Saturday, May 31, 2014 — Reasonably Awestruck

Introduction

I am back from a couple of weeks of touring central Europe — although not entirely recovered from jet lag.

I would like to thank Henry Jablonski for contributing a solution to last week's Cox & Rathvon puzzle (posted as a comment to the blog entry for Monday, May 26). Following my return, I created a blog entry for the Saturday, May 24, 2014 puzzle from Cox & Rathvon containing the puzzle as well as Henry's solution.

I have also updated the blog entry for the Saturday, May 17, 2014 puzzle from Cox & Rathvon, replacing the original smudged image of the puzzle with a clean version.

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon was a fairly gentle reintroduction to cryptic crosswords after having been away from them for a couple of weeks.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - yet to be solved

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue
	Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

1a   Bird of peace made a swoop (4)

DOVE — double definition

3a   Recite the letters of "jump" in a trance (10)

SPELL|BOUND — SPELL (recite the letters of) + BOUND (jump)

9a   Rodents in college building freeze (7)

DORM|ICE — DORM (college building) + ICE (freeze)

11a   Bad review hurt style (7)

PAN|ACHE — PAN (bad review) + ACHE (hurt)

12a   Fool and Georgia dance (5)

CON|GA — CON (fool) + GA ([US Postal Service abbreviation for] Georgia)

13a   Novel hero with one truck and garden tool (7)

I|VAN|HOE — I ([Roman numeral for] one) + VAN (truck) + (and) HOE (garden tool)

15a   Playing in game, I suppose (7)

IMAGINE* — anagram (playing) of IN GAME I

16a   Police action granted freely (7)

DRAGNET* — anagram (freely) of GRANTED

18a   Candidate in central Alberta entering Alaskan town (7)

NOM(IN|E)E — {IN (†) + E (central [letter of] AlbErta)} contained in (entering) NOME (Alaskan town)

21a   Colonel gone wild for perfume (7)

COL|OGNE* — COL (colonel) + an anagram (wild) of GONE

23a   More accurate author in speech (7)

RIGHTER~ — sounds like (in speech) WRITER (author)

25a   Courted and married, having two rings (5)

W(OO)ED — WED (married) containing (having) OO (two [letters shaped like] rings)

27a   Awfully moronic Greek character (7)

OMICRON* — anagram (awfully) of MORONIC

Omicron^[5] is the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (Ο, ο).

28a   Cracked is covering an American president (7)

MAD|IS|ON — MAD (cracked; insane) + IS (†) + ON (covering)

James Madison^[5] (1751–1836) was an American Democratic Republican statesman who was the 4th President of the US (1809–17).

Cracked^[7] was an American humor magazine founded in 1958 and patterned on Mad magazine. It ceased publication in 2007 but continues as a website (Cracked.com).

29a   Share with associate in a reasonable way (10)

RATION|ALLY — RATION (share) + (with) ALLY (associate)

30a   Cheese, in short, cut (4)

BRIE_ — BRIEF (short) with the final letter deleted (cut)

A possible alternative explanation may be BRIEF (cut; as an adjective ⇒ the cut version of  the film) with the final letter deleted (short)

Down

1d   Markdowns wrongly discounted (10)

DEDUCTIONS* — anagram (wrongly) of DISCOUNTED

2d   Oliver and Alvin displaying porch (7)

_VER|AND|A_ — hidden in (displaying) OliVER AND Alvin

4d   Exact recipes garbled (7)

PRECISE* — anagram (garbled) of RECIPES

5d   Boy has scheme for European region (7)

LA(PLAN)D — LAD (boy) containing (has) PLAN (scheme)

6d   As a manager, don't play Hall-of-Fame catcher (5)

BENCH — double definition

Johnny Bench^[7] is a former professional baseball catcher who played in the Major Leagues for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967 to 1983 and is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

7d   Dirty old man's brother with a bit of news (7)

UNCLE|A|N — UNCLE (old man's [father's] brother) + A (†) + N (bit [initial letter] of News)

8d   Carries out some deer (4)

DOES — double definition

10d   Nail it—a new European language (7)

ITALIAN* — anagram (new) of NAIL IT A

14d   Turnout at 10:00 ball (10)

AT|TEN|DANCE — AT (†) + TEN (10:00) + DANCE (ball)

17d   Everyone outstanding permitted (7)

ALL|OWED — ALL (everyone) + OWED (outstanding; as a debt)

19d   Red streetcar carrying sestet back (7)

{MAR(XIS)T}< — reversal (back) of {TRAM (streetcar) containing (carrying) SIX (sestet)}

20d   Baltic republic drifting into sea (7)

ESTONIA* — anagram (drifting) of INTO SEA

21d   Camel eating a piece of red candy (7)

C(A|R)AMEL — CAMEL (†) containing (eating) {A () + R (piece [initial letter] of Red}

22d   More disgusting store owner heard (7)

GROSSER~ — sounds like (heard) GROCER (store owner)

24d   Actress among vulgar boors (5)

_GAR|BO_ — hidden in (among) vulGAR BOors

Greta Garbo^[5] (1905–1990) was a Swedish-born American actress; born Greta Gustafsson.

26d   Rain hard in opening in the ear (4)

POUR~ — sounds like (in the ear) PORE (opening)

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