Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29298 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Friday, February 28, 2020 | |
Setter
Zandio | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29298]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Deep Threat | |
BD rating
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| 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
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Notes
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In a comment left on Big Dave's Crossword Blog of April 10, 2020, the setter, Zandio, acknowledged being the setter of this puzzle. | |
Introduction
This puzzle seems not to have struck a chord with many on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. I hope you found yourself in the apparent minority who derived pleasure from it.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.
| Markup Conventions | |
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| Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog. | |
Across
| 1a | Token // clue (4) |
| 3a | Mad character in following chapter originally goes // rabbiting (10) |
The Hatter[7] (called Hatta in Through the Looking-Glass) is a fictional character in English writer Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and the story's sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871). He is often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll. The phrase "mad as a hatter" pre-dates Carroll's works and the characters the Hatter and the March Hare are initially referred to as "both mad" by the Cheshire Cat, with both first appearing in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in the seventh chapter titled "A Mad Tea-Party".
Rabbit[5] is an informal British term meaning:
- (noun) a conversation ⇒
we had quite a heated rabbit about it
- (verb) to talk at length, especially about trivial matters ⇒
stop rabbiting on, will you, and go to bed!
Delving Deeper
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| The term rabbit[5] (meaning talk) is Cockney rhyming slang arising from the expression
"rabbit and pork"[5]. In Cockney rhyming slang, the slang word (in this
case, "rabbit") is obtained by replacing a
word (in this case, "talk") by a phrase with which it rhymes (in this
case, "rabbit
and pork") and then dropping the rhyming word (in this case, "pork") from the phrase*. Through
this process, "talk" becomes "rabbit".
* The word "pork" , when pronounced in a non-rhotic accent (show explanation
) typical of dialects found in many parts of Britain (especially
southeastern England), more or less rhymes with "talk" .
Non-rhotic accents omit the sound < r > in certain situations, while rhotic accents generally pronounce < r > in all contexts. Among the several dozen British English accents which exist, many are non-rhotic while American English (US and Canadian) is mainly rhotic. This is, however, a generalisation, as there are areas of Britain that are rhotic, and areas of America that are non-rhotic. For more information, see this guide to pronouncing < r > in British English. hide While I do understand how the slang term is formed, I have yet to see an explanation of the association between rabbit and pork. Was it perhaps common practice to combine these two types of meat in dishes? |
| 9a | Upper-class idlers, retiring, occasionally // exercised (4) |
"upper class " = U [upper class]
In Britain, U[5] is used informally as an adjective (in respect to language or social behaviour) meaning characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes ⇒
The term, an abbreviation of upper class, was coined in 1954 by Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics, and popularized by its use in Nancy Mitford's Noblesse Oblige (1956).
In Crosswordland, the letter U is frequently clued by words denoting "characteristic of the upper class" (such as posh or superior) or "appropriate to the upper class" (such as acceptable).
hide
In Britain, U[5] is used informally as an adjective (in respect to language or social behaviour) meaning characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes ⇒
U manners.
The term, an abbreviation of upper class, was coined in 1954 by Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics, and popularized by its use in Nancy Mitford's Noblesse Oblige (1956).
In Crosswordland, the letter U is frequently clued by words denoting "characteristic of the upper class" (such as posh or superior) or "appropriate to the upper class" (such as acceptable).
hide
| 10a | Compile 'ten' roughly // like this clu (10) |
I would say that this may qualify as a "visual" clue, one in which it is the appearance (rather than the meaning) of the words or letters that serves as the clue. The classic example of this type of clue is the use of the letter combination 'OO' to represent 'spectacles'.
| 11a | Small building suffers, having no entry // places for pets (7) |
| 13a | 'Waiter /and/ cook' advert's about right (7) |
Advert[5] is an informal British term for an advertisement. North Americans would shorten it even further to merely ad[5] — as the Brits also seem to do on occasion.
| 14a | We usually leave them pounds heavier and pounds lighter (11) |
A cryptic definition of a dining establishment that both stretches the waistline and lightens the wallet.
| 18a | Euphoric // bore (11) |
| 21a | Polished // section of gate-leg antique (7) |
| 22a | Country // tune backing American gets into at first (7) |
| 23a | Ignore bush that's aggravated // local residents (10) |
| 24a | Metal // hip with variable carbon coating (4) |
| 25a | Remarkable // Parisian on piano, soaring (10) |
In French, sur[8] is a preposition meaning 'on'.
| 26a | Getting on // in prison having got caught out (4) |
"caught " = C [cricket notation]
In cricket, one way for a batsman to be dismissed is to be caught out[5], that is for a player on the opposing team to catch a ball that has been hit by the batsman before it touches the ground.
On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c[5] or c.[2,10] denotes caught (by).
hide
In cricket, one way for a batsman to be dismissed is to be caught out[5], that is for a player on the opposing team to catch a ball that has been hit by the batsman before it touches the ground.
On cricket scorecards, the abbreviation c[5] or c.[2,10] denotes caught (by).
hide
Down
| 1d | Bitter about the north? You may be this! (8) |
The entire clue is a cryptic definition of a sort alluding to hard feelings between regions in which the wordplay has been embedded.
| 2d | Golf setter played when putting in America, // most impressive (8) |
"Golf " = G [NATO Phonetic Alphabet]
In what is commonly known as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet[7]*, Golf[5] is a code word representing the letter G.
* officially the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet
hide
In what is commonly known as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet[7]*, Golf[5] is a code word representing the letter G.
* officially the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet
hide
| 4d | Tracks /made by/ pile-up with top fully down (5) |
As a verb, shunt[2,10] is an informal British term meaning to crash (a car), especially one in the back of another and, as a noun, shunt[2,5,10] denotes a minor motor vehicle accident, especially a collision of vehicles travelling one close behind the other ⇒
a lorry [truck] shed [spilled] its load, causing an eight-vehicle shunt.
| 5d | Many // desert, led by you in the past (9) |
| 6d | Power lies in sexiness or refined // looks (11) |
| 7d | International tempo raised to support cold // part of planet (6) |
| 8d | Gobbling venison up, guy that's heartless and ...? (6) |
This is another instance where the entire clue is a cryptic definition of a sort in which the wordplay is embedded. The clue requires the solver to fill in the blank with a word that completes the thought expressed in the surface reading.
| 12d | Principal // problem is to crush rise of alien resistance (4,7) |
"alien " = ET
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial[7] (often referred to simply as E.T.) is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. It tells the story of a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. He and his siblings help the extraterrestrial return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government.
hide
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial[7] (often referred to simply as E.T.) is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. It tells the story of a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. He and his siblings help the extraterrestrial return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government.
hide
"resistance " = R [symbol used in physics]
| 15d | Answer included in new collection of corniest // answers (9) |
| 16d | Chant, ingesting acid /and/ turning on (8) |
| 17d | Forward // on loan? (8) |
| 19d | Wrong goal overturned -- /that's/ sport (6) |
What did he say?
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In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat writesBy "football", of course, he is referring to soccer. The same could be said for an (ice) hockey goal.another term for a football goal ... a sport which may be real. Real tennis[5] is the original form of tennis, played with a solid ball on an enclosed court divided into equal but dissimilar halves, the service side (from which service is always delivered) and the hazard side (on which service is received). A similar game was played in monastery cloisters in the 11th century. [The game that most people know as 'tennis' is properly called lawn tennis.] Equivalent North American Term: court tennis |
| 20d | Oldster // entering northbound metro in Essen (6) |
| 22d | Article's enclosed for // protective cover (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] - TheFreeDictionarycom (Collins English Dictionary)
[5] - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (Oxford Dictionary of English)
[6] - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (Oxford Advanced 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
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