Saturday, April 18, 2015 — That Tingling Sensation

Introduction

After a couple of week's of more rigorous fare, I thought that today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon was a return to the more usual Cox & Rathvon standard.

Does the tingling sensation I feel come from sitting on a live wire or from insects invading my trousers — or is it in anticipation of my upcoming vacation?

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

Vacation Time

I am about to head off for a few weeks of vacation. This will be my last full blog until Saturday, May 9, 2015.

The weekday blog will go into "vacation mode" where I publish only a link to the review at Big Dave's blog for The Daily Telegraph puzzle that I expect to appear on that date. However, the recent departure from a predictable pattern of publishing by the National Post will make my standard caveat that "the National Post has been known to alter its publication schedule unexpectedly, so there is no guarantee that my forecast will necessarily prove to be accurate" even more apropos than I had imagined.
 
While travelling, I will attempt to post the Saturday puzzles and keep the Vacation Edition postings for the weekday puzzles correct but that will be dependent on availability of time and access to Internet facilities at hotels along the route.

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   Elation after adjusting // part of the body (7)

TOENAIL* — anagram (after adjusting) of ELATION

A part of the body that was far from mind — in more ways than one!

5a   Something chewed outside of celebrity/’s/ dessert (7)

CU(STAR)D — CUD (something chewed) containing (outside of) STAR (celebrity)

The 's, a possessive indication in the surface reading, becomes a contraction for is — and serves as an explicit link between the wordplay and definition — in the cryptic reading.

9a   Belgian seaport getting rid of an // annoying doofus (5)

TWERP — [AN]TWERP (Belgian seaport) with AN (†) removed (getting rid of)

10a   Old Greek scholar // lost a tire in confusion (9)

ARISTOTLE* — anagram (in confusion) of LOST A TIRE

11a   Different than sitting down, // anyway (15)

NOTWITHSTANDING* — anagram (different) of THAN SITTING DOWN

I wrote the solution into the grid without rigorously parsing the clue, thinking that it was a charade based on "different than" meaning opposed to or NOT WITH. It was only when it came time to write the blog that I realized that "different than sitting down" is merely STANDING and — try as I might — no way could I rationalize the inclusion of NOT WITH in a charade. Eventually, the penny dropped with a resounding thud.

12a   Church accommodation Ed // pulled up (7)

CH|INN|ED — CH (church) + INN (accommodation) + ED (†)

13a   Tapers // Robin’s last missiles (7)

N|ARROWS — N (RobiN's last [letter]) + ARROWS (missiles)

An allusion to Robin Hood?

15a   Cheats // Chicago’s trains (7)

CHI|S|ELS — CHI (Chicago) + S ('s) + ELS (trains)

This is not the first time that Cox & Rathvon have used Chicago to clue CHI.

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]).

El^[5] is a US term for (1) an elevated railroad (especially that in Chicago) or (2) a train running on an elevated railroad. [Although this definition comes from a British dictionary, I thought it would be apropos to replace the British railway with the American railroad]

17a   Rolling Stone is // most meddlesome (7)

NOSIEST* — anagram (rolling) of STONE IS

Scratching the Surface
Rolling Stone[7] is a fortnightly American magazine that focuses on popular culture. Although founded in San Francisco in 1967, it is now based in New York City.

19a   Rogue elephant ate fops /in/ sci-fi film (6,2,3,4)

{PLANET OF THE APES}* — anagram (rogue) of ELEPHANT ATE FOPS

Planet of the Apes^[7] is a 1968 American science fiction film based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle. It was the first in a series of five films made between 1968 and 1973. A remake of the film was released in 2001, followed by additional sequels in 2011 and 2014.

21a   First things /in/ grain silo ruined (9)

ORIGINALS* — anagram (ruined) of GRAIN SILO

22a   Region Greeks colonized // in nation I admire (5)

_ION|I|A_ — hidden in (in) natION I Admire

In classical times, Ionia^[5] was the central part of the west coast of Asia Minor, which had long been inhabited by Hellenic people (the Ionians) and was again colonized by Greeks from the mainland from about the 8th century BC.

23a   Feeling // small in upper house (7)

SEN(S)ATE — S (small) contained in (in) SENATE (upper house)

24a   Gold rush by a // place hosting The Masters (7)

AU|GUST|A — AU ([symbol for the chemical element] gold) + GUST (rush [of wind]) + (by) A (†)

The setters have shown up a week late. The Masters was held last weekend.

The Masters Tournament^[5] is a prestigious US golf competition, held in Augusta, Georgia, in which golfers (chiefly professionals) compete only by invitation on the basis of their past achievements.

Down

1d   Some thought it a nice // ocean liner (7)

_T|IT|A|NIC_ — hidden in (some) thoughT IT A NICe

The RMS [Royal Mail Ship] Titanic^[5] was a British passenger liner, the largest ship in the world when she was built and supposedly unsinkable, that struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage in April 1912 and sank with the loss of 1,490 lives.

2d   Notice if article altered // empowerment? (15)

ELECTRIFICATION* — anagram (altered) of NOTICE IF ARTICLE

The setters use a question mark to flag that "empowerment" is a somewhat whimsical definition.

3d   Nuts I can put into fruit // blender, e.g. (9)

APPL(I|ANC)*E — {anagram (nuts) of I CAN} contained in (put into) APPLE (fruit)

4d   Hated // article added to laundry pile (7)

LOA(THE)D — THE ([definite] article) contained in (added to) LOAD (laundry pile)

5d   U.S. President/’s/ opposed to framing fuzz (7)

C(LINT)ON — CON (opposed to) containing (framing) LINT (fuzz)

Bill Clinton^[5] is an American Democratic statesman, 42nd President of the US 1993–2001; full name William Jefferson Clinton. Re-elected in 1996, he was impeached in 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, but was acquitted.

6d   Rested in // smooth fabric (5)

SAT|IN — SAT (rested) + IN (†)

7d   Feeling of agitation // spans ten nations in turmoil (4,2,4,5)

ANTS IN ONE[']S PANTS — anagram (in turmoil) of SPANS TEN NATIONS

8d   Doctor, next to borders, // digs with a big scoop (7)

DR|EDGES — DR (doctor) + (next to) EDGES (borders)

14d   By the sound, going back /and/ planting again (9)

RESEEDING~ — sounds like (by the sound) RECEDING (going back)

15d   Plentiful // notes of debt trailing policeman (7)

COP|IOUS — IOUS (notes of debt) following (trailing) COP (policeman)

16d   Use for a trunk // otherwise in play area? (7)

ST(OR)AGE — OR (otherwise) contained in (in) STAGE (play area?)

The setters use a question mark to flag that "play area" is a whimsical way to describe a stage.

17d   Woman in War and Peace // has a tan weaving (7)

NATASHA* — anagram (weaving) of HAS A TAN

Countess Natalya "Natasha" Ilyinichna Rostova^[7] is a central fictional character in Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel War and Peace.

18d   A sad tot played with // Tex-Mex food (7)

TOSTADA* — anagram (played with) of A SAD TOT

A tostada^[5] (also tostado) is a Mexican deep-fried maize [corn] flour pancake topped with a seasoned mixture of beans, mincemeat, and vegetables.

20d   Heather’s group /is/ partly American (5)

_ERICA_ — hidden in (partly) AmERICAn

Erica^[5] denotes a plant of the genus Erica (family Ericaceae), especially (in gardening) heather.

Epilogue

The title of today's posting is inspired by 2d and 7d — with an honourable mention to 23a.

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