Saturday, March 30, 2019 — Beauty and Influence

Introduction

I needed a bit of electronic help to finish today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon. Put it down to failing eyesight and a dearth of pop culture awareness.

I doubt if many would pick up on the obscure factual error in one of today's clues.

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

Across

1a   Evergreens to topple, // for starters (5,2,3)

FIRS|T O|F ALL — FIRS (evergreens) + TO (†) + FALL (topple)

6a   Sounding depressed, // played a horn (4)

BLEW~ — sounds like (sounding) BLUE (depressed)

9a   Star // debut of Bullock in Speed (9)

CELE(B)RITY — B (debut [initial letter] of Bullock) contained in (in) CELERITY (speed)

Scratching the Surface

Speed[7] is a 1994 American action thriller film featuring American actress Sandra Bullock[7] in her breakthrough starring role. The film tells the story of an LAPD cop who tries to rescue civilians on a city bus rigged with a bomb programmed to explode if the bus slows down below 50 mph. It became a sleeper hit, critically and commercially successful. Bullock was the highest paid actress in the world in 2010 and 2014. In 2015, she was chosen as People's Most Beautiful Woman, and was included in Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010.

10a   Stealthily move // public relations flyer (5)

PR|OWL — PR (public relations; abbrev.) + OWL (flyer)

11a   Cobb holds strange // spiced drink (5)

T(ODD)Y — TY (Cobb; American baseball player Ty Cobb) containing (holds) ODD (strange)

Ty Cobb^[7] (1886–1961), nicknamed The Georgia Peach, was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team's player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1999, editors at the Sporting News ranked him third on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players".

12a   New Waterford/’s/ concluding comments (9)

AFTERWORD* — anagram of (new) WATERFORD

New Waterford^[7] is a town located on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The name is derived from the Irish seaport Waterford, from which many early settlers came.

13a   Dog on TV trailing southeast // Ethiopian emperor (8)

SE|LASSIE — LASSIE (dog on TV) following (trailing) SE (southeast; abbrev.)

Haile Selassie I^[7] (English translation: "Power of the Trinity," born Lij Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael,  1892–1975) was an Ethiopian regent from 1916 to 1930 and emperor from 1930 to 1974.

15a   Frequently // referring to decade (5)

OF|TEN — OF (referring to) + TEN (decade)

17a   Key // is permitted (5)

IS|LET — IS (†) + LET (permitted)

19a   Genie winner James // West clobbered again (8)

W|HIT|MORE — W(est) + HIT (clobbered) + MORE (again)

The Genie Awards^[7] were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978). In 2013, the Academy merged the Genies with its sister presentation for English-language television, the Gemini Awards, to form a new award presentation known as the Canadian Screen Awards.

Tisn't So
In 2000, American actor James Whitmore[7] (1921–2009) was nominated for a Genie for Best Actor[7] in the Canadian comedy-drama film Here's To Life! However, he lost out to Canadian Actor Tony Nardi who won for his role in My Father's Angel.

23a   Tomato Rob tossed /in/ vessel on a lake (9)

MOTORBOAT* — anagram of (tossed) TOMATO ROB

24a   Expert in road // was in a hurry (5)

R(ACE)D — ACE (expert) contained in (in) RD (road; abbrev.)

25a   Flip // through Stupendous! (5)

_UPEND_ — hidden in (through) StUPENDous

26a   Guard weasels with start of suspected // contamination (9)

G|ERMINES|S — G (guard; abbrev. for football position) + ERMINES (weasels) + S (start [initial letter] of Suspected)

Post Mortem
Misreading the second word in the clue as "vessels" torpedoed any chance of success here. Only when my electronic assistants identified only one possible fit for the checking letters did I realize my error. Time for new glasses?

27a   High-end // acting award (4)

TONY — double definition

The Tony Award^[7], (informally Tony and officially the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, a New York City-based organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre".

James Whitmore^[7] did win a Tony, in 1948 as Best Newcomer for his role in Command Decision (tied with June Lockhart in For Love or Money).

28a   Volume by Spanish painter picked up by an // auteur (4,6)

A(TOM E|GOYA)N — {TOME (volume) + GOYA (Spanish painter [Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes^[5]])} contained in (picked up by) AN (†)

Atom Egoyan^[7] is a Canadian stage and film director, writer, and producer. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a film set primarily in and around the fictional Exotica strip club. Egoyan's most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter (1997), for which he received two Academy Award nominations, and his biggest commercial success is the erotic thriller Chloe (2009).

Down

1d   Error in data // characteristics (6)

FAC(E)TS — E (error; abbrev. used in baseball stats) contained in (in) FACTS (data)

2d   Moving log, deer // get stuck again (7)

RELODGE* — anagram of (moving) LOG DEER

3d   Bill sitting next to // cat (5)

TAB|BY — TAB (bill) + BY (sitting next to)

4d   Fights about paper that identifies // when weekends start (7)

FR(ID)AYS — FRAYS (fights) containing (about) ID (paper that identifies)

5d   Still wearing recent // newborn’s outfit (7)

LA(YET)TE — YET (still) contained in (wearing) LATE (recent)

7d   Lou took off // watch (4,3)

{LOOK OUT}* — anagram of (off) LOU TOOK

8d   We’ll put on movie’s ending, // nicely executed (4,4)

WELL| DON|E — WELL (we'll) + DON (put on) + E (moviE's ending [final letter])

10d   Hairstyle holding for // act (7)

PER(FOR)M — PERM (hairstyle) containing (holding) FOR (†)

14d   Dressed // badly, eat dirt (7)

ATTIRED* — anagram of (badly) EAT DIRT

16d   Get off // on mud: it’s weird (8)

DISMOUNT* — anagram of (weird) ON MUD ITS

18d   Tip about article // causing forgetfulness (7)

LE(THE)AN — LEAN (tip) containing (about) THE ([definite] article)

Lethean^[7] is an adjective meaning causing oblivion or forgetfulness of the past ⇒ writing induced a kind of Lethean forgetfulness.

---

Origin: Mid 17th century: from the river Lethe in Hades, whose water when drunk made the souls of the dead forget their life on earth.

19d   Made // approximate in weight (7)

W(ROUGH)T — ROUGH (approximate) contained in (in) WT (weight; abbrev.)

20d   Meanwhile, // bury one piece of metal (7)

INTER|I|M — INTER (bury) + I ([Roman numeral for] one) + M (piece [initial letter] of Metal)

In modern usage, interim^[5] can be either a noun or adjective. However, the word also has an archaic usage as an adverb denoting meanwhile.

21d   Unstable // alien embraced by Gervais (7)

RICK(ET)Y — ET (alien; from the Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial^[7]) contained in (embraced by) RICKY (Gervais; English comedian Ricky Gervais^[7])

Post Mortem

Once I had sorted out 19a, the solution to this clue was evident from the definition and checking letters. Pop culture not being my strong suit, I have no more than the vaguest recollection of even having heard the name of the English comedian. However, he apparently must be important as, in 2010, he was included (along with Sandra Bullock) on the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.

22d   Inventor is done with adjustments (6)

EDISON* — anagram of (with adjustments) IS DONE

Thomas Edison^[5] (1847–1931) was an American inventor. He took out the first of more than a thousand patents at the age of 21. His inventions include automatic telegraph systems, the carbon microphone for telephones, the phonograph, and the carbon filament lamp.

24d   Expressing regret, // one gets in step (5)

RU(I)NG — I ([Roman numeral for] one) contained in (gets in) RUNG (step)

Epilogue

Although a couple of the 9a's in today's puzzle are apparently considered to among the most influential people in the world, I'm afraid they have had negligible impact on me.

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