Saturday, August 8, 2020 — Drop the Formality

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon dispenses with formality and places everyone on a first name basis.

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

Symbols and Markup Conventions
"*" - anagram "~" - sounds like "<" - indicates the preceding letters are reversed "( )" - encloses contained letters "_" - replaces letters that have been deleted  "†" - indicates that the word is present in the clue	"//" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present "/[link word or phrase]/" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present "solid underline" - precise definition "dotted underline" - cryptic definition "dashed underline" - wordplay "double underline" - both wordplay and definition
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of the symbols and markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	Sally // reorganized Tories (6)

SORTIE* — anagram of (reorganized) TORIES

4a	Mark/’s/ question covering Theresa’s (8)

AS(TERI|S)K — ASK (question) containing (covering) {TERI ([diminutive of] Theresa) + S ('s)}

9a	Florence, married, // issued forth (6)

FLO|WED — FLO ([diminutive of] Florence) + WED (married)

10a	Herb: // arrogant bastard? (8)

TARRAGON* — anagram of (bastard) ARROGANT

12a	Rose, // Deb returned carrying spur (9)

B(URGE|ON}ED —  reversal of (returned) DEB (†) containing (carrying) URGE ON (spur)

13a	Chuck, // the man Caesar’s greeting (5)

HE|AVE —  HE (the man) + AVE (Caesar's greeting; Latin word meaning 'welcome' or 'farewell')

14a	Dot // cultivated medicinal pot (7,5)

{DECIMAL POINT}* — anagram of (cultivated) MEDICINAL POT

19a	Randy // opposing trophy—is Penny? (12)

CON|CUP|IS|CENT — CON (opposing) + CUP (trophy) + IS (†) + CENT (penny)

22a	Emily almost receives a // paperless letter (1-4)

EM(A)IL —  EMIL[Y] with the final letter removed (almost) containing (receives) A (†)

23a	Rocky, Peg, Ryan, at // empty display (9)

PAGEANTRY* — anagram of (rocky) {PEG RYAN AT}

US (but not British) dictionaries define pageantry as 'empty display':

•  American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition: Empty show; flashy display^[3]
• Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary: mere show; empty display^[11]
• Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition: empty show or display^[12]

25a	Sue // set fire to one boarding site (8)

LIT|I|GATE — LIT (set fire to) + I ([Roman numeral] one) + GATE (boarding site [at an airport])

26a	Lance // fiddled with recipe (6)

PIERCE* — anagram of (fiddled with) RECIPE

27a	Art // isn’t embraced by Peg Green (8)

P(AINT)IN|G — AINT (isn't) contained in (embraced by) {PIN (peg) + G (green; for instance, symbol used on RGB video connectors)}

28a	Harry follows a // military order (2,4)

A|T EASE — TEASE (harry) following (follows) A (†)

Down

1d	Quite wonderful, Theodore’s // furniture (4,4)

SO|FA B|ED|S — SO (quite) + FAB (wonderful) + ED ([diminutive of] Theodore) + S ('s)

2d	Carrier // loosely OK for car (4,4)

{ROOF RACK}* — anagram of (loosely) OK FOR A CAR

3d	Castle who danced // in wire netting (5)

IRENE — hidden in (in) wIRE NEtting

Vernon and Irene Castle^[7] were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers and dance teachers who appeared on Broadway and in silent films in the early 20th century. They are credited with reviving the popularity of modern dancing.

5d	South Dakota is home to brown // bear (5)

S(TAN)D — SD (South Dakota) containing (is home to) TAN (brown)

6d	Western lawman perfects // listening equipment (9)

EARP|HONES — EARP (western lawman; Wyatt Earp^[7]) + HONES (perfects)

Earp's reputation as a frontier lawman has been grossly exaggerated and is largely undeserved — if nothing else, proof that 'fake news' has been flourishing in America since long before the present Administration took office.

7d	Regina, wrongly // engaged (2,4)

{IN GEAR}* —  anagram of (wrongly) REGINA

8d	At the start, Kafka wrote // in a twisted way (6)

K|INKED — K (at the start, Kafka; initial letter of Kafka) + INKED (wrote)

Scratching the Surface
Franz Kafka[7] (1883–1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature.

11d	Ice cream holder containing pound put back // in a mass (2,4)

{EN (BL)OC}< — reversal of (put back) {CONE (ice creamer holder) containing (†) LB (pound)}

15d	According to a certain reverend, loon might // work a second job (9)

MOONLIGHT — spoonerism of (according to a certain reverend) LOON MIGHT

The Rev. W. A. Spooner has bequeathed to us the name for a slip of the tongue that is oft-encountered in cryptic crosswords.

William Archibald Spooner^[7] (1844–1930) was a long-serving Oxford don, notable for absent-mindedness, and supposedly liable to transpose the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, with unintentionally comic effect, as in the sentence you have hissed the mystery lectures. Such phrases became known as spoonerisms^[5], and are often used humorously. Many spoonerisms have been invented by others and falsely attributed to Spooner.

16d	Call into question // popgun that’s shot (6)

OPPUGN* — anagram of (that's shot) POPGUN

17d	Others live next to a // highway pull-off (4,4)

REST| ARE|A — REST (others) + ARE (live) + (next to) A (†)

18d	Don’t leave // yet—share crackers (4,4)

STAY HERE}* — anagram of (crackers) YET SHARE

20d	Toss a coin over // swipe to the left (6)

REFLIP< — reversal of (to the left) PILFER (swipe)

As several comments note, this should be an across clue rather than a down clue. However, I am sure this is not the first time that I have seen this sort of indication in a Cox and Rathvon puzzle. One would almost think that these setters take the position that one works out the solution on a scratch pad (where one naturally writes from left to right) before entering the result in the grid and that the orientation of the answer in the grid is immaterial.

21d	Mentioned out loud my Thai // cocktail (3,3)

MAI TAI — sounds like (mentioned out loud) {MY THAI}

A mai tai^[5] is a cocktail based on light rum, curaçao, and fruit juices.

23d	Stone atop // piece of climbing hardware (5)

PIT|ON — PIT (stone; found in a fruit) + ON (atop)

24d	Roster of stars // landed outside Spain’s capital (1-4)

A-LIST — ALIT (landed) containing (outside) S (Spain's capital [initial letter])

Epilogue

There is certainly lots of name dropping occurring in today's puzzle.

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Key to Reference Sources: 

  ^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition

  ^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)

  ^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)

  ^[4]   - TheFreeDictionarycom (Collins English Dictionary)

  ^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)

  ^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Advanced 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)

^[14]   - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

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Signing off for today — Falcon