions.

An independent^[5] is a political candidate not belonging to or supported by a political party.

15a   Hackneyed standards for hi-fi buffs? (11)

A double definition with the latter one being cryptic.

19a   Cross between love and longing welcoming good atmosphere (6)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

20a   Pretty as bananas hanging on a wall? (8)

22a   Something old-fashioned in review of 'Brighton Rock' (4)

Do Canadian trade regulations forbid the importation of quotation marks? Once again, they fail to appear in the National Post — and this is only the first of three such instances in today's puzzle.

Brighton Rock^[7] is a novel by English writer Graham Greene (1904 – 1991), published in 1938, and twice brought to the screen — first in 1947 and again in 2010. The novel is a murder thriller set in 1930s Brighton, an English seaside resort. The title is a reference to a confectionery traditionally sold at such places, used as a metaphor for human character.

Rock^[7] is a type of hard stick-shaped boiled sugar confectionery [not to be confused with rock candy^[7]] most usually flavoured with peppermint or spearmint. It is commonly sold at tourist (usually seaside) resorts in the United Kingdom.

"Brighton Rock"^[7] is also a 1974 song by English rock band Queen on the album Sheer Heart Attack. The title is something of a pun: Brighton rock is a long, cylindrical sugar candy traditional to that seaside resort. The term was also iconic in UK pop culture as the title of a dark Graham Greene thriller/noir novel later adapted into a successful film starring Richard Attenborough as a teenage sociopath.

23a   One who can tell a new code has been broken – it's about time (10)

25a   Mark 'Waterloo Sunset' group losing head taking drug (7)

Another set of missing quotation marks. "Waterloo Sunset"^[7] is a song by British rock band The Kinks. It was released as a single in 1967, and featured on their album Something Else by The Kinks. The record reached number 2 on the British charts in mid 1967 (it failed to dislodge the Tremeloes' "Silence Is Golden" from the number 1 position). It was also a top 10 hit in Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe. In North America, although "Waterloo Sunset" was released as a single it was not a hit, as it completely failed to chart. As a result, while "Waterloo Sunset" is well-known amongst Kinks fans and anglophile music fans, it is not necessarily a song widely known to the general public in the US or Canada — which, no doubt, explains my lack of familiarity with the song.

26a   Claim to express contentment about Post Office sorting centre (7)

Down

1d   Attempt to enter into part with lines getting excessive zeal (7)

2d   Stagger round the bend on the way back (4)

3d   Performs tricky ascent (6)

4d   State goodwill may bring disaster (8)

5d   Overindulge one's head in pedantry (10)

Usually found in place names, ness^[5] means a headland or promontory ⇒ Orford Ness.

6d   Spots infection (7)

Big Dave saw this as a double definition consisting of "two rather similar definitions". I, on the other hand, had supposed it to be a cryptic definition.

9d   Amazed  how the dentist likes me! (4-7)

In a bit of a role reversal, Big Dave labelled this "a not-very-cryptic definition", while I thought it was a double definition (admittedly with the latter one being cryptic).

13d   On stage in a cast giving needle (10)

16d   Nonsensical banter about second staged protest (4-1-3)

Rent-a-mob^[10] is a pejorative British term for a group of people who are considered to always be protesting in a seemingly irrational manner, as if simply hired from a rental service for the purpose of protesting.

17d   Lay out old money (7)

The pound^[5] (also pound sterling) is the basic monetary unit of the UK, equal to 100 pence. While the symbol for pound is £, it is often written as L^[10].

18d   'Time' certain to show deletion (7)

Yet another instance of missing quotation marks. Almost certainly, the surface reading is intended to be a reference to the American newsmagazine — a point that may easily be lost without the quotation marks.

21d   Antipathy under pressure is something Lance Armstrong became familiar with (6)

I think it is obvious that Big Dave intended to write "down clue" rather than "across clue" in his explanation of this clue.

Big Dave also suggests that Lance Armstrong is "not a very good choice of “definition by example” considering subsequent events". Personally, I thought the clue was rather apropos given that odium^[5] is defined as general or widespread hatred or disgust incurred by someone as a result of their actions.

24d   Literally a mistake (4)

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)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon