Tuesday, February 3, 2015 — DT 27577

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27577
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, August 25, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27577]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Miffypops
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

After the fairly stiff workouts we were given on Friday and Monday, it is a bit of a relief to see that Rufus serves up his usual gentle, but enjoyable, offering.

Should Miffypops greeting ("Good morning from the heart of Downtown L.I.") cause you to wonder from where he hales, the answer is Long Itchington^[7], Warwickshire. Apparently, L.I. (population slightly more than 2000) must be as well known in the UK as LA is to us!

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   /It's/ possible // a belief's being shaken (8)

The word "it's" really can't be considered to be part of the definition. I would say that this word actually forms part of what I will call the skeleton of clue. Similar to a link word or link phrase, it is used to establish a framework to hold the definition and wordplay, but does not form part of either of those elements. In the cryptic reading, it may help to think of the implied antecedent of the pronoun "it" as being "definition". Thus the clue states "The definition is possible".

6a   People take pains to please him (6)

Behind the Picture

The illustration in Miffypops' review comes from My First Dictionary, a blog which evolved into a book. Here is how a review in the Boston Globe described the book: In his new book “My First Dictionary: Corrupting Young Minds One Word at a Time’’ (It Books), Ross Horsley, a British librarian with a wicked sense of humor, skewers the adult world of lies and secrets, infidelities, and overindulgences. He accomplishes this by pairing cheery illustrations based on a children’s dictionary from the 1970s with his own twisted and irreverent definitions. Each word, from “abandon’’ to “zoo,’’ is used in a simply stated vignette involving adult subject matter, running the gamut from sexually transmitted diseases, pedophilia, and adultery to alcoholism, suicide, and murder. Horsley is an equal opportunity offender. © Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

9a   Minister /is/ to eat about six (6)

I think Miffypops must have divined [discovered by guesswork or intuition] that "minister" is being used in the sense of "to attend to the needs of others". If so, it would seem to be a bit of faulty guesswork. While "minister" can take this meaning, "divine" certainly cannot.

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

10a   Labour candidate? // He's admitting dirty money taken in return (8)

Candidate^[5] is used in the sense of  a person or thing regarded as suitable for or likely to receive a particular fate, treatment, or position ⇒ she was the perfect candidate for a biography.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Hercules^[5] was a hero of superhuman strength and courage who performed twelve immense tasks or ‘labours’ imposed on him and who after death was ranked among the gods.

Scratching the Surface
The Labour Party[5] (abbreviation Lab.[5]) in Britain is a left-of-centre political party formed to represent the interests of ordinary working people that since the Second World War has been in power 1945–51, 1964–70, 1974-9, and 1997–2010. Arising from the trade union movement at the end of the 19th century, it replaced the Liberals as the country’s second party after the First World War.

11a   I'm sent back with money for betting // slips (8)

12a   Parking in Indian city -- /or/ Greek one (6)

Delhi^[5] is a walled city on the River Jumna in north central India, which was made the capital of the Mogul empire in 1638 by Shah Jahan (1592–1666).

Delving Deeper
New Delhi[5] is the capital of India, a city in north central India built 1912–29 to replace Calcutta (now Kolkata) as the capital of British India. With Delhi, it is part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Pop. (with Delhi) 12,259,200 (est. 2009).

Delphi^[7] is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece (with a population of 2,373). One visitor to Big Dave's blog comments that "I doubt that [it] can be regarded as a city."

Delphi^[5] was one of the most important religious sanctuaries of the ancient Greek world, dedicated to Apollo and situated on the lower southern slopes of Mount Parnassus above the Gulf of Corinth. It was the seat of the Delphic Oracle, whose riddling responses to a wide range of questions were delivered by the Pythia [the priestess of Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece].

13a   Transport of delight? (8,4)

16a   Masqueraded /as/ dressing up predominates (12)

19a   Maximum effort at the end of the innings (3,3)

I struggled with how to mark up this clue. In the end, I decided to call it a cryptic definition in which we have a straight definition (indicated by the solid underline) and a subsidiary indication (dashed underline).

The subsidiary indication is alluding that an innings in cricket ends when the batsmen are "all out". However, this is not actually the case:

The main aim of the bowler, supported by his fielders, is to dismiss the batsman. A batsman when dismissed is said to be "out" and that means he must leave the field of play and be replaced by the next batsman on his team. When ten batsmen [out of the eleven players forming a cricket team] have been dismissed (i.e., are out), then the whole team is dismissed and the innings is over. The last batsman, the one who has not been dismissed, is not allowed to continue alone as there must always be two batsmen "in". This batsman is termed "not out".^[7]

In defence of the setter, I suppose that at the end of an innings all the batsmen are out that are ever going to be out in that innings.

21a   Got out of bed? (8)

This might be stated a bit more verbosely as, "Got [the weeds] out of [the] bed?"

23a   One shows the way in business (8)

24a   He cometh in theatre or cinema production (6)

The Iceman Cometh^[7] is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway in October 1946, where it ran for 136 performances before closing in March 1947.

The Iceman Cometh^[7] is a 1973 film based on Eugene O'Neill's 1939 play of the same name. The film was a minute short of four hours in length, and became the first film to have two intermissions.

25a   Not off to visit, /but/ ready to make one (2,4)

"Ready to make a visit", that is.

26a   Not for heavy drinkers? (5,3)

This is clearly a cryptic definition rather than an "all in one clue" (as Miffypops identifies it in his review). There is no alternative reading to the clue as there would have to be in an all-in-one clue (more formally known as an &lit.^[7] clue).

Down

2d   Panacea /for/ rising team in trouble (6)

Eleven^[5] is the number of players on a cricket^[7] side or an Association football^[7] [soccer] team — and is often used as a metonym for such a team ⇒ at cricket I played in the first eleven.

3d   Change // dress (5)

4d   Low joints for workers? /That's/ ideal! (4,5)

The clue would have better matched the structure of the idiom which constitutes the solution had the wordplay been phrased as "Low joints for a worker". This could be expressed another way as "A worker's low joints" which parses as BEE (a worker) + S ('s) + KNEES (low joints).

Nevertheless, the given clue does work after a fashion. "Low joints for workers" could be expressed as "Workers' low joints" which parses as BEES (workers') + KNEES (low joints).

The bee's knees^[5] is an informal expression denoting an outstandingly good person or thing [first used to denote something small and insignificant, transferred to the opposite sense in US slang].

Delving Deeper

I always thought this expression to be US slang dating from the flapper era of the 1920s. Surprisingly, none of the dictionaries that I consulted considered it to be a dated term. Even more surprising, Collins 21st Century Dictionary[2] characterizes it as a British term and the Cambridge Idioms Dictionary as British and Australian[Cambridge Idioms]. Perhaps the term has been adopted and lives on across the pond long after it has died out here.

5d   Stray sheep seen by us /in/ biblical city (7)

Ephesus^[5] was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Asia Minor, in present-day Turkey, site of the temple of Diana, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was an important centre of early Christianity; St Paul preached there and St John is traditionally said to have lived there.

6d   /There's/ a scrap /when/ a communist is told to be quiet (5)

Similar to the use of "it's" in 1a, "there's" is — in essence — another way of saying "the definition is".

To tell a communist to be quiet, one might utter the admonishment "Sh! Red".

7d   Basic support for sleeping partners? (6,3)

8d   To visit a capital /is/ 9 across (3,5)

The numeral "9" in the clue is a cross reference indicator directing the solver to insert the solution to clue 9a in its place to complete the clue.

The wordplay parses as SEE (to visit) + A (from the clue) + HEAD (capital).

13d   Wonders /when/ phone exchanges changed name (9)

14d   Phone about disruption of trade // causing delay (9)

15d   One slum I refurbished -- with this? (8)

This is a semi-&lit. (or semi-all-in-one) clue. The entire clue constitutes the the definition, while the portion marked with a dashed underline also serves as the wordplay.

As a definition, the clue could be expressed another way as "What I used to refurbish a slum".

Emulsion^[5] (also emulsion paint) is a British term for a type of paint used for walls, consisting of pigment bound in a synthetic resin which forms an emulsion with water ⇒ three coats of white emulsion.

17d   No gear, /so/ refusing to fight? (7)

If your car's transmission is in no gear (or, in other words, not in gear), then it must be in neutral.

18d   Happen // to exist before autumn comes (6)

Delving Deeper

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, fall5 (also Fall) is the North American term for autumn. The word fall7 actually came to North America from England. Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season, as is common in other West Germanic languages to this day (cf. Dutch herfst and German Herbst). However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns (especially those who could read and write, the only people whose use of language we now know), the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and autumn, as well as fall, began to replace it as a reference to the season. The term fall came to denote the season in 16th century England. During the 17th century, English emigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took the English language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America. Notwithstanding the foregoing, I would think that in Canada the terms fall and autumn are used interchangeably and with roughly equal frequency.

20d   Sum /for/ child, a beginner (5)

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

22d   /It's/ obvious // minister has been brought up in Old Testament (5)

See comments at 1a regarding the role that "it's" is playing in the clue.

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