Saturday, December 8, 2012 - Solve by Numbers

Introduction

Is there a numerologist in the audience. Such skill might serve well in deciphering today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon.

On first glance, it may appear that the solutions to the clues will not fit into the grid. However, don't hastily leap to the conclusion that the National Post has printed the wrong grid (admittedly that thought did cross my mind). Once you discover the key, everything does fit nicely into place.

I spent considerable effort trying to link the solution to 13d to the theme and to decode the sequence of numbers appearing in the solutions — but to no avail on either count. I eventually concluded that the solution to 13d is nothing more than a red herring (perhaps intentional, perhaps not). I could also find no significance to the set of numbers. Perhaps a clever reader will find something that I have missed and let us know.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   DIG|IT — double definition; "what each of eight squares in this puzzle must contain" & "understand" (dig it)

Calling this clue a double definition might be a bit of a stretch — but I'm not sure what else to call it. The first "definition" provides the key to solving eight other clues in the puzzle.

4a   RING|BOLTS — RING (criminal gang) + BOLTS (flees)

9a   G|RAI9SS : _G|RAININESS — G (sprinG's last [letter]) + RAININESS (wet weather)

10a   GREEN Z1 : {GREEN ZONE}* — anagram (upset) of NONGEEZER

The Green Zone^[7] is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It is a 10 square kilometers (3.9 sq mi) area of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental center of the Coalition Provisional Authority and remains the center of the international presence in the city. Its official name beginning under the Iraqi Interim Government is the International Zone, though Green Zone remains the most commonly used term. The contrasting Red Zone refers to parts of Baghdad immediately outside the perimeter, but was also loosely applied to all unsecured areas outside the off-site military posts. Both terms originated as military designations.

11a   ASS|SI|T(A)NT — ASS (idiot) + IS (†) + {TNT (explosive) containing (about) A (†)}

12a   SL8S : SLEIGH(T)S — {SLEIGH (Santa's vehicle) + S ('s)} containing (loaded with) T (time)

14a   AT1MENTS : ATONEMENTS* — anagram (arranged) of SOME TENANT

16a   LE(A)N-TO — LENTO (slowly; a musical direction) containing (covering) A (†)

18a   LENO|RE — LENO (TV's Leno; American stand-up comedian and television host, Jay Leno^[7]) + RE (considering)

20a   PIN(A|FOR)E — PINE (desire) containing (about) {A (article) + FOR (†)}

23a   AT2OD : AT|WOO|D_ — AT (†) + WOO (court) + D (Date's opening [letter]}

Margaret Atwood^[7] is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist who is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history.

24a   _AN|ARCH|IS|T_ — hidden in (running through) RomAN ARCH IS Trapped

27a   ANKLEB1 : ANKLEBONE* — anagram (breaking) of BANK ON LEE

28a   FR8 CARS : {FREIGHT CARS}* — anagram (reorganized) of FIRST CHARGE

29a   PEDALLERS* — anagram (transforming) of READ SPELL

30a   NOT D1 : NOT (DON)E — NOTE (letter) containing (about) DON (Donald)

Down

1d   DEGRADABLE* — anagram (strangely) of BEARDED GAL

2d   GLADST1 : G|LADS|TONE — G (good) + LADS (boys) + TONE (pitch)

William Gladstone^[7] (1809 – 1898), was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times (1868–1874, 1880–1885, February–July 1886 and 1892–1894), more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time.

3d   TI9SS : TININESS* — anagram (playing) of TENNIS IS

Timothy Cratchit, called "Tiny Tim"^[7], is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

4d   REST|ARTS — REST (relaxation) + ARTS (skills)

5d   _NIGHTS — [K]NIGHTS (Arthur's men; ) with the initial letter deleted (after the first)

King Arthur^[7] is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. In Arthurian legend, King Arthur and his Knights congregated around the Round Table which, as its name suggests, had no head, implying that everyone who sat there had equal status.

6d   BEERS|HE|BA — BEERS (drafts; American spelling) + HE (the male) + BA (bachelor; Bachelor of Arts)

Beersheba^[7] is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel.

7d   LEN D8ON : {LEN DEIGHTON}* — anagram (novel) of HOLDING TEEN

Len Deighton^[7] is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine.

8d   SO1R : SO|ONER< — SO (true) + a reversal (returned) of RENO

13d   ROSETTA ST1 : {ROSETTA STONE}* — anagram (bad) of REASON TO TEST

The Rosetta Stone^[7] is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences between them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The term Rosetta stone is often used idiomatically to represent a crucial key to the process of decryption of encoded information, especially when a small but representative sample is recognized as the clue to understanding a larger whole.

15d   {EARED SEAL}* — anagram (doctor) of RELEASED A

17d   G(IR)AFFES —  GAFFES (blunders) containing IR (the first pair of [letters in] Irish)

19d   NE2RKED : NETWORKED* — anagram (reforming) of TOWN DEREK

21d   OX|ID|ANT — OX (bovine) + ID (I'd) + ANT (bug)

22d   GAB1SE : GABONESE*_ — anagram (awry) of BASE GONE

25d   CR8ON : CREIGHTON — anagram (rude) of HECTORING

26d   WAS|P — WAS () + (on; in a down clue) P (piano; musical direction meaning soft or softly)

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