Thursday, March 12, 2015 — DT 27604

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27604
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, September 25, 2014
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27604]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By pommers
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

Despite an appearance by Her Majesty and several clues that would seem to be in RayT's style, this puzzle is apparently not one of his. For one thing, it is not his turn to set the puzzle and, for a second, he doesn't leave a comment on Big Dave's blog as is his custom. In Comment #3 at Big Dave's blog, Kitty says "This felt to me like the setter was trying to emulate RayT – which is no bad thing" and in Comment #23, Hrothgar adds "I think RayT has some keen competition now for Thursday".

Once again, several of pommers' illustrations have pulled a disappearing act at Big Dave's blog. However, I have succeeded in rounding them up and they appear in my review (captioned with pommers' comments).

Finally, a note to clarify the purpose of the boxes in my review. I introduced them primarily to contain commentary that — for the most part — does not contribute to solving the puzzle. They may give an explanation of the surface reading of the clue ("Scratching the Surface") which is intended to help readers appreciate how a Brit may read the clue. Often the surface reading is intended to misdirect the solver — but this may be entirely lost on North American readers. Of course, failing to fall into the trap being set by the creator of the puzzle may actually make finding the solution easier. Other boxes (such as "What did he say?") explain comments made on Big Dave's Blog. "Delving Deeper" boxes present information that I happen to stumble upon during my research that I think might be of interest to readers.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Comment on a Comment

If you are having difficulty following the parsing in Big Dave's response at Comment #8 on his blog, you may be relieved to know that his explanation would appear to contain an error.

To make the point that explanations on his site are easier to comprehend than those on another unnamed site, he offers the following clue as an example:

• Furious pensioner gets fine for nothing, initially, so starts shooting (5,4)

which has the solution OPENS FIRE.

The explanation of the wordplay on the other site is:

• (pensioner f – n{othing})*

Big Dave should have stated that the explanation on his site would be:

• An anagram (furious) of PENSIONER with F(ine) replacing (for) the initial letter of N[othing]

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   Black mark /for/ tourist attraction (6,4)

Missing Illustration
Beauty Spot

6a   Examine // mollusc -- a nautilus when shelled (4)

9a   One in seven workers /is/ out to lunch (5)

Dopey is one of the seven dwarfs in Walt Disney's 1937 animated musical fantasy film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs^[7] based on a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. The story had earlier been made into a Broadway play that debuted in 1912. The dwarfs are not given names in the fairy tale. In the 1912 production, they were named Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick and Quee. Disney renamed them Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey.

Missing Illustration
Dopey

10a   Belief // in teaching (9)

Intuition^[5] is used in the sense of a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning ⇒ your insights and intuitions as a native speaker are positively sought.

12a   Film's closing credit, perhaps, missing Depp's first // name (7)

A title^[5] is a caption or credit in a film or broadcast ⇒ Rumbelows [an electrical and electronics retailer in the UK] will get exclusive sponsorship with opening and closing titles. Another name for "closing title" would be "end title".

Scratching the Surface
Johnny Depp[7] is an American actor, producer, and musician who has many prominent roles to his credit, perhaps most notably that of pirate Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series of films.

13a   Love gin knocked back /in/ school with Riley, et al (2,3)

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

A gin^[2] (also gin trap) is a wire noose laid as a snare or trap for catching game.

Op art^[5] is a form of abstract art that gives the illusion of movement by the precise use of pattern and colour, or in which conflicting patterns emerge and overlap. Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely are its most famous exponents.

15a   Banger /and/ mash crusade (4,3)

Banger^[5] is an informal British term for an old car in poor condition ⇒ they’ve only got an old banger.

Scratching the Surface

One usually sees the expression in the clue written as bangers and mash but it would appear that the host is scrimping on the meat portions for this meal. Banger[5] is an informal British term for a sausage ⇒ bangers and mash. Mash[5] is an informal British term for mashed potato ⇒ for supper there was sausages [in other words, bangers] and mash. Note that bangers and mash would seem to be inseparable.

17a   State of panic about English // pound (7)

19a   Stiff // with cold, short man in a river (7)

21a   Horse's heart found in rejected beef -- that is // a giveaway (7)

Scratching the Surface

In his review, pommers says This would have been very topical a couple of years ago!. The 2013 meat adulteration scandal[7] was a scandal in Europe; foods advertised as containing beef were found to contain undeclared or improperly declared horse meat, as much as 100% of the meat content in some cases, and other undeclared meats, such as pork. The issue came to light on 15 January 2013, when it was reported that horse DNA had been discovered in frozen beefburgers sold in several Irish and British supermarkets. Horse meat is not harmful to health and is eaten in many countries, but is considered a taboo food in many countries, including the UK and Ireland. The analysis stated that 23 out of 27 samples of beef burgers also contained pig DNA; pork being a taboo food in the Muslim and Jewish communities.

22a   Fancy // design (5)

Fancy^[10] is used as a verb meaning to picture in the imagination.

Design^[2] is used as a noun meaning a plan, purpose or intention.

24a   Shoe doesn't fit? That could make one // bristle with agitation (7)

27a   Colour /produced by/ tar after fusion (5,4)

The entry for jack in The Chambers Dictionary would fill a page if it were not spread over parts of two pages. Among the definitions, one finds jack^[1] defined as (often with capital) a sailor.

28a   Cancel // Times? Anyone's conclusion! (5)

Scratching the Surface

The Times[7] is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register and became The Times on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by the News Corp group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.

29a   Aircraft // supplies Spain (4)

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Spain is E^[5] [from Spanish España].

Kite^[5] is a dated informal British term for an aircraft.

Missing Illustration
We haven't had one of these kites for a while

30a   PC setter or otherwise // looking back (10)

Down

1d   Foretell // the odds of bloody end to siege (4)

2d   He rapped about getting to grips with new // bust (9)

What did he say?
In his review, pommers says Bust as in being bust by the rozzers. Rozzer[5] is an informal British term for a police officer.

3d   /To get/ date // stone, have a bash first (5)

This is one of those rare instances where the definition is found in the middle of the clue. However, if one were to untangle the convoluted cryptic syntax of the clue, it would read:

• 3d   Stone, have a bash first /to get/ date (5)

The stone^[5] (abbreviation st^[5]) is a British unit of weight equal to 14 lb (6.35 kg) ⇒ I weighed 10 stone.

Scratching the Surface

To me, the surface reading makes little sense, although I suspect that there may be a meaning that has gone over my head. The only explanation that I can offer is that "stone" may refer to a gemstone or jewel. However, I fail to see a clear link between getting a stone for one's date and having a bash. Okay, I glean from Kath at Comment #11 on Big Dave's blog that a 'date stone' is a stone set in a building on which is inscribed the year in which the building was constructed. Nevertheless, the logic of the surface reading continues to elude me.

4d   Set up controls to cover daily // intake of alcohol (7)

The Financial Times (FT)^[7] is a British international business newspaper [that is printed on conspicuous salmon pink newsprint].

Snifter has a different meaning in the UK than it does in North America.

Snifter^[5] is an informal British term for a small quantity of an alcoholic drink ⇒ care to join me for a snifter?.

In North America, a snifter^[5] is a balloon glass for brandy ⇒ he drained the bottle into a snifter.

Note, however, that pommers illustrates the clue with a picture of the North American brandy glass.

Missing Illustration
Personally I think that this ruins a good brandy but each to his own!

5d   Shift more cars, say, than // Lotus managed -- including almost half of Elans (7)

Shift^[5] is an informal term meaning to sell (something) ⇒ a lot of high-priced product you simply don’t know how to shift. Thus, if Jaguar were to shift more cars than Lotus, they would outsell Lotus.

Scratching the Surface
Lotus Cars[7] is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars, famous for its Esprit, Elan, Europa and Elise sports cars and for the highly successful Team Lotus in Formula 1.

Missing Illustration
Lotus Elan S3

7d   Mate // that's from Staffordshire? (5)

In Britain, china^[5] is an informal term for a friend (or, as the Brits would say, a mate^[5]). This comes from Cockney rhyming slang, where china is the shortened form of china plate which rhymes with 'mate'.

Staffordshire^[5] is a county of central England; county town, Stafford. North Staffordshire, especially the area that now makes up the city of Stoke-on-Trent, became a centre of ceramic production in the early 17th century, due to the local availability of clay, salt, lead and coal. Hundreds of companies produced decorative or industrial items.^[7]

8d   N, evidently, /for/ no-hoper? (3-7)

The solution is found in American dictionaries (as well as Collins English Dictionary) spelled as nonstarter^[3,4,11] (without a hyphen). However, it has a hyphen according to Oxford Dictionaries Online^[5] and Chambers 21st Century Dictionary^[2].

I failed to find no-hoper (with or without a hyphen) in my usual American dictionaries. No-hoper^[5] is an informal term for a person who is not expected to be successful ⇒ they wasted their nominations on a no-hoper.

As pommers attempts to explain in his review, this is an instance of inverse wordplay. The solution (NON-STARTER), if interpreted as wordplay, would produce the result N — the initial letter (starter) of Non. I call it 'inverse wordplay' because the wordplay occurs in the solution and the result of executing the wordplay is found in the clue itself — the inverse of the usual situation.

You may see others refer to this as 'reverse wordplay'. However, I prefer the term 'inverse wordplay' as it is analogous to the concept of inverse functions in mathematics. The use of 'inverse' (as opposed to 'reverse') also avoids confusion with reversal type clues.

11d   Press, mature? // That was in the past (4,3)

14d   Groggy /from/ drink consumed (5-5)

Missing Illustration
Punch before it's drunk

16d   Beware mother's Northern // fellow having primitive ways (7)

The exclamation cave^[5] is dated British school slang meaning "look out!" (from Latin, imperative of cavere 'beware').

18d   In here bat settled /for/ winter (9)

In the cryptic reading, winter is used as a verb.

Hibernate^[5] is used figuratively as a verb meaning (of a person) to remain inactive or indoors for an extended period ⇒ the pilots who have been hibernating during the winter months get their gliders out again.

20d   Tease American composer /for/ bony frame (7)

John Cage^[7] (1912 – 1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist. Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from their presence for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is sometimes assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance.

Missing Illustration
The score of 4'33" by John Cage

21d   'The Queen' film previously // play (7)

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

23d   Benedictine issuing // proclamation (5)

Scratching the Surface
A Benedictine[5] is a monk or nun of a Christian religious order following the rule of St Benedict and established circa 540.

25d   Stronghold without key or // lock (5)

26d   Coat /with/ zip (4)

Like pommers, I found a different solution than the one intended by the setter. The possibility of two solutions to the clue is mentioned extensively throughout the comments at Big Dave's Blog, with the main discussion being at Comment #8 and its accompanying responses.

The official solution is PELT which can be either a noun meaning an animal's coat of fur or hair^[5] or an informal verb meaning to run somewhere very quickly ⇒ I pelted across the road^[5].

The unofficial — and, to my mind, equally valid — solution is ZEST which can mean either the the outer coloured part of the peel of citrus fruit, used as flavouring ⇒ add 3 tablespoons of lemon zest^[5] or a quality of excitement and piquancy ⇒ I used to try to beat past records to add zest to my monotonous job^[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