Saturday, March 21, 2015

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

2 comments:

  1. Henry and Emily have decided to make life simpler for us by not taxing us too much with their puzzles! Powered through this one but was stuck on 22D. Kept parsing it incorrectly and couldn't make sense of the clue (had the word but couldn't figure out why) until I realized what I had missed. Then I did my beswt imitation of Homer Simpson.

    Henry (the other Henry)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love homophones, so this puzzle was a delight -- especially enjoyed 22d. Last one in was 13d, which required a close reading of the wordplay. No online help needed today; a relief after yesterday's challenge.

    ReplyDelete

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