Wednesday, April 19, 2017 — DT 28355

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28355
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, February 20, 2017
Setter Rufus (Roger Squires)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28355]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Miffypops & "Kim Kardashian"
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's puzzle is a gentle "Monday" diversion from Rufus — well, at least it was in the UK. It also contains an error that seems to have slipped past not only the setter but the editors at two newspapers as well.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Error in Today's Puzzle

As is their usual practice, the editors at the National Post are giving us an authentic British experience by publishing the puzzle, warts and all.

Clue 8d should read:

• 8d   We badly malign Len, but with good intentions (4-7)

rather than:

• 8d   We badly malign Mel, but with good intentions (4-7)

This error was present when the puzzle appeared in the UK, both in the printed edition of The Daily Telegraph as well as on the Telegraph Puzzles website. When the error came to the attention of the editors at The Daily Telegraph, the clue was corrected on the Telegraph Puzzles website.

Despite showing up in Canada a couple of months after publication in The Daily Telegraph, I am quite confident in saying that the syndicated puzzle is actually distributed prior to its appearance in the UK — thus explaining why corrections made subsequent to publication across the pond do not appear over here.

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   Petition // that teacher would like to get from pupils (11)

9a   A centre of revolution (4)

10a   It enables travellers to go flat out (8,3)

11a   Examination /of/ oar to be repaired beside lake (4)

14a   First-class students (7)

Infant^[5] is a British term for a schoolchild between the ages of about four and eight ⇒ their first year at infant school.

16a   Remainder // dwell permanently outside university (7)

17a   Arms offensively thrust out (5)

18a   She faded away from unrequited love -- // it comes back (4)

From the entries in two dictionaries, one would scarcely know that they refer to the same being from Greek mythology. According to Oxford Dictionaries, Echo^[5] is a nymph deprived of speech by Hera in order to stop her chatter, and left able only to repeat what others had said. On the other hand, Collins English Dictionary tells us that Echo^[10] is a nymph who, spurned by Narcissus, pined away until only her voice remained.

Delving Deeper

In Greek mythology*, Echo was an Oread [mountain nymph] who resided on Mount Cithaeron. Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and often visited them on Earth. Eventually, Zeus's wife, Hera, became suspicious, and came from Mt. Olympus in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs. Echo, by trying to protect Zeus [by distracting Hera with lengthy conversations], endured Hera's wrath, and Hera made her only able to speak the last few words spoken to her. So when Echo met Narcissus and fell in love with him, she was unable to tell him how she felt and was forced to watch him as he fell in love with himself. * In Roman mythology, Zeus is known as Jupiter and Hera as Juno. The later is mentioned by "KK" in her contribution to Miffypops' review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. Sometime after being cursed, Echo spied a young man, Narcissus, while he was out hunting deer with his companions. She immediately fell in love with him and, infatuated, followed quietly. The more she looked at the young man, the more she longed for him. Though she wished with all her heart to call out to Narcissus, Hera's curse prevented her. During the hunt, Narcissus became separated from his companions and called out, ‘is anyone there’, and heard the nymph repeat his words. Startled Narcissus answered the voice, ‘come here’, only to be told the same. When Narcissus saw that nobody had emerged from the glade he concluded that the owner of the voice must be running away from him and called out again. Finally he shouted, "This way, we must come together." Taking this to be a reciprocation of her love, Echo concurred ecstatically, "We must come together!". In her delight, Echo rushed to Narcissus ready to throw her arms around her beloved. Narcissus, however, was appalled and, spurning her, exclaimed, ‘Hands off! May I die before you enjoy my body.’ All Echo could whisper in reply was, ‘enjoy my body’ and having done so she fled, scorned, humiliated, and shamed. Despite the harshness of her rejection, Echo’s love for Narcissus only grew. When Narcissus died, wasting away before his own reflection, consumed by a love that could not be, Echo mourned over his body. When Narcissus, looking one last time into the pool uttered, "Oh marvellous boy, I loved you in vain, farewell", Echo too chorused, "Farewell.". Eventually, Echo, too, began to waste away. Her beauty faded, her skin shrivelled, and her bones turned to stone. Today, all that remains of Echo is the sound of her voice.

19a   Turn crazy /and/ stupefy (4)

20a   Doctor and criminal die, // having no water left (5)

22a   No more, apparently? /Result is/ to perplex (7)

23a   Abraham may lead this // Eastern city (7)

The first part of the clue is a cryptic way of expressing "the surname of someone whose first name is Abraham".

Lincoln^[5] is a city in eastern England, the county town of Lincolnshire; population 86,800 (est. 2009). It was founded by the Romans as Lindum Colonia.

24a   Hardy female (4)

Tess of the d'Urbervilles^[7] (extended title: Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented) is a novel by English writer Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's masterpiece, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.

28a   Embroidery /appears/ to irritate Dot (11)

What did he say?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Miffypops tells us that the final part of the solution is a word meaning a dot or full stop. The punctuation mark (.) known as a period[5] in North America is called a full stop[5] by the British.

29a   He floated a company, being interested in conservation (4)

In the Bible, Noah^[5] was a Hebrew patriarch represented as tenth in descent from Adam. According to a story in Genesis he made the ark which saved his family and specimens of every animal from the Flood.

Checking the Passenger List

It is a common misconception that Noah took only two of each creature with him on the ark. Noah's precise mission statement was as follows:   The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” (Gen. 7:1-4)

30a   Transport charge? (8,3)

Down

2d   Extreme // European // measure (4)

For a change, I recognized this clue as a triple definition.

Pole^[5] is an alternative name for perch^[5] (also known as a rod), a historical, chiefly British, measure of length, especially for land, equal to a quarter of a [surveyor's] chain^*   or 5½ yards.

---

^* A chain^[3,4] is a unit of length — in fact, either of two units of length. To a surveyor, it is a unit of 66 feet (Gunter's chain) while, to an engineer, it is a unit of 100 feet (engineer's chain).

To further confuse matters, a perch^[5] (also called square perch, pole, square pole, rod, or square rod) is a historical, chiefly British measure of area, especially for land, equal to 160th of an acre or 30¼ square yards.

3d   Willingly // change file (4)

Lief^[5] (used in the expression as lief) is an archaic term meaning happily or gladly ⇒ he would just as lief eat a pincushion.

4d   Conditions that might affect mail etc (7)

In this semi-&lit. clue — or, as some prefer to call it, semi-all-in-one clue — the entire clue acts as the definition while the portion with the dashed underline provides the wordplay (show further explanation ).

In an &lit. clue^[7] (or, as some prefer to call it, all-in-one clue) the entire clue provides not only the definition (when read one way), but under a different interpretation also serves as the wordplay.

In a semi-&lit. clue (or, as some prefer to call it, semi-all-in-one clue), either:

• the entire clue acts as the definition while a portion of the clue provides the wordplay; or
• the entire clue acts as the wordplay while a portion of the clue provides the definition.

hide explanation

What did "she" say?
In "her" review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, "KK" writes The anagram indicator here is doing doubly (sic) duty as wordplay.. Not just the anagram indicator, but also the fodder.

5d   They have a strong pull in the port trade (4)

6d   They gave advice so wise /and/ so clear when translated (7)

In classical antiquity, an oracle^[5] was a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods.

7d   Handing over offender -- // custom no longer in force? (11)

8d   We badly malign Len, /but/ with good intentions (4-7)

See note above regarding the error in the puzzle as printed in the National Post.

12d   Breathing in irregularly // being asleep in winter (11)

13d   Ghana's fit for realignment /with/ an Asian country (11)

Afghanistan^[5] — a country that is certainly well-known to Canadians — is a mountainous landlocked republic in central Asia; population 32,500,000 (2015 estimate); capital, Kabul; official languages, Pashto and Dari (the local form of Persian).

Scratching the Surface
Ghana[5] is a country of West Africa, with its southern coastline bordering on the Atlantic Ocean; population 23,887,800 (est. 2009); languages, English (official), West African languages; capital, Accra. Former name (until 1957) Gold Coast.

15d   Urges on // capital football team (5)

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club^[7] commonly referred to as the Spurs, is an English professional football [soccer] club located in Tottenham, London, that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system).

16d   Brew of beer left // to rise (5)

20d   Where one may spend time underground (7)

21d   Pick out // scattered cinders (7)

25d   Reported fragrance /of/ European flower (4)

Flower is used in the whimsical cryptic crossword sense of something that flows — in other words, a river.

The Oder^[5] is a river of central Europe which rises in the mountains in the east of the Czech Republic and flows northwards through western Poland to meet the River Neisse, then continues northwards forming the northern part of the border between Poland and Germany before flowing into the Baltic Sea.

26d   Cheated -- // agreed? (4)

Do^[5] is an informal British term meaning to swindle ⇒ a thousand pounds for one set of photos — Jacqui had been done.

27d   Stake // in giant enterprise (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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon