Saturday, September 26, 2009 - Highly Intelligent People in High Places

Introduction

Today's puzzle is a typical Cox and Rathvon creation with their trademark clever wordplay and smooth surface readings.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

In today's puzzle, we see the word "on" used as a positional indicator in two different senses in two separate clues. In the first case,

2d Red vehicle on land (9)

the definition is CARNATION (red) and the wordplay is CAR (vehicle) preceding (on) NATION (land). Since this is a down clue, the positional indicator (on) shows that the first string (CAR) is placed on top of the second string (NATION) to form the solution (CARNATION).

As a positional indicator, on can also signify that one string is to be added onto an another string, which is how I believe it is used in the second case,

7d Bigwig reversed prohibition on body odour? (5)

where the definition is NABOB (bigwig) and I would interpret the wordplay as BAN (prohibition) first being added to (on) BO (body odour) to get the intermediate string BOBAN, which is then reversed to get the final solution NABOB.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a {ROCKY MOUNTAINS}* - {O MAN SKI COUNTRY} perhaps

9a MARAUDERS* - {DRAMA SURE} misrepresented

10a L(I)BRA - {L (leader's foremost) + BRA (supporter)} around (carrying) I (one)

11a A_|MAL_|GAM_ - unfinished As MALe GAMe

12a LI(V)ABLE - LIABLE (apt) around (when housing) V (five)

13a PRIOR - DD

14a {TOP-DRAWER}< - {REWARD (prize) + POT (kitty)} reversed (returned)

17a SUNBATHER* - foolishly {HUNT BEARS}

19a W(ORS)E - ORS (alternatives) inside (adopted by) WE (the two of us)

20a P(IRATE)D - IRATE (mad) inside (in) PD (police department)

23a STOLLEN~ - sounds like (reportedly) STOLEN (ripped off)

25a RA|DII - RA (sun god) + DII (Roman Numeral 502)

26a A|SIA M|IN|OR - A + SIAM (former neighbour of Viet Nam) + IN + OR (Oregon)

27a INTELLIGENTSIA* - {AN ELITE LISTING} perhaps

Down

1d RUM|BA - RUM (drink) + BA (Bachelor of Arts)

2d CAR|NATION - CAR (vehicle) preceding (on) NATION (land)

3d YOU|N|GER - {N (northern) GER (German)} following (is after) YOU

4d OVERMATCH* - breaking {CHARM VOTE}

5d NASA|L - NASA (Apollo 13 group) + L (left)

6d AL|L OVER - AL (Pacino) + LOVER (fan)

7d NAB|OB - reversed {BAN (prohibition) following (on) BO (body odour)}

8d C(A|REF)REE - CREE (a tribe) around (includes) {A + REF (whistle-blower)}

13d PASSPORT - PAS (Pop's) + SPORT (fun)

15d PER(I)SHING - PERSHING (American general) around I (one)

16d WARP|LANES - WARP (distort) + LANES (paths)

18d ASTAIRE - sounds like (for the audience) A STAIR (step)

19d WO(OD)MAN - OD (overdose) inside (taken by) WOMAN (female)

21d RA(DO)N - RAN (managed) around (keeping) DO (party)

22d DRAWL - DRAW (sketch) + L (Liberal)

24d NORMA< - {A + M (male) + RON (Ronald)} reversed (comes back)

Signing off for today - Falcon