Monday, October 9, 2017 — DT 28478 (Published Saturday, October 7, 2017)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28478
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, July 13, 2017
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28478]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By pommers
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
This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, October {date}, 2017 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

For Thanksgiving we are blessed with a delicious spread from RayT accompanied by a tasty dessert from pommers. Of course, it being RayT, we are served breasts from Page 3 rather than from a turkey.

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

7a   A penetrating despair about // the next world? (8)

It would appear from pommers' review that this may well have been his first clue to be solved — for me, it was the last.

9a   Independent contract with Sun // models (6)

"independent" = I (show explanation )

I^[1] is the abbreviation for independent, in all likelihood in the context of a politician with no party affiliation.

hide explanation

"sun" = S (show explanation )

S^[1] (or S.) is the abbreviation for sun (so sayeth The Chambers Dictionary) [although no context is provided, I presume it would be in astronomy or astrology].

hide explanation

Scratching the Surface

The Independent[7] is a British online newspaper. Established in 1986 as an independent national morning newspaper published in London, it was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev in 2010. Nicknamed the Indy, it began as a broadsheet, but changed to tabloid format in 2003.The last printed edition of The Independent was published in March 2016, leaving only its digital editions. The Sun[7] is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland by a division of News UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian-born American publisher and media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The Sun was once known for its Page 3[7] feature,  a large photograph of a topless, bare-breasted female glamour model which was usually published on the print edition's third page. The feature, which first appeared in 1970, was dropped from the print edition in 2015 but continues on the newspaper's website.

10a   Hard going by single // file (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

11a   Refraining /from/ need to carry can (10)

12a   Seed finally winning serves taking new // balls (6)

Scratching the Surface

A seed[5] is any of a number of stronger competitors in a sports tournament who have been assigned a specified position in an ordered list with the aim of ensuring that they do not play each other in the early rounds ⇒ he knocked the top seed out of the championships. In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers comments that the clue is Nicely topical in view of what’s going on in SW19* alluding to the fact that this puzzle appeared in the UK during Wimbeldon[7] which is not only the oldest tennis tournament in the world but also widely regarded as the most prestigious. * The SW (South Western and Battersea) postcode area[7], also known as the London SW postcode area, is a group of postcode districts covering part of southwest London, England. The SW postcode area is subdivided into 29 postcode districts, one of them being SW19 which serves Wimbledon (among other places).

14a   About time to reverse having runs /on/ banks (8)

For some reason, I have always had a great deal of difficulty accepting that bank and terrace are synonymous. However, the American Heritage Dictionary defines terrace^[3] as a raised bank of earth having vertical or sloping sides and a flat top ⇒ turning a hillside into a series of ascending terraces for farming.

15a   Amercian // wrench never releases odd items (6)

I didn't notice the typo in the clue, but pommers did. It will be interesting to see if it also makes an appearance in the National Post.

17a   Empty emotion in Sin // City in Italy (6)

Scratching the Surface

Sin City[7] is an urban area (a city or part of) that caters to various vices. These vices may be legal (depending on area) or illegal activities which are tolerated. Examples of vices include sex-related services (prostitution, strip clubs, sex shops, etc.), gambling (casinos, betting shops, etc.), or drug use (alcohol, marijuana, etc. consumption), and even excessive organized crime and gang activity. If the city is known for prostitution, it is often called a red-light district, as in Amsterdam, Netherlands. No Canadian city makes the list of Sin Cities in the world[7] although Montreal is on the list of Former Sin Cities[7] (as a destination for American tourists during the prohibition era). Oh, and by the way, Italy fails to make the list as well.

What are they talking about?

In Comment #3 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Beaver kicks off a discussion with Toadson by writing Never visited 17a, loved the Dirk Bogarde film and the Mahler music .... Death in Venice[7] (original Italian title: Morte a Venezia) is a 1971 Italian-French drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Dirk Bogarde and Björn Andrésen. It is based on the novella Death in Venice, first published in 1912 as Der Tod in Venedig by the German author Thomas Mann. While the character Aschenbach in the novella is an author, Visconti changed his profession from writer to composer. This allows the musical score, in particular the Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony by Gustav Mahler, which opens and closes the film, and sections from Mahler's Third Symphony, to represent Aschenbach's writing.

20a   Telling // lie going back into clink (8)

22a   Country // is able to plug middle of dam (6)

I must admit that it took longer to solve this clue than should have been necessary. As pommers points out in his review, it was quite a timely clue when it appeared in mid-July.

23a   Scream // after voice gets altered (10)

24a   Very last // offer for sale (4)

25a   A taste one's acquired /for/ rodent (6)

The wordplay parses as A (from the clue) + GOUT (taste) + (is [contracted as 's in the clue] acquired) I ([Roman numeral for] one).

Goût^[10] is a French word that has made it into at least one British dictionary, defined as meaning taste or good taste.

The agouti^[5] is a large long-legged burrowing rodent related to the guinea pig, native to Central and South America.

26a   Mad Hatter, heartless even, /shows/ menace (8)

Scratching the Surface

The March Hare and the Hatter put  the Dormouse's head in a teapot. Illustration by John Tenniel. The Hatter[7] (called Hatta in Through the Looking-Glass) is a fictional character in English writer Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and the story's sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871). He is often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll. The phrase "mad as a hatter" pre-dates Carroll's works and the characters the Hatter and the March Hare are initially referred to as "both mad" by the Cheshire Cat, with both first appearing in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in the seventh chapter titled "A Mad Tea-Party"[7] in which Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the March Hare, the Hatter, and a very tired Dormouse who falls asleep frequently, only to be violently woken up moments later by the March Hare and the Hatter.

Down

1d   Wood // a swine's cut into heaps (8)

2d   Naughty sweetheart // proposed? (4)

"sweetheart" = E (show explanation )

A common cryptic crossword construct is to use the word "sweetheart" to clue E, the middle letter (heart) of swEet.

hide explanation

3d   Very important things, aiding life support initially (6)

In this semi-all-one clue, the entire clue provides the wordplay while the definition (marked with a solid underline) is found embedded within the clue. Note that I have chosen to include more of the clue in the definition than did pommers in his review.

Vitals^[10] are the bodily organs, such as the brain, liver, heart, lungs, etc, that are necessary to maintain life. Of course, given that we are dealing with RayT, perhaps the reference is to the organs of reproduction, especially the male genitals.

4d   Excited girlie wearing fine English // lacework (8)

"fine" = F (show explanation )

F^[5] is an abbreviation for fine, as used in describing grades of pencil lead [a usage that Oxford Dictionaries surprisingly characterizes as British].

hide explanation

Behind the Picture
The excited girlie in the illustration accompanying pommers' hint may be wearing fine lacework but it is filigree only in a figurative sense. Filigree[5] (also filagree) is ornamental work of fine (typically gold or silver) wire formed into delicate tracery. Filigree[2] (adjective) means made of, or as if with, filigree.

5d   Mission // leading to manoeuvres round end of battle (10)

6d   Start of cool look with revolutionary // hat (6)

"look" = LO (show explanation )

Lo^[5] is an archaic exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event ⇒ and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.

hide explanation

Che Guevara^[7] (1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

A cloche^[5] is a woman's close-fitting bell-shaped hat.

8d   Some otters at zoo /may be/ artificial (6)

13d   Catching // criminal before mark promises to pay (10)

16d   Rampant // great penning dime novel (8)

A couple of typos in pommers' hint make it a bit difficult to comprehend. The middle portion should read "ad and insert (penning) and an anagram".

18d   Hazard // sitting butt on needle (8)

I've not seen hazard used in this way before.

Hazard^[5] (verb) means to put (something) at risk of being lost ⇒ the cargo business is too risky to hazard money on.

19d   Shocked /seeing/ bag has tea inside (6)

21d   Ample // individual getting comeuppance? Pooh! (6)

22d   Endless game to capture Queen /for/ so long (6)

"Queen" = ER (show explanation )

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

hide explanation

Cheers^[5] is an informal British expression of good wishes on parting or ending a conversation ⇒ Cheers, Jack, see you later.

Despite the hilarious video clip that pommers' has chosen to use in his review, "crosswordland’s favourite board game" is not Monopoly.

24d   Reportedly horrible // medicine container (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)

Happy Thanksgiving Day — Falcon