Saturday, September 22, 2012 - Colour Palette

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon is a rather colourful affair which might suggest the flag of Armenia.

Blogger is misbehaving today and obstinately refusing to let me upload images to this post. Thus there is no JPEG version of the puzzle — or picture of the Armenian flag. You can download a PDF version of the puzzle from the link above.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue

Across

8a   {PAINT THE TOWN RED}* — anagram (weaving) of PATTERN DONE WITH

10a   LATER|AL — LATER (down the road) + AL (Pacino; American actor Al Pacino^[7])

11a   {IN|TENSE}~ — sounds like (sounded) {INN (guesthouse) + TENTS (shelters)}

12a   SHAM|BLING — SHAM (phony) + BLING (jewellery for a rapper)

14a   H|EDGE — H (high; on a weather map) + EDGE (side)

15a   {SINGING THE BLUES}* — anagram (bum) of BEGINS SLEUTHING

18a   LO(D)GE — D (dee) contained in (in) LOGE (theatre section)

20a   CAS(SET)TES — SET (arranged) contained in (in) CASTES (groups)

22a   SANG|RIA< — SANG (vocalized) + reversal (returning) of AIR (tune)

23a   {AT LARGE}* — anagram (shaking) of A LEG RAT

25a   {YELLOW BRICK ROAD}* — anagram (cast) of WORK CORDIALLY BE

Down

1d   SPELLS — double definition; "at work, replaces" & "hexes"

2d   MIST|RAIN — MIST (haze) + (before) RAIN (shower)

Note: the setters have inverted the normal sentence structure.

3d   S|TAR — S (second) + TAR (sailor)

4d   SHILLING — double definition; "promoting" & "an old British coin"

5d   S|T|RING — S (small) + T (time) + RING (telephone)

6d   S(WITCH)ABLE — WITCH (crone) contained in (wearing) SABLE (fur)

7d   IRONED* — anagram (surprisingly) of DENIRO

Robert De Niro^[7] is an American actor, director and producer. If this is who the setters have in mind, they — or, perhaps, the typesetters — have spelled his name incorrectly.

9d   D(I)ETERS — I (interest; as received on an investment) contained in DETERS (bars)

13d   B(OILER) ROOM — OILER (lubricator) contained in (in) BROOM (cleaner)

15d   SP(LASH)Y — SPY (†) containing (holds) LASH (whip)

16d   HIS|PANIC — HIS (†) + PANIC (wild fear)

17d   ULTERIOR* — anagram (ground; like coffee beans) of RULE TRIO

19d   D|ANGLE — D ([Roman numeral for] 500) + ANGLE (fish)

20d   CR(A|BB)Y — CRY (yell) containing (about) {A (†) + BB (shotgun pellet)}

Although I was surprised to see "shotgun pellet" used to clue BB, research shows that BB is one of the standard sizes for lead shot^[7] used in shotguns. Air guns, commonly called BB guns^[7], originally used BB size shotgun pellets but they now use special pellets that are slightly smaller than BB size shot — although these pellets continue to be known in common parlance as BBs.

21d   STEADY* — anagram (apart) of DAY SET

24d   _LA|KE_ — hidden in (in) KitengeLA KEnya

Kitengela is a plain in Kenya, located south of the capital Nairobi. It is the site of the Kitengela Game Conservation Area. There is also a town named Kitengela in the area.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon