Saturday, September 8, 2012 - Entertainers

Introduction

In today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon, we meet a very entertaining group — a diverse troupe of singers, musicians, actors and actresses.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   {AL GREEN}* — anagram (goes ape) of GENERAL

5a   L(OU R|E)ED — LED (started off) containing (holding) {OUR (†) + E (note above D)}

9a   THE|ORE|TIC — THE (†) + ORE (rock) + TIC (jerk)

10a   TACKY — double definition; "in bad taste" & "describing a bulletin board"

11a   CAS(T)E — CASE (for example) containing (keeping) T (time)

12a   _ED| AS|NER_ — hidden (in part) in characterizED AS NERdy

14a   {LES PAUL}~ — sounds like (in the audience) {LESS (not as much) PALL (gloom)}
16a   RU(BY) DE|E — {RUDE (†) containing (about) BY (past)} + E (error; baseball term)

17a   T(IM) ROTH — IM (I'm) contained in (caught in) TROTH (promise to marry)

20a   MA(E WES)T — EWES (sheep; plural) contained in (kept in) MAT (pad)

22a   AD(A)M AN|T — {ADMAN (guy making commercials) + T (true)} containing (about) A (†)

23a   R(OG<)UE — RUE (regret) containing (about) a reversal (reverse) of GO (move)

25a   ALI|BI — ALI (boxing champ [Muhammad Ali^[7]]) + BI (swinging both ways; bisexual)

26a   SERENGETI* — anagram (cooked) of ENTREES GI

27a   {MEG RYAN}* — anagram (relocated) of GERMANY

28a   RO(B LOW)E — ROE (something fishy; fish eggs) containing (about) BLOW (hit)

Down

1d   ARTICULATE* — anagram (broken) of A TACIT RULE

2d   G(RE)ASES — GASES (vapours) containing (†) RE ([symbol for the chemical element] rhenium)

3d   EERIE~ — sounds like (sound of) ERIE (Leamington's lake; Lake Erie)

Leamington^[7] is a municipality in Essex County, Ontario, Canada situated on the north shore of Lake Erie. It has a large H. J. Heinz Company factory and is known as the "Tomato Capital of Canada", with 4 km² of this crop in the vicinity.

Leamington includes Point Pelee, the southernmost point of mainland Canada and enjoys the second warmest climate in Canada, after the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. It is home to Point Pelee National Park, a major site for migrating birds especially in the autumn. As such, it plays host to many birdwatchers — not only from Canada and the United States, but from around the world. The region is also known for the migration of Monarch butterflies, which congregate in the fall at Point Pelee before making their way across Lake Erie on their route to winter quarters in central Mexico.

4d   NOT RE|AL — NOTRE (in Montreal, our; French word meaning 'our') + AL (American League; one of the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball)

The American League in Monteal would be imaginary — Montreal's erstwhile baseball team was in the National League. The Montreal Expos^[7] were a Major League Baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec from 1969 through 2004, holding the first MLB franchise awarded outside the United States. After the 2004 season, MLB moved the Expos to Washington, D.C. and renamed them the Nationals.

5d   L|ECLAIR — L (large) + ECLAIR (creme-filled pastry)

Jean-Marie Leclair l'aîné^[7], also known as Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder, (1697 – 1764) was a Baroque violinist and composer. He is considered to have founded the French violin school. His brothers Jean-Marie Leclair the younger (1703 – 1777), Pierre Leclair (1709 – 1784) and Jean-Benoît Leclair (1714 – after 1759) were also musicians.

6d   UNTENABLE* — anagram (wrongly made) of A TUNNEL BE

7d   EN(CORE)D — CORE (heart) contained in (in) END (finale)

8d   DAYS~ — sounds like (reported) DAZE (fog; mental confusion)

13d   CE(NTRE) LINE — anagram of (version of) RENT contained in (embraced by) CELINE (Dion; Canadian singer Celine Dion^[7])

15d   AM(ORAL)ITY — ORAL (pronounced) contained in (in) AMITY (friendship)

18d   MEANING* — anagram (rummy) of NAME GIN

While the 's on the end of rummy indicates a possessive in the surface reading, it is a contraction for is in the cryptic reading. As such it acts as a link word between the wordplay (name gin rummy) and the definition (significance).

19d   H(OARS)EN — OARS (paddles) contained in (held by) HEN (biddy)

20d   MATURER* — anagram (corrected) of ERRATUM

21d   {EL (G)RECO}* — G ($1000) contained in (received by) an anagram (abstract) of CREOLE

El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname, a reference to his national Greek origin.

23d   {R AND B}* — anagram (new) of BRAND

24d   FAR|M — FAR (remote) + M (realM's last [letter])

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