Wednesday, May 7, 2014 — DT 27379

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27379
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, January 6, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27379]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Miffypops
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 █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

I did stumble over a couple of clues today. In one case I think I may have fallen into a carefully prepared trap.

Note on Yesterday's Puzzle

You may remember the following clue from yesterday's puzzle:

13a   Cycle endlessly wearing one skimpy costume (6)

You may also recall that I made the following comment about this clue:

I would think that the clue should read "Cycling endlessly ...".

This comment was based on the following incorrect parsing of the wordplay on my part:

• BIKIN[G] (cycle endlessly; which I thought would have worked better as "cycling endlessly") + (wearing; has on) I ([Roman numeral for] one)

As Big Dave points out [in a comment on yesterday's post], if the wordplay were parsed as:

• BIK[E] (cycle endlessly) + IN (wearing) + I ([Roman numeral for] one)

the clue works perfectly.

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.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

1a   Note deficiency, get governors to provide school equipment (10)

Note that "note" is used in a musical sense. The reason for mentioning this will eventually become clear.

9a   Present her with key (4)

Note that "key" is used in a musical sense. Are you starting to see a pattern — or maybe a trap being laid?

10a   Cancellation of count leads to rebuke (7,3)

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, tell^[5] is an archaic term meaning to count (the members of a group) ⇒ the shepherd had told all his sheep. Collins English Dictionary says that tell^[10] can mean to count (votes). From The American Heritage Dictionary and the Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, we learn that tell^[3,11] can mean to enumerate or count ⇒ (i) telling one's blessings; (ii) 16 windows, all told.

11a   The Spanish weapons that make army manoeuvres possible (6)

Sometimes I think Rufus stretches whimsy to the breaking point. Here, the phrase "army manoeuvres" is used to signify movements of the upper limbs. After all, if "stormy" means indicative of storms, then "army" must surely mean indicative of arms.

In Spanish, the masculine singular form of the definite article is el^[8].

12a   Proposition from me to her (7)

In physics and mathematics, a theorem^[5] is a general proposition not self-evident but proved by a chain of reasoning.

15a   Tact as well as art may be needed to draw (7)

16a   You may see them by sea and in ship (5)

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is almost invariably a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[10].

17a   Musical companion of Bess heading off for a wild party (4)

Porgy and Bess^[7] is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward. All three works deal with African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row (based on the area of Cabbage Row) in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s.

18a   Queue for classified information (4)

With some misgivings, I entered LINE here. Of course, I was unable to explain to the second definition.

Queue^[5] is a chiefly British term meaning a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed. As Collins English Dictionary states, the usual US and Canadian term is line — but only in this sense of the word (which, unfortunately, Collins fails to indicate).^[4] In North America, the word queue is used for a pigtail or in computer science. It is also interesting to note that while North Americans generally stand in line, they do tend to jump the queue.

The American Heritage Dictionary has the following to say about the history of this word^[3]:

When the British stand in queues (as they have been doing at least since 1837, when this meaning of the word is first recorded in English), they may not realize they form a tail. The French word queue from which the English word is borrowed is a descendant of Latin cōda, meaning "tail." French queue appeared in 1748 in English, referring to a plait of hair hanging down the back of the neck. By 1802 wearing a queue was a regulation in the British army, but by the mid-19th century queues had disappeared along with cocked hats. Latin cōda is also the source of Italian coda, which was adopted into English as a musical term (like so many other English musical terms that come from Italian). A coda is thus literally the "tail end" of a movement or composition.

The second definition is a cryptic way to describe a repository for information that has been separated by category.

19a   Avoid Kansas city (5)

By employing some false capitalization, the setter could have been a bit more devious, writing the clue as:

• Avoid Kansas City (5)

thereby making the surface reading appear to refer to either the city in northeastern Kansas or the adjacent and much larger one in northwestern Missouri.^[5]

Dodge City^[5] is a city in southwestern Kansas; population 25,689 (est. 2008). Established in 1872 as a railhead on the Santa Fe Trail, it rapidly gained a reputation as a rowdy frontier town.

21a   Insect on head of animal is an annoyance (7)

In English folklore, a bugbear^[10] is a goblin said to eat naughty children and thought to be in the form of a bear. In modern usage, the term bugbear^[5] means a cause of obsessive fear, anxiety, or irritation ⇒ the biggest villain is that adman’s bugbear, saturated fat.

22a   Comes into force? (7)

24a   Quick moving river traps doctor (6)

The Nile^[5] is a river in eastern Africa, the longest river in the world, which rises in east central Africa near Lake Victoria and flows 6,695 km (4,160 miles) generally northwards through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt to empty through a large delta into the Mediterranean.

In Britain, the degree required to practice medicine is a Bachelor of Medicine^[7] (MB, from Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus), which is equivalent to a North American Doctor of Medicine (MD, from Latin Medicinae Doctor). The degree of Doctor of Medicine also exists in Britain, but it is an advanced degree pursued by those who wish to go into medical research. Physicians in Britain are still addressed as Dr. despite not having a doctoral degree. 

27a   Outline new house title (10)

28a   Founder of place of iniquity? (4)

A sink^[2] is a place of immorality, vice and corruption.While this meaning is new to me [either I have led a sheltered life — or I just don't know the proper name for the places I hang out!], but it is found in all my customary dictionary sources, save Oxford Dictionaries Online.

29a   Yeasty reds drunk in recent times (10)

Down

2d   Grounds or pastures, say (4)

3d   Bill comes up with new coil of fabric (6)

4d   Key groups? (7)

Following the theme established in 1a and 9a, I fell into the trap of supposing that we are dealing here with a musical key.

I know that bananas come in bunches — but do keys? It does seem so. A bit of research reveals that the tendency of keys to bunch is exceeded only by that of grapes.

A bunch^[10] is a number of things growing, fastened, or grouped together ⇒ (i) a bunch of grapes; (ii) a bunch of keys.

5d   A second son for the prophet (4)

In the UK, mo^[5] ([abbreviation for moment) is an informal term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

Amos^[5] was Hebrew minor prophet (circa 760 BC), a shepherd of Tekoa, near Jerusalem.

6d   Faults or defaults (7)

I can only conclude that the meaning that Miffypops attributes to the second definition is intended as a variant meaning of this word. It certainly does not appear to bear any relationship to the way the word is used in this clue.

The Chambers Dictionary defines default^[1] as:

default noun a fault, failing or failure; defect; neglect to do what duty or law requires; failure to fulfil a financial obligation; ...

Thus in the sense that it is used in this clue, default would seem to be merely a synonym for fault — and, consequently, this would appear to be not a double definition at all.

7d   Crack ace orbits after a display of stunt flying (10)

As an anagram indicator, crack^[5] is used in the sense of to find a solution to; in other words, to decipher or interpret ⇒ the code will help you crack the messages.

8d   They accommodate those who don’t wish to move far when they retire (10)

Bedsitter^[5] (also bedsit or bed-sitting room) is a British term for a one-roomed unit of accommodation typically consisting of combined bedroom and sitting room with cooking facilities.

12d   He performs extensively on a sliding scale (10)

A player who extends and retracts (preforms extensively) a slide mechanism on a musical instrument to produce the notes of the scale.

13d   Fight before wedding (10)

14d   Officer in difficult situation turned to other ranks (5)

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

15d   Maxim for our time (5)

Do we live in the AD Age (AD for Anno Domini) or the Ad(vertisement) Age?

19d   Ready as can be, I suppose (7)

I daresay, to most people, the word "daresay" means simply "suppose" — rather than "I suppose".

20d   In French clubs, miss will get embrace (7)

In French, en^[8] is a preposition meaning in.

23d   Popular act, certainly (6)

25d   A girl comes up with a woebegone expression (4)

Miffypops shows the definition as being "a woebegone expression". In such case, the wordplay would parse as A (the initial "A" from the clue) + a reversal (comes up) of SAL (girl) and the word "with" would be serving to link the wordplay to the definition. I was initially hesitant to accept the word with^[5] as a linking word but it might work in the sense of indicating the material used for a purpose ⇒ fill the bowl with water or the cause of (a condition) ⇒ he was trembling with fear.

However, I prefer a different explanation — one in which the wordplay parses as a reversal (comes up) of {SAL (a girl) + (with) A (the second "A" from the clue)}.

This explanation exploits the fact that the phrase "A girl comes up (the stairs) with A" is the same as saying "A girl and A come up (the stairs)".

26d   Remain a supporter (4)

I must quibble with Miffypops on the second definition. It is clearly a noun rather than a verb.

A stay^[5] is a device used as a brace or support. Historically, stays are a corset made of two pieces laced together and stiffened by strips of whalebone. Miffypops suggests with his illustration that the latter meaning may be the way the term is used in this clue. However, I do believe that the word "stays" (like "trousers" and "pants") is used only in the plural.

A stay^[5] is also (1) a large rope, wire, or rod used to support a ship’s mast, leading from the masthead to another mast or spar or down to another part of the ship; (2) a guy or rope supporting a flagstaff or other upright pole; or (3) a supporting wire or cable on an aircraft.

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