Monday, July 21, 2014 — DT 27427 (Bonus Puzzle)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27427
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, March 3, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27427]
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
Notes
The National Post skipped this puzzle which — under its regular publication schedule — would have appeared on Monday, July 14, 2014.

Introduction

For those who are suffering from CCWS (Cryptic Crossword Withdrawal Syndrome), I present your Monday fix — namely, the puzzle that the National Post skipped one week ago.

During July and August, the National Post does not publish an edition on Monday. In years past, a Monday Diversions page has sometimes been printed in either a preceding or subsequent edition of the paper. However, that practice appears to have been discontinued. In order to afford readers the opportunity to tackle the puzzles that the National Post has skipped, throughout the summer I will be posting (with a one week delay) the puzzles that would normally have appeared on Monday.

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   Angry about sails getting wet (8)

In nautical terms, rig^[3] refers to the arrangement of masts, spars, and sails on a sailing vessel.

6a   Means of raising a pound for a villainous fellow (6)

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].

9a   Indication of terror -- a hoot! (6)

10a   Eat green fresh produce (8)

11a   Negotiator's award displayed by leader of team (8)

12a   Original spares may be few and far between (6)

13a   As it's repaired, works OK (12)

16a   Clip-joints? (7,5)

19a   Warning from worker about fight (6)

21a   First phase of Stone Age building (5,3)

23a   Confirm tea laid out after five (8)

24a   Introduce gradually in new list (6)

There is a bit more to the definition than Miffypops has shown in his review.

25a   Maintain there's some body in the beer (6)

Think of "some body" meaning "a part of the body".

26a   Poet's rewritten sonnet about New York (8)

Alfred Tennyson^[5], 1st Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater (1809–1892) [commonly known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson] was an English poet, Poet Laureate from 1850. His reputation was established by In Memoriam (1850), a long poem concerned with immortality, change, and evolution. Other notable works: ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1854) and Idylls of the King (1859).

Of course, Miffypops is clearly mistaken in stating that Tennyson wrote "By the shore[s] of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water". These lines were actually penned by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow^[5].

Down

2d   Flinch from a backlash (6)

3d   Thought first of ladies supreme (5)

4d   Two scholars put into reform school (4,5)

5d   Work out highest fractions (7)

6d   They may be high -- that's unlucky, we hear (5)

In analyzing cryptic crossword clues, one must often interpret "that's" as if it contains an implicit "which" making it "that [which] is" or, in other words, "something (or someone) that is". Therefore, "that's unlucky" is interpreted as "someone that is unlucky".

A jinx^[5] is a person or thing that brings bad luck  ⇒ he regarded her as a jinx because she had lost her husband.

As a verb, jink^[5] means to change direction suddenly and nimbly, as when dodging a pursuer ⇒ she was too quick for him and jinked away every time. As a noun, it denotes a sudden quick change of direction ⇒ people remember him for his runs on the wing, his jinks. The word, which dates to the 17th century, was originally Scots as high jinks, denoting antics at drinking parties (probably symbolic of nimble motion). Current senses date from the 18th century. Despite this, I am only familiar with the word in the original Scots sense.

7d   Quixotic writer never acts in play (9)

Miguel de Cervantes^[5] (1547–1616) was a Spanish novelist and dramatist. His most famous work is Don Quixote (1605–15), a satire on chivalric romances that greatly influenced the development of the novel.

8d   Flair shown as skill is added to effort (8)

13d   Craft likely to go under (9)

14d   A girl getting into giddy hero-worship? (9)

15d   It's played for the HQ dance (8)

It seems that Miffypops thinks that "Baseball is boring". If so, how should one describe cricket?

17d   American small change being found in school is dodgy (7)

To solve this clue, one must "lift and separate" (a bit of crosswordese adopted from Playtex brassiere advertisements). It refers to the fact that, in parsing the clue, the phrase "American small change" must be split into two parts — "American" and "small change". As it turns out, the "small change" is actually British, rather than American.

In Britain's current decimal currency system, a penny^[5] is a bronze coin and monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a pound (and is abbreviated p).

School^[5] is used in the sense of a body of people or pupils adhering to a certain set of principles, doctrines, or methods.

18d   One doing exercises gaining colour (6)

20d   Girl's round about the advertisement, miss (5)

22d   Test paper (5)

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