Saturday, March 23, 2013 — Let's Get Cooking

Introduction

Be prepared to spend some time in the kitchen. There are many ways to cook food and in today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon we get to experience a fair number of them.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   {WHOLE W}*HEAT — anagram (wildly) of WE HOWL + HEAT (cook)

6a   FR(A)Y — FRY (cook) containing (having) A (†)

9a   S(HE)ET — HE (†) contained in (put in) SET (matching group)

10a   ZO<|ROASTER —reversal (brought back) of OZ (wizard) + ROASTER (chicken to cook)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz^[7] is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow which was originally published in 1900. It has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of both the popular 1902 Broadway musical and the well-known 1939 film adaptation.

Zoroaster^[5] (circa 628-circa 551 BC), Persian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism; Avestan name Zarathustra. Little is known of his life, but traditionally he was born in Persia and began to preach the tenets of what was later called Zoroastrianism after receiving a vision from Ahura Mazda.

12a   A|BIG|AIL — A (†) + BIG (huge) + AIL (pain)

13a   SORVINO* — anagram (crooked) of VISOR ON

Mira Sorvino^[7] is an American actress who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite (1995). Her father, Paul Sorvino^[7] is an American actor known for his roles as Paulie Cicero in the 1990 gangster film Goodfellas and Sgt. Phil Cerreta on the television series Law & Order.

14a   RI(CHAR)D| NIX|ON — {RID (free) + NIX (veto) + ON (†)} containing (holding) CHAR (cook)

Richard Milhous Nixon^[7] (1913 – 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign the office.

19a   ROB|BE-(GRILL)ET — {ROB (hold up) + BEET (veggie)} containing (split by) GRILL (cook)

Alain Robbe-Grillet^[7] (1922 – 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker who was one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman (new novel) trend.

22a   _INTON|ER_ — hidden (from) in ClINTON ERa

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton^[7] (born William Jefferson Blythe III) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

23a   GATEMAN< — reversal (written backwards) of  NAMETAG (ID badge)

25a   CHES|S TEAM — CHES (Guevara's; Che's) + STEAM (cook)

Ernesto "Che" Guevara^[7] (1928 – 1967), commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

26a   MI(A)MI — MIMI ([musical] note repeated) containing (about) A (†)

Mi^[3] is the third tone of the diatonic scale in solfeggio.

Miami^[7] is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County. It is the principal, central, and most populous city of the Miami metropolitan area, and the most populous metropolis in the Southeastern United States.

27a   S|PAN — S (small) + PAN (cook's vessel)

28a   STEW|A|RDESS* — STEW (cook) + (with)  A (†) + an anagram (torn) of DRESS

Down

1d   WISEACRE* — anagram (confused) of WIRE CASE

2d   ONE-PIECE — sounds like (we hear) WON PEACE (gained serenity)

3d   EXTRA* — anagram (mad) of AT REX

4d   HAZE|L — HAZE (smoggy air) + L (left)

5d   A|R(REST)ING — REST (others) contained in (in) {A (†) + RING (criminal gang}

7d   R(ET)AIN — ET (movie alien) contained in (inside) RAIN (shower)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial^[7] (often referred to simply as E.T.) is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. It tells the story of a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. He and his siblings help the extraterrestrial return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government.

8d   YAR|ROW — reversal (backed) of RAY + ROW (fight)

Yarrow^[5] is a Eurasian plant (Achillea millefolium) with feathery leaves and heads of small white or pale pink aromatic flowers, which has long been used in herbal medicine. Also called milfoil.

11d   A |PRIOR|I — A (†) + PRIOR (monk) + (and) I (myself)

As an adjective, a priori^[5] means relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge which proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience ⇒ a priori assumptions about human nature. As an adverb, it means in a way based on theoretical deduction rather than empirical observation ⇒ sexuality may be a factor but it cannot be assumed a priori.

15d   A(BOUND)S — AS (while) containing (keeping) BOUND (tied)

16d   DEBARMENT* — anagram (wrong) of BAR TERMED

17d   C(LAMB)AKE — LAMB (meat) contained in (put in) CAKE (loaf)

Clambake^[5] is a North American term for a social gathering outdoors, especially for eating clams and other seafood.

18d   ST|AND|-INS — hidden in (embracing) soloiST AND INStruments

20d   DISCUS_ — DISCUS[S] (talk over) with the final letter deleted (endlessly)

21d   A|THEN|A — A {face [first letter] of Artemis} + THEN (at that time) + A (†)

Here we encounter two goddesses from Greek mythology. Artemis^[5] is the daughter of Zeus and sister of Apollo. She was a huntress and is typically depicted with a bow and arrows. Athena^[5] (also spelled Athene) is the patron goddess of Athens, typically allegorized into a personification of wisdom.

23d   GAM|OW — GAM (leg) + OW (that hurts; ouch!)

George Gamow^[7] (1904 – 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov, was a theoretical physicist and cosmologist — notably an early advocate and developer of Lemaître's Big Bang theory. He discovered a theoretical explanation of alpha decay via quantum tunneling, and worked on radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis and Big Bang nucleo­­synthesis (which he collectively called nucleocosmogenesis), and molecular genetics. [in comparison to which, rocket science is probably simple]

24d   TIMER< — reversal (back) of REMIT (pay)

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