Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29392 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Wednesday, June 17, 2020 | |
Setter
Jay (Jeremy Mutch) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29392]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
2Kiwis | |
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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Introduction
A gentle puzzle but I did manage to stumble over a molehill at 15d.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 | Complicated matters should include a good // plan (9) |
| 6a | King James, for example, /showing/ bitterness about start of battle (5) |
The King James Bible[5] (also called King James Version) is an English translation of the Bible made in 1611 at the order of James I and still widely used. In Britain, it is also known as the Authorized Version[5] despite never having been formally ‘authorized’.
| 9a | One may be under fire, /seeing/ price put on gallon (5) |
| 10a | Violent players /may be/ plastered (9) |
Roughcast[10] means:
- (noun) a coarse plaster used to cover the surface of an external wall
- (verb) to apply roughcast to (a wall, etc.)
| 11a | Accuse them if prepared // to accept consequences (4,3,5) |
| 14a | Feel a stickler will keep // flexible (7) |
| 16a | Show // son must be trapped in a racket (7) |
The show being presented here is a pantomime[5], a traditional British theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story, usually produced around Christmas.
The story of Aladdin*[7] has been a popular subject for pantomime for over 200 years, having been dramatised as early as 1788 by John O'Keefe for the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London.
* The Middle Eastern folk tale Aladdin[7] is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (also known as The Arabian Nights).
| 17a | Idiot /seeing/ service losing millions (3) |
Mass[5] is the celebration of the Christian Eucharist*, especially in the Roman Catholic Church.
* Eucharist[5] (also known as Communion[5]) is the Christian service, ceremony, or sacrament commemorating the Last Supper, in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed.
| 18a | Imprisoned right // person with secret information (7) |
| 20a | Amount that can be carried by hospital /is/ noxious (7) |
| 22a | Miserable // place for dancing -- last one awful (12) |
| 26a | Clot/'s/ actual ego damaged (9) |
| 27a | Mostly dead -- and popular -- // language (5) |
| 28a | Flower // linking destiny with America (5) |
Lotus[2,10]
is a popular name for a variety of different plants, including several
species of water lily as well as a Mediterranean shrub. (show more )
Lotus is the name of several species of water lily:
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Lotus is the name of several species of water lily:
- any of several water lilies of tropical Africa and Asia, especially the white lotus, a species of water lily sacred to the ancient Egyptians and often depicted in Egyptian art
- either of two species of water lily belonging to a separate genus, widely cultivated as ornamental plants, one native to Asia, with pink flowers that is the sacred lotus of Buddhism and Hinduism, and the other native to the southern USA, with yellow flowers
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| 29a | A bold pose transformed // this dance (4,5) |
Paso doble[5] is the name of a fast-paced ballroom dance based on a Latin American style of marching.
Down
| 1d | Green // fuel must go up, suppressing energy (4) |
| 2d | Fancy going topless /for/ paper (4) |
| 3d | History // article approved for broadcast (3,4) |
| 4d | Stuff // found in Grieg or Gershwin? (5) |
Scratching the Surface
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| Edvard Grieg[5] (1843–1907) was a Norwegian composer, conductor, and
violinist. Famous works include the Piano Concerto in A minor (1869) and the incidental music to Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (1876). George Gershwin[5] (1898–1937), born Jacob Gershovitz, was an American composer and pianist, of Russian-Jewish descent. He composed many successful songs and musicals, the orchestral work Rhapsody in Blue (1924), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). The lyrics for many of these were written by his brother Ira Gershwin (1896–1983). Ira Gershwin[7] (1896–1983), born Israel Gershowitz, was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. |
| 5d | Terrible hum -- so what recommendation from the dentist? (7) |
I think it fair to regard the entire clue as a definition in which wordplay is embedded.
In British and Irish slang, hum[10] denotes:
- (noun) an unpleasant odour
- (verb) to smell unpleasant
| 6d | Region once /seeing/ prejudice mostly about old border (7) |
Bohemia[5] is a region forming the western part of the Czech Republic. Formerly a Slavic kingdom, it became a province of the newly formed Czechoslovakia by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 [thereby ceasing to exist as an independent entity, leading the setter to refer to it as "region once"].
| 7d | Annoyed // part of orchestra served up very loud song (7,3) |
The brass[5] denotes brass wind instruments (including trumpet, horn, and trombone) forming a band or a section of an orchestra.
"very loud " = FF [musical direction]
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.
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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.
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Ode[5] is used in the sense of a classical poem of a kind originally meant to be sung.
Brassed off[5] is an informal British expression meaning exasperated.
| 8d | Gin client mixed before end of day, // trying to seduce (10) |
| 12d | Occasional // sort of table? (10) |
If the first word is a precise definition, then I guess it would be fair to call the last three words an imprecise definition.
I think this would have been a far better clue had the solution been periodic rather than periodical.
Periodical[5] is another word for periodic or occasional.
The periodic table[5] is a table of the chemical elements arranged in order of atomic number, usually in rows, so that elements with similar atomic structure (and hence similar chemical properties) appear in vertical columns.
| 13d | Beginning to doubt? (5,5) |
A cryptic definition denoting "a beginning of which one should be skeptical".
| 15d | Cheat /and/ pack instrument (4-5) |
Card-sharp (variant of card-sharper[2]) is a derogatory term for someone who makes a business out of cheating at card games played for money.
Post Mortem
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| I did myself no favours by convincing myself that the second part of the solution was STAMP with TAMP being clued by "pack". |
| 19d | Sea anchors /may be/ terribly dangerous without 25, oddly (7) |
The
numeral "25" is a cross
reference indicator pointing to clue 25d (show more ).
To complete the clue, a solver must replace the cross reference indicator with the solution to the clue starting in the light* identified by the cross reference indicator.
The cross reference indicator may include a directional indicator but this is customarily done only in situations where there are both Across and Down clues originating in the light that is being referenced.
* light-coloured cell in the grid
hide
To complete the clue, a solver must replace the cross reference indicator with the solution to the clue starting in the light* identified by the cross reference indicator.
The cross reference indicator may include a directional indicator but this is customarily done only in situations where there are both Across and Down clues originating in the light that is being referenced.
* light-coloured cell in the grid
hide
A sea anchor[5] is an object dragged in the water behind a boat in order to keep its bow pointing into the waves or to lessen leeway ⇒
That warning enabled her to take on extra water ballast, put out sea anchors and batten down for the blow.
A drogue[5] is a conical or funnel-shaped device with open ends, towed behind a boat, aircraft, or other moving object to reduce speed or improve stability ⇒
‘When a storm hits, we'll put the drogue out, batten down and see it out,’ said Tim.
| 21d | Sold in need of a // spruced up bathroom? (7) |
What did they say?
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In their review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, the 2Kiwis tell us that we first need to findIn the UK, high street[5] is the term used for the main street of a town, especially as the traditional site for most shops, banks, and other businesses ⇒a word meaning sold, possibly in a High Street shop. the approaching festive season boosted the high street. In the same way that many North American towns have a Main Street, many British towns have a High Street. |
| 23d | City // shelter on drugs, outwardly (5) |
| 24d | Crack // in captain's table (4) |
| 25d | Girl /needing/ a new name missing in the morning (4) |
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
Notice you are getting more ads on your blog. Did you change something. Just curious about whether there was a financial benefit involved. Not complaining, just wondering.
ReplyDeleteThe ads are placed by Google Adsense. I vaguely recall being asked to approve some sort of change a while back. I do get a few cents in ad revenue -- maybe enough for a coffee and donut at Tim Horton's over the course of the week. If I were to save up for a month, I might be able to afford a coffee at Starbucks!
DeleteI had the same problem with 15d. Convinced myself Card-stamp was correct.
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought "card-stamp" was conceivably some sort of instrument (tool) and TAMP could be accounted for by "pack". However, I could not justify CARDS being clued by "cheat" and so went looking for other possibilities.
Delete