Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29772 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Saturday, September 4, 2021 | |
Setter
chalicea (Shirley Curran) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29772 – Hints]Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29772 – Review] | |
Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Tilsit (Hints)crypticsue (Review) | |
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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As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review.
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Introduction
I found today's puzzle to be on the gentle side. There were a couple of words that were either new to me or were used in a sense that didn't come readily to mind. However, the one clue on which I needed a little electronic help involved a term that I was actually familiar with.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 | Unusually deep loving // evolving (10) |
| 6a | Reportedly hoard // money (4) |
| 8a | Work with university colleague, // in fact (8) |
| 9a | Sofa, not posh, // with more space to sit? (6) |
A lounger[10] is a comfortable sometimes adjustable couch or extending chair designed for someone to relax on.
"posh " = 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 | Reveal // new part of speech in a church (8) |
| 11a | Leading estate, this could make the papers! (6) |
The phrase the fourth estate[5] denotes the press or the profession of journalism.
Delving Deeper
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| Estate[5]
is used in the sense of a class or order regarded as forming part
of the body politic, in particular (in Britain), one of the three groups
constituting Parliament, now the Lords spiritual (the heads of the
Church), the Lords temporal (the peerage), and the Commons. They are
also known as the three estates. The press has long been referred to as the fourth estate[5]. Canadians will be familiar with the CBC newsmagazine television program The Fifth Estate[7] whose name was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into original journalism. However, the term Fifth Estate[7] actually predates the television program (which debuted in 1975). The term is a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media or "social license". The "Fifth" Estate extends the sequence of the three classical Estates of the Realm and the preceding Fourth Estate, essentially the mainstream press. The use of "fifth estate" dates to the 1960s counterculture, and in particular the influential The Fifth Estate, an underground newspaper first published in Detroit in 1965. |
Post Mortem
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| I became fixated on thinking that estate might be referring to an automobile* and didn't twig to its actual meaning until I had done a word search to generate a list of words matching the checking letters. |
| 12a | Plans /found in/ junk mail returned (4) |
| 14a | Round capital city, cold and extremely tense // atmosphere (7) |
Lima[5] is the capital of Peru. Founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro, it was the capital of the Spanish colonies in South America until the 19th century.
| 18a | Beats // unusual myth penned by gardeners (7) |
The Royal Horticultural Society[7] (abbreviation RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
| 20a | Formerly // concealed content (4) |
| 23a | Fruit/'s/ extremely arresting dull surface (6) |
From a British perspective, mat[5] and matte[5] are US spellings of matt[5] which denotes:
- (adjective) (of a colour, paint, or surface) dull and flat; without a shine
- (noun) a matt paint or finish
- (verb) give a matt appearance to (something)
| 24a | Wind up // backing deficit hidden by disreputable resort? (8) |
| 25a | Get basic new bra with no restraints, /it's/ more comfortable (6) |
| 26a | Humiliation, lacking a // cellar (8) |
| 27a | Nothing more than // a pool (4) |
Mere[5] is a literary British term for a lake or pond ⇒
the stream widens into a mere where hundreds of geese gather.
* Those of us in Ottawa should be familiar with this word as the Mackenzie King Estate (the country estate of Canada’s 10th and longest-serving prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King) is located just across the Ottawa River in Kingsmere, Quebec, on the shores of Kingsmere Lake (a name which surely amounts to Kingslake Lake).
| 28a | Wholesale // whiskey I had before English meal (10) |
Much to the apparent consternation of many Brits, the official NATO spelling is apparently the Irish and American "whiskey" rather than the Scottish (British) "whisky".
Down
| 1d | A nervous response after Scotch perhaps /could be/ striking (8) |
Dram[5] is a Scottish term for a small drink of whisky or other spirits ⇒
a wee dram to ward off the winter chill.
| 2d | Ballot // victor due to get time for wife (6) |
| 3d | Measure // the French fever (6) |
"the French " = LE [French definite article]
The league[2] is an obsolete unit of distance which can denote either:
- a unit for measuring distance travelled, usually taken to be 3 miles (about 4.8 km)
- a nautical measure equal to 1/20th of a degree or 3 international nautical miles (3.456 statute miles or 5.556 km)
| 4d | Force members to uphold the law (9) |
| 5d | Beginning to drive in VW is hard /for/ one in tank? (8) |
The Volkswagen Golf[7] is a small family car produced by the German manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across seven generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada (Mk1 and Mk5), and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico (Mk1).
| 6d | Success /in/ hoax investigation (8) |
Conquest[5] is used in the sense of the successful ascent of a mountain, especially one not previously climbed ⇒
the conquest of Everest.
| 7d | Partly suspect rumoured // range of opinions? (8) |
| 13d | Affirm // boast about unfinished government order (9) |
Predicate[5] is used in the sense of to declare or affirm (something) as true or existing; in other words, postulate or assert ⇒
the Pleistocene colonization of Tasmania has long been predicated.
| 15d | Drink // large mead one served up (8) |
| 16d | Publication // that may include explosive material (8) |
| 17d | Quarrel after motor crashed // this time yesterday? (8) |
| 19d | Chose // last of ones voted for (8) |
| 21d | Inattentive -- // shake please! (6) |
| 22d | Cover // emerging from hassle eventually (6) |
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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