Friday, January 2, 2015 — DT 27555

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27555
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27555]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By scchua
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 has skipped DT 27554 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, July 29, 2014.

Introduction

After encountering a Q and a Z, I wondered if this might turn out to be a pangram — a puzzle in which every letter of the alphabet appears at least once in the solutions. In the end, it was not to be.

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 (//). Definitions presented in blue text are for terms that appear frequently.

Across

1a   Country, // for example, bordered by roads from the east (7)

Senegal^[5] — much in the news lately — is a country on the coast of West Africa; population 13,711,600 (est. 2009); languages, French (official), Wolof, and other West African languages; capital, Dakar.

5a   Deer /from/ estate, say -- one about to lose protection (7)

In the UK, estate^[5] is short for estate car^[5], the British name for a station wagon^[5].

The caribou^[10] is a large deer, Rangifer tarandus, of Arctic regions of North America, having large branched antlers in the male and female. It also occurs in Europe and Asia, where it is called a reindeer. [I never realized that reindeer and caribou were one and the same animal!]

9a   Disturb // game bird, blowing head off! (5)

10a   Single // admirer spoilt by a Parisian (9)

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

11a   Where ministers // face magistrates? (5,5)

In his review, scchua shows the word "face" as being part of the definition. However, as his explanation clearly indicates, it is actually part of the wordplay.

The definition is "where ministers" which we must interpret as meaning "where ministers [are to be found]". The wordplay is FRONT (face) + BENCH (magistrates; [The] Bench).

The bench^[5,10] (or the Bench) denotes (1) the office of judge or magistrate or (2) judges or magistrates collectively ⇒ his appointment to the civil bench.

In the UK [not to mention Canada], the front bench^[5] denotes the foremost seats in the House of Commons, occupied by the members of the cabinet and shadow cabinet ⇒ his place on the Opposition front bench will be at stake.

12a   Vehicle carrying unknown // ruler (4)

In mathematics (algebra, in particular), an unknown^[10] is a variable, or the quantity it represents, the value of which is to be discovered by solving an equation ⇒ 3y = 4x + 5 is an equation in two unknowns. [Unknowns are typically represented symbolically by the letters x, y and z.]

14a   A grin spreads after compliment /for/ flavouring (7,5)

A bouquet garni^[5] is a bunch of herbs, typically encased in a muslin bag, used for flavouring a stew or soup.

18a   Symbol representing a Christian nation /or/ race (5-7)

21a   Pretentious // soirée starting late (4)

22a   Silly bidding war /for/ rail, for example (6,4)

The rail^[10] is any of various small wading birds of the genus Rallus and related genera having short wings, long legs, and dark plumage.

25a   Joining forces, // being inclined to follow nurse (9)

In Britain, EN^[10] is the abbreviation for enrolled nurse.

I presume that "enrolled nurse" is merely a shortened form of "State Enrolled Nurse". 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.

26a   An unexpected development /in/ dance (5)

In his review, scchua makes allusion to A Twist in the Tale^[7], a 1988 collection of short stories by British author and politician Jeffrey Archer.

27a   Shanghai/'s/ duck-eating breather of fire (7)

In cricket, a duck^[5] is a batsman’s score of nought [zero] ⇒ he was out for a duck. This is similar to the North American expression goose egg^[5] meaning a zero score in a game. In British puzzles, duck is used to indicate the letter "O" based on the resemblance of the digit "0" to this letter.

In the surface reading, Shanghai^[5] is a city on the east coast of China, a port on the estuary of the Yangtze; population 11,283,700 (est. 2006). Opened for trade with the west in 1842, Shanghai contained until the Second World War areas of British, French, and American settlement. It was the site in 1921 of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.

28a   Time and pounds invested in more unusual // child (7)

Prior to my review of Wednesday's puzzle, I would have said that "pounds" referred to British currency. However, I now have to broaden the definition. The Chambers Dictionary defines the upper case L^[1] as the abbreviation for pound sterling (usually written £) and the lower case l^[1] as the abbreviation for pound weight (usually written lb) — both deriving from the Latin word Libra.

Down

1d   Down-at-heel bloke /gets/ right into scrape (6)

Bloke^[5] is an informal British term for a man.

Scruff^[5] is an informal British term for a person with a dirty or untidy appearance.

2d   Foreign currency invested in new name /for/ nerve cell (6)

The euro^[5] is the single European currency, which replaced the national currencies of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands in 2002. Seventeen member states of the European Union now use the euro.

3d   You once invested in divine European // accommodation for travellers (5-5)

4d   Fail, catching union leader/'s/ bug (5)

5d   Own up /and/ arrive free of drugs (4,5)

6d   Not often experienced, /but/ runs a race, disheartened (4)

On cricket scorecards [not to mention baseball scoreboards], the abbreviation R^[5] denotes run(s).

7d   Black reptile reported /in/ snowstorm (8)

8d   Reporting to fix // support (8)

13d   Gathered together /and/ confined following poor beggar that had been executed (10)

In Crosswordland, you will find that executions are usually carried out by beheading.

15d   'Too quaint' possibly identifies this (9)

In his review, scchua identifies the single word "this" as being the definition. Personally, I have a strong aversion to identifying pronouns as definitions. By definition (pardon the pun), one should be able to arrive at the solution based solely on the definition. One certainly cannot deduce the solution to this clue based solely on the single word "this". Ergo, the word "this" is not a definition and we must therefore look in other directions.

After considerable pondering, I have concluded that this must be a semi-&lit. clue. The entire clue serves as the definition. The phrase 'too quaint' is a quotation and the word "possibly" indicates that the words preceding it are an example of the solution (i.e., definition by example). In the definition, the words "identifies this" can be read as "provides the solution". Overall, as a definition, the clue would be read as "'Too quaint' [a quotation] is an example of the solution".

The portion of the clue with the dashed underline serves as the wordplay, an anagram (possibly) of TOO QUAINT.

16d   Cut of meat /for/ Cliff in post? (5,3)

Here, the setter has deceptively capitalized "Cliff" to make us think of it is a man's name.

According to the dictionaries, post^[3,4,11] is a (chiefly) British term meaning to send by mail. However, the phrase "post a letter" — while certainly much less common than "mail a letter" — does not sound entirely foreign to me. After all, our mail service is named Canada Post.

Scrag-end^[5] (or scrag end^[10]) is a British term for the inferior end of a neck of mutton ⇒ scrag-end of mutton.

17d   Decorator -- till actually holding // a dish from Spain (8)

I hope the surface reading makes more sense to you than it does to me!

19d   Decoration /for which/ I must be put in last (6)

20d   Newspaper chief // called it ordinary, to some extent (6)

23d   Acquired following in // bar (5)

24d   Log salmon regularly appearing /in/ city (4)

Oslo^[5] is the capital and chief port of Norway, on the south coast at the head of Oslofjord; population 839,423 (2007). Founded in the 11th century, it was known as Christiania (or Kristiania) from 1624 until 1924 in honour of Christian IV of Norway and Denmark (1577–1648).

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