Wednesday, August 28, 2013 — DT 27191

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27191
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, May 30, 2013
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27191]
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

It seems that I was precisely tuned to the setter's wavelength today. Consequently, my electronic assistants enjoyed a day off.

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

1a   The compiler's style faces charge it's extravagant (10)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as compiler, setter, author, writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue. Today, RayT has made the substitution slightly more complex by employing the phrase "The compiler's" (The compiler is) which must be replaced by "I'm" (I am).

6a   Fastener is forced at front of piano (4)

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.

9a   Italy with new leader, people tense for stimulus (10)

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Italy is I^[5]. Duce is an Italian word meaning leader. In 1922, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini assumed the title Il Duce.

10a   Fair chance, some say (4)

In Britain, a fete^[5] is a public function, typically held outdoors and organized to raise funds for a charity, including entertainment and the sale of goods and refreshments  ⇒ a church fete.

Apparently, some people pronounce fete and fate in a similar fashion — however, judging by the sound samples found at the foregoing links, those people would be Americans.

12a   Star's very mature in comeback (4)

Vega^[5] is the fifth-brightest star in the sky, and the brightest in the constellation Lyra, overhead in summer to observers in the northern hemisphere.

13a   Fat cats perhaps as bogymen in disguise (9)

15a   Closed end, done, undone (8)

16a   Reign is finished within borders of Gabon (6)

18a   Irritate majority embracing the French (6)

Le^[8] is the masculine singular form of the French definite article.

20a   More powerful fighter with hard row (8)

A MiG^[7] is a type of Russian jet fighter. The name comes from the initials of the two founders (Mikoyan and Gurevich) of the "design bureau" that designs the planes.

 H^[5] is the abbreviation for hard, as used in describing grades of pencil lead ⇒ a 2H pencil.

23a   Food fanatic before term in stir (9)

In the surface reading (but only the surface reading), stir^[5] is a slang term for prison ⇒ I’ve spent twenty-eight years in stir.

24a   Not exactly awfully remote initially (4)

26a   Start to bathe with lotion for skin inflammation (4)

27a   Angler's in mess gripping pole getting tangled (10)

28a   First lady? Queen, always (4)

R^[5] is the abbreviation for Regina or Rex (Latin for queen or king, respectively).

29a   Showered after snooze to get sober (10)

Down

1d   Goddess lives and lives again (4)

In Egyptian mythology, Isis^[5] is a goddess of fertility, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. Her worship spread to western Asia, Greece, and Rome, where she was identified with various local goddesses. Isis is often depicted wearing a headdress consisting of the horns of a cow with the solar disk between them.

2d   Having grown most bananas? (7)

3d   Dispatch riot patrols for absolute rule (12)

The use of patrol^[5] as an anagram indicator is predicated on the movement implicit in the verb which means to keep watch over (an area) by regularly walking or travelling around it.
.

4d   Call up, armed off and on with arm? (8)

The selection indicator "off and on" directs us to discard (off) the odd-numbered letters and retain (on) the even-numbered letters of the fodder (armed). Had the clue read "on and off", then we would have done the reverse.

5d   Resident of wigwam sheltering a native leader (6)

7d   Grow old under state routine (7)

8d   Joke of Labour leader accepted by working class (10)

11d   Feeling virtually sick? (12)

14d   Cursed sailor with old bird nearly exhausted (10)

In the Royal Navy, able seaman (abbreviation AB)^[5], is a rank of sailor above ordinary seaman and below leading seaman.

Big Dave thought that "exhausted" is cluing the word BLED. I also considered that it might be cluing BLEW ("He blew his inheritance on gambling, women and booze.").

17d   Sharp detectives can concoct case (8)

A detective inspector (DI)^[5] is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

19d   Unusually tactile aid for climbers? (7)

21d   National and international leader stood with Scot (7)

Frequent visitors to Crosswordland quickly learn that virtually all Scotsmen residing there are named Ian.

Surely no one other than a campaigning politician could make "stood" and "ran" synonymous.

22d   Where a happy medium may be found? (6)

25d   Oath for example followed by a Democrat leader (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