Tuesday, September 29, 2015 — DT 27781

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27781
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27781]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Gazza
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 consider this to be one of the better "Tuesday" puzzles that we have seen recently. You might say that it started out AMUSING and continued to SATISFY right to the end.

The puzzle was published in the UK on Big Dave's birthday — so a Happy Belated Birthday to him.

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   A Lib Dem grandee welcoming American // jolly (7)

In the UK, the Liberal Democrats^[5] (or Lib Dems for short) are a political party (formerly the Social and Liberal Democrats) formed from the Liberal Party and members of the Social Democratic Party.

Sir Walter Menzies Campbell^[7], often known as Ming Campbell, is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1987 to 2015 and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.

The Scottish name Menzies is correctly pronounced /ˈmɪŋɪs/ MING-iss, and a shortened form is "Ming" (because the letter typed 'z' is actually the letter yogh (Ȝ ȝ), which is still used in the 27-letter Scottish alphabet; but typewriters throughout the UK only use 26).^[7]

Scratching the Surface

It is difficult to know how to interpret the word "jolly" in the surface reading. It does seem to be a noun, so it might be: an informal British term for a party or celebration[5] ⇒ (i) these events were jollies; (ii) some regard it as a bit of a jolly; (also jolly boat) a clinker-built (show explanation ) ship’s boat that is smaller than a cutter, typically hoisted at the stern of the ship[5]; Clinker-built[5] denotes (of a boat) having external planks which overlap downwards and are secured with clinched nails ⇒ (i) an old clinker-built rowing boat. Compare with carvel-built[5]. hide explanation British slang for a member of the Royal Marines (RM)[5], a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances.[10] [Well, is it not conceivable that a Yank might enlist in the British navy?]

5a   One who denounces // account about drug addict (7)

9a   Farm labourer/'s/ lovely, large shed (7)

10a   Guy I'm regularly with tipped over beer -- // dress will be needed (3,4)

Pils^[5] is a type of lager beer similar to Pilsner^[5], a lager beer with a strong hop flavour, originally brewed at Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

Gymslip^[5] (gymslip^[10], gym slip^[1],[2]) is a British term for a sleeveless belted tunic reaching from the shoulder to the knee [unless they happen to appear in Gazza's review], formerly worn by schoolgirls. As an aside, gymslip mother^[10] (or gymslip mum) is an informal term for a girl of school age who has become a mother.

11a   Madness to ignore first son/'s/ stupidity (9)

12a   Up // a trail (5)

13a   Landscape // viewed from the sound (5)

15a   In front of judge, I'm // unhesitating (9)

17a   Firm // hug can end upset (9)

19a   Shot // radical outside church (5)

Rad^[5] is an informal term for a political radical.

"church" = CE (show explanation )

The Church of England^[10] (abbreviation CE^[10]) is the reformed established state Church in England, Catholic in order and basic doctrine, with the Sovereign as its temporal head.

hide explanation

22a   It could be about to go on vessel (5)

In this semi-&lit. (semi-all-in-one) clue, the entire clue provides the definition while the portion with the dashed underline is the wordplay.

In Greek mythology, the Argo^[10] was the ship in which Jason sailed in search of the Golden Fleece. He was accompanied on the journey by the Argonauts who — as we learned yesterday — had to take care not to imbibe Angostura bitters.

23a   Small outburst initially -- that is after Conservative joins // clubs (9)

25a   Left in very old tin, old // type of firework (7)

A volcano^[1] is a type of firework.

26a   Holding head in irritation, I snore unfortunately // louder (7)

27a   Show esteem to // relation (7)

28a   Please // explain about broken fist (7)

Down

1d   Servants // to the French couples (2,5)

"to the French" = AU (show explanation )

In French, when the preposition à^[8] (to) would otherwise precede le (the masculine singular form of the definite article), the combination is replaced by au (meaning 'to the').

hide explanation

An au pair^[5] is a young foreign person, typically a woman, who helps with housework or childcare in exchange for food, a room, and some pocket money ⇒ an au pair girl.

2d   A Parisian with things for sale crossing area // in the dark (7)

"a Parisian" = UN (show explanation )

In French, the masculine singular form of the indefinite article is un^[8].

hide explanation

For once, all the dictionaries seem to be pretty much on the same page, agreeing that articles offered for sale are wares^[5] (not ware) ⇒ traders in the street markets displayed their wares. The Chambers  Dictionary is the least adamant on this point, telling us that ware^[1] (now usually in the plural) means articles of merchandise or produce collectively. From that, I would gather that this sense of the singular form is an archaic use.

3d   Picture // that is in magazine? On the contrary (5)

4d   Meeting // Georgia with the piece of jewellery (9)

5d   Head of army, for example, is /giving/ protection (5)

6d   Officer in charge // removing Ecstasy from pocket for military use (9)

I did a double take when I first read Gazza's statement "remove one of the abbreviations for the drug Ecstasy (it doesn’t matter which one) from ...". No, there does not exist two different abbreviations for the drug Ecstasy, there just happens to be two instances of the same abbreviation in the clue.

"Ecstasy" = E (show explanation )

E^[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i) people have died after taking E; (ii) being busted with three Es can lead to stiff penalties.

hide explanation

7d   Middle Eastern ruler a // bit of a fruitcake? (7)

A sultan^[5] is a Muslim sovereign.

Sultana^[5] is a British term [who knew?] for a small, light brown, seedless raisin used in foods such as puddings and cakes ⇒ a sultana cake.

8d   Full // theatre allowed me to ignore money (7)

Rep^[5] is an informal shortened form of repertory^[5]. It can refer either to the performance of various plays, operas, or ballets by a company at regular short intervals,  or to a repertory theatre or company.

14d   Fancy // picking up package of goods before lecture? (9)

16d   Since I'm sick, editor gets in // remedies (9)

17d   Run to cook holding chap/'s/ grub out (7)

Cove^[5] is a dated informal British term for a man ? he is a perfectly amiable cove.

To grub (something) up or grub (something) out^[5] means to remove something from the earth by digging it up : many miles of hedgerows were grubbed up.

18d   Rings // groups of people sharing an interest (7)

20d   Signs of nerves, perhaps, after crime's cut by 50%; // they'll no doubt find faults (7)

21d   Best // dry toes at sea (7)

Best^[10] is used in the informal sense of to gain the advantage over or defeat.

23d   Quiet before drunk/'s/ scream (5)

This is not the usual musical direction to play quietly, but the sort of admonition to be quiet that one might receive from a librarian.

A different version of the clue appeared on The Telegraph website in the UK.

• 23d   Quiet, exposed // bay (5)

Was the original clue (the one that appeared in the printed edition of The Daily Telegraph as well as in the syndicated version of the puzzle carried by the National Post) not considered politically correct? I thought it was a better clue than the one which replaced it on the website.

24d   Live /in/ flat six -- endeavour coming up? (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