Saturday, February 21, 2015 — Sails on the Great Plains

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon did not present many difficulties. The only holdup worthy of mention was being slow to see the anagram at 17d.

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

9a   Illinois city // fashionable in the past (7)

CHIC|AGO — CHIC (fashionable) + AGO (in the past)

10a   Bird // also westbound in bay (4,3)

H(OOT<) OWL — reversal (westbound) of TOO (also) contained in (in) HOWL (bay)

11a   Guy with chapeau and bronze // cocktail (9)

MAN|HAT|TAN — MAN (guy) + (with) HAT (chapeau) + (and) TAN (bronze)

12a   Giant // canister holding Time article (5)

TI(T|A)N — TIN (cannister) containing (holding) {T (time) + A ([indefinite] article]}

A titan^[5] is a person or thing of very great strength, intellect, or importance ⇒ a titan of American industry.

Delving Deeper

In Classical Greek mythology, the Titans and Titanesses[7] were members of the second order of divine beings, descending from the primordial deities and preceding the Olympian deities. Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Heaven). They were giant deities of incredible strength, who ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also composed the first pantheon of Greek deities.

Scratching the Surface

Time[7] (styled on its cover in all caps as TIME) is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It was founded in 1923 and for decades was dominated by Henry Luce [a titan of American publishing, n'est-ce pas], who built a highly profitable stable of magazines. A European edition (Time Europe, formerly known as Time Atlantic) is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (Time Asia) is based in Hong Kong. The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney, Australia. In December 2008, Time discontinued publishing a Canadian advertiser edition. Time boasts the world's largest circulation for a weekly news magazine, having a readership of 25 million, 20 million of which are based in the United States.

13a   Gibbons sadly // crying (7)

SOBBING* — anagram (sadly) of GIBBONS

15a   Wild Israeli // composer (7)

SALIERI* — anagram (wild) of ISRAELI

Antonio Salieri^[5] (1750–1825) was an Italian composer. His output includes over forty operas and four oratorios. Salieri lived in Vienna and taught Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt. He was hostile to Mozart, whom he considered his rival, but a rumour that he poisoned him is now thought to be without foundation.

16a   Covered wagon // or pioneer’s chair damaged (7,8)

{PRAIRIE SCHOONER}* — anagram (damaged) of OR PIONEERS CHAIR

Prairie schooner^[5] is a North American term for a covered wagon used by the 19th-century pioneers in crossing the North American prairies. [Perhaps, from a distance, the canvas covers resembled sails.]

19a   NFL team /with/ six men at the top of the heap? (7)

VI|KINGS — VI ([Roman numeral for] six) + KINGS (men at the top of the heap)

The Minnesota Vikings^[7] are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They currently participate in the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL).

21a   Expeditions // in distant lands comprehended by Sis (7)

S(AFAR)IS — AFAR (in distant lands) contained in (comprehended by; absorbed by, as said of information) SIS (†)

24a   Lifting // the feet (5)

THE|FT — THE (†) + FT ([abbreviation for] feet)

25a   Martina initially ran circle in triumph /in/ British tournament (9)

WI(M|BLED|O)N — {M (Martina initially; initial letter of Martina) + BLED (ran; as dye) + O ([letter that looks like a] circle)} contained in (in) WIN (triumph)

Wimbledon^[5] is an annual international tennis championship on grass for individual players and pairs, held at the headquarters of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in the London suburb of Wimbledon. Now one of the world’s major tennis championships, it has been played since 1877.

Scratching the Surface

Martina Navratilova[7] is a retired Czech and American tennis player and coach. Billie Jean King, former World No. 1 player, said in 2006 that Navratilova is "the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who's ever lived." In 2005, Tennis magazine selected her as the greatest female tennis player for the years 1965 through 2005. Tennis historian and journalist Bud Collins has called Navratilova "arguably, the greatest tennis player of all time."

27a   Tending to // rig, nuns converted (7)

NURSING* — anagram (converted) of RIG NUNS

28a   Campaign rank // inferior in stature (7)

RUN|TIER — RUN (campaign [for election]) + TIER (rank)

Down

1d   Rogues/’/ page taken by cons (6)

SCAM(P)S — P (page) contained in (taken by) SCAMS (cons)

2d   Cat // housed by millionaire (4)

_LION_ — hidden in (housed by) milLIONaire

3d   Deli fare // I’m sadly returning (6)

{SALA|MI}< — reversal (returning) of {IM (I'm) + ALAS (sadly)}

4d   Romeo’s family // you finally found in composite picture (8)

MONTAG(U)E — U (you finally; final letter of yoU) contained in (found in) MONTAGE (composite picture)

Romeo^[7] is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, the son of Montague and his wife, secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet. Forced into exile by his slaying of Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, in a duel, Romeo commits suicide upon hearing falsely of Juliet's death.

5d   At first, Tom Hanks /shows/ gratitude (6)

T|HANKS — T (at first, Tom; initial letter of Tom) + HANKS (†)

Should you consider the solution to be a verb rather than a noun, the definition would be "shows gratitude".

Tom Hanks^[7] is an American actor and filmmaker. He won Academy Awards for Best Actor for his roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.

6d   Singer Elvis // coos weirdly about state (8)

COS(TELL)O — anagram (weirdly) of COOS containing (about) TELL (state)

Elvis Costello^[7] (born Declan Patrick MacManus) is an English singer-songwriter. His first three albums all appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He is married to Canadian jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall.

7d   Someone from Dixie // returns hoe, broken (10)

SOUTHERNER* — anagram (broken) of RETURNS HOE

Dixie^[5] is an informal name for the Southern states of the US. It was used in the song ‘Dixie’ (1859), a marching song popular with Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War.

8d   Awfully nice girl // more inclined to hang on (8)

CLINGIER* — anagram (awfully) of NICE GIRL

14d   Forest animals // don’t have to live surrounded by bars (5,5)

B(LACK| BE)ARS — {LACK (don't have) + BE (to live)} contained in (surrounded by) BARS (†)

16d   Spinning // Greek character casting a ballot (8)

PI|VOTING — PI (Greek character) + VOTING (casting a ballot)

Pi is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (Π, π).

17d   Bum trailing // a certain arboreal marsupial (8)

RINGTAIL* — anagram (bum) of TRAILING

I spent rather more time than I should trying to construct a charade in which "bum" was cueing TAIL (or would that be too risqué for Cox & Rathvon).

The ringtail (also ringtail possum or ring-tailed possum) is any of several species of nocturnal tree-dwelling Australian possum that habitually curls its prehensile tail into a ring or spiral.

18d   Money, trifling, /for/ fine material (8)

CASH|MERE — CASH (money) + MERE (trifling)

20d   See about witty person/’s/ waste material (6)

SE(WAG)E — SEE (†) containing (about) WAG (witty person)

22d   Penalty involving the Spanish // cat (6)

F(EL)INE — FINE (penalty) containing (involving) EL (the Spanish; Spanish definite article)

23d   Guard // small doorway (6)

S|ENTRY — S (small) + ENTRY (doorway)

26d   Trickle of water // in mild ripples (4)

_D|RIP_ — hidden in (in) milD RIPples

Epilogue

The title of today's blog is inspired by 16a.

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