Thursday, September 17, 2015 — DT 27771

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27771
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, April 9, 2015
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27771]
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

I used a bit of electronic help to complete this one. I might have progressed further had I spent more time on it — but then you might not have seen this blog today.

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

8a   Return of Bette Midler netting // very little money (4)

Scratching the Surface
Bette Midler[7], also known by her informal stage name The Divine Miss M, is an American singer-songwriter, actress, comedian, film producer and entrepreneur.

9a   Rage, /showing/ passion -- not feminine! (3)

10a   Spirited // revival of musical capturing dramatic ending (6)

Failing to decipher the wordplay here was not one of my finer moments!

11a   Imaginative kind of justice? (6)

I saw this as a cryptic definition but, as pommers points out in his review, it could just as easily be seen to be a double definition. In the latter case, the clue would parse as:

• 11a   Imaginative // kind of justice? (6)

12a   Joy/'s/ rear reflected in mirror (8)

13a   Security for motorbike and sidecar? (11,4)

Combination^[5] is a British term for a motorcycle with a sidecar attached.

15a   Bound to wear suit /for/ cinema (7)

Fleapit^[3] is chiefly British slang for a room or building, especially a movie theater, that is squalid or rundown.

17a   Trainee // model nude in Times, following Sun (7)

Scratching the Surface

The Times[7] is a British daily national newspaper based in London. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a division of News UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The Sun[7] is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland by a division of News UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. For years, The Sun was known for its Page 3[7] feature, a large photograph of a topless, bare-breasted female glamour model usually published on the print edition's third page. [I've always considered the phrase "topless, bare-breasted" to be rather redundant?] Following a long-running campaign in the UK to abolish the Page 3 feature, The Sun bowed to the pressure and discontinued the feature in it's print edition in January 2015 although the feature can still be found on the paper's website.

20a   Dressing, // holding coat (8,7)

Sticking plaster^[5] is the British name for a Band-Aid^[5].

23a   Credit restraining order /for/ actor (3,5)

The Order of Merit^[7] (abbreviation OM^[5]) is a dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by King Edward VII, admission into the order remains the personal gift of its Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, and is limited to 24 living recipients at one time from these countries plus a limited number of honorary members. The current membership includes one Canadian (former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien).

Tom Hanks^[7] is an American actor and filmmaker. He won Academy Awards for Best Actor for his roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.

25a   To spare // first learner abandoning crashed Allegro ... (6)

"learner" = L (show explanation )

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.

hide explanation

Scratching the Surface
The Austin Allegro[7] is a small family car that was manufactured by Austin from 1973 until 1982. In total, 642,350 Austin Allegros were produced during its ten-year production life, most of which were sold in the British market. In his review, pommers comments that the car was better known as the "All Aggro" —  aggro[5] (short for aggravation) being British slang for problems and difficulties.

26a   ... Acura trundled, taking in // road avoiding traffic (3,3)

Rat run^[5] is an informal British term for a minor, typically residential street used by drivers during peak periods to avoid congestion on main roads : our road was used as a rat run between two main roads.

27a   What might come in main // talk (3)

I had to get past the mistaken notion that "main talk" is a reference to seafaring speech.

28a   One's tender // in the same place (4)

The term ibid.^[5] (also ib.), abbreviation of Latin ibidem 'in the same place', denotes in the same source (used to save space in textual references to a quoted work which has been mentioned in a previous reference) ⇒ (ibid. p. 57).

Down

1d   Lover // go-go dancing around Italy and Luxembourg (6)

"Italy" = I (show explanation )

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Italy is I^[5] [from Italian Italia].

hide explanation

"Luxembourg" = L (show explanation )

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Luxembourg is L^[5].

hide explanation

2d   Very contorted tree getting support // that's essential to staying upright (8)

3d   Broadcast excusing arresting Italian, one // that should improve the atmosphere (3-12)

"Italian" = IT (show explanation )

A couple of explanations are available:

• It.^[10] is an abbreviation for Italian or Italy.


• Italian^[10] is another name for Italian vermouth. It^[5] is an informal, dated British term for Italian vermouth ⇒ he poured a gin and it.

hide explanation

4d   Massive // grave (7)

5d   One looking into past // pressure over allegations 'too corrupt' (15)

Although it did not take long to get on the right track, I did struggle with the British spelling of the solution.

6d   An alto can be // discordant (6)

7d   Birds, // the ones with possessions in the East End (4)

Aves^[5] is a class of vertebrates which comprises the birds.

The East End^[5] is the part of London [England] east of the City of London [not to be confused with the city of London] (show explanation ) as far as the River Lea, including the Docklands.

The City of London^[7] is a city and ceremonial county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the conurbation has since grown far beyond the City's borders. The City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. It is one of two districts of London to hold city status, the other being the adjacent City of Westminster.

It is widely referred to simply as the City (often written as just "City" and differentiated from the phrase "the city of London" by capitalising "City") and is also colloquially known as the Square Mile, as it is 1.12 sq mi (2.90 km²), in area. Both of these terms are also often used as metonyms for the United Kingdom's trading and financial services industries, which continue a notable history of being largely based in the City. This is analogous to the use of the terms Wall Street and Bay Street to refer to the financial institutions located in New York and Toronto respectively.

hide explanation

A cockney^[5] is a native of East London [specifically that part of East London known as the East End], traditionally one born within hearing of Bow Bells (the bells of St Mary-le-Bow^[7] church). Cockney is also the name of the dialect or accent typical of cockneys, which is characterised by dropping the H from the beginning of words and the use of rhyming slang^[5].

14d   Caught working // fiddle (3)

"caught" = C (show explanation )

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c.^[2,10] or c^[5] denotes caught or caught by.

hide explanation

Fiddle^[5] is an informal, chiefly British term for an act of defrauding, cheating, or falsifying ⇒ a major mortgage fiddle.

16d   Where Yank may park // heap (3)

Parking lot^[5] (or lot^[5] for short) is a North American term for what the British call a car park.

Scratching the Surface
In the surface reading, heap[3] is used in the sense of an old or run-down car. While this term is used on both sides of the pond, it would appear that it may have a somewhat broader application in the UK where heap[10] is an informal term for a place or thing [not specifically a car] that is very old, untidy, unreliable, etc.

18d   Deny // record's flawed acoustically (8)

19d   Warming tale? (3,4)

An Aga saga^[5] is a type of popular novel, typically set in an English village or country town, that deals with the domestic and emotional lives of articulate middle- or upper-middle-class characters. It is so called from the association of Aga stoves with the British rural middle classes. The term apparently was originally applied specifically to the novels of British author Joanna Trollope.

Aga^[5] is a British trademark for a type of heavy heat-retaining stove or range used for cooking and heating.

Note that a range is defined differently in Britain than it is in North America. In North America, a range may use any type of fuel (wood, coal, oil, gas, electricity, etc.). However, in Britain, a range^[4] is specifically a large stove with burners and one or more ovens, usually heated by solid fuel (such as wood or coal). A cooking device that does not use solid fuel (for example, one using gas or electricity) is known in the UK as a cooker^[5].

21d   Band/'s/ implement seized, Spooner exclaims (6)

Not only is this clue a Spoonerism, but it employs a non-rhotic British pronunciation of the Spoonerism.

A spoonerism^[5] is a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words — or, in today's instance, word fragments, often to humorous effect, as in the sentence you have hissed the mystery lectures. It is named after the Reverend W. A. Spooner (1844–1930), an English scholar who reputedly made such errors in speaking.

Non-rhotic accents omit the sound < r > in certain situations, while rhotic accents generally pronounce < r > in all contexts. Among the several dozen British English accents which exist, many are non-rhotic while American English (US and Canadian) is mainly rhotic. This is, however, a generalisation, as there are areas of Britain that are rhotic, and areas of America that are non-rhotic. For more information, see this guide to pronouncing < r > in British English.

In the present clue, the word "cohort" would be pronounced CO HO'T by the speaker of a non-rhotic dialect and its Spoonerism would be HO CO'T (sounds like HOE CAUGHT).

22d   Insect /or/ bug? (6)

Earwig^[5] is an informal British term meaning to eavesdrop on a conversation ⇒ he looked behind him to see if anyone was earwigging.

24d   Stone/'s/ hip-hop album cut (4)

Oh my god! Mick Jagger and mates doing hip-hop! Spare me.

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