Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Wednesday, January 31, 2018 — DT 28562

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 28562
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Setter
Unknown
Link to Full Review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28562]
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

Introduction

My pangram sensor worked well today, sounding with about a quarter of the puzzle completed. A quick check showed that I had already used all but four letters of the alphabet — and it did not take long for those to come into play.

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   Extremely macabre crimes, terribly // fascinating (8)

Mesmeric[3] means having a strong or spellbinding appeal; in other words, fascinating.

Delving Deeper
Franz Anton Mesmer[3], a visionary 18th-century physician, believed cures could be effected by having patients do things such as sit with their feet in a fountain of magnetized water while holding cables attached to magnetized trees. Mesmer then came to believe that magnetic powers resided in himself, and during highly fashionable curative sessions in Paris he caused his patients to have reactions ranging from sleeping or dancing to convulsions. These reactions were actually brought about by hypnotic powers that Mesmer was unaware he possessed. Eventually, Mesmer's practices came to be called mesmerism (a term first recorded in English in 1784). The related word mesmerize (first recorded in English in 1829), having shed its reference to the hypnotic doctor, lives on in the sense "to enthrall."

9a   Declan having edges cut off Irish // cake (6)

In its deliciously whimsical fashion, The Chambers Dictionary — affectionately known on Big Dave's Crossword Blog as the BRB (Big Red Book) — defines éclair[1] as a cake, long in shape and short in duration, with cream filling and usually chocolate icing.

Scratching the Surface
Declan[7], an ancient Irish given name, is an anglicized form of an Irish Gaelic saint's name Declán, also Deaglán or Déaglán, or, in colloquial terms, Det, normally all capitalised when written.

St. Declan founded a monastery in Ireland in the 5th century, and the St. Declan's stone has been credited as the site of many miracles. The name is believed to mean "man of prayer" or "full of goodness".

10a   Bad-tempered // rooks maybe seen around area (4)

A rook[5] is a chess piece (or man), typically with its top in the shape of a battlement, that can move (if not obstructed by another chess piece) any number of spaces in any direction along a rank or file on which it stands. Each player starts the game with two rooks at opposite ends of the first rank.

11a   Vehicle the woman parked in pound /gets/ crushed (10)

Quid[5] (plural quid) is an informal British term for one pound sterling we paid him four hundred quid.

What did he say?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers describes the vehicle in question as one usually white, which always overtakes you on the M1 no matter how fast you’re going.
The M1[7] is a north–south motorway [controlled access, multi-lane divided highway] in England connecting London to Leeds.

12a   End // protest (6)

14a   See an article /creating/ hatred (8)

"see" = 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

Treat the two words "an article" as a single entity meaning "A THING".

15a   Budget // speech lacking nothing (6)

Scratching the Surface
The budget speech[10] is the speech in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer* (in the UK) or the Minister of Finance (in Canada) presents his (sic) budget to parliament.

* the cabinet minister responsible for finance in Britain

17a   Section of song // about Egyptian god (6)

In Egyptian mythology, Horus[5] is a god regarded as the protector of the monarchy, and typically represented as a falcon-headed man. He assumed various aspects: in the myth of Isis and Osiris he was the posthumous son of the latter, whose murder he avenged.

What did he say?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers informs us that we need the god whose eye turns up in the quiz show “Only Connect”.
Only Connect[7] is a British television game show that has aired on the BBC since 2008. In the series, teams compete in a tournament of finding connections between seemingly unrelated clues.

On the show, clues are identified by ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (two reeds, lion, twisted flax, horned viper, water and the eye of Horus).

20a   Feeble // pet cried out (8)

22a   After short horror film, start to exorcise // spirit (6)

Psycho[7] is a 1960 American psychological horror film produced and directed by English filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) which was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by American writer Robert Bloch (1917–1994). The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), and its aftermath.

23a   Unsubtle ambassador shown in group /in/ paper (10)

Broad[3,5] (said of a hint) means clear and unambiguous; in other words, not subtle gave us a broad hint to leave.

This would seem to be almost the opposite of the normal meaning of broad as meaning general and without detail ⇒ a broad outline of the legal framework for pension schemes.

HE[2] is the abbreviation for His or Her Excellency, where Excellency[2] (usually His, Her or Your Excellency or Your or Their Excellencies) is a title of honour given to certain people of high rank, e.g. ambassadors.



Broadsheet[5] denotes a newspaper with a large format, regarded as more serious and less sensationalist than tabloids the tabloidization of the broadsheets.

I thought this was a common journalistic term and was surprised not to find it in most of my American dictionaries.

24a   Bark /from/ limited collection of trees, foremost in forest (4)

25a   Fanatic /in/ middle of boozers, unusually late getting round in (6)

26a   Superficial // sort plugging leak (4-4)

Down

1d   Don't forget // about subscriber? (8)

Subscription[10] is a mainly British term for the membership dues or fees paid to a society or club from which we can infer that, in this context, subscriber is another term for member.

2d   Low-down involving male // agents (1-3)

Gen[5] is an informal British term for information ⇒ you’ve got more gen on him than we have.



G-man[2] (likely short for Government man) is US slang for an agent of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). In Ireland (where its use predates* that in the US), a G-man is a political detective (probably originally denoting an officer in the G division of the Dublin Police[10]).

* The term dates to 1917 in Ireland and the 1930s in the US.

3d   Right after parking, I check // it could mark the property edge? (6)

"parking" = P

Privet[5] is any of several species of shrub of the olive family, with small white heavily scented flowers and poisonous black berries, in particular the evergreen Ligustrum ovalifolium, often used as hedging in towns.

What did he say?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers suggests that the solution is a type of hedge which might well be around the edge of your garden
In Britain, a garden[2,10] is an area of land, usually one adjoining a house, where grass, trees, flowers and other ornamental plants, fruit, vegetables, etc, are grown (i.e., what one would call a yard in Canada and the US).

Note that a British garden includes the lawn as well as everything else whereas a North American garden would comprise only the flower and vegetable beds and any trees or shrubs contained therein and exclude the lawn and any trees or shrubs growing there.

In Britain, a yard[10] is a piece of enclosed ground, usually either paved [covered with paving stones] or laid with concrete and often adjoining or surrounded by a building or buildings.

4d   Party without French water supported by northern // dandy (4,4)

The French word for 'water' is eau[5].

Beau Nash[7] (1674–1761), born Richard Nash, was a celebrated dandy and leader of fashion in 18th-century Britain. He is best remembered as the Master of Ceremonies at the spa town of Bath.

5d   Moment to worry // dodgy dealer (5,5)

Henry Cuthbert Edwards aka Flash Harry[7] is a fictional character from the St. Trinian's series of films who first appears in the 1954 The Belles of St Trinian's and who may also be a spiv (i.e., an ostentatious, loudly-dressed, and usually ill-mannered man)*.

* Flash Harry[10] is old-fashioned, pejorative, informal British term for a man who likes to dress and behave ostentatiously.

The films are based on St Trinian's, a British comic strip that appeared from 1946 until 1952 which centred on a boarding school for girls, where the teachers are sadists and the girls are juvenile delinquents. In the St Trinian's movies, Harry is a long-term associate of the girl pupils, a Cockney involved in all sorts of shady dealings. Harry is one of the few whom the pupils trust: he helps to bottle and sell their gin, distilled in the school chemistry lab, and places bets on race horses for them. Harry also runs the St Trinian's Matrimonial Agency for the teenage Sixth Form [11th and 12th grade] girls, setting them up with wealthy men.

6d   Greedy eater served with one monstrous // bird (6)

8d   Light // cold? Treat first off (6)

13d   Always squeezing by // on the outside (10)

The letter x[11] can represent by when used to indicate multiplication* 8 x 8 = 64 (multiply 8 by 8 to get 64) or when used between figures indicating dimensions 3" x 4" (three inches by four inches).

* I must say that I was more than a little taken aback to see Webster’s New World College Dictionary describe this usage[12] — that I learned in school and continue to use to this day — as "Ancient Mathematics".

16d   Facing // it during contest (8)

Think of contest as a verb.

18d   Type of glass // vessel (8)

Here and There
A schooner is a glass on both sides of the pond — albeit very different ones.

In Britain, a schooner[5] is a glass for drinking a large measure of sherry, whereas in North America — as well as Australia and New Zealand — the term denotes a tall beer glass.



In his review, pommers illustrates this clue with a photo of an unknown American schooner. Here is a very well-known Canadian schooner.

Bluenose
Bluenose (nicknamed the "Queen of the North Atlantic") was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, Bluenose under the command of Angus Walters became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s, serving as a working vessel until she was wrecked on a reef in the Caribbean in 1946.

19d   Fancy woman not having married, I // repeat (6)

Fancy woman[5] (or, in Britain, fancy piece) is a derogatory informal term for a man's lover it's common knowledge about John and his fancy women.

There is a great deal of discussion on Big Dave's Crossword Blog regarding whether repeat and stress are synonymous. In particular, see the thread arising from Comment #30 where several examples are presented to demonstrate the validity of the claim of equivalence.

21d   Took home // edition about composer of anthems (6)

Thomas Arne[7] (1710–1778) was an English composer, best known for the patriotic song Rule, Britannia!. He also wrote a version of God Save the King, which became the British national anthem, and the song A-Hunting We Will Go. Arne was the leading British theatre composer of the 18th century, working at Drury Lane and Covent Garden.

Composer of Anthems?
Depending on how one defines anthem[5], I suppose Arne might be considered to fit the bill.

If by anthem one means a solemn patriotic song officially adopted by a country as an expression of national identity, the claim may be questionable. Rule Britannia!, while a patriotic song, has not been officially adopted as a national anthem. Although he is responsible for an arrangement of God Save the King, he did not compose it.

The claim strengthens if we relax the meaning of anthem to be a rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause. "Rule, Britannia!"[7] is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740. It is strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but also used by the British Army.

Another meaning of anthem is a musical setting of a religious text to be sung by a choir during a church service, especially in Anglican or Protestant Churches. Arne did write a few pieces of sacred music. However, compared to his most important English contemporaries, William Boyce and John Stanley, Arne's output of sacred music[7] was incredibly small. The major reason for his lack of contribution to this area was due to his Roman Catholic faith, which was at odds with the Church of England during his lifetime.

22d   Rotten // place to clear (6)

24d   Extra // off the mark (4)

In cricket, an extra[5] is a run scored other than from a hit with the bat, credited (in most cases) to the batting side rather than to a batsman. The types of extra[7] are no ball, wide, bye, leg-bye, and penalty runs.

In cricket, a wide[5] (also wide ball) is a ball that is judged to be too wide of the stumps for the batsman to play, for which an extra is awarded to the batting side.
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

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Tuesday, January 30, 2018 — DT 28561

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 28561
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Setter
Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28561]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By
Kath
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★ Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Experience
┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐
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└────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘
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 found today's puzzle quite challenging and had to consult Kath's review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog to sort out the parsing for 6d.

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   No-nonsense // police raid follows riot, ignoring regulars (6)

The phrase "ignoring regulars" indicates that we are to remove an unspecified regular sequence of letters from the fodder. Most often, the regular sequence will consist of every other letter (either the evens or the odds). On rare occasions, it may even be every third letter. In this case, the fodder is RIOT and we must remove the evens (I and T) leaving RO remaining.

Here and There
From a British perspective, bust[5] in the sense of a police raid is a North American term.

Scratching the Surface
The surface reading suggests a police raid on a pub following a riot in which only those who were not regulars at the establishment were taken into custody.

4a   Note amends // books seen in church (8)

The psalter[5] (or Psalter[10]) is a a devotional or liturgical book containing a version of the biblical Book of Psalms* often with a musical setting psalters and hymn books.

* Psalter[10] is another name for Psalms, especially in the version in the Book of Common Prayer[10], the official book of church services of the Church of England, until 1980, when the Alternative Service Book was sanctioned.

10a   Shame /of/ this person wrapped in shroud on getting busted (9)

"this person" = I (show explanation )

It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the or this) compiler, (the or this) setter, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or me) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.

hide explanation

Scratching the Surface
In the surface reading, the speaker appears to one of those swept up in the North American-style police action in 1a.

11a   Copy // line seen in feature of roadworks (5)

Roadworks[5,10] is a pretty self-evident British term for work done in building or repairing roads or services under a road, especially when forming a hazard or obstruction to traffic (i) roadworks had caused a long traffic jam; (ii) roadwork delays.

12a   Might this identify // a Royal Marines troop? (7)

"Royal Marines" = RM (show explanation )

The Royal Marines[5] (abbreviation RM)[5] is a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances.

hide explanation

13a   Encourage // popular part of church (7)

14a   Line dance // music on game shows (5)

15a   Try twice /to get/ acclaim (4,4)

18a   Photographs // fail to be entered in competitions (5-3)

Here and There
Cup[5,10] is a British term for a sporting contest in which a cup is awarded to the winner playing in the Cup is the best thing ever. In North America, we might play "for the Cup" but likely not "in the Cup".

20a   King wearing small child/'s/ hat (5)

"king" = R (show explanation )

In the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms*, Rex[5] (abbreviation R[5]) [Latin for king] denotes the reigning king, used following a name (e.g. Georgius Rex, King George — often shortened to GR) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Rex v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

* A Commonwealth realm[7] is a sovereign state that is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares the same person, currently Elizabeth II, as its head of state and reigning constitutional monarch, but retains a crown legally distinct from the other realms. There are currently sixteen Commonwealth realms, the largest being Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with the remainder being smaller Caribbean and Pacific island nations.

hide explanation

A mite[5] is a small child or animal, especially when regarded as an object of sympathy ⇒ the poor little mite looks half-starved.



A mitre[5] (US miter) is a tall headdress worn by bishops and senior abbots as a symbol of office, tapering to a point at front and back with a deep cleft between.

23a   Knocked sharply on front of this, // cornered (7)

25a   Take off, /seeing/ Italian grabbed by single pal (7)

"Italian" = IT, in reference to either the country or the vermouth (show explanation )

This cluing might be explained in a couple of ways:
  • It.[10] is an abbreviation for Italian (or Italy).

  • Italian[10] is another name for Italian vermouth. It[5] is an informal, dated British term for Italian vermouth ⇒ he poured a gin and it.
hide explanation

In Britain, mate[5] — in addition to being a person’s husband, wife, or other sexual partner — is an informal term for a friend or companion ⇒ my best mate Steve.

26a   Prospect /of/ victory, as it falls (5)

V[10] is the symbol for victory. The victory-freedom sign[7] is famously associated with British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill in World War II. In a later incarnation, it became the "peace sign" of the 1960s hippy movement. However, one should be certain one knows how to properly make the sign lest they repeat the faux pas made by US President George H. W. Bush and others (show explanation ).

A V sign[7] made with the fingers and with the palm facing out may be a victory sign (as made famous by Sir Winston Churchill) or a peace sign (arising from the 1960s counterculture movement). However, in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, when made with the palm facing in, it means "F**k off"*.

* The Brits would seem to need two fingers to get across an idea that North Americans manage to convey with a single finger.

For a time in the UK, "a Harvey (Smith)" became a way of describing the insulting version of the V sign, much as "the word of Cambronne" is used in France, or "the Trudeau salute" is used to describe the one-fingered salute in Canada. This happened because, in 1971, show-jumper Harvey Smith was disqualified for making a televised V sign to the judges after winning the British Show Jumping Derby at Hickstead. (His win was reinstated two days later.)

Harvey Smith pleaded that he was using a Victory sign, a defence also used by other figures in the public eye. Sometimes foreigners visiting the countries mentioned above use the "two-fingered salute" without knowing it is offensive to the natives, for example when ordering two beers in a noisy pub, or in the case of United States president George H. W. Bush, who, while touring Australia in 1992, attempted to give a "peace sign" to a group of farmers in Canberra—who were protesting about U.S. farm subsidies—and instead gave the insulting V sign.

Steve McQueen in Le Mans
Steve McQueen gives a British (knuckles outward) V sign in the closing scene in the 1971 motorsport movie 'Le Mans'. A still picture of the gesture was also recorded by photographer Nigel Snowdon and has become an iconic image of both McQueen and the 24 hours of Le Mans.

hide explanation

27a   Drops measuring equipment (4,5)

28a   Stars head off /for/ shelter (8)

29a   Enthusiastic // study in painting (6)

Down

1d   Artist steps around one /for/ light (8)

"artist" = RA (show explanation )

A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA[10]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts[5] (also Royal Academy; abbreviation also RA[10]), an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain. 

hide explanation

2d   Match commentator? (4,3)

3d   Tug on a path to intercept ship/'s/ freeloaders? (9)

On the seas of Crosswordland, you will rarely go wrong in assuming that a ship is a steamship (abbreviation SS[5]).

5d   Alcohol /providing/ morale in the theatre? (8,6)

Surgical spirit[5] is a British term for denatured alcohol, typically perfumed, used for cleaning and disinfecting the skin or medical instruments before an injection or surgical operation.

6d   Beats // speed speaking without coming to a climax (5)

The phrase at a lick[5] denotes at a fast pace ⇒ the hearse was going at a fair lick for that normally sedate vehicle. I have certainly heard this synonym for speed but failed to recognize it when presented out of context.

Like others, I had presumed that the phrase "without coming to a climax" was intended to indicate the truncation of a word. However, that would certainly involve merely the deletion of the final letter — not nearly the whole bloody word. My thought was that far from coming to a climax, one had barely got started.

It turns out that the explanation is actually quite different — S is being clued by S[PEAKING] with PEAKING (coming to a climax) deleted (without).

7d   Art form // mounting tacit or easy displays (7)

8d   Country // garden linked with the Cornwall area (6)

Eden[5] (also Garden of Eden) is the place where Adam and Eve lived in the biblical account of the Creation, from which they were expelled for disobediently eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

Cornwall[5] is a county occupying the extreme southwestern peninsula of England.

For Those in the Know
Many British solvers saw "garden" in a different light.

The Eden Project[7] is a popular visitor attraction in Cornwall, England that displays plants collected from many diverse climates and environments.

The complex is dominated by two huge enclosures consisting of adjoining domes that house thousands of plant species, and each enclosure emulates a natural biome. The biomes consist of hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal, inflated, plastic cells supported by steel frames. The largest of the two biomes simulates a Rainforest environment and the second, a Mediterranean environment. The attraction also has an outside botanical garden which is home to many plants and wildlife native to Cornwall and the UK in general; it also has many plants that provide an important and interesting backstory, for example, those with a prehistoric heritage.

9d   Ignored // Conservative with elderly bore (4-10)

"Conservative" = C (show explanation )

The abbreviation for Conservative may be either C.[10] or Con.[10].

The Conservative Party[5] is a a major British political party that emerged from the old Tory Party* under Sir Robert Peel in the 1830s and 1840s. Since the Second World War, it has been in power 1951–64, 1970-74, and 1979–97. It governed in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats from 2010 until the general election of May 2015, in which it was returned with a majority.

* Historically, a Tory[10] was a member of the English political party that opposed the exclusion of James, Duke of York from the royal succession (1679–80). Tory remained the label for subsequent major conservative interests until they gave birth to the Conservative Party in the 1830s.

hide explanation

16d   Lulu/'s/ thirst absorbing doctor and the writer (9)

Taking Root
Here we encounter an American word that seems to have become so well established across the pond that it no longer draws howls of protest over the contamination of British English by Americanisms.

Humdinger[5] is an informal (originally US*) term denoting a remarkable or outstanding person or thing of its kind.

* Oxford Dictionaries[5] and Collins English Dictionary[4,10] show the expression as originating in the (early) 20th century while the Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary[11] and Chambers 21st Century Dictionary[2] date it to the (late) 19th century.

While physiologically thirst and hunger are somewhat different feelings, in a figurative sense the words can be used interchangeably.

For a change, the doctor is one that North Americans would recognize.

In 10a, the setter referred to himself as "this person". Here, he chooses to use "the writer". However, in both cases, he is using the same cluing device.

17d   Torn about always /being/ respectful (8)

19d   Back trouble in so stormy // an affair (7)

21d   Malign // deal protecting University College (7)

UC, rather than being the abbreviation for University College, may be (as Kath shows in her review) merely the abbreviation for University plus the abbreviation for College.

In addition to countless examples around the world, there are several institutions that go by the name University College in the UK. Among these are University College London[7] (a founding college of the University of London) which is known as UCL, University College, Oxford*[7] (the oldest college of the University of Oxford, established in 1249) which is colloquially referred to as "Univ", and the former University College, Cambridge (founded in 1965) which changed its name to Wolfson College[7] in 1973 in recognition of the benefaction of the Wolfson Foundation [if it were a sports stadium, Wolfson would be said to have bought the naming rights, but that terminology is surely too crass to be applied to such an esteemed educational institution].

* the official name in full is The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford.

22d   Music bars /will need/ refurbished seats to muffle volume (6)

"volume" = V (show explanation )

In physics and chemistry, V[5] is a symbol used to represent volume in mathematical formulae ⇒ pV = nRT.

hide explanation



Stave is a British term (or maybe not*) for the set of lines and spaces on which music is written.

* Both Oxford Dictionaries and Collins English Dictionary characterize stave[1,2,3,4,5,10,11] as a British term, although American dictionaries do not seem to consider this to be the case. Furthermore, most dictionaries show stave[1,2,3,4,10,11] as an alternative term for staff[1,2,3,4,10,11]. Oxford Dictionaries, on the other hand, takes a contrarian view, listing staff[5] as an alternative term for stave[5].

Misreading the Score
In music terminology, staves and bars are not the same thing — with staves being the horizontal lines and bars the vertical lines on a piece of sheet music.

The five horizontal lines of a musical stave may give the appearance of bars — in a general sense. However, in musical notation, the bars are actually the vertical lines drawn through the stave to mark off metrical units.

24d   Fruit /and/ veg needed by church (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)
[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)
Signing off for today — Falcon

Monday, January 29, 2018

Monday, January 29, 2018 — DT 28560 (Published Saturday, January 27, 2018)

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 28560
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Setter
Unknown
Link to Full Review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28560]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By
Mr Kitty
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, January 27, 2018 edition of the National Post.

Introduction

As I was solving this puzzle, in several instances I thought definitions seemed to test the boundaries. However, the post-solve review confirmed that they had all stayed within bounds.

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   Skill fixing fence, if icy (10)

For myself, as for several commenters on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, skill and efficiency do not quite align. However, the editors of Collins English Dictionary list competence as a meaning for efficiency so I guess skill must also be a match.

Efficiency[10] is the quality or state of being efficient; competence; effectiveness.

6a   Bound // to leave (4)

Behind the Picture
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo[7] (known popularly as Skippy) is an Australian television series telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, and the various visitors to the fictional Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales. The programme aired in Australia from 1968–1970 and was subsequently shown in the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands.

9a   Vehicles, // vehicles -- about time! (5)

10a   Select Poe works // to shorten (9)

Scratching the Surface
Edgar Allan Poe[5] (1809–1849) was an American short-story writer, poet, and critic. His fiction and poetry are Gothic in style and characterized by their exploration of the macabre and the grotesque. Notable works: ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (short story, 1840); ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ (detective story, 1841); ‘The Raven’ (poem, 1845).

12a   Old bishop and minister /in/ study (7)

"bishop" = B (show explanation )

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

A bishop [5] is a chess piece, typically with its top shaped like a mitre, that can move any number of spaces in any direction along a diagonal on which it stands. Each player starts the game with two bishops, one moving on white squares and the other on black.

hide explanation

13a   Rushed for instance towards the West/'s/ diversity (5)

15a   Agitated // conductor leading band's climax (7)

Sir Simon Rattle[7] is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–98). He has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic since 2002, and plans to leave his position at the end of his current contract, in 2018. It was announced in March 2015 that Rattle would become Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra from September 2017.

17a   Former lover suggested /getting/ bare (7)

19a   Country // retreat with distinguishing characteristic (7)

21a   Hearing // sounds back, son must be captivated (7)

22a   Model of car and every // train (5)

The Ford Model T[7] (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie, Leaping Lena, or flivver) is an automobile produced by Ford Motor Company from 1908 to 1927 during which time 15 million vehicles rolled off the assembly line. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that opened travel to the common middle-class American; some of this was because of Ford's efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting. The Model T was Ford's first automobile mass-produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class.

What did he say?
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Mr Kitty refers to the Model T as the first mas-produced car.
The 1901 to 1904 Oldsmobile[7] Curved Dash was the first mass-produced car, made from the first automotive assembly line, an invention that is often miscredited to Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. (Ford was the first to manufacture cars on a moving assembly line.)

24a   Business // skill returned: very loudly in charge (7)

"very loudly" = FF (show explanation )

Fortissimo[5] (abbreviation ff[5]) is a direction used in music to mean either (as an adjective) very loud  or (as an adverb) very loudly.

hide explanation

"in charge" = IC (show explanation )

The abbreviation i/c[2,5] can be short for either:
  • (especially in military contexts) in charge (of) ⇒ the Quartermaster General is i/c rations
  • in command (of) ⇒ 2 i/c = second in command.
hide explanation



Traffic[10] might be used in either of the following senses:
  • (usually followed by with) dealings or business ⇒ have no traffic with that man
  • trade, especially of an illicit or improper kind ⇒ drug traffic
27a   Keeping // in power involved keeping quiet (9)

Keeping[10,12] denotes charge, care, or custody but does it denote ownership? Oxford Dictionaries would seem to show that it does. Keeping[5] is the action or fact of owning, maintaining, or protecting something the keeping of dogs.

28a   Say // nothing in sin (5)

29a   Holy man, the old // thing that's painful to see around (4)

Ye[5] is a pseudo-archaic term for theYe Olde Cock Tavern.

Delving Deeper
The word 'ye' in this sense is a graphic variant of 'the'.

Thorn[5] is an Old English and Icelandic runic letter, þ or Þ, representing the dental fricatives /ð/ and /θ/. It was eventually superseded by the digraph th — and thus þe (the old spelling of 'the') became the modern spelling 'the'.

In late Middle English þ (thorn) came to be written identically with y, so that þe (the) could be written ye. This spelling (usually ye*) was kept as a convenient abbreviation in handwriting down to the 19th century, and in printers' types during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was never pronounced as ‘ye’ in the past, but this is the pronunciation used today.

* I interpret "usually ye" to mean that the word was customarily not capitalized because the character is not being used to represent the letter "y" in the modern English alphabet but rather as a graphic variant of thorn. Thus, in bygone days, the name of the drinking establishment above would presumably be written ye Olde Cock Tavern.



In his review, Mr Kitty comments ⇒ Not sure that around is an appropriate preposition here. Well, I suppose the affliction may — in addition to being painful — often interfere with one's vision.

30a   Fired up, // 50 per cent of encounters were angry (10)

Down

1d   Branch of sweet chestnut/'s/ cut (4)

2d   Catch up after pro got // left behind (9)

3d   Charges // people from the Highlands leading southern moves? (5)

The Highlands[5] are the mountainous part of Scotland, to the north of Glasgow and Stirling, often associated with Gaelic culture ⇒ a Highland regiment.

4d   Went in // hospital department before daughter (7)

"hospital department" = ENT (show explanation )

Should you not have noticed, the ear, nose and throat (ENT[2]) department is the most visited section, by far, in the Crosswordland Hospital.

hide explanation

5d   Company suggest leaving a // place of learning (7)

7d   Recognised // kind of wine regularly taken out (5)

Although, in this case, it is the even letters that are removed, the word "regularly" could equally well be used to clue the odd letters as "regularly" merely denotes a regular sequence. And while it most commonly used to designate every second letter, it is sometimes used to signify every third letter.

8d   Putting on an act // before start of theatrical finale (10)

11d   What person in the Navy could want /rubbish on board ship? (7)

"on board ship" = 'contained in SS' (show explanation )

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is almost invariably a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS[10]. Thus phrases such as "aboard ship" or "on board ship" (or sometimes merely "aboard" or "on board") are Crosswordland code for 'contained in SS'.

hide explanation



Although, in keeping with the theme of the clue, the Navy in particular is mentioned, the definition would be equally applicable to any branch of the military.

A stripe[5,10] is a strip, band, or chevron of fabric worn on a military uniform, etc, especially one that indicates rank* he was wearing his old uniform without its sergeant's stripes. A stripe[1,10a,12] may also indicate good behaviour or (in the US) length of service.

[10a] COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary

14d   Customs // raid -- it's not unusual (10)

16d   Mad king wielding the // whip (7)

King Lear[7] is a tragedy by English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The title character descends into madness after disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all.

As a containment indicator, wield[5] is used in the sense of hold and use (a weapon or tool) — with the emphasis on the first part of the definition.

18d   Some tailors initially longing to finish this? (9)

This is a semi-all-in-one clue in which the entire clue constitutes the definition into which the wordplay (marked with a dashed underline) is embedded.

20d   Thick stews in French // cuisine, as they say in Paris (7)

The French preposition en[8] means 'in'.

Cuisine[8] is a French word meaning 'kitchen' as well as the more familiar 'cooking'.

21d   Head cleaner // has mop bent over (7)

"over" = O (show explanation )

On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation O[5] denotes over(s), an over[5] being a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.

hide explanation

23d   Refusal to tuck into any//  bug (5)

25d   Female continually /creating/ state of excitement (5)

26d   Heroic exploit, whichever way you look at it (4)

The portion of the clue marked with a dashed underline is cryptic elaboration indicating that the solution is a palindrome.
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