Saturday, August 22, 2009 - Potpourri

Introduction

There seems to be no discernible theme to today's puzzle by Cox and Rathvon. It just gives us a little bit of everything.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11ac Heard cock crow with sorrow (5)

Here "heard" is a homonym indicator, showing that the solution (MOURN) sounds like MORN. Although I was unable to find a source that defined "cock crow" as a synonym for morn, it seems to be used here in this manner. Not being a farm boy, I had always believed that cocks crowed at dawn. However, it seems that is not the case - or, at least, it doesn't appear to have been the case during the days of the Roman Empire. I seems that Roman cocks began crowing during the period between 3:00 and 4:30 a.m. and stopped before dawn (6:00 a.m.) According to the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, "The Romans divided the night [I think this should be "day" (i.e., period of 24 hours)] into sixteen parts, each one hour and a-half, beginning at midnight. The third of these divisions (3 a.m.) they called gallicinium, the time when cocks begin to crow; the next was conticinium, when they ceased to crow; and fifth was diluculum, dawn." I will leave it to those of you who were raised on farms to comment on whether cocks have changed their crowing patterns since Roman times.

15d Bass keeps passing exotic dancers (9)

I am not sure of the rationale for passing → P. Perhaps it is a designation found on traffic signs in some jurisdictions. In Ontario, various pictorial representations are used to indicate "passing" or "no passing" conditions. To me, P would indicate "parking".

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"CD" Cryptic Definition; "DD" Double Definition
	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted

Across

1ac C(A|_T|EGO)RY - final in ar[T]; I → EGO

5ac S|WITCH

9ac PONDEROSA* - {SOPRANO ED}*

11ac MOURN~ - sounds like (heard) MORN

12ac LU(N|A)TE

13ac S|P_|RAINED - piece of [P]eel; came down → RAINED

15ac _SUPINATE_ - somewhat nervou[S UP IN A TE]mple

16ac DREW - actress Drew Barrymore

19ac K|IRK

20ac P(L)UT|ARCH

23ac POP|ULACE* - cracked {A CLUE}*

24ac SCOTER* - ESCORT* lame

27ac L(O)ESS

28ac _NASAL TONE_ - coming from Dia[NA'S ALTO NE]ighbour

29ac S(ASH)AY

30ac A|ST|RALLY

Down

1d C(UP)OLA

2d TEN|ON

3d GR(EAT) APE

4d ROOK - DD

6d WOMB|AT

7d {TRUE NORTH}* - lousy {TENOR HURT}*; "... The True North strong and free! ..." from O Canada, the national anthem of Canada

8d HUN|T (D)OWN

10d A|P|PETITE

14d ANGLICAN* - {CAN LAG IN}* reforming

15d STRIP(P)ERS - striper: striped bass

17d SKI P|OLES

18d OR|A|CU(LA)R

21d A|L(ASK)A

22d FR(EEL)Y

25d T(R)OLL

26d A|S IS

Signing off for today - Falcon