Tuesday, May 17, 2016 — DT 28005

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28005
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, January 8, 2016
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28005]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
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 28002 through DT 28004 which were published in The Daily Telegraph from Tuesday, January 5, 2016 to Thursday, January 7, 2016.

Introduction

Have the editor's at the National Post suddenly become adherents of the philosophy of Mao Tse-tung^[5]? Today, they make a Great Leap Forward^[5], skipping three puzzles in a single bound. What's next? Will we see them marching through the streets of Toronto waving Little Red Books^[5] — or perhaps more appropriately, Big Red Books!

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   Dine in attempt /to achieve/ agreement (6)

4a   Impersonated, // like an ineffective bowler? (5,3)

In cricket, a bowler^[5] is member of the fielding side who bowls or is bowling — bowling^[7]being  the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman.

9a   Snatch // sleep after swallowing acid (6)

Kip^[5] is an informal British term meaning:

• (noun) a sleep or nap ⇒ (i) I might have a little kip; (ii)  he was trying to get some kip; or
• (verb) to sleep ⇒ he can kip on her sofa.

The sleep-inducing substance is deoxyribonucleic acid^[5] rather than lysergic acid diethylamide^[5].

10a   Animals hunted /in/ pits (8)

11a   Direction // suggested by one after the start (5-4)

While this was not my last one in, it did bring up the rear in terms of deciphering the wordplay.

13a   Novel left regularly /in/ a place for books? (5)

She^[7], subtitled A History of Adventure, is a novel by English writer Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925). (read more )

Sir Henry Rider Haggard^[5] (1856–1925) was an English novelist. Published under the name H. Rider Haggard, he is famous for adventure novels such as King Solomon’s Mines (1885) and She (1889).

She, first serialized in The Graphic magazine from October 1886 to January 1887, is one of the classics of imaginative literature, and as of 1965 with over 83 million copies sold in 44 different languages, one of the best-selling books of all time. Extraordinarily popular upon its release, She has never been out of print.

The story is a first-person narrative that follows the journey of Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey to a lost kingdom in the African interior. There they encounter a primitive race of natives and a mysterious white queen named Ayesha who reigns as the all-powerful "She", or "She-who-must-be-obeyed". In this work, Rider Haggard developed the conventions of the Lost World subgenre, which many later authors emulated.

hide explanation 

14a   Man on the coast // dancing a shorter rumba (7,6)

Harbour master^[5] (US harbormaster) is an official in charge of a harbour.

17a   Terrible canteen cop can // boycott? (3-10)

21a   Predict // a boring thing for the audience (5)

23a   Criticise // cold fizzy drink being served at entrance (9)

Asti^[7] (formerly known as Asti Spumante) is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba. Since 1993 the wine has been classified as a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and as of 2004 was Italy's largest producing appellation.

24a   Garden -- it could ramble around // slope (8)

25a   Make a hole in // castle, say, getting right inside (6)

In chess, castle^[5] is an informal old-fashioned term for rook.

26a   Lacking mercy, // not having particular female around? (8)

What did he say?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat writes If Boaz’s wife was away he could, punningly, be said to be this. From the Bible, Boaz[10] was a kinsman of Naomi, who married her daughter-in-law Ruth (Ruth 2–4); one of David's ancestors.

27a   Mineral // given by doctor to tot -- surgery's latest thing to be swallowed (6)

Gypsum^[10] is a a colourless or white mineral sometimes tinted by impurities, found in beds as an evaporite. It is used in the manufacture of plaster of Paris, cement, paint, school chalk, glass, and fertilizer. Composition: hydrated calcium sulphate. Formula: CaSO₄.2H₂O. Crystal structure: monoclinic.

Gypsum

In his review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat shows a picture of selenite^[10], a transparent form of gypsum. Having grown up near a gypsum quarry in Nova Scotia, I remember the gypsum there being rather different in appearance — more like the picture to the right.

Down

1d   Accepting // curt message of gratitude sent to palace? (6)

Ta^[5] is an informal British exclamation signifying thank you ⇒‘Ta,’ said Willie gratefully — and were he to thank the occupant of a castle, he might say ⇒Ta, King.

2d   Hormone // in hen -- products not half contaminated (9)

An endorphin^[5] is any of a group of hormones secreted within the brain and nervous system and having a number of physiological functions. They are peptides which activate the body’s opiate receptors, causing an analgesic effect.

3d   Pedagogue // flogged cheat with little hesitation (7)

5d   Uses water maybe to dilute // a trusted ale naughtily (11)

Deep Threat identifies the clue as an all-in-one. Well to be precise, if we were to accept his interpretation, the clue could be no more than a semi-all-in-one as the wordplay is clearly only a part of the clue.

However, I do not see the clue as an all-in-one. Water can be used to dilute many other substances besides ale so the later part of the clue is not a necessary part of the definition. The later part of the clue also stands on its own as wordplay. The mere fact that the surface reading of the entire clue is meaningful does not an all-in-one make.

6d   Area is mined that contains uranium -- // vast expanse of land (7)

The symbol for the chemical element uranium is U^[5].

7d   Love energetic // girl (5)

"love" = O (show explanation )

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.

Although folk etymology has connected the word with French l'oeuf 'egg', from the resemblance in shape between an egg and a zero, the term apparently comes from the phrase play for love (i.e. the love of the game, not for money).

hide explanation

8d   Female is hurt outside front of French // establishment providing food (4,4)

12d   More than one youngster // rises, having received handout (11)

15d   Work in the crossworder's study? (9)

This is a cryptic definition of a style in which we have a very broad straight definition (marked with a solid underline) whose meaning is restricted by a bit of cryptic elaboration (marked with a dashed underline). The clue is phrased in such a way as to misdirect us into thinking that we are looking for a type of work that might be performed in a study rather than for a reference work that might be found in a study.

16d   Message of those seeking reconciliation // put at risk (8)

18d   Friendly // expression of surprise on phone (old style!) (7)

... the type of phone we used before the introduction of the keypad.

Cor^[5] is an informal British exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, admiration, or alarm ⇒ Cor! That‘s a beautiful black eye you’ve got!.

19d   As someone who is inquisitive, one enters, // certainly not silently (7)

20d   What animates me, duet // that's sung in church (2,4)

Te Deum^[5] is a hymn beginning Te Deum laudamus, ‘We praise Thee, O God’, sung at matins^* or on special occasions such as a thanksgiving.

^* Matins^[5] is a Christian service of morning prayer, especially in the Anglican Church.

22d   Grand one as seen looking down on little creature? (5)

Here I agree with Deep Threat's assessment that the clue is an all-in-one. Unlike 5d, the clue cannot be split into separate definition and wordplay elements.

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