Saturday, January 23, 2010 - Drawing a Line in the Sand

Introduction

Today's puzzle by Cox and Rathvon may concern squabbles in the kindergarten classroom - or perhaps grander issues.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

5a Attacked a Doctor wearing headwear (3,2)

In the solution to this clue, the abbreviation D is substituted for the word Doctor. I am not sure that this usage is well recognized on a stand-alone basis, although it does often exist as part of a larger entity, in terms such as MD (Medicinae Doctor, Doctor of Medicine) and PhD (Philosophiae Doctor, Doctor of Philosophy). Other frequent substitutions for doctor that one may encounter in cryptic crosswords are MB (Medicinae Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Medicine) and MO (Medical Officer).

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a SAND BOX - Spoonerism of BANNED SOX

5a H(A|D) AT - A D (doctor) contained in (wearing) HAT

9a {PINE NUT}< - {TUNE (strain, in musical sense) NIP (small bite)} reversed (retracting) 10a REM|OVAL - OVAL (office in the White House) following (after) REM (sign of dreaming: Rapid Eye Movement sleep)

11a {DOT MATRIX}* - anagram of (redesigned) DITTO MARX

12a M(IL)AN - MAN (guy) containing (going around) IL (the Italian: Italian word meaning the) /\ MILAN (capital of Lombardy)

13a MI|MI|CRY - MI MI (repeating note: as in do, re, mi, ...) CRY (shout)

15a SP(LAY)ED - SPED (hurried) containing (around) LAY (place)

17a CA|ROME|D - CA (around, abbreviation of circa) ROME (Italy's capital) adjacent to (by) D (day)

20a VAT(I)CAN - VAT (tank) CAN (fire, as in dismiss) containing (surrounding) I (one)

22a L|OVER - L (left) OVER (on)

23a DA(SH|BOAR)D - SH (quiet, as in a request to be quiet) BOAR (hog) contained in (breaking into) DAD (father)

25a PAL|OMAR - PAL (buddy) adjacent to (standing by) OMAR (actor Omar Sharif) /'s\ PALOMAR (observatory)

26a T|ALI|BAN - T (Turkey's leader; i.e., first letter of Turkey) adjacent to (and) ALI (caliph) BAN (outlaw) /\ TALIBAN (Islamist group)

27a LA|DEN - LA (Los Angeles) adjacent to (with) DEN (study)

28a {TURF WAR}< - reversal of (returned) {RAW (unprocessed) FRUIT (orchard product) with the letter I removed (losing one) = RAW FRU_T} Down

1d SANCTUM* - anagram of (off) CUTS MAN

2d NIN(J)A - J (jack, as in card game) contained in (boards) NINA (explorer Christopher Columbus' ship)

3d BET(A) RAY - BETRAY (commit treachery) containing (capturing) A /\ BETA RAY (radioactive emission)

4d XER(O)XES - O (ring) contained in (kept by) XERXES (Persian king Xerxes the Great)

5d HAM (O|ME)LET - HAMLET (Danish prince) containing (eating) {O (egg, the letter O visually resembles an egg) adjacent to (with) ME}

6d D(EVIL)RY - EVIL (wicked) contained in (getting into) DRY (unproductive)

7d _TAL|ON_ - hidden in (embedded in) ornamenTAL ONion

8d EPI(DEMI)C - EPIC (tale) containing (about) DEMI (Moore of moviedom: actress Demi Moore)

14d CAME|RAMEN - CAME (arrived) adjacent to (with) RAMEN (noodle soup)

16d DIN|G (D)ONG - DIN (racket) adjacent to (by) GONG (percussion instrument) containing D (poor, as a grade at school)

18d REVILED< - reversal of (from the rear) DELIVER (rescue)

19d DIDEROT* - anagram of (awfully) ODD RITE; French philosopher Denis Diderot

20d VIS(IT)OR - VISOR (shade) containing (enveloping) IT (Italian)

21d CL|AMBER - CL (chemical symbol for chlorine) adjacent to (with) AMBER (old resin)

22d L(APE)L - LL (lines) containing (about) APE (monkey)

24d B(E)LOW - E (end of bridge; i.e., last letter of the word bridge) contained in (in) BLOW (windstorm)

Signing off for today - Falcon