Thursday, December 11, 2014 — DT 27539

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27539
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, July 11, 2014
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27539]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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

As is customary with Giovanni's creations, this puzzle demands a bit of work to solve and one likely comes away from the exercise having added at least a couple of new words to one's vocabulary.

Definitions presented in blue text are terms that appear in the puzzles on a fairly regular basis.

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   Writer, // mostly haughty when seen on street (6)

Marcel Proust^[5] (1871–1922) was a French novelist, essayist, and critic. He devoted much of his life to writing his novel À la recherche du temps perdu (published in seven sections between 1913 and 1927). Its central theme is the recovery of the lost past and the releasing of its creative energies through the stimulation of unconscious memory.

4a   Ghosts -- // sort primarily associated with hell? (6)

Shade^[5] is used in a literary sense meaning a ghost ⇒ the ghost is the shade of Lucy Walters, first mistress of Charles II.

In Greek mythology, Hades^[10] is (1) the underworld abode of the souls of the dead or (2) another name for Pluto, the god of the underworld, brother of Zeus and husband of Persephone. In the New Testament, Hades is the abode or state of the dead. Hades (often not capitalized) is also an informal term for hell.

8a   Leader holds river game /in/ much bigger water area (8)

... that is, the solution is an area of water much bigger than a river.

The Po^[7] is a river that arises in the Cottian Alps and flows eastward across northern Italy entering the Adriatic Sea through a delta near Venice.

Rugby union^[10] (abbreviation RU^[5]) is a form of rugby football played between teams of 15 players (in contrast to rugby league^[5], which is played in teams of thirteen).

The Bosporus^[5] (also Bosphorus) is a strait connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and separating Europe from the Anatolian peninsula of western Asia. Istanbul is located at its south end. [According to their comments, the Brits were far more familiar with the alternative spelling.]

10a   Spot us involved /in/ chancy exercise (4-2)

11a   Engineer /in/ factory wasting time (4)

12a   Description of scale /that/ could be found in ancient pot (10)

In music, the adjective pentatonic^[5] means relating to, based on, or denoting a scale of five notes, especially one without semitones equivalent to an ordinary major scale with the fourth and seventh omitted ⇒ pentatonic scales in the key of G Major.

13a   Row about divine female and theologian immersed in drink -- /it's/ nonsense! (6-6)

Divine^[5] is a dated term for a cleric or theologian.

Doctor of Divinity^[7] (abbreviation D.D. or DD, Divinitatis Doctor in Latin) is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects. In the United Kingdom, Doctor of Divinity has traditionally been the highest doctorate granted by universities, usually conferred upon a religious scholar of standing and distinction. In the United States, the Doctor of Divinity is usually awarded as an honorary degree.

The wordplay is {FILE (row; as in 'rank and file') containing (about) DD (divine; theologian)} + F (female) + (and) {DD (theologian) contained in (immersed in) ALE (drink)}.

16a   Little devil in charge of one small building // deprived of necessities? (12)

20a   Hesitation about loud rude men spoiling // democratic procedure (10)

The hesitation appears at the beginning of the solution [ER (reversed)]and not at the end [UM].

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

21a   It's a bit of a fag // being laughed at (4)

Read the second definition as "[a] being [who is] laughed at".

In the surface reading, fag^[5] is used in the informal British sense meaning a tiring or unwelcome task ⇒ it’s too much of a fag to drive all the way there and back again.

22a   Man entering pit shortly /finds/ dog (6)

23a   Aussie beast has pain // sitting down (8)

24a   One intercepting gas /is/ a sort of thief (6)

25a   The rioting gets in the way of modern // rule (6)

Down

1d   Broadcast // favouring assertion (8)

2d   Hidden within moor, pink // plant (5)

Could there be a more obvious hidden word indicator?

Orpin is an alternative spelling of orpine^[5], a purple-flowered Eurasian stonecrop (Sedum telephium). Stonecrop^[5] is a small fleshy-leaved plant which typically has star-shaped yellow or white flowers and grows among rocks or on walls.

3d   The prose mostly inappropriate? // Bit of poetry /called for/ (7)

Despite being positioned at the tail end due to the inverted clue structure adopted by the setter, the words "called for" serve the same function as a link word or phrase.

A strophe^[5] is a group of lines forming a section of a lyric poem. As Deep Threat points out, it also means the first section of an ancient Greek choral ode or [the first section] of one division of it.

5d   One adds decoration to a tile (7)

Tile^[10] is old-fashioned British slang for a hat. Apparently the expression arises from the fact that "it’s something that goes over-head" — alluding to roofing tiles.

6d   Comes across // dossier with CV falsified (9)

A CV^[5] (short for curriculum vitae) is a brief account of a person’s education, qualifications, and previous occupations, typically sent with a job application ⇒ if you feel that you have these skills then please send us your CV.

7d   Holy type at university I would /put down as/ 'laughable' (6)

In Britain, up^[5] means at or to a university, especially Oxford or Cambridge ⇒ they were up at Cambridge about the same time.

9d   Peaceful army overcoming vandals, nasty men /in/ capital city (3,8)

The wordplay is SA (peaceful army; the Sally Ann) + (overcoming; preceding, in a down clue) an anagram (nasty) of VANDALS + OR (men; soldiers).

The Salvation Army^[5] (abbreviation SA) is a worldwide Christian evangelical organization on quasi-military lines. Established in 1865 by William Booth, an English Methodist revivalist preacher, it is noted for its work with the poor and for its brass bands.

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

San Salvador^[5] is the capital of El Salvador; population 316,090 (2007).

14d   One spews out rubbish, // spoiling river dell (9)

15d   Edmund's put away inside /to be/ spruced up (8)

In the surface reading, "Edmund's" is a possessive (some unspecified object belonging to Edmund was put away). However, in the cryptic reading, "Edmund's" is a contraction for 'Edmund has'.

Ned^[7] is an English given name, sometimes short for Edward, Edmund, Edgar, or Edwin. "Ned" may have risen from generations of children hearing "mine Ed" as "my Ned" which is an example of a process linguists call rebracketing.

17d   Excuse // of an era preceding electronic messages? (7)

The pretext era being "the time before SMS [short message service] messages".

I have marked this clue, in which we find a straight definition and a cryptic definition, as a double definition. However, I see that Deep Threat chose not to do so. I really can't justify my choice, other than to say that the clue just strikes me as a double definition. However, that may not be the case for all clues of a similar structure — as we shill see in the next clue.

18d   Emphasise // good news about lost sheep? (3,4)

Here, although we again have a straight definition and a cryptic definition, the clue just does not strike me as being a double definition.

To drive (or hammer or press or ram) something home^[5] is to make something clearly understood by the use of repeated or forcefully direct arguments ⇒ we must drive home the message that crime doesn’t pay.

19d   Engineers leading rebellion // get back (6)

The Corps of Royal Engineers^[7], usually just called the Royal Engineers (abbreviation RE), and commonly known as the Sappers^[7], is a corps of the British Army that provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces.

21d   Dog // nibbled companion (5)

A Companion of Honour (abbreviation CH) is a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour^[7], an order of the Commonwealth realms^[7] founded by King George V in June 1917 as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion.

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