Tuesday, September 22, 2015 — DT 27776

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27776
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27776]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By 2Kiwis
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

Today, I tripped up on the Norse goddess, stumbled over the garden dwelling and fell flat on my face when it came to the fast traveller.

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   Feminine, ash-blonde, old, mad -- /but/ family (5,3,5)

9a   Got back // with insurance, after evacuating Rome (9)

The wordplay is COVERED (with insurance) following (after) RE {evacuating Rome; R[OM]E with its inner letters removed (evacuated)}.

10a   Nuisance taking first portion of onion // sauce (5)

Pesto^[10] is a sauce for pasta, consisting of basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, oil, and Parmesan cheese, all crushed together.

11a   Tradesman/'s/ pound deposited in bank (5)

"pound" = L (show explanation )

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].

The Chambers Dictionary defines the upper case L^[1] as the abbreviation for pound sterling (usually written £) and the lower case l^[1] as the abbreviation for pound weight (usually written lb) — both deriving from the Latin word libra.

In ancient Rome, the libra^[5] was a unit of weight, equivalent to 12 ounces (0.34 kg). It was the forerunner of the pound.

hide explanation

A bank^[10] is:

1. an arrangement of objects, especially similar objects, in a row or in tiers ⇒ a bank of dials; or
2. a tier of oars in a galley or a bench for the rowers in a galley.

A tiler^[5] is a person who lays tiles ⇒ a roof tiler.

12a   Works on garden // dwellings with no end of charm (4)

Having become fixated on "garden dwellings", I searched in vain for some hitherto-unknown British term for a gazebo, garden shed, greenhouse or other structure from which I could remove an M.

This clue employs a type of cryptic crossword device that is often described by the term "lift-and-separate" — a play on a phrase from Playtex brassiere advertising.

The term refers to a situation in which a seemingly single conceptual unit (which can be either a word or a phrase) must be split into separate pieces with one piece forming part of the wordplay with the other piece being part of the definition.

In the present clue, a single conceptual unit ("garden dwellings") must be separated into two parts, with "garden" completing the definition and "dwellings" starting the wordplay.

13a   Dull brown // flatfish swimming across river (4)

Dab^[5] is a name given to any of several species of  small, commercially important flatfish found chiefly in the North Atlantic.

Drab^[5] is an adjective meaning of a dull light brown colour ⇒ drab camouflage uniforms.

15a   Large ugly tear with a line // on the side (7)

17a   Left home, absorbed by island/'s/ horizon (7)

Skye^[5] is a mountainous island of the Inner Hebrides, now linked to the west coast of Scotland by a bridge; chief town, Portree. It is the largest and most northerly island of the group.

18a   Supplied personnel /and/ stopped replacing students with females (7)

"student" = 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

20a   Lobster served as // this on a bed? (7)

21a   Question // source of water (4)

22a   Title // held by the Mirror (4)

Emir^[5] (also spelled amir) is a title of various Muslim (mainly Arab) rulers ⇒ HRH the Emir of Kuwait.

Scratching the Surface
In the surface reading, The Daily Mirror[7] (informally The Mirror) is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903.

23a   Mother gets fellow -- one with a // criminal family (5)

"fellow" = F (show explanation )

F^[2] is the abbreviation for Fellow (of a society, etc). For instance, it is found in professional designations such as FRAIC (Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada).

hide explanation

The Mafia^[5] is an organized international body of criminals, operating originally in Sicily and now especially in Italy and the US and having a complex and ruthless behavioural code.

26a   Found // television well-informed (3,2)

27a   Progress with daughter meeting standard set by hospital department // sponsor (9)

"hospital department" = ENT (show explanation )

In my experience, the ear, nose and throat (ENT^[2]) department is the busiest section, by far, of the Crosswordland Hospital.

hide explanation

The wordplay parses as GO (progress) + D (daughter; abbrev.) + PAR (standard) + (set by; placed beside) ENT (hospital department).

28a   Festive wit's // annual missive? (9,4)

What did they say?
In their review, the 2Kiwis sayThe festival referred to is still eight months away.... .. well that was the case when they wrote their review in April. I'm not trying to scare you, but it is now only three months away.

Down

1d   Letters /offering/ a good job (5-5,4)

Post^[5] is a British term for mail^[5], including in the sense of letters and parcels sent or received. Is it not rather ironic that the post is delivered in Britain by the Royal Mail while the mail in Canada is delivered by Canada Post?

2d   Do better /in/ former prison accommodation, being cut off (5)

3d   Complete skill shown by hospital // transport vehicle (10)

4d   Swimmer/'s/ nervous anticipation returned when help arrived laughing, initially (7)

The narwhal^[5] is a small Arctic whale (Monodon monoceros), the male of which has a long forward-pointing spirally twisted tusk developed from one of its teeth.

What did they say?
In their review, the 2Kiwis say Ignore all but the first letters of the other words in the clue.. ... well, not quite all of the other words.

5d   Fast traveller that no one welcomes (3,4)

I could not get past BED BUGS. The 2Kiwis' hint set me on the right path — fortunately without having to reveal the hidden solution.

Bad news^[10] is slang for someone or something regarded as undesirable ⇒ he's bad news around here.

The proverb Bad news travels fast suggests that information about trouble or misfortune disseminates quickly (more quickly than good news).

6d   Dearie me! // Top's come off chicken enclosures (4)

What did they say?
In their review, the 2Kiwis say Remove the first letter from a place where chickens may be kept.. Dearie me! To be precise, you need "places where chickens may be kept" — not merely "a place ...".

7d   Germany? First to accept coach/'s/ seizure ordered by court (9)

"Germany" = D (show explanation )

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code for Germany is D^[5] [from German Deutschland].

hide explanation

Distraint^[5] is a legal term denoting the seizure of someone’s property in order to obtain payment of money owed, especially rent ⇒ many faced heavy fines and the distraint of goods.

8d   A jacket like this /needs/ new blue beret, as odd (6-8)

14d   Many labels must be wrong, // of course (2,3,5)

16d   Distressing // illusion, mostly about gold rug (9)

"gold" = AU (show explanation )

The symbol for the chemical element gold is Au^[5] (from Latin aurum).

hide explanation

19d   A long time after mother/'s/ court award (7)

20d   The tedium /of/ showing embarrassment during sudden prosperity? (7)

24d   Father always stands /for/ this Scandinavian beauty (5)

Fr^[5] is the abbreviation for Father (as a courtesy title of priests) ⇒ Fr Buckley.

Aye^[5] is an archaic or Scottish word meaning always or still ⇒ I’ve aye fancied seeing Edinburgh.

In Scandinavian mythology, Freya^[5] is the goddess of love and of the night, sister of Frey^[5] (also Freyr), the god of fertility and dispenser of rain and sunshine. She is often identified with Frigga^[5], the wife of Odin and goddess of married love and of the hearth — and the goddess for whom Friday is named.

25d   Refuse with contempt, lacking new // incentive (4)

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