Saturday, October 14, 2017

Saturday, October 14, 2017 — Anagrams Wild

Introduction

Anagrams run rampant through 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 semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues. All-in-one (&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions are marked with a dotted underline. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Wild blue yonder’s enveloping male // in an onerous way (12)

{BURDENSO(M)ELY}* — anagram (wild) of BLUE YONDERS containing (enveloping) M (male; abbrev.)

9a   Have a craving in Ken/’s/ room (7)

K(ITCH)EN — ITCH (have a craving) contained in (in) KEN (†)

10a   Quiet sort joining our // loud shouting (7)

CLAM|OUR — CLAM (quiet sort) + (joining) OUR (†)

11a   Daisy upset about arrival // confusion (8)

{DIS(ARR)AY}* — anagram (upset) of DAISY containing (about) ARR (arrival; abbrev. encountered on transportation system timetables)

12a   Strands // wild horses (6)

SHORES* — anagram (wild) of HORSES

14a   Poverty // bared, go hog wild (10)

BEGGARHOOD* — anagram (wild) of BARED GO HOG

16a   Hurt // wild rose (4)

SORE* — anagram (wild) ROSE

18a   Roulette bet // in or out of order (4)

NOIR* — anagram (out of order) of IN OR

19a   Wild pitches are // most annoyingly instructive (10)

PREACHIEST* — anagram (wild) of PITCHES ARE

21a   Deuces wild, // lead the wrong way? (6)

SEDUCE* — anagram (wild) of DEUCES

Dedicated to Harvey Weinstein — who seems incapable of such subtlety.

22a   Wild card code // given (8)

ACCORDED* — anagram (wild) of CARD CODE

26a   Bunk // back of house, beside two trees (7)

E|YEW|ASH — E (back [final letter] of housE) + (beside) {YEW + ASH} (two trees)

27a   One arachnid grasping at // parrot (7)

I|MIT(AT)E — I ([Roman numeral for] one) + MITE (arachnid) containing (grasping) AT (†)

28a   Incapable of sucking up, // Ann’s born to be wild (12)

NONABSORBENT* — anagram (wild) of ANNS BORN TO BE

Down

1d   A king in the sack // was hot (5)

B(A|K)ED — {A (†) + K (king; abbrev. encountered in chess or card games)} contained in (in) BED (the sack)

2d   Appraises // unopened shipping containers (5)

_RATES — [C]RATES (shipping containers) with the initial letter removed (unopened)

3d   Empty article, very // airy (8)

E|THE|REAL — E (empty; abbreviation found on a fuel gauge) + THE ([definite] article) + REAL (very; extremely)

4d   People on the beach // scattered burnt ashes (10)

SUNBATHERS* — anagram (scattered) of BURNT ASHES

5d   Spice // club (4)

MACE — double definition

6d   Hate // vow taken by the French (6)

L(OATH)E — OATH (vow) contained in (taken by) LE (the French; masculine singular form of the French definite article)

7d   Quartet // auditioned for total amount (8)

{FOUR|SOME}~ — sounds like (auditioned) {FOR (†) + SUM (total amount)}

8d   Most of ship’s hands detect // moon at times (8)

CRE_|SCENT — CRE[W] (ship's hands) with the final letter removed (most of) + SCENT (detect; verb)

Scent[5] (verb) can mean:
  • discern by the sense of smell a shark can scent blood from well over half a kilometre away
  • sense the presence, existence, or imminence ofthe Premier scented victory last night
13d   Vault within funds // kingdoms (10)

MON(ARCH)IES — ARCH (vault; architectural construct) contained in (within) MONIES (funds)

14d   Rail // is held by kid (8)

BAN(IS)TER — IS (†) contained in (held by) BANTER (kid)

15d   Diner fixtures // general shoots full of holes (8)

G|RIDDLES — G (general; abbrev. for film classification) + RIDDLES (shoots full of holes)

17d   More selective // Indiana resident following Conservative (8)

C|HOOSIER — HOOSIER (Indiana resident) following (†) C (Conservative; abbrev. for a member of a certain Canadian — or British — political party)

A Hoosier[5] is a native or inhabitant of the state of Indiana, US. The origin of the term is unknown.

20d   Oxygen tank company returned // book of a certain size (6)

{OC|TAV|O}< — reversal (returned) of {O ([symbol for the chemical element] oxygen) + VAT (tank) + CO (company; abbrev.)}

23d   Loosely cover // doctor and primate (5)

DR|APE — DR (doctor; abbrev.) + (and) APE (primate)

24d   Inhabited // end of island next to raised ridge (5)

D|WELT — D (end [final letter] of islanD) + (next to) WELT (raised ridge)

25d   Start of a question, and a // command to stop (4)

WHO|A — WHO (start of a question) + (and) A (†)

Epilogue

There was certainly no subtlety involved in the theme of today's puzzle
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)
[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)
Signing off for today — Falcon

10 comments:

  1. Good cloudy morning to all from the GTA! At least it's not cold.
    Today's offering from C&R is a strange mix of anagrams and charades, a few which will likely lead you the wrong way. But far be it for me to be annoyingly instructive!
    Henry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good morning,

    Fogbound wild, for today's puzzle (4,3). Cleared up quickly enough. Not sure about 15d: is 'g' an abbreviation for 'general'? Have a good weekend!

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peter,

      Perhaps you attend films rated at the other end of the alphabet.

      Delete
    2. Ah, yes. Did not think of film ratings. But, no, I don't approve of films rated at the other end of the alphabet. Thanks for the blog Falcon!

      Delete
  3. Yes, it seems that C&R have gone hog wild, at least on the Across side.
    For 15d, I certainly took G to be a short form for 'General.' The answer is the appliances the diner would use to prepare french toast, e.g.
    By the way, thanks for posting, Falcon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Falcon - re 2d. Unopened means closed. Closed means the top is on. But here we take the top off, and in a down clue. I didn't figure out how this works when I figured out the answer, but you don't seem to have difficulty with this. How do I reconcile the apparent anomaly?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Henry,
      The way I interpret 2d is that the containers do not have an "opening", meaning they are missing the opening letter.
      Cheers,
      MG

      Delete
    2. MG has explained it very well.

      Delete
  5. Hello Falcon and folks,
    Puzzle took a little longer today as there were some odd words, like 14a. Last one in was 20d and I needed help on it. Favorite was 10a simply because I like the idea of being quiet as a clam.

    Thank you for posting.
    Cheers,
    MG

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello Falcon and all,
    For me a pleasantly easy solve with a couple of pockets of resistance. Dunce-cap moment: failing to see how 7d was a homonym for "total." Went astray with "when" for 25d as the start of a question and a command to stop (as in, "Say when"). 14a was a new word for me. Thanks as always for the review, Falcon. Here I'd missed the meaning of "general."

    ReplyDelete

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