Saturday, April 9, 2011 - Fairy Tale

Introduction

In today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon, the setters give us a simple fairy tale featuring Snow White and her little friends.












Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   CHASTE~ - sounds like (reportedly) CHASED (pursued)

4a   ALLERGEN* - anagram (in contortions) of ALL GREEN

9a   O(REGAN)O - OO (reiterated [i.e., repeated] love) containing (embracing) REGAN (Lear's daughter; from King Lear by William Shakespeare)

11a   BOU(QUE)T - BOUT (fight) containing (about) QUE (Quebec)

An allusion to Quebec as a "distinct society"?

12a   B(RAIN)LESS - BLESS (grace) containing (taking) RAIN (shower)

13a   A|D(M)EN - A + DEN (study) containing (involving) M (thousand)

14a   RAISE~ - sounds like (audibly) RAYS (beams)

16a   SURGE|ON - SURGE (rush) + ON (with regard to)

19a   CONTENT - double definition; "what's inside" & "happy"

21a   LOSER* - anagram (new) of ROLES

23a   A|ESOP< - A + reversal (backward) of POSE (stance)

24a   IRASCIBLE* - anagram (stirred) of BASIL RICE

26a   P(LAST)IC - PIC (snapshot) containing LAST (final)

Credit [card] equates to plastic as in "Will you be paying with cash or plastic?".

27a   TO|US|LED - TO (before; as in telling time "a quarter to six") + US + LED (was first)

28a   RETIRING - double definition; "bashful" & "changing the whitewalls [automobile tires]"

29a   {DROWS|Y}< - reversal (returned) of {Y (fork) + (and) SWORD (blade)}

Down

1d   C|ROWBARS* - C (the first of Clyde) + anagram (crooked) of BARROWS

2d   {ARE|NA}< - reversal (back) of {AN + ERA (age)}

3d   TR{AIN}EE - TREE containing (sheltering) {A + IN (popular)}

5d   LUBES* - anagram (playing) of BLUES

6d   EMU|LATE - EMU (bird that can't fly) + LATE (at an advanced age)

7d   GOUR(MAN)DS - MAN (guy) contained in (dividing) GOURDS (melons and pumpkins)

8d   NOT_ING - NOTHING with the H deleted (except tHe heart; without the middle letter of "the")

10d   O(VERSE)E - VERSE (poetry) contained in {O (Old) + E (English)}

15d   _INCESS|ANT_ - hidden in (some) prINCESS ANTagonized

17d   {RETRAC|T}< - reversal (sent back) of {T (bit [i.e., first letter] of Trash) + CARTER (Reagan's predecessor; Jimmie Carter and Ronald Reagan, former presidents of the United States)

18d   FRIENDLY* - anagram (broken) of FIND LYRE

20d   NAPSTER* - anagram (modified) of PARENTS

21d   LACQUER~ - sounds like (talking) LACKER (one without)

22d   PA(U)PER - PAPER (journal) containing (covering) U (university)

24d   IN|CAN - IN + CAN (prison)

25d   B(EL)OW - EL (Mexican article; i.e., Spanish word for "the") contained in (in) BOW (front of ship)

Signing off for today - Falcon