Saturday, September 20, 2014 — Sleepover with Southern Fare

Introduction

I needed a bit of help from my electronic assistants with today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon. Obviously, my weak spot is Hollywood personalities — followed closely by Southern cooking.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - yet to be solved

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue
	Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

1a   Prediction in favour of social stratum overheard (8)

{FORE|CAST}~ — sounds like (heard) {FOR (in favour of) + CASTE (social stratum)}

5a   Some craft capturing first of six crows? (6)

BOA(S)TS — BOATS (some craft) containing (capturing) S (first [initial letter] of Six)

9a   Phrase is anagrammed for smart people (8)

SHARPIES* — anagram (anagrammed) of PHRASE IS

10a   Disturbed Proust's daze (6)

STUPOR* — anagram (disturbed) of PROUST

Marcel Proust^[5] (1871–1922) was a French novelist, essayist, and critic. He devoted much of his life to writing his novel À la recherche du temps perdu (published in seven sections between 1913 and 1927). Its central theme is the recovery of the lost past and the releasing of its creative energies through the stimulation of unconscious memory [certainly an ability that cryptic crossword devotees would be well advised to cultivate].

12a   Sawn wood standard in pigpen sleepover (7,5)

S(LUMBER| PAR)TY — {LUMBER (sawn wood) + PAR (standard)} contained in (in) STY (pigpen)

Note to British readers: Lumber has quite a different meaning in North American than it does in Britain. Your lumber^[5] would be junk to us, while you might refer to our lumber as deal^[5].

15a   Saints undo tangled ropes? (3,3,4)

{INS AND OUTS}* — anagram (tangled) of SAINTS UNDO

16a   Big star running through piano variations (4)

_NO|VA_ — hidden in (running through) piaNO VAriations

18a   Reversed frame of mind in bad ending (4)

DOOM< — reversal (reversed) of MOOD (frame of mind)

19a   Heartless fight for change (10)

ALTERATION — ALTER[C]ATION (fight) with the heart [middle letter] removed (heartless)

21a   Some soul food: batter-filled sticks (12)

C(HITTER)LINGS — HITTER ([baseball] batter) contained in (-filled) CLINGS (sticks)

Chitterlings^[5] are the smaller intestines of a pig, cooked as food. I must say that I can only recall ever having heard them referred to by their informal name, chitlins^[5].

24a   Drifting, it hit a South Seas island (6)

TAHITI — anagram (drifting) of IT HIT A

25a   Hand over first of hearts in full house (5,3)

S(H)ELL OUT — H (first [initial letter] of Hearts) contained in (in) SELL OUT (full house)

26a   Stray red dog, elusive one (6)

DODGER* — anagram (stray) of RED DOG

27a   Middle Easterners’ tragic king held back by Egyptian deity (8)

IS(RAEL<)IS_ — reversal (back) of LEAR (tragic king) contained in (held ... by) ISIS (Egyptian deity)

Lear^[5] was a legendary early king of Britain, the central figure in Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear.

In Egyptian mythology, Isis^[5] was a goddess of fertility, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. Her worship spread to western Asia, Greece, and Rome, where she was identified with various local goddesses.

Down

1d   Don't eat quickly (4)

FAST — double definition

2d   Interpret clarinet part's sound (4)

READ~ — sounds like (-'s sound; sound of) REED (clarinet part)

3d   Law officer, with flair, beginning to detain member of the Police (8)

COP|ELAN|D — COP (law officer) + (with) ELAN (flair) + D (beginning to [initial letter of] Detain)

Stewart Copeland^[7] is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer best known as the drummer for the English rock band The Police^[7] and for his film music soundtracks.

4d   West of Hollywood, turning in prams and crushing vehicles (12)

ST(EAM) ROLLER — reversal (turning) of MAE ([actress Mae] West of Hollywood) contained in (in) STROLLERS (prams)

Mae West^[5] (1892–1980) was an American actress and dramatist. She made her name on Broadway in her own comedies Sex (1926) and Diamond Lil (1928), memorable for their spirited approach to sexual matters, before embarking on her successful Hollywood career in the 1930s.

6d   Recorded kind of dance in single (2,4)

ON (TAP)E — TAP (kind of dance) contained in (in) ONE (single)

7d   Percussion shifting very fast (10)

SUPERSONIC* — anagram (shifting) of PERCUSSION

8d   Appeal by pest in street graffiti artist's medium (5,5)

S(PRAY| PAIN)T — {PRAY (appeal) + (by) PAIN (pest)} contained in (in) ST (street)

11d   Fume with unhappy exhalations about start of tennis tour (3,3,6)

SEE THE| SIGH(T)S — SEETHE (fume) + SIGHS (unhappy exhalations) containing (about) T (start [initial letter] of Tennis)

13d   Five shown and proved to be right (10)

V|INDICATED — V ([Roman numeral for] five) + INDICATED (shown)

14d   Surprised, as by heavy weight I took off (10)

AS|TON|I|SHED — AS (†) + (by) TON (heavy weight) + I (†) + SHED (took off)

17d   Actress Jessica completely flipped for actor Frank (8)

LANGE|LLA< — LANGE (actress Jessica) + reversal (flipped) of ALL (completely)

Jessica Lange^[7] is an American actress who has worked in film, theater and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Oscars, three Emmys, five Golden Globes, one SAG Award and three Dorian Awards, Lange is one of the most celebrated actresses of the modern era [and I could only think of Jessica Alba^[7] and Jessica Biel^[7]].

Frank Langella^[7] is an American stage and film actor. He has won three Tony Awards, two for Best Leading Actor in a Play. Additionally, Langella has won two Obie Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

20d   Make a comment about university sculpture (6)

STAT(U)E — STATE (make a comment) containing (about) U (university)

22d   Playing polo game (4)

POOL* — anagram (playing) of POLO

23d   Soul singer Redding is behind "Love Time" (4)

O|T|IS — IS (†) following (behind) {O (love; nil score in tennis) + T (time)}

Otis Redding^[7] (1941–1967) was an American singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul and rhythm and blues.

"Love Time" would appear to be a number that he reserved solely for performances in Crosswordland.

Epilogue

The title of today's piece was inspired by 12a and 21a.

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)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon