Saturday, October 27, 2018 — Elephant Test

Introduction

I found that the top half of today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon put up a valiant struggle — with the northeast quadrant being particularly testing.

On the other hand, Henry reports that he "did the upper half relatively quickly" so presumably the frustration he suggests that he experienced must have occurred in the lower half of the puzzle.

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

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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 █ - yet to be solved

Click here for an explanation of conventions and symbols used in explaining the parsing of clues.

The purpose of this article is to explain the conventions and symbols that I use on this blog in explaining the parsing of clues.

Legend: The following symbols are used in reviews: "*" anagram "~" sounds like "<" indicates that the preceding letters are reversed "( )" encloses contained letters "_" replaces letters that have been deleted "†" indicates that the word is present in the clue

The review of a clue takes the following general structure:

#a/d   Clue containing parsing markup (num^*)

---

^* num = numeration

Explanations pertaining to the wordplay (or first definition in a double definition)

(Horizontal separator)

---

Explanations pertaining to the definition (or second definition in a double definition) and solution.

Explanatory Box

An explanatory box provides additional information about the clue. In most cases this information will not necessarily help in solving the clue but provides information about the clue. In the case of the weekday syndicated Daily Telegraph puzzles, such information is often intended to help the North American solver appreciate how the clue may be perceived by a British solver. These boxes may also provide information on people, places, films, television programmes, works of art and literature, etc. mentioned in the clue. Although the titles of these boxes will usually be drawn from a standard list, I do occasionally throw in a title specifically suggested by the subject at hand. The standard titles include: Scratching the Surface - an explanation of the surface reading of the clue Delving Deeper - in-depth information pertaining to a subject mentioned in an explanation The Story Behind the Picture - for weekday puzzles, information about an illustration found on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What did he/she/they say? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a remark made in a review or comment on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What are they talking about? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a discussion on Big Dave's Crossword Blog One box that may provide information that could prove helpful in solving the clue is the following: Here and There - for weekday puzzles, discusses words whose British meaning differs from their North American meaning

Note that there are many types of cryptic crossword clue and it is not my intention to exhaustively go through all of them here. I will only deal with clue types to the extent necessary to explain the conventions and symbols used on the blog. Furthermore, be aware that, in the world of cryptic crosswords, there seems to be an exception to every rule.

With one exception that I can think of, cryptic crossword clues provide two routes to the solution. These are commonly referred to as the definition and wordplay. While these terms serve well for most clues, there are some cases where the more formal terms of primary indication and subsidiary indication may be more appropriate.

Most cryptic crossword clues consist of a definition (primary indication) and wordplay (subsidiary indication). The definition may be a "precise definition" (a definition that is either taken straight from a dictionary or at least phrased in a non-misleading fashion) or it may be a "cryptic definition" (a definition misleadingly phrased so as to misdirect the solver either with respect to the meaning of the definition as a whole or to an incorrect sense of a word used in the definition).

The only type of clue that I can think of where there are not two ways of finding the solution are those in which the entire clue is a cryptic definition.

I identify precise definitions by marking them with a solid underline in the clue and cryptic definitions by marking them with a dotted underline.

In clues in which both definition and wordplay are present, the two parts of the clue combine to provide an overall meaningful statement (the surface reading) which usually bears no relationship to the underlying cryptic reading of the clue. In some cases, an extra word or phrase will be inserted into the clue to create a meaningful link between the definition and wordplay. I define clues which contain such a link word or link phrase as having an explicit link and clues which contain no link word or link phrase as having an implicit link.

I mark the existence of an explicit link by enclosing the link word or link phrase between forward slashes (/link/) and mark the existence of an implicit link with double forward slashes (//) positioned between the definition and wordplay.

Examples

A few examples may help to illustrate these points more clearly.

The first example is a clue used by Jay in DT 28573:

• 4d   Fellow left work // a failure (4)

Here the definition is "a failure" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as F (fellow; abbrev.) + L (left; abbrev.) + OP (work; abbrev. used in music) which gives us the solution F|L|OP. The double forward slashes (//) between the definition and wordplay indicate the existence of an "implicit link" between the two parts of the clue (that is, no extra words are inserted into the clue to form the link).

The second example is a clue used by Giovanni in DT 28575:

• 29a   Female going to match // travels with mother in advance (10)

Here the definition "female going to match" is cryptic (the setter is attempting to misdirect our thoughts to a sports event rather than a marriage ceremony) and thus is marked with a a dotted underline. The wordplay is {RIDES (travels) + (with) MA (mother)} contained in (in) BID (advance) giving us the solution B(RIDES|MA)ID. As in the first example, the double forward slashes indicate the presence of an implicit link.

The third example is a clue used by Rufus is DT 28583:

• 18d   Knight caught by misplaced big blow /is/ staggering (8)

Here the definition is "staggering" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as N ([chess symbol for] knight) contained in (caught in) an anagram (misplaced) of BIG BLOW producing the solution WOBBLI(N)G. Finally, forward slashes mark the link word (/is/).

I also use distinctive underlining to mark &lit.^[7] and semi-&lit. clues. Note that the reviewers on Big Dave's Crossword Blog generally prefer to refer to these clue types by the less pretentious names of all-in-one or semi-all-in-one clues respectively.

In an &lit. clue^[7] (or 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 future, I will mark such clues with a combined solid and dashed underline. Although this is a departure from past practice, it would seem to make more sense than using a dotted underline as I have in the past). Henceforth, the dotted underline will be reserved for cryptic definitions.

In a semi-&lit. clue (or 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.

For these clues, I will mark the definition with a solid underline and the wordplay with a  dashed underline. This means that a portion of the clue may have a solid underline, a portion of the clue may have a dashed underline and a portion of the clue may have a combined solid and dashed underline.

One final clue type is what I characterize as a cryptic definition comprised of a precise definition combined with cryptic elaboration. For example, in DT 28560 (setter unknown) the following clue appears:

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

As the entire clue is a cryptic definition, it is marked with a dotted underline. The 'precise definition' is "heroic exploit" and is indicated by a solid underline.

Given the numeration, the precise definition could give rise to at least two solutions, DEED or FEAT. However, the 'cryptic elaboration' ("whichever way you look at it") indicates that the solution is a palindrome thereby immediately eliminating one of the two obvious choices.

Note that the part of the clue that I have called 'cryptic elaboration' does not provide a second independent route to the solution (as the wordplay would do in most other types of clue). Rather it merely provides a piece of additional information (elaboration) related to the 'precise definition'.

Again, this approach is a departure from past practice, but like the other changes mentioned previously is intended to remove inconsistencies in the way that I have been applying parsing markup to clues. The markup rules that I have been using until now evolved bit-by-bit over a long period of time resulting in some degree of internal inconsistency.

hide explanation

Across

1a   2,000 insects that flutter around any // old elephants (8)

M(A)M|MOTHS — {MM ([Roman numeral for] 2,000) + MOTHS (insects that flutter)} containing (around) A (any; modifier denoting an indefinite or unspecified thing)

5a   Bum who had // seat on an elephant (6)

HOWDAH* — anagram (bum) of WHO HAD

10a   Bistro guests surrounding // solitary elephant (5)

_RO|GUE_ — hidden in (surrounding) bistRO GUEsts

11a   Elephant trunk // expert is holding sort of pear (9)

PRO(BOSC)IS — {PRO (expert) + IS (†)} containing (holding) BOSC (sort of pear)

12a   Tied up // dog, with sow around (7)

SE(CUR)ED — CUR (dog) contained by (with ... around) SEED (sow)

13a   Imp amusement’s reversed // crying sound (7)

{SNUF|FLE}< — reversal (reversed) of {ELF (imp) + FUN (amusement) + S ('s)}

14a   Humdrum initially, and awfully banal in // general with elephants (8)

H|ANNIBAL* — H (humdrum initially; initial letter of Humdrum) + (and) anagram (awfully) of BANAL IN

Hannibal^[5,7,10] (247–182 BC) was a Carthaginian general. In the second Punic War (218–201 BC) he invaded Italy, crossing the Alps with an army including war elephants and about 40,000 men, and repeatedly defeated the Romans, but failed to take Rome itself.

16a   Search for water /and/ touch of whisky in medicinal amount (5)

DO(W)SE — W (touch [initial letter] of Whisky) contained in (in) DOSE (medicinal amount)

19a   Oddly tout Saki’s // elephant features (5)

TUSKS — the odd letters (oddly) of ToUt SaKi'S

Scratching the Surface
Saki[5] was the pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916), a British short-story writer who was born in Burma. His stories encompass the satiric, comic, macabre, and supernatural, and frequently depict animals as agents seeking revenge on humankind.

21a   Elephantlike creature // adapted to nomads (8)

MASTODON* — anagram (adapted) of TO NOMADS

24a   Airing broadcast about elephant’s origin /in/ African land (7)

{NIG(E)RIA}* — anagram (broadcast) of AIRING containing (about) E (Elephant's origin [initial letter])

26a   Most elephantine // female witness (7)

F|ATTEST — F (female; abbrev.) + ATTEST (witness)

27a   Elephant // capsule, in retrospect, transformed Mr. Hyde (9)

PAC|HYDERM* — reversal (in retrospect) of CAP (capsule; abbrev.) + anagram (transformed) of MR HYDE

Scratching the Surface

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde*[7] is a gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) first published in 1886. It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the very phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" entering the vernacular to refer to people with an unpredictably dual nature: usually very good, but sometimes shockingly evil instead. * The work is also known as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde.

28a   Duplicated note about a // city in Florida (5)

MI(A)MI — {MI + MI } (duplicated [musical] note) containing (about) A (†)

In sol-fa notation, mi^{*[1,2,3,5,10,11]} (or me^*[1,2,5,10]) is the third note of a major scale.

How does one spell that?
With respect to spelling, two British dictionaries show me[2,5] as the principal spelling with mi as a variant[2] or US[5] spelling. However, two other British dictionaries take the contrary position, listing mi[1,10] as the principal spelling with me as a variant[10] or anglicized[1] spelling. Two US dictionaries list only one spelling — mi[3,11].

29a   Groups of three // test tots in audition (6)

{TRI|ADS}~ — sounds like (in audition) {TRY (test) + ADDS (tots)}

30a   Alien adopted by White House family // sounds like an elephant (8)

TRUMP(ET)S — ET (alien) contained in (adopted by) TRUMPS (White House family)

One member of this family is certainly not shy to trumpet his self-perceived magnificence!

Down

1d   Gloomy // beast with antlers seen around river (6)

MO(R)OSE — MOOSE (beast with antlers) containing (seen around) R (river; abbrev.)

2d   Fellow’s catching soldier with group of spies /and/ wizards (9)

MA(GI|CIA)N|S — {MAN (fellow) + S ('s)} containing (catching) {GI ([US] soldier + (with) CIA (group of spies)}

3d   Goof in Nova, sadly, // went past (7)

{OV(ERR)AN}* — ERR (goof) contained in (in) anagram (sadly) of NOVA

Scratching the Surface
Nova[7] (stylized NOVΛ) is an American popular science television series produced by WGBH Boston. It is broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the U.S., and in more than 100 other countries. The series has won many major television awards.

4d   Kept the faith // he had about operation (5)

H(OP)ED — HED (he had; contracted as he'd) containing (about) OP (operation; abbrev.)

6d   Pompous // cast on tour with debut of Deathtrap (7)

OROTUN*|D — anagram (cast) of ON TOUR + (with) D (debut [initial letter] of Deathtrap)

Scratching the Surface
Deathtrap[7] is a play written by Ira Levin in 1978. It holds the record for the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway, and was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Play. It was adapted into a film starring Christopher Reeve, Michael Caine, and Dyan Cannon in 1982.

7d   From behind, looked at // drink with no charge? (5)

DECAF< — reversal (from behind) of FACED (looked at)

8d   Hurried // all over the Andes (8)

HASTENED* — anagram (all over) of THE ANDES

9d   Pacifies // panels with switches and knobs (8)

CONSOLES — double definition

15d   Lamented // hit on the head, taking moment (8)

BE(MO)ANED — BEANED (hit on the head) containing (taking) MO (moment)

Mo^{[1,2,4.5,10,11,12,14]} (abbreviation for moment) is an informal British^[5,14], chiefly British^[2,4],  mainly British^[10], or not specified as British^[1,11,12] term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

17d   Lose nuts fed to huge animal // hand over fist (9)

WH(OLES*)ALE — anagram (nuts) of LOSE contained in (fed to) WHALE (large animal)

18d   Tolerate light touch /and/ don’t budge (5,3)

STAND| PAT — STAND (tolerate) + PAT (light touch)

20d   Rushed outside, flat-bodied fish // squirted (7)

SP(RAY)ED — SPED (rushed) containing (outside) RAY (flat-bodied fish)

22d   Best // choose one flower for a fall arrangement (7)

OPT|I|MUM — OPT (choose) + I ([Roman numeral for] one) + MUM (flower for a fall arrangement)

23d   Flight segments // crossing communist airspace (6)

_ST|AIRS_ — hidden in (crossing) communiST AIRSpace

25d   Icon-based display including carbon copy // designer (5)

GU(CC)I — GUI (icon-based display; graphical user interface) containing (including) CC (carbon copy; abbrev.)

Guccio Gucci^[7] (1881–1953) was an Italian fashion designer, the founder of The Fashion House of Gucci.

26d   French acquiring big bird // bone (5)

F(EMU)R — FR (French; abbrev.) containing (acquiring) EMU (big bird)

Epilogue

The term elephant test^[7] refers to situations in which an idea or thing, "is hard to describe, but instantly recognizable when spotted".

The term is often used in legal cases when there is an issue which may be open to interpretation, such as in the case of Cadogan Estates Ltd v Morris, when Lord Justice Stuart-Smith referred to "the well known elephant test. It is difficult to describe, but you know it when you see it", and in Ivey v Genting Casinos, when Lord Hughes (in discussing dishonesty) opined "like the elephant, it is characterised more by recognition when encountered than by definition."

Although he did not specifically refer to the elephant test, a similar principle was invoked by Justice Potter Stewart in Jacobellis v. Ohio, an obscenity case. He stated that the Constitution protected all obscenity except "hard-core pornography". Stewart opined, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

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)
^[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon