Saturday, September 6, 2014 — At the Shore

Introduction

I awoke this morning to find two copies — well, actually one and a half copies — of the Ottawa Citizen on my doorstep and no copy of the National Post. As I reached for the telephone to launch a complaint to subscriber service, I noticed a 'Note to Readers' on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen stating that "Technical problems arising from yesterday's thunderstorms ... prevented us from printing the Ottawa edition of the National Post". It seems that the extra half copy of the Ottawa Citizen was delivered in lieu of the missing National Post.

However, readers of this blog did not miss their weekend fix, as today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon was posted here as usual.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

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   Unopened flower bored us terribly (7)

ROSEBUD* — anagram (terribly) of BORED US

5a   Anxiety about the plume (7)

FEA(THE)R — FEAR (anxiety) containing (about) THE (†)

9a   After the first, notice European country's penchant for burning (9)

_PY|ROMANIA — [S]PY (notice) with the initial letter deleted (after the first) + ROMANIA (European country)

10a   Doc is going wild in dance club (5)

DISCO* — anagram (going wild) of DOC IS

11a   Love friend's gemstones (5)

O|PAL|S — O (love; nil score in tennis) + PAL (friend) + S ('s)

12a   Eating crow, 1001 hail nuke (9)

MI(CROW)AVE — {MI ([Roman numeral for] 1001) + AVE ([Latin for] hail)} containing (eating) CROW (†)

Note: for clarity, I have undone the inversion of the sentence structure which the setters have employed for cryptic effect.

13a   Made an attempt, even accepting resistance (5)

T(R)IED — TIED (even; as a sports score) containing (accepting) R ([electrical] resistance; symbol used in physics)

15a   Knives illuminated from the rear in brawls (9)

S(TIL<)ETTOS — reversal (from the rear) of LIT (illuminated) contained in (in) SETTOS (brawls)

17a   Part of a trip is overdue for work as a Senator (9)

LEG|IS|LATE — LEG (part of a trip) + IS (†) + LATE (overdue)

18a   Pointer right inside a queue (5)

A(R)ROW — R (right) contained in (inside) {A (†) + ROW (queue)}

20a   "Omni"chats about Apple computer (9)

MACINTOSH* — anagram (about) of OMNI CHATS

Omni Television^[7] (corporately styled as OMNI Television) is a Canadian television system that is owned by Rogers Communications. It consists of six multicultural television stations.

The Omni Broadcasting Network was a small over-the-air broadcast television network in the United States. It was established in 2003 and dissolved in 2013.

Omni^[7] was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. It contained articles on science, parapsychology, and short works of science fiction and fantasy. It was published as a print version between October 1978 and 1995. The first Omni e-magazine was published on CompuServe in 1986 and the magazine switched to a purely online presence in 1996. It ceased publication abruptly in 1997, following the death of co-founder Kathy Keeton, and closed down in 1998.

23a   Drink black sludge (5)

B|OOZE — B (black) + OOZE (sludge)

24a   Live behind Ohio airport (5)

OH|ARE — ARE (live) following (behind) OH ([US Postal Service abbreviation^[7] for] Ohio)

Chicago O'Hare International Airport^[7], also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, 17 miles (27 km) northwest of the Chicago Loop. It is the primary airport serving the Chicago area, with Chicago Midway International Airport, about 10 miles (16 km) closer to the Loop, serving as a secondary airport for low-cost carriers.

25a   Beginning of September — time to beware dry brush (9)

S|IDES|WIPE — S (beginning [initial letter] of September) + IDES (time to beware) + WIPE (dry [dishes, for instance])

In the ancient Roman calendar, ides^[5] was a day falling roughly in the middle of each month (the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th of other months. In Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar^[7], a soothsayer warns Caesar to "beware the Ides of March", which he ignores, culminating in his assassination on that day by a group of conspirators.

26a   Invalidates northeast entrances (7)

NE|GATES — NE (northeast) + GATES (entrances)

27a   Honoured old instrument wrapped in blue (7)

SA(LUTE)D — LUTE (old instrument) contained in (wrapped in) SAD (blue)

Down

1d   Criticize wine, in agreement (7)

RAP|PORT — RAP (criticize) + PORT ([fortified] wine)

2d   Catch a wave, doing very well and rising to the top (9)

SURF|ACING — SURF (catch a wave^[7]; à la The Beach Boys) + ACING (doing very well)

3d   Collides with vagrant, by the way (5)

BUM|PS — BUM (vagrant) + PS (by the way)

4d   Returning, looked for gold or silver cloth (5)

DENIM< — reversal (returning) of MINED (looked for gold or silver)

5d   Pro sports team belonging to that guy in France (9)

FRANC(HIS)E — HIS (belonging to that guy) contained in (in) FRANCE (†)

6d   Travelling man adored daughter of Cassiopeia (9)

ANDROMEDA* — anagram (travelling) of MAN ADORED

In Greek mythology, Andromeda^[5] was an Ethiopian princess whose mother Cassiopeia boasted that she herself (or, in some stories, her daughter) was more beautiful than the Nereids. In revenge Poseidon sent a sea monster to ravage the country; to placate him Andromeda was fastened to a rock and exposed to the monster, from which she was rescued by Perseus.

7d   Socks a Hebrew prophet (5)

HOSE|A — HOSE (socks) + A (†)

Hosea^[5] was a Hebrew minor prophet of the 8th century BC whose prophecies are recorded in the book of Hosea in the Bible.

8d   Boarding house residents' gossip overheard (7)

ROOMERS~ — sounds like (overheard) RUMOURS (gossip)

14d   Head of department is wearing waistcoat to withdraw money (9)

D|IS|IN|VEST — D (head [initial letter] of Department) + IS (†) + IN (wearing) + VEST (waistcoat; British name for a vest)

15d   Toss a case with twisting strands (9)

SEACOASTS* — anagram (with twisting) of TOSS A CASE

Strand^[3,4,11] is another term for shore or beach — a place where one might 'catch a wave'.

16d   Bomber's mistake is caught in time, twice (9)

T(ERROR|IS)T — {ERROR (mistake) + IS (†)} contained in (caught in) { T + T (time, twice)}

17d   Make fun of a pol in "Daffy Duck" (7)

L(A|MP)OON — {A (†) + MP (pol; politician, Member of Parliament) contained in (in) LOON (Daffy Duck)

A loon^[3,11] is certainly not a duck, although Random House describes them as being "ducklike". Nevertheless, Daffy Duck^[7], an animated cartoon character produced by Warner Bros, might well be described as a loon^[3] (an informal term for one who is crazy or deranged). He has appeared in cartoon series such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, where he usually has been depicted as the best friend and occasional arch-rival of Bugs Bunny.

In Britain, the loon^[5] is known by the name of diver.

19d   Barbie's partner gets into marijuana Saturday and Sunday (7)

WEE(KEN)D — KEN (Barbie's partner) contained in (gets into) WEED (marijuana)

Ken^[7] (Ken Carson) is a toy doll introduced by Mattel in 1961 as the fictional boyfriend of toy doll Barbie which was introduced in 1959. Similar to his female counterpart, Ken had a fantastically fashionable line of clothing and accessories. In the Barbie mythos, Ken and Barbie met on the set of a TV commercial in 1961. Mattel has never specified the precise nature of their relationship. However, Ken does seem unable to hold a job. Since his debut, he has held at least forty occupations.

21d   Family gathering's beginning with sound of a bell (5)

CLAN|G — CLAN (family) + (with) G (Gathering's beginning [initial letter])

As one reads the clue, one must mentally insert a pause following the first word. Thus the sense of clue is "Family; gathering's beginning with [it]".

In some dialects, a pronoun is omitted if it follows the preposition "with". At university, I had a friend who hailed from the Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia who would say things such as "If you happen to be going to town, may I come with".

22d   Camouflages animal skins (5)

HIDES — double definition

23d   Herb who played Sherlock (5)

BASIL — a cryptic definition that can be decomposed into a double definition

Basil Rathbone^[7] (1892–1967) was a South African-born English actor.His most famous role was that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series.

Epilogue

The title of today's blog is inspired by 2d, 6d and 15d. The Ethiopian princess at 6d had a somewhat less delightful experience at 15d than did the beach bums at 2d.

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