Saturday, May 16, 2015 — Anticipating Arturo

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon was fun while it lasted, but over far too quickly. On the bright side, this will give Canadian readers more time to enjoy the Victoria Day long weekend.

Monday being a holiday in Canada, the National Post will not publish an edition on that date. Nevertheless, should you find yourself suffering withdrawal symptoms, you can drop by this blog for your daily fix.

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   Yell about having // toiletry item (7,5)

S(HAVING) CREAM — SCREAM (yell) containing (about) HAVING (†)

10a   Dried fruit // is placed in showers (7)

RA(IS)INS — IS (†) contained in (placed in) RAINS (showers)

11a   Pre-mail unusual // sticker? (7)

IMPALER* — anagram (unusual) of PREMAIL

12a   Tree // area along the shore, by the sound (5)

BEECH — sounds like (by the sound) BEACH (area along the shore)

13a   Last century/'s/ white tent redesigned (9)

TWENTIETH — anagram (redesigned) of WHITE TENT

14a   Member is past due // to make laws (9)

LEG|IS|LATE — LEG ([body] member) + IS (†) + LATE (past due)

16a   Train that stops frequently // for dieters (5)

LOCAL — LO-CAL (for dieters; advertising jargon for low in calories)

18a   Japanese game point // someone waited for (5)

GO|DOT — GO (Japanese game) + DOT (point)

Go^[7] is a board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,500 years ago (from whence it spread, first to Korea and Japan, and then worldwide). The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. According to chess master Edward Lasker: "The rules of Go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play Go." The name Go is derived from the Japanese name of the  game "igo".

Waiting for Godot^[7] is an absurdist play by Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for the arrival of someone named Godot. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many interpretations since the play's 1953 premiere. It was voted [by whom, I don't know] "the most significant English language play of the 20th century".

20a   To read electronically, current with one // conductor (9)

TO|SCAN|IN|I — TO (†) + SCAN (read electronically) + IN (current; trendy) + (with) I ([Roman numeral for] one)

Arturo Toscanini^[5] (1867–1957) was an Italian conductor. He was musical director at La Scala in Milan (1898–1903; 1906-8) before becoming a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (1908–21).

23a   Letters from monsignor amused // dummy (9)

_IGNOR|AMUS_ — hidden in (letters from) monsIGNOR AMUSed

26a   Fold // left in boggy material (5)

P(L)EAT — L (left) contained in (in) PEAT (boggy material)

27a   Pole // browned bread around evening (7)

TO(PM)AST — TOAST (browned bread) containing (around) PM (evening)

28a   In morning, buddy/'s/ initial word? (7)

A(CRONY)M — CRONY (buddy) contained in (in) AM (morning)

Note the inverted sentence structure used in the wordplay.

The question mark flags the whimsical nature of the definition, an acronym being a word formed from the initial letters of other words.

29a   Not very hopeful // record owned by us, getting older (12)

DISC|OUR|AGING — DISC (record) + OUR (owned by us) + AGING (getting older)

Down

2d   High school containing 8 // vertical levels (7)

H(EIGHT)S — HS (high school) containing (†) EIGHT (8)

3d   It follows 6-second // call (5)

VI|S|IT — IT (†) following (follows) {VI ([Roman numeral for] 6) + S (second; unit of time)}

4d   Lionesses moving // without a sound (9)

NOISELESS* — anagram (moving) of LIONESSES

5d   A mine included in California/'s/ wealth (7)

C(A|PIT)AL — {A (†) + PIT (mine)} contained in (included in) CAL ([abbreviation for] California)

6d   Hotel lied about // girl's name (5)

_EL|LIE_ — hidden in (about) hotEL LIEd

7d   Officer // damages computer in 200l (7)

MARS|HAL — MARS (damages) + HAL (computer in 2001)

HAL 9000^[7] is a fictional character in the Space Odyssey series authored by British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008). The primary antagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a sentient computer (or artificial intelligence) that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship's astronaut crew.

8d   Court case about first of bishops // involved with a clan (6)

TRI(B)AL — TRIAL (court case) containing (about) B (first [letter] of Bishops)

9d   Branched off /and/ performed outside of border (8)

DI(VERGE)D — DID (performed) containing (outside of) VERGE (border)

15d   Keeping time, change // pilot's instrument (9)

AL(TIME)TER — ALTER (change) containing (keeping) TIME (†)

As in 28a, the setters have employed an inverted sentence structure in the wordplay.

17d   South Americans /with/ Chicago slants (8)

CHI|LEANS — CHI (Chicago) + LEANS (slants)

Chi-Town or Chitown is a nickname for Chicago^[7] often used in CB slang as noted in the C.W. McCall song Convoy. The abbreviation CHI is commonly used to represent Chicago sports teams in statistical tables, etc. found on sports pages and on scoreboards at sports venues. It is also found in nicknames for Chicago sports teams. For instance, the Chicago White Sox^[7] are known as the ChiSox (to distinguish them from the Boston Red Sox^[7]).

18d   Gave off flashes, /and/ tingled all over (7)

GLINTED* — anagram (all over) of TINGLED

The word "over" would be sufficient on its own as an anagram indicator. Perhaps one should interpret the word "all"—obviously included to enhance the surface reading—as a somewhat superfluous indication that we are to use all of the letters of the word "tingled" as the anagram fodder.

19d   Big wind // shredded a hairstyle (7)

TORN|A|DO — TORN (shredded) + A (†) + DO (hairstyle)

21d   Reaching most of the way /for/ pain reliever (7)

ASPIRIN_ — ASPIRIN[G] (reaching) with the final letter removed (most of the way)

22d   Pitching, mishit // necks? (6)

ISTHMI — anagram (pitching) of MISHIT

As an anatomical term, isthmi is the plural of isthmus^[5], a narrow organ, passage, or piece of tissue connecting two larger parts.

As a geographical term, the plural of isthmus is isthmuses.

24d   Northern primates’ // necks, in part (5)

N|APES — N (northern) + APES (primates)

25d   Confessed about Liberal // jargon (5)

S(L)ANG — SANG (confessed) containing (about) L (Liberal; Canadian political party)

Epilogue

The title of today's blog is inspired by 18a and 20a, two of my last three in. The final clue to fall was 28a.

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)

Enjoy your Victoria Day weekend — Falcon