Friday, February 20, 2015 — DT 27590

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27590
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27590]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza
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

Other than the 18th century playwright, there was little that was new or unknown in today's offering.

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

7a   Name // a soft extremity (7)

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.

9a   Fascinating attraction /of/ good US actress (7)

The abbreviation G^[10] for good likely relates to its use in grading school assignments or tests.

Dorothy Lamour^[7] (1914–1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.

10a   Holding // dog with no lead (5)

Scratching the Surface
Lead[3] is another name for a leash.

11a   'Standard' therefore will be touching on // ruin of Athens (9)

In golf, par is (1) the number of strokes a first-class player should normally require for a particular hole or course ⇒ (i) Woosnam had advanced from his overnight position of three under par; (ii) the sixteenth is a par five or (2) a par score at a hole ⇒ a card that showed 16 pars, one eagle, and one birdie.

The Parthenon^[5] is the temple of Athene Parthenos, built on the Acropolis [the ancient citadel at Athens] in 447–432 BC by Pericles to honour Athens' patron goddess and to commemorate the recent Greek victory over the Persians. It was designed by Ictinus and Callicrates with sculptures by Phidias.

12a   Cinzano -- // two words for it (7,8)

Cinzano^[5] is the trademark for a type of vermouth produced in Italy.

It^[5] is an informal, dated British term for Italian vermouth ⇒ he poured a gin and it.

13a   Late goal // that leads nowhere (4,3)

In clues such as this, where the definition starts with "that", I find that it helps to mentally insert the word "something" or "someone" (as appropriate) before the word "that". When we do this, the word "something" or "someone" is actually merely replacing the wordplay in the clue.

16a   Monster // movie (7)

Titanic^[7] is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by Canadian filmmaker James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.

19a   Gay stage entertainment? (3,7,5)

The Beggar's Opera^[7] is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today.

23a   Gathering of young kids /in/ drama school (4,5)

24a   Newly-built Loire // college (5)

Oriel College^[7] is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford.

25a   Dr No, I suspect, shown in ad /for/ a robot (7)

Scratching the Surface

Dr. No[7] is the sixth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK in 1958. It was the first of Fleming's novels to receive large-scale negative criticism in Britain, with Paul Johnson of the New Statesman writing his review about the "Sex, Snobbery and Sadism" of the story. When the book was released into the American market, it was generally received more favourably. Dr. No was the first James Bond feature film of the Eon Productions series, released in 1962 and starring Sean Connery.

26a   Urge to meet chief // quiz specialist? (7)

Egghead^[3,4,11] is an informal, usually disparaging, term for an intellectual or highbrow.

Eggheads^[7] is a BBC quiz show which pits a team of five "Eggheads" (made up from eight highly regarded quiz and game show champions, rotating each episode) against a series of teams of five "challengers" who in each episode attempt to beat the Eggheads through a series of rounds.

Down

1d   Tree /in/  River Indus American pulled out (8)

The Tamar^[5] is a river in southwestern England which rises in northwestern Devon and flows 98 km (60 miles) generally southwards, forming the boundary between Devon and Cornwall and emptying into the English Channel through Plymouth Sound.

Scratching the Surface
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.

The tamarind^[5] is the tropical African tree (Tamarindus indica) which yields tamarind pods (whose pulp is widely used as a flavouring in Asian cookery), cultivated throughout the tropics and also grown as an ornamental and shade tree.

2d   Bitter speech /from/ attorney about island race (8)

In the US, a district attorney^[5] (abbreviation DA) is a public official who acts as prosecutor for the state in a particular district.

3d   Pest, unfortunately, elected // to intervene (4,2)

4d   Make sense of // female, mostly relaxed (6)

5d   Sad act /in/ decline (8)

A turn^[3] is a brief theatrical act or stage appearance.

6d   Pull // young girl across river (6)

As a noun, wench^[5] is (1) an archaic or humorous term for a girl or young woman ⇒ in the new film about Columbus, she plays the token buxom wench or (2) an archaic name for a prostitute. As a verb, wench^[5] is an archaic term meaning (of a man) to habitually associate with prostitutes.

8d   After last of frittata, // spaghetti? (5)

Scratching the Surface
Frittata[5] is an Italian dish made with fried beaten eggs, resembling a Spanish omelette.

9d   Man has upper limb stuck in // article of clothing (7)

14d   Deposited in a river /in/ Australian city (8)

The Dee^[5] is a river in northeastern Scotland, which rises in the Grampian Mountains and flows eastwards past Balmoral Castle to the North Sea at Aberdeen. Another river of the same name rises in North Wales and flows past Chester and on into the Irish Sea.

Adelaide^[5] is a city in Australia, the capital and chief port of the state of South Australia; population 1,172,105 (2008).

15d   Tree/'s/ shadow over golf club (7)

Dogwood^[5] denotes any of many species of shrub or small tree of north temperate regions, which yields hard timber and is grown for its decorative foliage, red stems, or colourful berries.

17d   Complete, // from beginning to end, hiding nothing (8)

18d   Circumspect about youth /becoming/ a cleaner (8)

Charlady^[5] (or charwoman^[5]) is a dated British term for a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office.

19d   Hot tap dances in this film? (3,3)

This is a semi-&lit. (or, if you prefer, semi-all-in-one) clue. The entire clue provides the definition, while the portion of the clue with the dashed underline serves as the wordplay.

Top Hat^[7] is a 1935 screwball musical comedy film in which Fred Astaire plays an American dancer named Jerry Travers, who comes to London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) to win her affection. The songs were written by Irving Berlin. "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" and "Cheek to Cheek" have become American song classics. Top Hat — Astaire's second most successful picture after Easter Parade — was the most successful picture of Astaire and Rogers' partnership and remains, to this day, the partnership's best-known work.

20d   Drink, // say, before gong used (6)

21d   Rex, on a jetty, /finds/ sword (6)

Rex^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for king] denotes the reigning king, used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, King George) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Rex v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

22d   Select // rice, finally -- low in calories (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