Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29629 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Monday, March 22, 2021 | |
Setter
Campbell (Allan Scott) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29629]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
pommers | |
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 bit of literary and cinematic knowledge would certainly ease the solve today.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 | Start to judge an unlikely teen, a US // author of classics (4,6) |
Jane Austen[5] (1775–1817) was an English novelist. (show more )
Her major novels are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey (1818), and Persuasion (1818). They are notable for skilful characterization, dry wit, and penetrating social observation.
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Her major novels are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey (1818), and Persuasion (1818). They are notable for skilful characterization, dry wit, and penetrating social observation.
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| 6a | Shock /given by/ singular tailless fish (4) |
| 10a | Holiday home /has/ criminal dropping in (5) |
| 11a & 26a | Film /of/ tragedian I cut drastically (9,4) |
Note: In the National Post (as apparently was also the case in The Daily Telegraph), the numeration is presented in a split format that I am not accustomed to seeing for a split entry clue such as this. I have modified the presentation of the numeration to accord with what I believe is not only the customary format but one that I feel is far more meaningful.
| 12a | Football club // magazine (7) |
Arsenal Football Club[7] is an English professional association football [soccer] club based in Islington, London that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system).
| 13a | Country lover // initially pointing at dazzling display (7) |
| 14a | Take article to mean // what supporting actor may do in play? (5,3,4) |
| 18a | Literary heroine, Amy, /in/ short torrid novel (6,6) |
The solution to the clue is a pet name for the heroine of the novel as well as being the name of the novel.
Amy Dorrit, affectionately known as Little Dorrit, is the title character of Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit[7], originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857.
| 21a | Song about head of zoo working /in/ one of the US states (7) |
An aria[5] is a long accompanied song for a solo voice, typically one in an opera or oratorio.
| 23a | Artist in salon, unfortunately // one unplaced in competition (4-3) |
Here and There
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| North America, place[5] (noun) denotes the second position, especially in a horse race. However, in Britain, place[5] (noun) means any of the first three or sometimes four positions in a race (used especially of the second, third, or fourth positions). As a verb, place[5] means (in Britain) to be among the first three or four in a race or (in the US) the first three. While the verb can be a collective reference to the top three or four positions:
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Scratching the Surface
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Historically, a salon[5] was a regular social gathering, especially of writers and artists, at the house of a woman prominent in high society ⇒ But socially he was entirely at home in those Third Republic salons where politicians mixed with aristocrats, diplomats, and writers. Origin: A salon[5] is a reception room in a large house. |
| 24a | Plant, // rush, by spring (9) |
Speedwell[5] is a small creeping herbaceous plant* of north temperate regions, with small blue or pink flowers.
* Not all varieties of speedwell are small by a longshot. Speedwell is the name of many species of Veronica, the largest genus in the flowering plant family Plantaginaceae (plantain family). About 500 species of Veronica exist and Wikipedia lists some four dozen that have speedwell in their name. These vary from small creeping ground covers to large, spiked plants such as the one shown by pommers in his review.
| 25a | Saw // a daughter getting silver, second in heptathlon (5) |
| 26a | See 11a |
| 27a | Projectile /that may make/ cathedral cleric shout out loud in the auditorium (10) |
A canon[5] is a member of the clergy who is on the staff of a cathedral, especially one who is a member of the chapter* ⇒
he was appointed canon of Christ Church, Oxford.
Down
| 1d | Jack, over bottle, /becomes/ jolly (6) |
| 2d | Not one younger, // would you believe? (2,4) |
Like many who commented on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, I had a great deal of trouble wrapping my head around the wordplay in this clue. However, I have eventually conceded that it does work.
It is a charade of NO (not one;
No/not one exception will be granted) + LESS (younger;
Currently, no vaccine has been approved for those less/younger than twelve years of age.).
I believe the difficulty arises from the fact that the wordplay only works when the solver decomposes the charade into its component parts; the phrase "not one younger" does not equate to "no less".
| 3d | In spite of seeming very unlikely, // American gets great chances (7,3,4) |
| 4d | Musicians /in/ nick outlawed? Sounds like that (5,4) |
Nick[5] is an informal British term meaning to steal ⇒
he'd had his car nicked by joyriders.
| 5d | Provide // witty remark after end of game (5) |
| 7d | Perhaps towards the end of the day, mean to eat with the Italian (8) |
In Italian, the masculine singular form of the definite article is il[8].
| 8d | One who likes working late // near to empty well (5,3) |
| 9d | Isabella and Ferdinand, for instance, had these // dreams about future success (7,2,5) |
One might arrive at the first part of the clue through a literal interpretation of the solution.
Isabella I[5] (1451–1504) was queen of Castile 1474–1504 and of Aragon 1479–1504.
Ferdinand of Aragon[5] (1452–1516), king of Castile 1474–1516 and of Aragon 1479–1516; known as Ferdinand the Catholic.
Delving Deeper
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| Ferdinand's marriage to Isabella of Castile in 1469 helped to join
together the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, marking the
beginning of the unification of Spain. The marriage ensured his
accession (as Ferdinand V) to the throne of Castile with Isabella.
Ferdinand subsequently succeeded to the throne of Aragon (as Ferdinand
II) and was joined as monarch by Isabella. They instituted the Spanish
Inquisition in 1478 and supported Columbus's expedition in 1492. Their
capture of Granada from the Moors in the same year effectively united
Spain as one country. |
Castles in Spain[5] (also castles in the air or castles in the sky) are visionary unattainable schemes; or, in other words, daydreams ⇒
my father built castles in the air about owning a boat.
Delving Deeper
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I have encountered the expression "Castles in Spain" in puzzles on at least two previous occasions. The first time, I found an article on the Internet (for which the link no longer works) that had this to say: Nowadays, ‘castles in Spain’ means something splendid but non-existent. “Fashionable adventurers in France used to impose on the credulous and get money and social advantages out of them by telling tales of their ‘castles in Spain’, which, needless to say, they did not possess,” is the explanation of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.The expression appears to have entered the English language from French where the expression is "bâtir Châteaux en Espagne" ["build castles in Spain"]. Additional information can be found in the discussion in the thread arising from Comment #9 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. |
| 15d | Sailor boy in // waterproof stuff (9) |
| 16d | Char holding top of strong // detergent (8) |
Char[5] is an informal British term for charwoman[5] (or charlady[5]), a dated British name for a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office.
| 17d | Commanding attention /with/ small spear (8) |
What did he say?
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In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers describes the second element in the charade asThe Trident missile[5,7] is a US design of long-range submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV).a three pointed spear or nuclear missile. Trident missiles are carried by fourteen US Navy Ohio-class submarines, with US warheads, and four Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines, with British warheads. The missile is named after the mythological trident [three-pronged spear] of Neptune. |
| 19d | Navy // member, nothing without leader (6) |
From a British perspective, nada[5] (from Spanish) is an informal North American term meaning nothing.
| 20d | Amazing // change in Lauren (6) |
| 22d | Scene of intense activity // within McLaren Automotive (5) |
Scratching the Surface
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| McLaren Automotive[7] (formerly known as McLaren Cars) is a British automotive manufacturer based in Woking, England. The main products of the company are luxury sports cars. It is a fully-owned subsidiary of the McLaren Group whose other interests include Formula One racing. |
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)
[15] - CollinsDictionary.com (Penguin Random House LLC/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd )
Signing off for today — Falcon
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