Tuesday, October 28, 2014 — DT 27507

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27507
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27507]
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

This fairly gentle puzzle from Jay should not cause you to raise an excessive sweat.

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   Responsible prisoner/'s/ time -- out of practice! (6)

When used as a link word, the 's is interpreted as a contraction of is.

4a   Story about a ship/'s/ dog in pictures (6)

I long ago discovered that a ship in Crosswordland is almost invariably a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[10].

Lassie^[7] is a fictional female collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, Knight's novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six other MGM feature films through 1951. Pal's owner and trainer Rudd Weatherwax then acquired the Lassie name and trademark from MGM and appeared with Pal (as "Lassie") at rodeos, fairs, and similar events across America in the early 1950s. In 1954, the long-running, Emmy winning television series Lassie debuted, and, over the next 19 years, a succession of Pal's descendants appeared on the series. The "Lassie" character has appeared in radio, television, film, toys, comic books, animated series, juvenile novels, and other media. Pal's descendants continue to play Lassie today.

If the illustration used by Big Dave appears very British, it is because it comes from the theatrical release poster for Lassie^[7], a 2005 remake of the original story, which was filmed in Scotland, Ireland and on the Isle of Man.

Those — such as myself — who are familiar with Lassie only from the television series will no doubt be surprised to learn that the original story was set in Yorkshire, England and not in the US.

8a   Odd sock/'s/ potential cause of merriment (3,5)

Rum^[5] is a dated informal British term meaning odd or peculiar ⇒ it’s a rum business, certainly.

10a   Roofing material /for/ brood on top of tree (6)

11a   Just // loud music (4)

Forte^[5] (abbreviation f^[5]) is a musical direction meaning (as an adjective) loud or (as an adverb) loudly.

12a   Open // popular castle regularly occupied by herald (10)

In ancient Rome, an augur^[5] was a religious official who observed natural signs, especially the behaviour of birds, interpreting these as an indication of divine approval or disapproval of a proposed action. Today the term augur^[3,4,11] has come to mean a seer, prophet or soothsayer.

13a   Unhappy /and /confused client, so sad, accepts ring (12)

16a   A barrier /for/ good girl securing broadcast? (5,7)

20a   Where a sommelier might be // cooking tuna rarest (10)

21a   Policeman embracing universal // success (4)

Under the British system of film classification^[7] a U (for 'universal') rating indicates that a film is suitable "for all the family" — or, at any rate, for children over 4 years of age.

22a   Stung /by/ scrap -- then dismissing hospital (6)

23a   Rough cost /of/ redeveloping site with partner (8)

24a   Fail to embrace South American // neglect (6)

25a   Watch // nurse have a go (6)

In the UK, a State Enrolled Nurse^[5] (abbreviation SEN) is a nurse enrolled on a state register and having a qualification lower than that of a State Registered Nurse.

Down

1d   A mist swirling around tabloid // catastrophes (8)

The Sun^[7] is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

2d   Stimulant // that's found in shoe (5)

3d   Stress // formerly missing from new part of house (7)

5d   Important I guarantee to provide accommodation for // holiday destination (7)

Antigua^[5] is One of the islands that make up the country of Antigua and Barbuda^[5], a country consisting of three islands (Antigua, Barbuda, and Redonda) in the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean; population 85,600 (est. 2009); languages, English (official), Creole; capital, St John’s (on Antigua). Discovered in 1493 by Columbus and settled by the English in 1632, Antigua became a British colony with Barbuda as its dependency; the islands gained independence within the Commonwealth in 1981.

6d   Air pocket occurring mid-flight? (9)

I think we have to accept this as one of those fanciful cryptic definitions for which there is no concrete explanation.

I pursued a number of fruitless leads in attempting to glean more from this clue than perhaps exists. I thought that "air" might possibly refer to the letters AIR occurring roughly in the middle of the word STAIRWELL. However, that does not appear to be the case. I also briefly flirted with the idea that "mid-flight" might be clueing the letters IG (the middle letters of flIGht). I even toyed with the notion that "mid-flight" could be referring to a landing.

Most dictionaries define stairwell^[5] along the lines of a shaft in a building in which a staircase is built. However, I got some inspiration from the listing in The American Heritage Dictionary which defines stairwell^[3] as a vertical shaft around which a staircase has been built. Thus one might conceivably think of the empty shaft at the centre of an open staircase as an "air-pocket". Granted this shaft is only part of the stairwell — with the stairs themselves occupying the remainder of the stairwell. Also a flight (a set of steps or stairs between one landing or floor and the next) is hardly synonymous with staircase — unless, of course, one is talking about a circular staircase (which has no landings).

7d   Quote by divorcee // to cause great emotion (6)

9d   Putin, say, // has to defeat revolutionary (4,2,5)

Vladimir Putin^[5] is a Russian statesman, President 2000-8 and since 2012, Prime Minister 2008–2012.

14d   Muses // get a Stoic in trouble (9)

The surface reading is an allusion to Greek and Roman mythology, where the Muses^[5] were the nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences. The Muses are generally listed as Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Euterpe (flute playing and lyric poetry), Terpsichore (choral dancing and song), Erato (lyre playing and lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Thalia (comedy and light verse), Polyhymnia (hymns, and later mime), and Urania (astronomy).

A Stoic^[5] is a member of the school of Stoicism^[5], an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.

15d   Attempt to underpin flower // business (8)

The setter uses flower in a whimsical cryptic crossword sense meaning something that flows — in other words, a river.

The Indus^[5] is a river of southern Asia, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) in length, flowing from Tibet through Kashmir and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. Along its valley an early civilization flourished from circa 2600 to 1760 BC.

17d   Graduate // students supporting a learner with sign of hesitation (7)

In the UK, NUS^[5] is the abbreviation for the National Union of Students^[5], a confederation of students’ unions in the United Kingdom.

18d   Call // sir? (7)

I thought that this clue might simply be a cryptic definition. To call (someone) sir would be to award the title sir (to someone) or, in other words, to entitle (them).

However, Big Dave suggests that it is a double definition — although he clearly experiences some difficulty in his attempt to explain why. The first definition is straightforward ⇒ Margaret Atwood chose to call/entitle her first novel The Edible Woman. The second definition is far less clear. For the clue to be a double definition, sir would seem to have been used whimsically as a verb meaning to award the title of sir (to someone) ⇒ I hereby sir you/I hereby entitle you.

19d   Challenged // proof of title to cover Grand Prix racing (6)

FIA Formula One World Championship^[7] (also Formula One, Formula 1, and F1) is the highest class of single-seat auto racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The "formula", designated in the name, refers to a set of rules with which all participants' cars must comply. The F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix (from French, originally meaning great prizes), held throughout the world on purpose-built circuits and public roads.

21d   Space traveller /finds/ the compiler in bed! (5)

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the) compiler, (the) setter, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

Cot^[5] is the name used in Britain for a crib^[5], a small bed with high barred sides for a baby or very young child..

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