Saturday, February 11, 2012 - Love is in the Air

Introduction

It is hardly surprising that today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon should have a theme appropriate to Valentine's Day. Given that many of the solutions relate to illicit affairs, perhaps I should have said inappropriate.






Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue

Across

1a   BLANDISH|MEN|T - BLANDISH (rather plain) + MEN (guys) + (with) T (time)

9a   KISSING|ER - KISSING (smooching) + (with) ER (Elizabeth Regina; Queen Elizabeth)

Henry Kissinger^[7] is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, he served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

10a   CH(IM)E - IM (I'm) contained in (wearing) CHE ([Argentinian-born Marxist revolutionary Che] Guevara^[7])

11a   TRY|STS - TRY (experiment) + (with) STS (saints)

12a   INTIMATE - anagram (loosely) of I MEANT IT

14a   HOTS - anagram (comic) of HOST

16a   D|ALLIANCES - D (almost failing; e.g., a poor result on an exam) + ALLIANCES (marriages)

18a   PHI|LANDERS - LANDERS ([American] advice columnist [Ann Landers^[7]]) following (pursuing) PHI (Greek character)

19a   IS|IS - IS repeated (redundant)

In Egyptian mythology, Isis^[5] is a fertility goddess, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus.

22a   SAG(AMOR)E - SAGE (wise man) containing (pierced by) AMOR (cupid)

A sachem or sagamore^[7] is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The Algonquian peoples^[7] are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. At one time, they inhabited parts of North America stretching from the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains.

Josiah Sagamore is the name by which the Native American leader Wompatuck^[7] (d. 1669) was known to English settlers. A leader of the Mattakeesett tribe of the Massachusetts Indians and an early friend of European settlers, he sold the British the land upon which the city of Boston, Massachusetts, was established. He was slain in 1669 when he led a force of his warriors in an attack upon the Mohawks.

23a   AR(DEN)T - DEN (study) in (†) ART (paintings)

26a   DOT|ED - DOT (Dorothy) + ED (Eddie)

27a   A|DO|RATION - RATION (slice of a pie) following (after) {A (†) + DO (party)}

28a   {FROM THE HEART}* - anagram (transported) of {MOTHER + (&) FATHER}

Down

1d   BUS(B)Y - B (bee) contained in (wearing) BUSY (bee-like; "busy as a bee")

2d   A|V|I|ATE -{I (†) + ATE (swallowed)} following (after) {A (†) + V (victory)}

3d   DOGE< - reversal (turned) of {E (eastern) + GOD (Olympian; e.g., Zeus)}

4d   STRANG(L)ERS - STRANGERS (aliens) containing (abducting) L ([Roman numeral for] fifty)

5d   MAC(KIN)AW - MACAW (showy parrot) containing (grabbing) KIN (relative)

Mackinaw^[5] is a North American term for a short coat or jacket made of a thick woollen cloth, typically with a plaid design.

6d   NU(IS)ANCES - IS (†) contained in (wearing) NUANCES (shades)

7d   S|KETCH - S (small) + KETCH (sailboat)

8d   PETERS* - anagram (changed) of STREEP

Meryl Streep^[7] is a well-known American actress. For British readers, "tires" is the North American spelling of "tyres".

13d   BALDERDASH - BALDER (with less coverage [on the top of the head]) + DASH (run a short race)

Moonshine^[3,4], in the surface reading, means the light of the moon. In the cryptic reading, it is used in the sense of nonsense (and not illegal booze).

15d   TAILGATER* - anagram (arranged) of GET A TRIAL

17d   {FAX MODEM}* - anagram (botched) of EXAM OF MD

18d   POSADA - anagram (new) of SOAP AD

20d   SA(TIN)G - SAG (sink) contains (†) TIN (metal)

21d   _AR|CANA_ - hidden in (is full of) eAR CANAl

24d   ELIOT< - reversal of (recalled) TOILE (material)

George Eliot^[7] is the pen name of English novelist Mary Anne Evans (1819 – 1880), one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and well known for their realism and psychological insight.

25d   POOH< - reversal (from back to front) of HOOP (ring)

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Happy Valentine's Day - Falcon