Saturday, January 26, 2013 — Prehistoric Beasts

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon takes a step back in time — a very big step — to the days when dinosaurs trod the Earth.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   STEGOSAURUS* — anagram (awful) of GUST AROUSES

9a   BAN|FF — BAN (don't allow) + F ([first] female) + F ([second] female)

10a   DESI(CC)ATE — {DESI (Lucille's husband; Cuban-born American bandleader Desi Arnaz^[7] (1917 – 1986), husband of American comedienne Lucille Ball^[7](1911 – 1989)) + ATE (swallowed)} containing (about) {C ([first] cup) + C ([second] cup)}

11a   {REINS IN}~ — sounds like (talked of) {RAINS (showers) + INN (hotel)}

12a   RUMOURS~ — sounds like (overheard) ROOMERS (lodgers)

13a   ARCH — double definition; "chief" & "bridge structure"

15a   DIME|TROD|ON — {TROD (walked) + ON (running)} following (after) DIME (small change)

18a   DIP|LO(DO)CUS — DIP (duck) + LOCUS (site) containing (captivating) DO (party)

19a   SYNC~ — sounds like (vocalized) SINK (lower)

22a   THOUGH|T — THOUGH (however) + T (true)

24a   {EGO TRIP}* — anagram (apart) of PIG TORE

26a   M(ORATOR)IA — ORATOR (speaker) contained in (filling) MIA (Farrow; American actress Mia Farrow^[7])

27a   O(U)NCE — U ([symbol for the chemical element] uranium) contained in (in) ONCE (uniquely)

28a   TRICERATOPS* — anagram (swirling) of AIR PROTECTS

Down

1d   S|IBERIA — S (southern) + IBERIA (European peninsula)

2d   ENNUI~ — sounds like (said) {ON + WE}

3d   OF|FISH — double definition; "aloof" (offish) & "piscine" (of fish)

4d   ANDANTINO — anagram (changing) of NAT AND I ON

Andantino^[3,4] is a musical direction that can mean either slightly faster, or slightly more slowly, than andante [thus seemingly giving the performer a great deal of latitude in interpreting the work]

5d   _RIS|ER_ — hidden in (in) PaRIS ERroneously

6d   SYCAMORE~ — sounds like (you might say) {SICK (unhealthy)  + AMOUR (love)}

7d   S(A)TURD(A)Y — A (article) contained twice in (appearing two times in) STURDY (solid)

8d   LESS|ON — LESS (not so much) + ON (about)

14d   C(UP|BOAR)D — {UP (raised) + BOAR (pig)} contained in {C (Conservative) + D (Democrat)}

16d   ENUMERATE* — anagram (playing) of A MERE TUNE

Perhaps "Count" is a reference to American bandleader Count Basie^[7].

17d   FORGE|T IT — TIT (little songbird) following (behind) FORGE (smithy)

The tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute a large family of small passerine birds which occur in the northern hemisphere and Africa.These birds are called either "chickadees" (onomatopoeic, derived from their distinctive "chick-a dee dee dee" alarm call) or "titmice" in North America, and just "tits" in the rest of the English-speaking world.^[7]

18d   DO T(IM)E — IM (I'm) contained in (overwhelmed by) DOTE (lavish attention)

In the surface reading, "lavish" is an adjective but it becomes a verb in the cryptic reading.

20d   CYPRESS~ — sounds like (pronounced) CYPRUS (Mediterranean island)

21d   BO|GOT|A — BO (bad smell; body odour) + GOT (puzzled) + A (†)

... got meaning puzzled as in "She got me with a trick question".

23d   TARSI* — anagram (going to pot) of ART IS

25d   RAN T|O — RANT (diatribe) + O ([a letter that looks like a] bagel)

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