Saturday, May 25, 2013 — Metric Leads

Introduction

I found today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon — featuring a quartet of metric prefixes^[7] — to be one of their easiest offerings in quite some time.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   MEGALOPOLIS* — anagram (redesigned) of A SIMPLE LOGO

Mega- is the metric prefix for a million.

9a   GUNSHOT* — anagram (mistakenly) of STUN HOG

10a   GAR(N)ISH — N (Nation's leader; first letter [leader] of Nation) contained in (gets into) GARISH (tacky)

11a   TUR(I)N — TURN (take a new direction) containing (around) I ([Roman numeral for] one)

12a   DE(C)ATH|L|ON — {DEATH (passing) + L ([Roman numeral for] 50) + ON (running)} containing (with ... taken in) C ([Roman numeral for] 100)

Deca- is the metric prefix for ten.

13a   D(ECO)RUM — ECO (author Umberto; Italian author Umberto Eco^[7]) contained in (wearing) DRUM (barrel)

14a   LATER|AL — LATER (afterward) + AL (Capone; American mobster Al Capone^[7])

16a   LE(T INT)O — LEO (Tolstoy; Russian writer Leo Tolstoy^[7]) containing (full of) TINT (colour)

... the phrase "okay for entering" meaning "give permission to enter".

19a   ME(A)NDER — A ([indefinite] article) contained in (picked up by) MENDER (tinker)

21a   CENTIPEDE* — anagram (wriggling) of TEN-PIECED

Centi- is the metric prefix for one hundredth.

23a   TRAM|P — P (past; grammatical tense) following (behind) TRAM (cable car)

25a   C(AT|A)LAN — CLAN (family) containing (gathering) {AT (†) + A (Barcelona's terminal; last [terminal] letter of BarcelonA)

26a   TORCHES* — anagram (novel) of HECTORS

27a   _MIC|ROMAN|AGE_ — hidden in (in) acadeMIC ROMAN AGEda

Micro- is the metric prefix for one millionth.

Down

1d   MIGHT — double definition; "power" & "will, perhaps"

2d   _GEN|ERIC_ — hidden in (in) CopenhaGEN ERICsson

3d   LO(HE)NG|R|IN — {LONG (extended) + R (run; baseball — or cricket — term) + IN (popular)} containing (with ... inside) HE (that guy)

Lohengrin^[7] is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by German composer Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883), first performed in 1850.

4d   {POTS|DAM}< — reversal (brought back) of {MAD (nutty) + STOP (station)}

5d   LO(GI)CAL — GI ([American] soldier) contained in (infiltrating) LOCAL (neighbourhood; as an adjective)

6d   ST|RUT — RUT (track) following (at end of) ST (street)

7d   P(ILL)AR — ILL (poorly) contained in (put in) PAR (average)

8d   C|HANDLER — C (cold) + HANDLER (agent)

Raymond Chandler^[7] (1888 – 1959) was an American writer of detective fiction.

13d   DELICACY* — anagram (disturbed) of DICE CLAY

Andrew Dice Clay^[7] (born Andrew Clay Silverstein) is an American comedian and actor.

15d   TRATTORIA* — anagram (busted) of TRAITOR AT

17d   TEN(E)TS — TENTS (camps; as a verb) containing (holding) E (Eastern)

18d   OCEANIC* — anagram (distributed) of COCAINE

19d   MAESTRO* — anagram (new) of A METROS

Metro^[5] means an underground railway system in a city, especially Paris [or Montréal].

20d   DRA(CH)MA — DRAMA (play) containing CH (church)

Drachma^[5] could mean either (1) a former monetary unit of Greece, notionally equal to 100 lepta, replaced in 2002 by the euro or (2) a silver coin of ancient Greece.

22d   I|SLAM — I (†) + SLAM (insult)

24d   PASTE~ — sounds like (in the ear) PACED (went back and forth)

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)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon