Saturday, October 6, 2012 - Simple Fare at the Inn

Introduction

In today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon, the setters serve up several food pairings at an overnight accommodation.

I'm afraid that the postings are somewhat delayed for the puzzles published this weekend - which is Thanksgiving in Canada. I have been away from home visiting relatives and have had little time to devote to updating the blog.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   {BED AND BREAKFAST}* —anagram (foolishly) of FAKED BATES BRAND

This may possibly be a reference to the Bates Motel which is the principal setting for Psycho^[7], a 1960 American suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

9a   OB<|SERVE — reversal (returning) of BO (actress Derek; American actress Bo Derek^[7]) + SERVE (delivery; as in tennis)

10a   PO|STING — PO (Post Office) + STING (con)

11a   {PEAS AND CARROTS}* — anagram (mixed up) of A DC SPORTS ARENA

13a   LISZT~ — sounds like (pronounced) LIST (tip; as a ship might do)

Franz Liszt^[7] (1811 – 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher.

14a   CHAMP|LAIN — CHAMP (victor) + LAIN (rested)

Samuel de Champlain^[7] (1574 – 1635) was a French explorer now known as "The Father of New France".

16a   SE(VER<)ANCE — reversal (comes back) of REV (reverend) contained in (interrupting) SEANCE (†)

Note: the normal sentence order is inverted in the clue

18a   R|US|SO — hidden in (letters from) fouR US SOldiers

Rene Russo^[7] is an American actress.

20a   {BREAD AND BUTTER}* — anagram (tossing) BUD AT BARTENDER

Bud is a nickname for Budweiser^[7], an American drink that purports to be beer.

24a   KIN|G(P)IN — KIN (family) + {GIN (drink) containing (outside) P (park)}

25a   BEARHUG* — anagram (loosely) of HUGE BAR

26a   {MEAT AND POTATOES}* — anagram (sprawlingly) of OTTOMAN SEATED PA

Down

1d   BOOT (POL|IS)H — {POL (politician) + IS (†)} contained in (in) BOOTH (stall)

2d   D(ISM)AYS — ISM (belief) contained in (in) DAYS (sunny times)

3d   NO|R|EASTER — NO (†) + R (right) + EASTER (time to find eggs)

4d   B|REED — B (pretty good; as a mark on a school assignment) + REED (grass)

5d   _ES|PLAN|A|DE_ — hidden (some) in hippiES PLAN A DEmonstration

6d   KYSER~ — sounds like (audibly) KAISER (roll)

Kay Kyser^[7] (1905 – 1985) was a popular bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.

7d   ARI<|ETTA — reversal (backing) of IRA {one of the Gershwins; American lyricist Ira Gershwin^[7] (1896 – 1983), brother of composer George Gershwin^[7] (1898 – 1937)} + ETTA {singer James; American singer Etta James^[7] (1938 – 2012)}

8d   TO|GO — TO (†) + GO (run)

12d   ENC(OUR)AGES — ENCAGES (pens; as a verb) containing (holding) OUR (†)

14d   CONTAINED* — anagram (alien) of NOTICED AN

15d   PORTULACA*  — anagram (bad) of ACTOR PAUL

Actor Paul Flower would seem to be a creation of the setters.

17d   VER(AND)A — AND (also) contained in (taken by) VERA (†)

19d   S(AT)CHMO — AT (upon; as in "Upon the sound of the alarm, ...") contained in (being grabbed by) SCHMO (jerk)

Louis Armstrong^[7] (1901 – 1971), nicknamed Satchmo, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.

21d   ALP|HA — ALP (mountain) + HA (you've got to be kidding)

22d   DO|BRO — DO (party) + BRO (man)

Dobro^[7] is a registered trademark now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.

The name Dobro originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. "Dobro" is both a contraction of "Dopyera brothers" and a word meaning "goodness" in their native Slovak (and also in Slovenian, Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Russian, Polish and Ukrainian). An early company motto was "Dobro means good in any language".

A resonator guitar^[7] or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more spun metal cones (resonators) instead of the wooden sound board (guitar top/face). Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than regular acoustic guitars, which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion instruments in dance orchestras. They became prized for their distinctive sound, however, and found life with several musical styles (most notably bluegrass and the blues) well after electric amplification solved the issue of inadequate guitar sound levels.

23d   S|KIM — S (small) + KIM {Kipling book; Kim^[7] (published in 1901) is a picaresque novel by English writer Rudyard Kipling^[7] (1865 – 1936)}

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