Amusing short story about me and dodgy cardinal (11)

I believe the answer is:

fundamental

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'dodgy cardinal' is the definition.
'fundamental' can be an answer for 'cardinal' (thesaurus). I am unsure of the 'dodgy' bit.

'amusing short story about me and' is the wordplay.
'amusing' becomes 'fun' (synonyms).
'short story' becomes 'datal' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'and' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and').
'me'+'n'='men'
'datal' placed around 'men' is 'damental'.
'fun'+'damental'='FUNDAMENTAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fundamental that I've seen before include "Basic" , "key" , "Of central importance" , "Primary" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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