Thursday, July 25, 2013 — DT 27167

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27167
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, May 2, 2013
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27167]
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

Big Dave's difficulty rating covers a very broad range today, "Two-star difficulty for those who ... love [RayT's] puzzles and four-star for the rest!".

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   One with raincoat returned, only for undergarment (8)

Mackintosh^[5] (also macintosh) is a British name for a full-length waterproof coat. Since this item of apparel was named after Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh, it does seem rather strange that all the dictionaries I consulted list the principal spelling as mackintosh (with macintosh as an alternate spelling).^[2,3,4,5,10]  However, the incongruity does not seem to extend to the shortened form where the more common form is mac^[5] (with mack as the variant spelling).

9a   Fall for George Clooney? (6)

The season known to American actor George Clooney^[7] as fall^[5] would be called autumn^[5] in Britain. In Canada, the terms are used pretty much interchangeably.

10a   Tan's fashionable on women (4)

11a   Upset and tired with lungs bursting (10)

12a   Figure Tory leader's out of order (6)

14a   Aggressor calculatingly holding back game (8)

15a   Approve of criminal rogue (6)

17a   Aim tip of arrow point (6)

20a   A large butt seen in motor programme (8)

Motor^[5] is British slang for a car ⇒ we drove out in my motor. This is seemingly a shortened form of "motor car" and yet another example of the Brits referring to something by an adjective rather than the noun which the adjective modifies. Other examples are 'estate' for 'estate car' (British name for a station wagon) and 'Indian' for 'Indian restaurant'. I have often wondered if this practice is somehow related to the way that Cockney rhyming slang is formed (see next clue).

22a   Bird found in butcher's? (6)

Butcher's^[10] is Cockney rhyming slang for a look. In Cockney rhyming slang, the slang word is obtained by replacing a word (in this case, "look") by a phrase with which it rhymes ("butcher's hook") and then dropping the rhyming word in the phrase. Through this process, "look" becomes "butcher's".

23a   Consort with female and grow embracing bird (10)

24a   Placed return call (4)

25a   Scan book series by Sartre, losing heart (6)

Jean-Paul Sartre^[5] (1905 – 1980) was a French philosopher, novelist, dramatist, and critic. A leading existentialist, he dealt in his work with the nature of human life and the structures of consciousness. He refused the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964. Notable works: Nausée (novel, 1938), Being and Nothingness (treatise, 1943), and Huis clos (play, 1944).

26a   Liberal urges one to change (8)

Down

1d   Sorry state returning after walk (8)

Having rejected Connecticut as being highly unlikely, I tried without success to make the state be either California or Colorado.

2d   Speech defect getting mouth around sibilant (4)

3d   Gently cook fish fritter without head (6)

4d   Camp stretches out under pole (8)

... an army camp perhaps.

5d   Booming and resonant, it exploded (10)

6d   Underwear from arcade in ends of sales (6)

In British English, smalls^[5] is an informal term meaning small items of clothing, especially underwear.

8d   Exam oddly sneaky, trapping first person without question (6)

13d   Duff went on list for Hollywood (10)

It would appear that one could make a very long list of people named Duff^[7]. I would suspect that the name may refer to no one in particular, although American pop singer Hilary Duff^[7] was first to mind.

16d   Flounder's easily caught somewhere like this? (8)

18d   Retired person rues time at work (8)

19d   Wrong group supporting Queen (6)

The ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are 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. 

21d   Dawn's yellow in character (6)

Or^[5] is gold or yellow, as a heraldic tincture. In heraldry, a tincture^[5] is any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often the furs) used in coats of arms.

22d   Good, then scoff up vegetables (6)

24d   Fat boy eating last of sugar (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