Saturday, January 9, 2010 - Variable Speed Puzzle

Introduction

Today's puzzle is a not too difficult offering from Cox and Rathvon; one, however, with a few rather tricky clues.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

19a Muscular sort of saint embraced by hefty hag (4-6)

The definition here, "muscular sort of", may be a slight stretch - but no doubt within the bounds of cryptic licence. Muscular means "relating to muscle" and fast-twitch means "relating to muscle fibre that contracts relatively rapidly" or, in other words, "relating to a particular sort of muscle".

20a Stab butter in alphabet soup? (7)

The word play is straight-forward, being PANG (stab) plus RAM (butter, as a billy goat might be described). The definition is cryptic, as a PANGRAM is a sentence using all the letters of the alphabet, which would be a mix of all the letters of the alphabet (or, figuratively, alphabet soup).

3d Moderate broadcast edition in city (4,4)

I am a little bit tenuous about the wordplay in this clue, but believe the solution to be:

TONE DOWN /\ ON (broadcast) ED (edition) contained in (in) TOWN (city)

Ignoring the issue of a city being a town, I believe broadcast may mean on in the sense of "I spent most of the evening watching TV as the season finale of my favourite show was on (i.e., broadcast)".

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a SUMATRA* - anagram (new) of TRAUMAS

5a C(APE| CO)D - APE (copy) CO (company) contained in (in) CD (recording)

9a RED|UND|ANT - RED (socialist) UND (and German: German word for and) ANT (worker)

10a _LY|RIC_ - hidden (in) earLY RIChmond

11a TOLEDAN* - anagram (flying) of ON DELTA; Toledan: resident of Toledo, Ohio

12a NO|S(EG)AY - EG (for example) contained in (found in) NO SAY (state)

13a SLOW-WITTED - SLOTTED (having a channel) containing (about) WWI (global conflict: World War I)

16a BARD~ - sounds like (to speak) BARRED

18a H|ATE - H (husband) ATE (consumed)

19a FA(ST)-T|WITCH - ST (saint) contained in (embraced by) FAT (hefty) WITCH (hag)

22a LI(MEAD)E - LIE (fable) containing (about) MEAD (fermented honey)

23a PANG|RAM - PANG (stab) RAM (butter)

25a P(I)LOT - PLOT (storyline) containing (involving) I (one)

26a SING|LET|ON - SING (perform music) plus (and) LET ON (feign)

27a D(RY-E)YED - RYE (cereal) contained in (with ... coating) DYED (coloured)

28a AND|ROID< - AND reversal (going the other way) of DIOR (French fashion designer Christian Dior)

Down

1d ST(R)ATUS - STATUS (standing) containing (around) R (river)

2d ME(D)AL - D (low grade) contained in (in) MEAL (food service)

3d T(ON|E D)OWN - ON (broadcast) ED (edition) contained in TOWN (city)

4d A|GAIN - double defintion: "A GAIN (profit)" and "once more"

5d COTANGENT - COGENT (convincing) containing (about) TAN (sun); cotangent: trigonometric function

6d POLISH - double definition: "buff" and "from Eastern Europe"

7d CAR(Y GRAN*)T - CART (wagon) containing (conveying) anagram (hurt) of ANGRY

8d DE(COY)ED - DEED (feat) containing (keeping) COY (annoyingly secretive)

14d OP|T(IM)ALLY - IM (I'm) contained in (included in) OP (Old Possum's head: first letters of Old Possum) TALLY (count); Old Possum: pseudonym of T.S. Eliot

15d TRA(VERSE)D - TRAD (traditional) containing (about) VERSE (poetry)

17d S(WIND)LED - WIND (breeze) contained in (aboard) SLED (luge)

18d HE(LIP)AD - LIP (edge) contained in (enclosed by) HEAD (boss)

20d H(O|MIN)ID - HID (kept out of sight) containing (around) O (Ottawa's foremost: first letter of Ottawa) MIN (minister)

21d PAN|TRY - PAN (blast) TRY (attempt)

23d PINT|A - PINT (ale order) plus (connected with) A

24d _RATIO_ - hidden (in) in consideRATIOn

Signing off for today - Falcon