Thursday, July 17, 2014 — DT 27430

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27430
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, March 6, 2014
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27430]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog 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 █ - 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

Despite Her Majesty being AWOL today, this puzzle was indeed created by RayT. Although Big Dave rated it at a mere two stars for difficulty, I would place it in solid three star territory. However, I have no quarrel with his assessment of four stars for enjoyment.

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   Trouble with hothead idiot, the French ... (6)

In French, the masculine singular form of the definite article is le^[8].

5a   ... expose a French wally -- the conclusion's explosive (8)

In French, the masculine singular form of the indefinite article is un^[8].

Wally^[5] is an informal British term for a silly or inept person ⇒ I must have looked a total wally but I didn’t care. The term dates from the 1960s and is likely a shortened form of the given name Walter. One story of its origin tells of a Wally who became separated from companions at a 1960s pop festival; the name, announced many times over a loudspeaker, was taken up as a chant by the crowd.

Clot^[5] is an informal British term for a foolish or clumsy person ⇒ Watch where you’re going, you clot!.

HE^[5] is the abbreviation for high explosive.

9a   Hip set admitting woman's laid up (10)

Di, a diminutive for Diana, is — without doubt — the most popular girl's name in Crosswordland.

10a   Fly speck (4)

I certainly made life difficult for myself in the northeast corner when I wrote in MITE. I concede that this was a bit of a stretch as a mite^[3,4,11] is an arachnid rather than a fly.

11a   Cold course ingredient's flipping tripe! (8)

In the surface reading, flipping^[5] is an informal British term used for emphasis or to express mild annoyance ⇒ (i) are you out of your flipping mind?; (ii) it’s flipping cold today.

Tripe^[5] is the first or second stomach of a cow or other ruminant used as food. It is also an informal term for nonsense or rubbish ⇒ you do talk tripe sometimes.

12a   Term of Liberal and then changes around Government (6)

13a   English border turned back foreign leader (4)

Emir^[5] (also spelled amir) is a title of various Muslim (mainly Arab) rulers ⇒ HRH the Emir of Kuwait.

15a   Not intelligent from design, or anthropology (8)

18a   Bank in danger, it turned out (8)

19a   Gander is run over (4)

Keep^[5] is used in the sense of to own and manage (a shop or business) ⇒ the big fellow keeps a fish shop near the post office.

21a   Staff get on to command (6)

23a   Restrained following 'Tea, vicar?' (8)

Cha is an alternate spelling of char^[5] (also spelled chai), an informal British name for tea.

A chaplain^[5] is a member of the clergy attached to a private chapel, institution, ship, regiment, etc. ⇒ a prison chaplain.

A vicar^[5] is also a member of the clergy, although the meaning of the term varies among religious denominations. Perhaps the sense in which it is used by the US Episcopal Church best matches today's clue.

In the the Church of England, a vicar is an incumbent of a parish where tithes formerly passed to a chapter or religious house or layman (as compared to a rector^[5] who is the incumbent of a parish where all tithes formerly passed to the incumbent).

In other Anglican Churches, a vicar is a member of the clergy deputizing for another.

In the Roman Catholic Church, a vicar is a representative or deputy of a bishop.

In the US Episcopal Church, a vicar is a clergyman in charge of a chapel. 

Finally, vicar is also a name for a cleric or choir member appointed to sing certain parts of a cathedral service.

25a   Talk quietly and breathe with difficulty (4)

26a   Seeming to be less 'in' somehow (10)

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.

27a   Start of spring? (8)

A wellhead^[3,4] is the source of a well or stream.

28a   Flat bottom in display case (6)

Down

2d   Repeal brought up in jail, unnaturally (5)

3d   Captained ship opening with preserved fish (9)

Here, the word "preserved" is used as a verb in the past tense and not as a past participle modifying the noun "fish".

Kipper^[5] (usually seen as an adjective kippered) is a verb meaning to cure (a herring or other fish) by splitting it open and salting and drying it in the open air or in smoke.

4d   Government of European politician facing anger (6)

The first part of the wordplay is E (European) + MP ([a British (or Canadian)] politician). The term "European politician" would have led to MEP^[5], the abbreviation for Member of the European Parliament.

5d   Rough seduction is path to clash (15)

It took a long time to solve this clue, as I spent a great deal of effort working under the mistaken idea that the anagram indicator must be "rough" with the definition being "to clash". I see no obvious rationale for "clash" to be an anagram indicator. I presume we are expected to infer that a clash would lead to a confused state of affairs.

6d   Cooking fish round centre of griddle (8)

In the wordplay, the word "fish" could be plural referring to two fish (COD + LING) or singular referring to a young cod (CODLING) although, as Big Dave comments on his site, "I would have expected [the latter] to be clued as 'small/young fish'".

A ling^[5] is  any of a number of long-bodied edible marine fishes including various species of large East Atlantic fish related to the cod, in particular Molva molva, which is of commercial importance.

A codling^[5] is an immature cod.

7d   Former blonde seen topless (5)

The wordplay is [G]OLDEN (blonde) with its initial letter removed (topless; in a down clue).

As some readers of Big Dave's blog point out, OLDEN is an anagram of [B]LONDE with its initial letter removed (topless). However, this explanation fails as there is no anagram indicator in the clue.

On the other hand, had the clue read:

• 7d   Former ditzy blonde seen topless (5)

the explanation would have been quite different (although we would be unlikely to see such a clue, ditzy^[5] being a North American expression).

8d   Reservation at Chinese buffet (9)

As an anagram indicator, buffet^[5] is used in the sense of to knock (someone) off course ⇒ he was buffeted from side to side.

My interpretation is that the wordplay is to be read with an implicit pause ("at Chinese; buffet") which one would read as if it were a cocktail recipe ⇒ place the ingredients into a cocktail glass; stir vigorously.

14d   Wreck created involving a large jam (9)

16d   Provoking hatred, pure evil's let loose (9)

I initially wondered about the use of the word "hatred", but I discovered that repulsive^[2] means provoking a a feeling of disgust, horror or loathing.

17d   Fabulous wife's shut up and run off (8)

In Greek mythology, Penelope^[5] was the wife of Odysseus, who was beset by suitors when her husband did not return after the fall of Troy. She put them off by saying that she would marry only when she had finished the piece of weaving on which she was engaged, and every night unravelled the work she had done during the day.

In his comment at Big Dave's site, Miffypops refers to Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward^[7], a fictional character from the British mid-1960s Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds. In the series, Lady Penelope owns a modified Rolls-Royce bearing the licence plate FAB 1^[7].

20d   Bloody, getting sewn up (6)

Bloody^[5] is an informal, chiefly British term used to express anger, annoyance, or shock, or simply for emphasis  ⇒ (i) you took your bloody time; (ii) bloody Hell!—what was that?; (iii) it’s bloody cold outside.

On Big Dave's blog, Angel comments "Surely b—-y in 20d is blasphemy rather than the mild expletive “synonym”?". Here is what Oxford Dictionaries Online has to say on the subject:

The use of bloody to add emphasis to an expression is of uncertain origin, but is thought to have a connection with the ‘bloods’ (aristocratic rowdies) of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; hence the phrase bloody drunk (= as drunk as a blood) meant ‘very drunk indeed’. After the mid 18th century until quite recently bloody used as a swear word was regarded as unprintable, probably from the mistaken belief that it implied a blasphemous reference to the blood of Christ, or that the word was an alteration of ‘by Our Lady’; hence a widespread caution in using the term even in phrases, such as bloody battle, merely referring to bloodshed.

22d   Mac endlessly concealing a shock (5)

The Macintosh^[5], or Mac, is a line of personal computers (PCs) designed, developed, and marketed by the American multinational corporation Apple Inc.

24d   Initially indolent dosser liking endless rest (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