Saturday, January 8, 2011 - Fruit Salad, Anyone?

Introduction

In today's puzzle, Cox and Rathvon offer up a rather mouth-watering array of flavourful fruit for the consumption of solvers. However, one word of advice: Make sure you select the correct cooking vessel at 20a or you may stop dead in your tracks on 17d - as happened to me (until the light finally dawned).


Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted

Across

1a PA(C|IF)Y - PAY (fork over) containing (about) {C ($100) + IF (providing)}

4a PLAN|T(A)IN - PLAN (design) + {TIN (can) containing A}

9a T(ANGER)INE - TINE (prong) containing (admitting) ANGER (wrath) [with inverted sentence structure in clue]

11a CL|IN|G - CL (symbol for the chemical element chlorine) + IN + G {back of (buildin)G}
12a {HOLED UP}~ - sounds like (overheard) HOLD UP (robbery) [or HOLDUP, should you prefer]

13a HATCH|ET - HATCH (devise) + ET (alien, from the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial)

14a _NILE_< - hidden (through) and reversed (running west) in DarjeELINg

15a CLEMENTINE* - anagram (spread around) of LET NICE MEN

19a W(A|TERM)E|L|ON - {A + TERM (name)}contained in (assumed by) WE (our group), to which is appended {L (left) + ON}

20a SNAP< - reversal (from behind) of PANS (cooking vessels)

23a REM|OVAL - REM (rock band) + OVAL (track; a race course)

26a HOME|RIC_ - HOME (residence) + a truncation (nearly) of RIC(h) (opulent)

27a ISLES~ - sounds like (detected sonically) AISLES (passageways)

28a PERSIMMONS* - anagram (bananas) of MOM RIPENS

29a H(ONE)YDE|W - {HYDE (park in London) + W (walk; a baseball term)} containing (packing) ONE (single)

30a TH(IS|B)E - {IS + leader of B(and)} contained in THE (article)

Down

1d PIT|CH IN - PIT (hollow) + CHIN (chatter)

2d CANDLELIT - anagram (dizzy) of DANCE TILL

3d FIELDS - double definition; "My Little Chickadee actor" W. C. Fields & "uses a glove" (as in baseball)

5d _LEE|CH_ - hidden in (in) gLEE CHeer

Leech is an archaic word meaning physician, the name presumably arising from the practice of using "leeches to suck the blood of (a person), as a method of medical treatment".

6d NI(COT|I)NE - {I following COT; I put next to COT (bed)}contained in (in) NINE (evening hour)

In this case, one might suppose that the roles of the two I's could be reversed (which would actually make the explanation slightly more straightforward). However, the general convention seems to be that "B put next to A" means A + B, since B can only be placed beside A once A has already been put in place (which leads to A + B, given that English text reads from left to right). Of course, one can never completely rule out any possibility in cryptic crosswords where the maxim sometimes appears to be "Rules exist to be broken".

7d AMISH - double definition; "some Mennonites" & "around morning time" (AM-ish, seemingly a cryptic concoction based on an extension of usage such as "Let's meet about ten-ish").

8d NIGH|TIE - NIGH (in the vicinity of) + TIE (cravat)

10d IMPULSE - anagram (outrageously) of PLUME IS; [fancy, as in the expression 'flight of fancy']

16d MOO|C|HER - MOO (low, the sound made by a cow) + C (contralto) + HER

17d IGNORAMUS* - anagram (bum) of OR AMUSING

18d TR(A|VEST)Y - {A + VEST (part of a suit)} contained in (in) TRY (essay)

19d W(ARM)ISH - WISH (request) containing (about) ARM (weapon)

21d PIC|ANTE - ANTE (poker player's payment) following (after) PIC (photo)

22d I|MP|IS|H_ - I (Independent) + MP (legislator, Member of Parliament) + IS + head of H(ouse) (or House's head)

24d M(IL)AN - MAN (guy) containing (going around) IL (the Italian; i.e., Italian word meaning "the")

25d LAPSE~ - sounds like (in the ear) LAPS (circuits, as of a race track)

Signing off for today - Falcon