Saturday, May 23, 2009 - Coffee or Tea?

Being Saturday, today's puzzle is by Cox and Rathvon.

Introduction

A relatively easy puzzle, at least when compared to recent ones from The Daily Telegraph.

A note to my British readers: As the National Post does not publish on Sunday, I do not post an entry to my blog on that day. I have also posted a copy of today's puzzle in case you are interested as you likely would not otherwise have access to it. You can download a .pdf version of the file from here.

Issues with Today's Puzzle

19ac Neckwear fine for relaxation (7)

The solution must be LEI|SURE. While I could find no source to support the use of "sure" as a synonym for "fine", I do recall that the lackadaisical responses of my teenage children to questions would often consist of "sure" or "fine", both indicating a rather unenthusiastic affirmative.

Toughest clue in Today's Puzzle

It has to be:

22ac Puzzle wrong for China? (3,7)

Solution below.

Today's Puzzle

Legend: Anagram '*'; Deleted letter '_' or letters '_..._'; Inserted letters '( )'; Reverse order '<'; Grouping '{ }'; Separator '|'

Clues Across

1ac {FRENCH ROAST}*

9ac U|PRAISE

10ac TO(NIGH)T

11ac C|OF|FEES|HOP

12ac STUN< style="font-weight: bold;">TRY|ST

14ac REAR|RANGE

16ac {RIO GRANDE}*

18ac ZULUS - zoo loose {hearing (sounds like indicator)}

21ac BOHR - {vocally (sounds like indicator)} drill

22ac TEA SER|VICE - puzzle [TEASER] wrong [VICE]

25ac FELL|IN|I

26ac EV(A|CUE)E

27ac {ORANGE PEKOE}*

Clues Down

1d FIRE|FLY

2d EPIC|ENTER - American (Yankee) spelling of centre

The American setters of the puzzle emphasize the use of the American spelling in this puzzle directed at a Canadian audience. Interestingly, the American spelling "center" has actually become widely used in Canada and is probably just as prevalent - if not more so - than "centre".

3d CHEWS - {audibly (sounds like indicator)} {pick [CHOOSE]}

Here, the clue is directing the solver to a word that sounds like a word that means "pick".

4d RATION|ALE

5d _AUNT - delete H from HAUNT

6d TIGHTEN*

7d MUSCAT*

8d A|T ON(C)E

14d R(ENDER)ING

15d RA(ZORBA)CK

16d REBUFF

17d OT|HELLO

19d LEI|SURE

20d STE(W)ED

23d STEEP

24d DIVA<

As always, detailed explanations will be furnished on request.

That wraps up today's post.