Saturday, January 24, 2015 — Cats on the Court

Introduction

I found today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon to be a bit more of a mental workout than I am used to from them.

For the benefit of those who have not visited recently, the boxes labelled "Scratching the Surface" contain information intended to help readers appreciate the surface reading of a clue but which does not assist in deciphering the clue.

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. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Socrates turned // most vulgar (8)

COARSEST* — anagram (turned) of SOCRATES

Scratching the Surface
Socrates[5] (469–399 BC) was a Greek philosopher. As represented in the writings of his disciple Plato, he engaged in dialogue with others in an attempt to define ethical concepts by exposing and dispelling error (the Socratic method). Charged with introducing strange gods and corrupting the young, Socrates was sentenced to death and died by drinking hemlock.

5a   I almost jump // a metrical foot (6)

I|AMBUS_ — I (†) + AMBUS {AMBUS[H] (jump) with the final letter removed (almost)}

In describing the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry, an iambus^[5] is a metrical foot consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.

9a   Repetitious term /for/ “stretched on my back” (8)

TAUT|ON|YM< — TAUT (stretched) + ON (†) + reversal (back) of MY

In botany and zoology, a tautonym^[5] is a scientific name in which the same word is used for both genus and species, for example Vulpes vulpes (the red fox).

10a   Individual aboard little // toy train line (6)

LI(ONE)L — ONE (individual) contained in LIL (little; li'l as in Li'l Abner^[5])

A "toy train line" refers to a line (brand name) of toy trains. Lionel Corporation^[7] is an American toy manufacturer and retailer that has done business since 1900. Founded as an electrical novelties company, Lionel specialized in various products throughout its existence, but toy trains and model railroads were its main claim to fame.

11a   Spy // a lady’s companion (5)

A|GENT — A (†) + GENT (lady's companion)

12a   One grand put into Hair /and/ Cats (9)

T(IG)RESSES — {I ([Roman numeral for] one) + G (grand; a thousand)} contained in TRESSES (hair)

Scratching the Surface
Hair[7] (in full Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical) is a 1967 rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. CATS[7] is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. It premiered in London in 1981 and on Broadway in 1982.

14a   Olympic event // (javelin?) picked up by tot in the morning (7,4)

BA(LANCE) BE|AM — LANCE (javelin?) contained in (picked up by) BABE (tot) + AM (in the morning

The question mark indicates either that a javelin is an example of a lance or, perhaps more likely, that a javelin is similar to — but not exactly — a lance.

18a   Bum locked in one // theatre (11)

NICKELODEON* — anagram (bum) of LOCKED IN ONE

Nickelodeon^[5] is a historical North American term for a cinema with an admission fee of one nickel [undoubtedly a very historical term!]. The employment of the word "theatre"^[5] as a synonym for cinema is chiefly a North American and West Indian usage.

21a   Playing “Horse,” stop // basketball players (9)

HOOPSTERS* — anagram (playing) of HORSE STOP

I presume there is no significance to the unusual positioning of the comma.

Scratching the Surface
Horse[7] (or H-O-R-S-E) is a variation of the game of basketball that can be played by two or more players.

23a   Catch // error in volume (5)

S(E)IZE — E (error) contained in (in) SIZE (volume)

This was my last one in. Even with all the checking letters, I had difficulty finding the solution. Matters were not helped with there being two possible constructions. E being the last letter, the wordplay could also have been XXXX (catch) + E (error) giving a five-letter word meaning volume. After writing the remainder of the review, I revisited the clue and the solution came to me.

In baseball, an error^[3] (abbreviation E^[3]) is charged to a fielder in the case of a defensive fielding or throwing misplay by that player when a play normally should have resulted in an out or prevented an advance by a base runner.

24a   Altercations // seen at the end amid wrecks (3-3)

RU(N)-INS — N {seen at the end; final letter (at the end) of seeN} contained in (amid) RUINS (wrecks)

25a   Mexican musician/’s/ “Chicago” following song from West-Side Story (8)

MARIA|CHI — CHI (Chicago) following (†) MARIA (song from West-Side Story)

"Chi-Town" or "Chitown" is a nickname for Chicago^[7] often used in CB slang as noted in the C.W. McCall song "Convoy". The abbreviation CHI is commonly used to represent Chicago sports teams in statistical tables, etc. found on sports pages and on scoreboards at sports venues. It is also found in nicknames for Chicago sports teams. For instance, the Chicago White Sox^[7] are known as the ChiSox (to distinguish them from the Boston Red Sox^[7]).

"Maria"^[7] is a song from the Broadway musical West Side Story, sung by the lead character Tony. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The song was published in 1956.

26a   Forsake // last course in speech (6)

DESERT~ — sounds like (in speech) DESSERT (last course [of a meal])

27a   Introduces // the woman among us wrong (6,2)

US(HER)S IN — HER (the woman) contained in (among) {US (†) + SIN (wrong)}

Down

1d   Hipster harvested grass /in/ China, once (6)

CAT|HAY — CAT (hipster) + HAY (harvested grass)

Cathay^[5] is the name by which China was known to medieval Europe.

2d   Entertained // a doctor, taking exercise (6)

A|M(USE)D — A (†) + MD (doctor) containing (taking) USE (exercise)

3d   Get out furniture /that/ can be filmed (9)

SHOO|TABLE — SHOO (get out) + TABLE (furniture)

4d   Action movie star // cut solo for an easy-listening audience? (3,8)

{SLY ST|ALLONE}~ — sounds like (for an easy-listening audience) {SLICED + ALONE}

I thought the homophone was a bit of a stretch, but the setters have acknowledged that it may be a bit tenuous by specifying an "easy-listening" [as opposed to a critical] audience.

Sylvester "Sly" Stallone^[7] is an American actor best known for his portrayal of the characters boxer Rocky Balboa and soldier John Rambo.

6d   Four getting into beer // in play (5)

AL(IV)E — IV ([Roman numeral for] four) contained in (getting into) ALE (beer)

In sports, alive^[3] means in play or live ⇒ a foul called when the ball is alive.

7d   Railing // is gripped by kid (8)

BAN(IS)TER — IS (†) contained in (gripped by) BANTER (kid)

8d   Identical // kind of seed put around left field (8)

SE(LF)SAME — SESAME (kind of seed) containing (put around) LF (left field)

In baseball, left field^[5] (abbreviation LF^[3]) is the part of the outfield to the left of the batter when facing the pitcher ⇒ a high fly to left field.

13d   Cookies // distributed in press gang (11)

GINGERSNAPS* — anagram (distributed) of IN PRESS GANGS

Note to British readers: You would know cookies as biscuits.

15d   Internees misspelled // a woman’s name (9)

ERNESTINE* — anagram (misspelled) of INTERNEES

16d   Firmly in place, // and accepting job (8)

AN(CHORE)D — AND (†) containing (accepting) CHORE (job)

17d   Stories /of/ current noblemen (8)

AC|COUNTS — AC ([alternating] current) + COUNTS (noblemen)

19d   Endlessly talk about // flying saucer? (6)

DISCUS_ — DISCUS[S] (talk about) with the final letter removed (endlessly)

20d   Ignore rocky // area (6)

REGION* — anagram (rocky) of IGNORE

22d   Novel arson // detector (5)

SONAR* — anagram (novel) of ARSON

Epilogue

The title of today's blog is inspired by 12a and 21a — and, for good measure, lets throw in 1d.

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