Saturday, January 10, 2015 — Tangential, Not Trite

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon was pretty much par for the course. I will admit that it did take a bit of extra concentration to crack the last remaining two or three clues in the southeast corner.

In writing the blog, I discovered that the common bean is far more complex than I ever imagined — setting me off on a tangent. Such digressions could likely be described by 29a — but hopefully not by 3a.

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. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Deer eating bit of prairie // grass (4)

DO(P)E — DOE (deer) containing (eating) P (bit [initial letter] of Prairie)

Grass^[3] is slang for marijuana.

3a   Freedom in letter’s addendum /for/ comments of a trite nature (10)

P(LATITUDE)S — LATITUDE (freedom) contained in (in) PS (letter's addendum)

9a   Puzzle // official in troubled rest (7)

ST(UMP)ER* — UMP (official) contained in (in) an anagram (troubled) of REST

11a   Sourpuss takes in NBA // game (7)

PI(NBA)LL — PILL (sourpuss) containing (takes in) NBA

Pill^[3] is slang for an insipid or ill-natured person.

The National Basketball Association^[7] (NBA) is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America — if not the world.

12a   Eye socket, // or something boring? (5)

OR|BIT — OR (†) + BIT (something boring)

13a   Outstanding // conclusion of the New Testament contains something explosive (7)

E(MINE)NT — {E (conclusion [final letter] of thE) + NT (New Testament)} containing (contains) MINE (something explosive)

15a   Beast of burden returned to // storied realm (7)

CAMEL|OT< — CAMEL (beast of burden) + OT {reversal (returned) of TO}

In Arthurian legend, Camelot^[3] is the site of King Arthur's court.

16a   No // fur seal frolicking (7)

REFUSAL* — anagram (frolicking) of FUR SEAL

18a   Drive into leaf // storm (7)

RAM|PAGE — RAM (drive into) + PAGE (leaf)

21a   Get strong /in/ time, oddly enough (7)

T|OUGHEN* — T (time) + an anagram (oddly) of ENOUGH

23a   After brief time, let loose // officer on horseback (7)

MO|UNTIE — UNTIE (let loose) following (after) MO (brief time)

The setters have used an inverted sentence structure which, for clarity, I have replaced with a standard sentence structure.

Mo^[5] (abbreviation for moment) is an informal, chiefly British term for a short period of time ⇒ hang on a mo!.

25a   Peg, getting Homer/’s/ number (5)

T(HR)EE — TEE (peg [for supporting a golf ball]) containing HR (homer; home run)

Capitalizing the initial letter of "Homer" is a bit of cryptic misdirection by the setters.

27a   Swell // blessing covers everyone (7)

B(ALL)OON — BOON (blessing) containing (covers) ALL (everyone)

28a   Fruit // new to Capri (7)

APRICOT* — anagram (new) of TO CAPRI

Capri^[5] is an island off the west coast of Italy, south of Naples.

29a   Skis traced roughly // diverging lines (10)

SIDETRACKS* — anagram (roughly) of SKIS TRACED

Sidetrack^[3,4,11] is a US and Canadian term for a a railway siding.

30a   Visit // one locked in pen (4)

ST(A)Y — A (one) contained in (locked in) STY (pen)

Down

1d   Soil on the outside of candleholder/’s/ ruffle (10)

DI(SCONCE)RT — DIRT (soil) containing (on the outside of) SCONCE (candleholder)

2d   Lead // vagrant behind fruit tree (7)

PLUM|BUM — BUM (vagrant) following (behind) PLUM (fruit tree)

Plumbum^[10] is an obsolete name for lead (and the origin of the abbreviation Pb).

4d   Biggest // rat’s leg breaking (7)

LARGEST* —anagram (breaking) of RATS LEG

5d   Drunker // Greek character in row (7)

TI(PSI)ER — PSI (Greek character) contained in (in) TIER (row)

Psi^[5] is the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet (Ψ, ψ).

6d   Can appliance company // get shady? (5)

TIN|GE — TIN (can) + GE (appliance company)

Tinge is a transitive verb but the setters seem to be using it in an intransitive sense — and compensate by including the question mark [often used by setters to indicate that there is something a bit out of the ordinary about the clue].

General Electric^[7] (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate which is listed as the fourth-largest company in the world among the Forbes Global 2000. One of its founders was Thomas Edison. In September 2014, in a deal still awaiting regulatory approval, General Electric agreed to sell its Appliances unit to Swedish multinational appliance manufacturer, Electrolux^[7].

7d   Down with the world’s // shortages (7)

D|EARTH|S — D (down) + (with) EARTH (the world) + S ('s)

8d   The only fish in the sea? (4)

SOLE — a cryptic definition that is a play on two meanings of "sole"

Alternatively, one might possibly parse the clue as:

• 8d   The only // fish in the sea? (4)

This latter interpretation does not quite word for me as the word "the" appears to be superfluous in the first definition — although I think that it would work quite nicely as:

• Only // fish in the sea (4)

10d   Stroke Ms. Fitzgerald/’s/ knee bone (7)

PAT|ELLA — PAT (stroke) + ELLA (Ms. Fitzgerald)

Ella Fitzgerald^[5] (1917–1996) was an American jazz singer, known for her distinctive style of scat singing.

14d   Project softly, /or/ loudly (10)

PLAN|GENTLY — PLAN (project; as a verb) + GENTLY (softly)

Plangently^[3,4,11] is an adverb denoting in a loud and resounding manner, especially with a plaintive sound.

17d   Upset // French person with intense desire (7)

F|LUSTER — F (French) + LUSTER (person with intense desire)

19d   Mother ran /and/ spoke indistinctly (7)

MUM|BLED — MUM (mother) + BLED (ran; as a dyed fabric)

20d   European state // slipping into sea (7)

ESTONIA* — anagram (slipping) of INTO SEA

Estonia^[5] is a a Baltic country on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland.

21d   Those folks beg /for/ a Jim Carrey movie (3,4)

THE M|ASK — THEM (those folks) + ASK (beg)

The Mask^[7] is a 1994 American fantasy slapstick action comedy starring Jim Carrey.

22d   French bean // stuck in with a ricotta (7)

_H|A|RICOT_ — hidden in (stuck in) witH A RICOTta

The easiest explanation is that haricot^[8] is the word for bean in the French language.

The more complicated answer is that the bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a highly variable species with a large number of cultivars, going by many names, and having widely varying characteristics. For instance, they may be bush beans or pole beans, green beans or wax (yellow) beans, string (snap) beans or stringless beans. One may eat either the dry seed or the unripe fruit (pods) — either of which are known as "beans").

Dictionaries are somewhat vague and inconsistent in their definitions and the terminology may differ slightly between North America and the UK. However, all this being said, the course of least resistance is to simply accept that haricot^[4] is another name for French bean.

24d   Mad about // German submarine (1-4)

U-BOAT — anagram (mad) of ABOUT

A U-boat^[3,4,11] is a German submarine, especially in World Wars I and II.

26d   Bird /and/ bee, in two seconds (4)

I(B)IS — B (bee) contained in (in) {II ([Roman numeral for] two) + S (seconds)}

Epilogue

The title of today's blog is inspired by 29a and 3a.

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