Saturday, July 6, 2013 — Air Show

Introduction

In today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon, the setters invite us to witness a thrilling spectacle in the skies above.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

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

Across

1a   AEROBATICS* — anagram (bats) of A BIT COARSE

6a   SPAM< — reversal (sent back) of MAPS (plans)

9a   MUSI(C)AL — MUSIAL (Stan the Man; former player for the St. Louis Cardinals) containing (embraces) C (catcher; player or playing position in baseball)

Stan Musial^[7] (1920 – 2013) was an American professional baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1941–1963). Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial was a record 24-time All-Star selection (tied with Willie Mays), and is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.

10a   PEDALED — sounds like (to an auditor) PEDDLED (sold)

12a   MO(R)ON — MOON (daydream) containing R (bit [first letter] of Rare)

13a   DAREDEVIL* — anagram (getting mixed up) of DRIVE DEAL

14a   TA(MAR|I)N — TAN (light brown) contains (bears) {MAR (hurt) + I ([Roman numeral for] one)}

16a   DEC|O|RUM — {O (orange) + RUM (liquor)} following (after) DEC (December)

18a   ROSEBUD* — anagram (silly) of BORED US

In the 1941 film Citizen Kane^[7], directed by and starring Orson Welles, Charles Foster Kane is an enormously wealthy media proprietor who has been living alone in Florida in his vast palatial estate Xanadu for the last years of his life, with a "No trespassing" sign on the gate. As the film opens, Kane dies in a bed while holding a snow globe and utters "Rosebud ..."; the globe slips from his dying hand and smashes. Kane's death then becomes sensational news around the world. Newsreel reporter Jerry Thompson tries to find out about Kane's private life and, in particular, to discover the meaning behind his last word. ...

21a   BODE|GAS — BODE (promise) + GAS (stimulus for belching)

23a   BARNSTORM* — anagram (oddly) of MRS BARTON

24a   POSER — double definition; "phony" & "brainteaser"

25a   TO(PONY)M — TOM (Thomas) containing (keeps) PONY (little horse)

26a   KRISHNA* — anagram (confused) of A SHRINK

In Hinduism, Krishna^[5] is one of the most popular gods, the eighth and most important avatar or incarnation of Vishnu.

27a   HIND — double definition; "rear" & "deer"

28a   STUNT| P(I)LOT — I (†) contained in (tucked into) {STUNT (dwarf) + PLOT ([flower] bed)}

Down

1d   AL(MA MA)TER — ALTER (change) containing (involving) MAMA (mother)

In what would appear to be a US usage, alma mater^[3] can refer to the anthem of an institution of higher learning as well as the school, college, or university that one has attended.

2d   RO<|STRUM — reversal (conversely) of OR + STRUM (play a guitar)

3d   BA(CO)N — BAN (prohibit) containing (eating) CO (company)

4d   TO(LEDA)N — TON (bunch) containing (carrying) LEDA (Helen's mother)

In Greek mythology, Leda^[5] was the wife of Tyndareus king of Sparta. She was loved by Zeus, who visited her in the form of a swan; among her children were the Dioscuri, Helen, and Clytemnestra. In the Homeric poems, Helen^[5] was the outstandingly beautiful wife of Menelaus, and her abduction by Paris (to whom she had been promised, as a bribe, by Aphrodite) led to the Trojan War.

5d   CAPE|RED — RED (scarlet) following (behind) CAPE (cloak)

7d   PA|LAVER — PA (dad) + LAVER (tennis great Rod)

Rod Laver^[7] is an Australian former tennis player who — among other achievements too numerous to mention — holds the record for most singles titles won in the history of tennis, with 200 career titles.

8d   ME(D)AL — D (piece [first letter] of Duck) contained in (in) MEAL (plate of food)

11d   DE(DUC)ED — DEED (legal document) containing (about) DUC (French noble; duc^[8] being the French word for 'duke')

15d   ROBES|ON — ROBES (loose garments) + ON (worn by; "a tiara on a beauty queen")

Paul Robeson^[7] (1898 – 1976) was an African-American singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Rights Movement. At university, he was an outstanding American football player, then had an international career in singing, as well as acting in theater and cinema. He became politically involved in response to the Spanish Civil War, Fascism, and social injustices. His advocacy of anti-imperialism, affiliation with Communism, and his criticism of the US government caused him to be blacklisted during McCarthyism. Ill health forced him into retirement from his career. To the end he remained unapologetic for the unpopular political stances he took.

17d   MISCREANT* — anagram (riled) of RACIST MEN

19d   S(TRAP) IN — SIN (wrong) containing (snagging) TRAP (catch)

20d   DOORMAT* — anagram (perhaps) of TO A DORM

21d   BUMP|KIN — BUMP (nudge) + KIN (family)

22d   GA(SOHO)L — GAL (miss) containing (taking in) SOHO (London district)

Note that the setters have inverted the normal order of the clue.

Soho^[7] is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable transformation. It now is predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues.

23d   BA(T)CH — BACH (Baroque composer; German composer Johann Sebastian Bach^[7] (1685 – 1750)) containing T (time)

24d   PRIM|P — PRIM (prudish) + P (chief [first letter] of Police)

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. It was originally broadcast from 1965 to 1970.

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