Wednesday, November 28, 2018 — DT 28781

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28781
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28781]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Mr K
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

For the most part, today's puzzle is a gentle mental workout to get us over the midweek hump. There is one instance of North American usage — which, of course, I had no idea was North American usage — that I don't believe is grammatically accurate.

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.

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^*)

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^* num = numeration

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

(Horizontal separator)

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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.

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Across

1a   Money /from/ account withdrawn, friend grabbing it (7)

5a   Slack // police department going after learner driver in fact dropping back (7)

"police department" = CID (show explanation )

The Criminal Investigation Department (seemingly better known by its abbreviation CID^[2]) is the detective branch of a British police force.

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"learner driver" = L (show explanation )

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various jurisdictions (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

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9a   Drink // fit for a king knocked back (5)

10a   Chatty // regular drunk, dropping ale finally over us (9)

"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.

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11a   At paper that's trendy, retaining old // charm (10)

12a   Russian leader // it is fair to ignore on a regular basis (4)

A tsar^[5] (also czar or tzar) was an emperor of Russia before the revolution of 1917.

14a   Surely not! Article (and another in French) by bridge player /is/ just the same (12)

"another [article] in French" = LES (show explanation )

In French, the plural form of the definite article is les^[8].

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"bridge player" = S (show explanation )

In the card game bridge, North^[5] (N) and South^[5] (S) comprise one partnership and play against East^[5] (E) and West^[5] (W) who form the other partnership.

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18a   More and more // anglers in icy waves (12)

21a   The Queen's address in both directions? (4)

I classify the clue as a cryptic definition with an embedded precise definition. The latter portion of the clue provides cryptic elaboration^* relating to the precise definition rather than an independent route to the solution.

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^* cryptically indicating that the solution is a palindrome

Ma'am^[10] (short for madam) is used as a title of respect, especially when addressing female royalty.

22a   At home with part covering piano // examination (10)

"piano" = P (show explanation )

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

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25a   Instant // suspicion after time with wife (9)

26a   That is keeping scoundrel // angry (5)

27a   We learn about // rehabilitation (7)

28a   Burns pens introduction to rhapsody /for/ vocalists (7)

Down

1d   Possible location of wine // merchant, we hear (6)

2d   Untidy place // where one might find litter (6)

3d   Intimidated // teen worried in series of postings on internet message board (10)

4d   Unimportant // predicament? Not at first (5)

5d   Force with soldiers and American became // lost (9)

"force" = F (show explanation )

In physics, F^[5] is a symbol used to represent force in mathematical formulae.

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"soldiers" = 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.

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Close but no cigar?

The premise of this clue is that GOTTEN is supposedly a synonym for "became" in the US (but not in the UK). However, I tried in vain to think of a situation in which the two words could be substituted for each other. After considerable research and due contemplation I have come to the conclusion that there is a fundamental fallacy in the proposition. The word gotten is a past participle of the verb get.while the word became is the past tense of the verb become (the past participle being become, the same as the present tense). I would say that the clue should have been phrased: Force with soldiers and American become // lost (9) where become (the past participle of the verb become) is to be replaced by gotten (a past participle of the verb get in American usage). I note that Mr K in his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog also states that gotten is a synonym of become and not became which appears in the clue. Gotten[5] is a North American past participle of get. From Oxford Dictionaries Online: As past participles of get, got and gotten both date back to Middle English. The form gotten is not used in British English but is very common in North American English. In North American English, got and gotten are not identical in use. Gotten usually implies the process of obtaining something, as in he had gotten us tickets for the show, while got implies the state of possession or ownership, as in I haven't got any money.[5] From Webster’s New World College Dictionary: Although both gotten and got are accepted past participles for most senses of the verb get, gotten has become the prevailing form in the U.S. in all speech and writing, especially for the senses of receiving, becoming, or arriving; the gradual acceptance of gotten over the past 40 years or so has probably been facilitated by the desire to distinguish between possession, as in the informal I've got a car, and acquisition, as in I've gotten a car; these forms are not commonly used in most other English-speaking countries, where the standard form for possession is have (I have a car) and the standard past participle is got (for instance, in Britain,  I have got a car means I have acquired a car).[12]

6d   Fever // upset the Ugandans to some extent (4)

Ague^[5] is an archaic term for:

• malaria or another illness involving fever and shivering
• a fever or shivering fit

7d   Lector is moving // religious residence (8)

Cloister^[5] is used in the sense of a convent or monastery.

8d   Hell -- bit of hair /creates/ anguish (8)

In Roman mythology, Dis^[10] is:

• (also called Orcus or Pluto) the god of the underworld
• the abode of the dead or underworld

Its counterpart in Greek mythology is Hades^[10].

13d   Thought // of liner, etc, at sea (10)

15d   Vital // German city -- it rises above a lake (9)

Essen^[5] is an industrial city in the Ruhr valley, in northwestern Germany.

16d   Heavenly body under coat -- // Marilyn Monroe, perhaps (4,4)

Marilyn Monroe^[5] (1926–1962) was an American actress; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; later Norma Jean Baker. Her film roles, largely in comedies, made her the definitive Hollywood sex symbol. She is thought to have died of an overdose of sleeping pills. Notable films: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Some Like it Hot (1959), and The Misfits (1961).

17d   Party // time (8)

19d   Diatribe /from/ one stuck in traffic (6)

Traffic^[10] might be used in either of two senses:

• (usually followed by with) dealings or business ⇒ have no traffic with that man
• trade, especially of an illicit or improper kind ⇒ drug traffic

20d   Enjoyable? Female leaves a smaller amount // if not (6)

23d   Leaves // errand boys (5)

24d   Small gardens in London // at an angle (4)

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (commonly known as Kew Gardens^[5]) is an important botanical institution and World Heritage Site located at Kew, in London, England.

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Skew^[5] has the same meaning as askew ⇒ (i) his hat looked slightly skew; (ii) a skew angle.

I found this to be a bit surprising as prefixing the letter a- to a word usually reverses its meaning, e.g., typical/atypical, sexual/asexual, theist/atheist, etc.

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