Saturday, March 21, 2015 — On Opposite Sides or Conspiring

Introduction

I needed to call my electronic assistants into action to help with a couple of clues in today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon.

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   Al’s into South American // hot sauce (5)

S(ALS)A — {AL (†) + S('s)} contained in (into) SA (South America)

4a   Cite rapid changes // relating to child care? (9)

PEDIATRIC* — anagram (changes) of CITE RAPID

9a   Art Medici reordered // on opposite sides (9)

DIAMETRIC* — anagram (reordered) of ART MEDICI

10a   Seat restricted // to date (2,3)

SO FA|R — SOFA (seat) + R (restricted; film classification)

11a   Lowest, // while among highest (6)

B(AS)EST — AS (while) contained in (among) BEST (highest)

12a   Meat // cutter held by bro or sis (5,3)

S(PARE R)IB — PARER (cutter) contained in (held by) SIB (bro or sis)

14a   Monster, or a mad // scientist (10)

ASTRONOMER* — anagram (mad) of MONSTER OR A

16a   Be aware of // no sounds (4)

KNOW~ — sounds like (sounds) NO

19a   Make me // a structure with a curved roof (4)

DO|ME — DO (make) + ME (†)

20a   Ad salesman upset // a photographer (5,5)

{ANSEL ADAMS}* — anagram (upset) of AD SALESMAN

22a   Bunches of flowers // droop in middles (8)

COR(SAG)ES — SAG (droop) contained in (in) CORES (middles)

23a   An international organization // in June’s convention (6)

UNES|CO — hidden in (in) JUNES COnvention

26a   Dropping the head, made the sound of a pig, // penned (5)

_INKED — [O]INKED (made the sound of a pig) with the initial letter removed (dropping the head)

27a   Conspiring old Peruvian makes heckling sounds (2,7)

IN CA|HOOTS — INCA (old Peruvian) + HOOTS (makes heckling sounds)

28a   Owl egg in nest // on curved limbs (9)

B(OWL|EGG)ED — {OWL (†) + EGG (†)} contained in (in) BED (nest)

29a   Set in broken // glass (5)

STEIN* — anagram (broken) of SET IN

Down

1d   Audibly expressed impatience, uninterested /in/ dining room piece (9)

{SIDE|BOARD}~ — sounds like (audibly) {SIGHED (expressed impatience) + BORED (uninterested)}

2d   Inserts for a pencil/’s/ tips (5)

LEADS — double definition (the first being the core of a pencil or a refill for a mechanical pencil)

3d   Dislike // one edition (8)

A|VERSION — A (one) + VERSION (edition)

4d   Leave // snare flipped (4)

PART< — reversal (flipped) of TRAP (snare)

5d   Busted up, decreed hip // broken, in a way (10)

DECIPHERED* — anagram (busted up) of DECREED HIP

6d   Declare // a lock “regressive” (6)

{A|SSERT}< — reversal (regressive) of {A (†) + TRESS (lock)}

7d   Newly free, Andre // votes (9)

REFERENDA* — anagram (newly) of FREE ANDRE

8d   Native of the Antilles /with/ article in bed (5)

C(A)RIB — A ([indefinite] article) contained in (in) CRIB (bed)

13d   Answering, // include excellent band (10)

COUNT|E|RING — COUNT (include) + E (excellent) + RING (band)

15d   Grave, unpolished, containing fine // TV newsman (3,6)

TOM B|R(OK)AW — TOMB (grave) + {RAW (unpolished) containing (†) OK (fine)}

17d   U.S. state /in/ West is opposed to wrongdoing (9)

W|IS|CON|SIN — W (West) + IS (†) + CON (opposed to) + SIN (wrongdoing)

18d   Gut feelings about one/’s/ hips (8)

H(A)UNCHES — HUNCHES (gut feelings) containing (about) A (one)

21d   Name // oratorio composer out loud (6)

HANDLE — sounds like (out loud) HANDEL (oratorio composer; George Frideric Handel)

22d   Speaker’s area having certain weather // scale (5)

CLIMB~ —  sounds like (speaker's) CLIME (area having certain weather)

24d   Miffed about 100 // points (5)

S(C)ORE — SORE (miffed) containing (about) C ([Roman numeral for] 100)

25d   Help eating cold // tart (4)

A(C)ID — AID (help) containing (eating) C (cold)

Epilogue

The title of today's blog was inspired by 9a and 27a.

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