Saturday, July 11, 2009 - Cattle Herd

Introduction

There's a lot of beef in today's puzzle by Cox and Rathvon.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

3d Bill heard barbershop member (5)

In Britain, I imagine this clue might have been phrased similar to:

• Note heard in barbershop group (5)

In North America, a ''tenner" is a ten dollar bill, whereas in Britain it is a ten pound note.

20d Rome's river engulfing 1,000 trees (6)

It occurs to me that a British setter may have been somewhat less obvious by phrasing the clue along the lines of:

• Rome's river engulfing a great number of trees (6)

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"CD" Cryptic Definition; "DD" Double Definition
	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted

Across

1ac {BUM STE}*ER - {MUST BE}*

5ac SHAM|US

9ac R(OMAN|O)V

10ac P|A|RAG|ON

11ac TAPIR~ - sounds like TAPER

12ac S(ACRED*) COW - CEDAR*

13ac NADIR* - DRAIN*

15ac CUR|TAIL

17ac PIT-A|-PAT

18ac L|APE|L

21ac IRIS|H (B)ULL

23ac B(ON)US

24ac BO(L)O TIE

25ac MO(ROC|C)O

26ac RIYAD*|H - DAIRY*

27ac M|OONCALF* - {CAN FOOL}*

Down

1d BAR(IT|ON)E

2d ME|MO P|AD

3d TENOR~ - sounds like TENNER (a ten dollar bill)

4d _ELVIS_ - tunn[EL VIS]ion

6d HORSETAIL* - {THE SAILOR}*

7d M(AG)ICAL* - CLAIM*

8d SI(NEW)S

10d {PAC|K RA|}

14d RATCHETED* - CHATTERED*

15d C(APT)URE

16d {BLAST OFF}* - {SOFT FLAB}*

17d PA(ISLE)Y

19d PAN|ACE|A

20d TI(M)BER

22d LIMBO - DD

23d BAR(O)N

Signing off for today - Falcon