Saturday, February 14, 2015 — A Habit of Stealing

Introduction

It's a cold, snowy day in Ottawa — just perfect to stay indoors and 4d today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon. However, it was all over fairly quickly, leaving me no excuse to further put off clearing the snow from my driveway.

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   Stuck in house, missed // tournament round (5)

_SE|MIS_ — hidden in (stuck in) houSE MISissed

4a   Get mud all over // superior around mudbath locale (9)

BE(SPA)TTER — BETTER (superior) containing (around) SPA (mudbath locale)

9a   Irritates // right leg joints (7)

R|ANKLES — R (right) + ANKLES (leg joints)

10a   Rode red horses around /and/ issued commands (7)

ORDERED* — anagram (horses around) of RODE RED

11a   Nanny // is unarmed, surprisingly (9)

NURSEMAID* — anagram (surprisingly) of IS UNARMED

12a   Make // the sounds of a blackbird audibly (5)

CAUSE~ — sounds like (audibly) CAWS (the sounds of a blackbird [in particular, a crow])

13a   Splitting 50-50, copy // a jacket feature (5)

L(APE)L — APE (copy) contained in (splitting) LL (50-50; two Roman numerals for 50)

The Mechanics of the Clue
The setters have employed an inverted sentence structure in the wordplay. For clarity, I have reverted to a normal sentence structure in my explanation. The normal sentence structure would be subject-verb-object but the wordplay in the clue is arranged as verb (splitting), object (50-50) and finally subject (copy).

15a   Birds // love saint with clover (9)

O|ST|RICHES — O (love; nil score in tennis) + ST (saint) + RICHES (clover)

Clover meaning riches likely comes from the idiom in clover^[11] meaning luxuriating in a life of wealth and comfort.

18a   Gus returned with mysterious // sweet grass (5,4)

SUG<|AR CANE — reversal (returned) of GUS + (with) ARCANE (mysterious)

Scratching the Surface
The definition (sweet grass) is a cryptic description of sugar cane which is intended to misdirect our attention to the substance used by Native Americans. Sweet grass[10] is an aromatic grass (Hierochloe odorata), traditionally used in Native American rituals.

20a   Name for a woman // or man, strangely (5)

NORMA* — anagram (strangely) of OR MAN

22a   "S" in additional // code (5)

MOR(S)E — S (†) contained in (in) MORE (additional)

23a   Doctor iridescent // contact, in a way (4,1,4)

DR|OP A LINE — DR (doctor) + OPALINE (iridescent)

25a   Sketch // triumph in drag (7)

DRA(WIN)G — WIN (triumph) contained in (in) DRAG (†)

26a   Kingly // rule covering extended period (7)

L(EON)INE — LINE (rule) containing (covering) EON (extended period)

27a   Thought deeply /and/ tried to settle disputes about time (9)

MEDI(T)ATED — MEDIATED (tried to settle disputes) containing (about) T (time)

28a   Octet shoveled down food audibly (5)

EIGHT~ — sounds like (audibly) ATE (shoveled down food)

Down

1d   Link press with shifting // showers (9)

SPRINKLES* — anagram (with shifting) of LINK PRESS

2d   Chant, accompanied by piano /and/ snare (7)

MANTRA|P — MANTRA (chant) + P (piano; musical direction to play softly)

A mantrap^[1] is (1) a trap for catching trespassers; (2) (figuratively) any source of potential danger; or (3) (informally) a woman who takes a mischievous pleasure in attracting and acquiring men.

3d   Crack clues // (only about five) (5)

SOL(V)E — SOLE (only) containing (about) V ([Roman numeral for] five)

4d   Playing bassoon at Virginia // dance (5,4)

{BOSSA NO}*|VA — anagram (playing) of BASSOON + VA ([US Postal Service abbreviation for the state^[7] of] Virginia)

Bossa nova^[5] is the name for (1) a style of Brazilian music derived from samba but placing more emphasis on melody and less on percussion or (2) a dance to this music.

5d   Second promise: // weapon for duelling (5)

S|WORD — S (second) + WORD (promise)

6d   Catching cold, gain // habit (9)

ADDI(C)TION — ADDITION (gain) containing (catching) C (cold)

Once again, the setters have employed an inverted sentence structure in the wordplay (see comment at 13a).

7d   Finished // bit of hay in feeding station (7)

T(H)ROUGH — H (bit [initial letter] of Hay) contained in (in) TROUGH (feeding station)

8d   Span behind the first // long hill (5)

_RIDGE — [B]RIDGE (span) with the initial letter removed (behind the first; the portion of the word which follows the first letter)

14d   Person who swipes // clarinets, oddly (9)

LARCENIST* — anagram (oddly) of CLARINETS

16d   Official inside worked // with three leaves (9)

T(REF)OILED — REF (official) contained in (inside) TOILED (worked)

17d   New Testament // declaration (9)

STATEMENT* — anagram (new) of TESTAMENT

19d   Organ accommodating a red // festoon (7)

G(AR)LAND — GLAND (organ) containing (accommodating) {A (†) + R (red)}

21d   Support for pedestrians // sounding off (7)

RAILING — double definition

22d   Peripheral device, // style 1000 (5)

MODE|M — MODE (style) + M ([Roman numeral for] 1000)

23d   Number, // see? (5)

DIG|IT — double definition

As used in the second definition, "[Do you] dig it?" would be the equivalent of "[Do you] understand?". This is a rather dated informal usage for dig^[5] denoting like, appreciate, or understand ⇒ I really dig heavy rock.

24d   Stirred // wonder about approval (5)

AW(OK)E — AWE (wonder) containing (about) OK (approval)

Epilogue

The title of today's piece is inspired by 6d and 14d.

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