Wednesday, November 27, 2013 — DT 27258

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27258
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, August 16, 2013
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27258]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza
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

I suffered a brain cramp on 7d. I knew precisely what the solution was but found myself totally unable to think of the word.

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. The underlined portion of the clue is the definition.

Across

1a   The old man has got hold of a wonderful cure (7)

5a   Professional word of a particular type that conveys wisdom (7)

9a   Fruit captured by capable monkey (5)

10a   Demure, needing to get with it, I have to be Methodist (9)

I managed to decipher the solution from the wordplay, but needed help from Mr. Google to draw the association between the definition and the solution.

A Primitive Methodist^[5] is a member of a society of Methodists which was formed in 1811 and joined the united Methodist Church in 1932.

11a   Legal document for vehicle (10)

12a   Word of defiance is a habit (4)

14a   Style of building erect hair, cut unconventionally (12)

18a   What you might see in prisoners' exercise yard is compelling (12)

Gazza indicates that you are to "split the answer (4,8) to get what you might see in a prison yard". I would argue that you might equally well split the answer (3,9).

21a   Through listening, recognises dissident expressions (4)

22a   A unit briefly installed in summer (10)

Based on the checking letters, I was able to figure out the solution using a Word Finder program. However, I needed Gazza's review to understand the wordplay.

25a   Unity of chaps evident in a salute (9)

26a   Academic at ceremony may have this chicken (5)

27a   Strong American coin no longer used (7)

A solidus^[5] is a gold coin of the later Roman Empire.

28a   General flying in balloon (7)

Down

1d   Cops reduced -- Yard's course of action (6)

Scotland Yard^[5] is the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police, situated from 1829 to 1890 in Great Scotland Yard off Whitehall, from 1890 until 1967 in New Scotland Yard on the Thames Embankment, and from 1967 onwards in New Scotland Yard, Westminster. The name is used, in particular, as a metonym for the Criminal Investigation Department [detective branch] of the London Metropolitan Police force.

2d   Appointing an overthrown Lib Dem leader of yesteryear (6)

The clue was not difficult to solve — even with no prior knowledge of the British politician.

The Liberal Democrats^[5] (Lib Dem^[5]) are a British political party formed in 1988 through a merger of a majority of the membership of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. Originally called the Social and Liberal Democrats, the party was officially renamed in 1989 as the Liberal Democrats.

Sir Menzies "Ming" Campbell^[5] is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.

3d   Actor seen swirling round front of cinema -- bless! (10)

4d   Mountain with limited height, a first in a series (5)

Alpha^[5] is the first letter of the Greek alphabet (Α, α). As a modifier, it is used to denote the first of a series of items or categories, e.g. forms of a chemical compound ⇒ the α and β chains of haemoglobin.

5d   New Jersey location, place for prisoners, but not women (9)

I knew the New Jersey location, but relied on Gazza to explain the British connection.

Princetown^[7] is a village on Dartmoor, an area of moorland in  the English county of Devon. At around 435 metres (1,430 feet) above sea level, it is the highest settlement on the moor, and one of the highest in the United Kingdom. The village is the site of Dartmoor Prison.

Princeton^[7] is a municipality in New Jersey that is best known as the location of Princeton University.

6d   Dish of egg and greasy liquid served up (4)

7d   The last thing you'd expect an actor to say? (8)

Although the word was on the tip of my tongue, no amount of effort would force it to mind. I even thought of epithet and epigram — but still it eluded me.

8d   Showed some sign of life with the food being passed round (8)

13d   Cinema -- cool, funny, cheap (10)

15d   Pomposity of the male saints going round each very small home (9)

I think the definition must be intended in a literary sense. Pompous^[2], in reference to language, means inappropriately grand and flowery; in other words, pretentious. Heavy^[5], in reference to a literary work, means overly serious or difficult.

16d   Terrible goings-on -- Conservative in traditional Liberal footwear! (8)

17d   Mathematical value worked out by a girl, ten (8)

The fodder also produces the anagram TRIANGLE, although I would not consider this to be a "mathematical value".

An integral^[2] is a mathematical function of which a given function is the derivative, i.e. which yields that function when differentiated, and which may express the area under the curve of a graph of the function.

19d   Places to the north with men in a dazed state (6)

In the British armed forces, the term other ranks^[5] (abbreviation OR^[5]) refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

20d   Irishman leading church meeting of a spooky nature (6)

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

23d   Coffee time with others turning up all around (5)

24d   Psychiatrist's not right to quarrel (4)

Sigmund Freud^[5] (1856–1939) was an Austrian neurologist and psychotherapist. He was the first to emphasize the significance of unconscious processes in normal and neurotic behaviour, and was the founder of psychoanalysis as both a theory of personality and a therapeutic practice.

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