Friday, April 17, 2015 — DT 27637

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27637
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, November 3, 2014
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27637]
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
Notes
The National Post has skipped DT 27631 through DT 27636 which were published in The Daily Telegraph from Monday, October 27, 2014 through Saturday, November 1, 2014.

Introduction

With today's offering, the National Post has skipped an entire week of puzzles. After months of very predictable behaviour, the puzzles editor has begun to exhibit some very bizarre symptoms. Drop a day there, skip a week here.

For me, this development has come at a rather inopportune time. I am about to head off for a few weeks of vacation and had planned to put the blog into "vacation mode" where I publish only a link to the review at Big Dave's blog for the puzzle that I expect to appear. However, this recent unpredictability will make my standard caveat that "the National Post has been known to alter its publication schedule unexpectedly, so there is no guarantee that my forecast will necessarily prove to be accurate" very apropos.

I expect tomorrow's blog to be my last full blog until Saturday, May 9, 2015. While travelling, I will attempt to keep the Vacation Edition postings correct but that will be dependent on availability of time and access to Internet facilities at hotels along the route.

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   Star, a bit dim, /is/ embarrassed and diminutive (3,5)

The wordplay parses as RED (embarrassed) + (and) DWARF (diminutive)

Despite what Miffypops writes in his review, DWARF is clearly not used as a verb in this clue. Being clued by the word diminutive, it must be either a noun or an adjective.

Red dwarf^[2] is an astronomical term for a cool faint star of about one-tenth the mass and diameter of the Sun, e.g. Proxima Centauri or Barnard's Star.

6a   Impressive // time of the year (6)

9a   He reviews // one with opposing views (6)

What did he say?

In his review, Miffypops refers to Kenneth Tynan, Clive James. Charles Spencer, Matthew Norman who have all written for The Daily Telegraph. Among their other undertakings, Kenneth Tynan[7] (1927–1980) was an English theatre critic, Clive James[7] is an Australian-British television and literary critic, Charles Spencer[7] is the former chief drama critic of The Daily Telegraph (having retired shortly before the appearance of this puzzle in the UK), and Matthew Norman is a restaurant critic.

10a   Really fancy // outing on a ferry (5,3)

It took a gentle nudge from my electronic helpers before I noticed that this is an anagram.

11a   A chartered accountant meant to retire /for/ the scholastic life (8)

Here's a tip of the hat to all the CA's in our midst who are facing the looming tax deadline. Although, the term chartered accountant is in common usage, that is not generally the official designation of members of this profession.

Delving Deeper
The official designation CA[5] for Chartered Accountant  is used in Scotland — and was formerly employed in Canada. However, as of January 2013, Canadian CA's have adopted the CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) designation. In England and Wales, the designatory letters are ACA or FCA while in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) the acronym CAI is used.[7]

12a   Rise in prices, perhaps, // left east of Paris ruined (6)

13a   Few vehicles about, /but/ this will control them (7,5)

The name of a traffic control device could also express the idea that there are few vehicles on the road.

16a   Seems return for my passage will be by end of day -- // pity! (4,8)

19a   Horses // one's used in a racket (6)

21a   Pound note put back in share // account (8)

The pound^[5] (also pound sterling) is the basic monetary unit of the UK, equal to 100 pence. While the symbol for pound is £, it is often written as L^[10].

23a   Cadger is going off /in/ shame (8)

24a   Support // attempt to back horse to come first (6)

25a   Change into // suit (6)

26a   Nurse that is meeting son/'s/ agreements (8)

Down

2d   No rice pudding /for/ Caruso, for instance (6)

I presume that the justification for using "pudding" as an anagram indicator must be that either as a dessert or a type of sausage, a pudding would be a mixture of ingredients.

Enrico Caruso^[5] (1873–1921) was an Italian operatic tenor. He was the first major tenor to be recorded on gramophone records.

3d   Old-fashioned /but/ popular with the boys (5)

4d   Escort // agency is brought to account (9)

5d   Rugby player /is/ crafty one of a pair (3,4)

Fly^[5] is an informal British expression meaning knowing and clever ⇒ she’s fly enough not to get tricked out of it.

In rugby, fly half^[5] is another term for stand-off half^[5], a half back who forms a link between the scrum half and the three-quarters. You may recall that we encountered the term scrum half in DT 27625 just over a week ago, on Thursday, April 9, 2015.

6d   A lot // to collect (5)

7d   Culture for breeding (9)

I would say this is one of those double definitions that we sometimes see from Rufus where it is very difficult to distinguish between the two definitions. In his review, Miffypops cites the definition from Oxford Dictionaries Online. Note that I said "the" definition, as Oxford Dictionaries Online provides only one definition for gentility^[5], namely social superiority as demonstrated by polite and respectable manners, behaviour, or appearances ⇒ her grandmother’s pretensions to gentility. The entry goes on to state that the term comes from a Middle English word meaning 'honourable birth'.

Collins English Dictionary is a bit more help. It says that gentility^[10] is (1) respectability and polite good breeding or (2) noble birth or ancestry. The former would seem to roughly correspond to the definition at Oxford Dictionaries Online (which Miffypops equates to the first definition in the clue). The latter might perhaps equate to the second definition in the clue "breeding".

Nevertheless, the two definitions would seem to come down to (1) culture arising from good breeding and (2) good breeding.

8d   Tolerates // corporations (8)

Corporation^[3,4,5,11] is a dated humorous term for a large paunch or pot belly.

13d   Addressing // some criticism (7-2)

14d   List /and/ a record used in acute novel (9)

15d   Sit a certain way /for/ the ideal journey? (8)

17d   Flawlessly finished, /though/ tense (7)

18d   Path // that students may take (6)

No, Miffypops, it certainly "should not give too much trouble" — but it did. I got lost wandering around campus looking for some sort of walkway.

20d   Elegance /of/ a short prayer (5)

Miffypops would appear to have overlooked the elegance of this double definition.

22d   Conviction that can be reversed? (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