Wednesday, September 24, 2014 — DT 27481

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27481
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, May 5, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27481]
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

We are served up the usual gentle, but entertaining, fare from Rufus today.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

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. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Prison meal served up // cold (10)

6a   Communist state /producing/ copper and barium (4)

The symbol for the chemical element copper is Cu^[5] (from Latin cuprum) while that for the chemical element barium is Ba^[5].

10a   Get the low-down on // a King and Queen at last (5)

Lear^[5] was a legendary early king of Britain, the central figure in Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear.

11a   European bound /to appear in/ Olympic event (4,5)

In Crosswordland, I have noticed that — more often than not — Europeans are Poles.

12a   Host /of/ parasites seen on the move (8)

In this clue, the word "of" is a link (indicating constituent parts) between the definition and wordplay. The preposition of^[5] may be used to indicate the material or substance constituting something ⇒ (i) the house was built of bricks; or (ii) walls of stone.

Host^[5] (especially in the phrase 'mine host') is a humorous term for the landlord or landlady of a pub ⇒ mine host raised his glass of whisky.

A licensee^[4] is a person who holds a licence, especially one to sell alcoholic drink.

13a   Priest in church /shows/ holy memento (5)

In the Bible, Eli^[5] is a priest who acted as a teacher to the prophet Samuel (1 Sam. 1-3).

RC^[5] is a recognised abbreviation for Roman Catholic.

15a   I must leave a curious set /—/ too noisy? (7)

As an anagram indicator, set^[5] is a past participle used as an adjective meaning (in reference to printing type) arranged as required. One could construct a similar argument in relation to dishes and eating utensils arranged on a table for a meal.

17a   Glider pilots are uplifted by it (7)

19a   Struggle to break a lock, perhaps (7)

21a   Capital investment /in/ company getting singer to return (7)

"Capital" is clearly a whimsical reference to the head.

Investments^[1] is an archaic term for clothes — but as it takes this sense only in the plural, I thought that this may not be the sense in which it is used here. On the other hand, invest^[1] is an archaic term meaning to put on, adorn, cloth or cover. Therefore, given that the puzzle was created by Rufus, "capital investment" may well be a whimsical way of saying "something worn on the head".

A coronet^[5] is a small or relatively simple crown, especially as worn by lesser royalty and peers or peeresses. Although a "relatively simple" piece of headwear, its cost is likely not inconsiderable — and, thus, might be referred to as an investment.

22a   After a drink Jack goes back /to/ dance (5)

The entry for jack in The Chambers Dictionary would fill a page if it were not spread over parts of two pages. Among the definitions, one finds jack^[1] defined as (often with capital) a sailor.

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

As a link word, to^[5] could be used as a preposition expressing the result of a process or action ⇒ smashed to smithereens.

24a   Order looks not right/,/ yet feels different (4,4)

Eyes front (or left or right)^[5] is a military command to turn the head in the direction stated ⇒ ‘Eyes front!’ he screamed at the men before him.

27a   Caught sight of // rescinded orders (9)

28a   A bridal path? (5)

29a   Engrave // some sketches (4)

30a   Ely's rector resorts /to/ enlightenment for the church (10)

The Diocese of Ely^[5] is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, headed by the Bishop of Ely, who sits at Ely Cathedral in the city of Ely.

Clerestory^[5] denotes the upper part of the nave, choir, and transepts of a large church, containing a series of windows.

Down

1d   Vain /and/ lazy (4)

Vain^[5] is used in the sense of having no likelihood of fulfilment; in other words, empty ⇒ a vain boast.

2d   Political leader gets freedom /for/ banality (9)

3d   Limits // area where cattle may graze (5)

4d   Work on models' // faces (7)

In his review, Big Dave comments "this just about works with model as a noun: if it were a verb then the possessive apostrophe would be inappropriate". However, it has long been my understanding that (1) punctuation present in the clue may need to be ignored and (2) punctuation missing from the clue may need to be inserted. I just assumed that this rule of thumb was applicable to apostrophes as well as commas.

5d   It may contribute to ill feeling (7)

7d   Customary // request for a drink? (5)

8d   Well-spoken // couple (10)

Articulate^[5] means to form a joint ⇒ the mandible is a solid piece articulating with the head. Articulated means connected by joints, as are the articulated buses operated by OCTranspo (Ottawa's public transit system).

9d   Accidentally catch something, perhaps (8)

14d   Neither win nor lose game /—/ it's a let-down (10)

16d   Incensed /as/ dismissed by newspaper boss (8)

If not entirely mandatory, it is certainly helpful to consider "newspaper boss" as an entity. However, in doing so please take note that the solution demands that the solver supply a bit more description than is usually required.

18d   Public announcement /in/ show ring (9)

20d   Point learnt afresh // for all time (7)

21d   Gorge // some cheese (7)

Cheddar Gorge^[7] is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar, Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be over 9,000 years old, was found in 1903. The cheese known as Cheddar^[5] was, of course, named after the village of Cheddar where it was originally made.

23d   It hath charms by the score (5)

William Congreve^[7] (1670–1729) was an English playwright and poet.

Two of Congreve's turns of phrase from The Mourning Bride (1697) have become famous, albeit frequently in misquotation, and often misattributed to William Shakespeare:

• "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast," which is the first line of the play, spoken by Almeria in Act I, Scene 1. (The word "breast" is often misquoted as "beast", and "has" sometimes appears as "hath".)
• "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned," spoken by Zara in Act III, Scene VIII. (This is usually paraphrased as "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned")

Congreve coined another famous phrase in Love for Love (1695):

• "O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell."

25d   Live wires // taken on stage, perhaps (5)

Lead^[5] is a British term for a wire that conveys electric current from a source to an appliance, or that connects two points of a circuit together.

26d   Extremely // inventive signalman (4)

Edward Wilson Very^[7] (1847–1910) was an American naval officer who developed and popularized a single-shot breech-loading snub-nosed flare gun that fired flares that bear his name (Very lights).

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