Wednesday, July 19, 2017 — DT 28420

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28420
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, May 6, 2017
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28420 – Hints] Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28420 – Review]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Big Dave (Hints) crypticsue (Review)
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
As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review.

Introduction

This puzzle was not too difficult, although I am sure it was a bit more of a challenge for me than it seems to have been for crypticsue. The puzzle also provided lots of tangents to distract me as I wrote the review — for instance, why are bohemians referred to as such. Also, I knew that Rosebud is the name of a sled in Citizen Kane but never having seen the film, I was not aware of its significance as a plot device.

Note that despite crypticsue's review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog being titled "Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28408 ... published on Saturday 29th April", the review is indeed for "Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28420 ... published on Saturday 6th May". I expect this to be a case of "cut and paste" gone bad — been there, done that!

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 semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues. All-in-one (&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions are marked with a dotted underline. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   In horse-drawn vehicle heading south-east I // travel wearily (7)

A trap^[5] is a light, two-wheeled carriage pulled by a horse or pony.

5a   Get sick with having skate around // track (7)

Here and there?

The Brits call it a railway[5] and, to the Yanks, it is a railroad[5] (although Oxford — as is it's wont — characterizes the latter term as North American). Our largest rail companies are the Canadian Pacific Railway[7] (CPR) and the Canadian National Railway[7] (currently known informally as CN, but it was the CNR in my younger days). However, due to the persuasive influence of US media here, Canadians are likely to use the terms "railway" and "railroad" interchangeably.

9a   However // like an all-seater stadium (15)

10a   Bird // shows remorse losing head (5)

11a   Very famous person/'s/ drink leading to arrest in commotion (9)

"drink" = SUP (show explanation )

As a verb, sup^[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i) she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii) he was supping straight from the bottle.

As a noun, sup^[5] means (1) a sip of liquid ⇒ he took another sup of wine or (2) in Northern England or Ireland, an alcoholic drink ⇒ the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery.

hide explanation

12a   Public boxing has first of youngsters /being/ too impulsive (9)

14a   Bishop with not so much // to be thankful for (5)

"bishop" = B (show explanation )

B^[5] is an abbreviation for bishop that is used in recording moves in chess.

hide explanation

15a   Telephone number unknown lost? // Make temporary arrangement (3,2)

Ring up^[5] is a mainly British expression meaning to make a telephone call (to).

"number unknown" = N (show explanation )

The letter n^[10] is used (especially in mathematics) as a symbol to represent an indefinite number (of) ⇒ there are n objects in a box.

hide explanation

What did he say?

In his hints on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Big Dave writes 'unknown' would appear to be a red herring as the unknown numbers are represented by X, Y and Z; ... it reads better as 'telephone number lost' .... While I wholeheartedly agree that the clue would read better as 'telephone number lost', I had no issue with "number unknown" being used to clue the letter 'N'. Yes. in algebra, unknown quantities are conventionally represented by the symbols x, y, and z. However, in a broader context, the letter 'n' is commonly used to represent an indefinite number — and I reasoned that a speaker may refer to a number thus simply because he or she does not know its precise value.

16a   Punter/'s/ happy sound about horse race (9)

Chase^[5] is short for steeplechase^[5], a horse race run on a racecourse having ditches and hedges as jumps. The modern version of the race evolved from a cross country race in which a steeple marked the finishing point.

Punter^[5,10] is an informal British term for any member of the public, especially a customer, client, or member of an audience ⇒ the punters flock into the sales.

Scratching the Surface
Punter[5] is an informal British term for a person who gambles, places a bet [on a horse, for example], or makes a risky investment. The word punter[10] is very versatile, also being British slang for the client of a prostitute or the victim of a con man.

18a   Flighty vocalists (9)

21a   Secures // wild places (5)

Moor^[5] is a chiefly British term for a tract of open uncultivated upland, typically covered with heather.

22a   Naughty affairs bothered // like-minded people (5,2,1,7)

Behind the Picture

In his hint for this clue, Big Dave includes a picture of the cast of the British sitcom Birds of a Feather[7] (commonly abbreviated to BOAF) which was originally broadcast from 1989 to 1998, then revived in 2014. A 1992 American adaptation starring Rosie O'Donnell, called Stand By Your Man, was cancelled after a mere eight episodes. The Americans always think they can do TV better than the Brits — they should realize they can't.

23a   Like ancient oracle, // I'd help confused Corinthian leader (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. Delphi^[5] was one of the most important religious sanctuaries of the ancient Greek world, dedicated to Apollo and situated on the lower southern slopes of Mount Parnassus above the Gulf of Corinth. It was the seat of the Delphic Oracle, whose riddling responses to a wide range of questions were delivered by the Pythia.

Scratching the Surface
Corinth[5] is a city on the north coast of the Peloponnese, Greece; population 27,600 (est. 2009). The modern city, built in 1858, is a little to the north-east of the site of an ancient city of the same name, which was a prominent city state in ancient Greece.

24a   Fool accepts certain // guarantees (7)

Down

1d   Hybrid fruit /with/ sharp taste the Spanish love (7)

"the Spanish" = EL (show explanation )

In Spanish, the masculine singular form of the definite article is el^[8].

hide explanation

"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

The tangelo^[5] is a hybrid of the tangerine and grapefruit.

2d   Law officer // developing a tolerant energy (8,7)

3d   Copy bureau/'s/ hard work crushed by signs of burglars (5,4)

"hard" = H (show explanation )

H^[2,5] is an abbreviation for hard, as used in describing grades of pencil lead ⇒ a 2H pencil.

hide explanation

"work" = OP (show explanation )

In music, an opus^[5] (plural opuses or opera) is a separate composition or set of compositions.

The abbreviation Op.^[5] (also op.), denoting opus, is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication. The plural form of Op. is Opp..

Opus^[5] can also be used in a more general sense to mean an artistic work, especially one on a large scale ⇒ he was writing an opus on Mexico.

hide explanation

4d   Stethoscope shows // distinctive character (5)

5d   One contributes tax /in/ settlement of a rare type (9)

6d   Good shot at archery // champion's missed initially (5)

In archery and shooting, an inner^[5] is:

• a division of the target next to the bullseye
• a shot that strikes the inner ⇒ the Doctor found the bull, and held it to the close, while Servis only scored inners

7d   Famous painting // referee put out (9,6)

Whistler's Mother is the popular name for Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother , a portrait painted in 1872 by American painter and etcher James McNeill Whistler^[5] (1834–1903).

8d   Dairy products // turn up in Mongolian tents (7)

A yurt^[5] is a circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey.

Alternative spellings for yogurt^[5] are yoghurt and yoghourt. I expect we may well see the usual comments on Big Dave's Crossword Blog claiming that spelling the word without an 'H' is American usage (although British dictionaries do not seem to think so).

13d   Sedative -- // placatory item given by mouth mostly (9)

14d   Unconventional people // bemoan his undoing (9)

A bohemian^*[5] is a socially unconventional person, especially one who is involved in the arts ⇒ Warhol and the artists and bohemians he worked with in the 1960s.

---

^* The term comes from the French word bohémien meaning 'Gypsy' — so-called because Gypsies were thought to come from Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), or because they perhaps entered the West through Bohemia.

15d   Towered over short American friend, // one with potential to bloom (7)

Here and There
From a British perspective, buddy[5] is an informal North American term for a close friend. The equivalent British term would be mate[5].

Behind the Picture

In his hint for this clue, Big Dave includes a picture of a sled (or as he calls it in British fashion, a sledge). In Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane[7], the last word to pass the lips of dying newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is "Rosebud". The film revolves around the efforts of newsreel reporter Jerry Thompson to discover the meaning of this word. Although he never discovers the secret, as the film ends the camera reveals that "Rosebud" is the trade name of the sled on which the eight-year-old Kane was playing on the day that his mother sent him away from his home in Colorado to live with banker Walter Parks Thatcher so that he could get a proper education.

17d   Holiday places // men found in periods off work (7)

"men" = OR (show explanation )

In the British armed forces, the term other ranks^[5] (abbreviation OR^[5]) refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

hide explanation

19d   Dutch artist // broadcast nonsense (5)

Hieronymus Bosch^[5] (c.1450–1516) was a Dutch painter. Bosch's highly detailed works are typically crowded with half-human, half-animal creatures and grotesque demons in settings symbolic of sin and folly. His individual style prefigures that of the surrealists.

20d   I will occupy seat -- // seat of government (5)

Sofia^[5] is the capital of Bulgaria; population 1,162,898 (2008). An ancient Thracian settlement, it became a province of Rome in the first century AD. It was held by the Turks between the late 14th and late 19th centuries and became the capital of Bulgaria in 1879.

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