Saturday, September 26, 2015 — Embellishment Came Back to Haunt

Introduction

One might do well to start with the Down clues in  today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon.  I got very few of the Across clues on my first read through, but the Down clues provided checking letters that enabled me to make progress with the Across clues. While not the most challenging puzzle we have seen from these setters, I would place it above average in difficulty level.

The title of today's blog brings to mind NBC newsman Brian Williams^[7] who found himself in the news this past week.

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   Some breakfast // appearing at intervals in one's mouth? (6)

CEREAL~ — sounds like (in one's mouth) SERIAL (appearing at intervals)

4a   Get lost inside of fort/'s/ branch (8)

OF|F(SHOO)T — SHOO (get lost; as as exclamation, Shoo!) contained in (inside) {OF (†) + FT (fort; abbrev.)}

9a   Bad choice // reverberating (6)

ECHOIC* — anagram (bad) of CHOICE

10a   Outside of work, don't have // place to shop in the city (8)

DO(W)NT|OWN — DONT (don't) containing (outside of) W (work; symbol used in physics) + OWN (have)

11a   Chart including every // one that can be educated (9)

T(EACH)ABLE — TABLE (chart) containing (including) EACH (every)

Despite not being able to find it listed as such in any of my regular dictionaries, I believe that teachable (normally an adjective) is being used as a noun, as inThe first step was to determine who in the group were  the teachables and who were the unteachables. This certainly works better for me than trying to rationalize the wordplay as an adjective.

13a   Old doctor/'s/ new angle (5)

GALEN* — anagram (new) of ANGLE

Galen^[5] (129–199) was a Greek physician; full name Claudios Galenos; Latin name Claudius Galenus. He attempted to systematize the whole of medicine, making important discoveries in anatomy and physiology. His works became influential in Europe when retranslated from Arabic in the 12th century.

14a   Hang around TV show, and one // deserves what happens (3,2,6)

HA(S IT COM|I)NG — HANG (†) containing (around) {SITCOM (TV show) + (and) I ([Roman numeral for] one)}

18a   Desires // passing comments (11)

P|REFERENCES — P (passing) + REFERENCES (comments)

P^[11] (as a rating of student performance) is an abbreviation for passing.

21a   Cowpoke, at times, // running through property (5)

_ROPER_ — hidden in (running through) pROPERty

22a   Pacino hosted by country in Europe/'s/ continent (9)

AUSTR(AL)IA — AL (Pacino; American actor, Al Pacino^[7]) contained in (hosted by) AUSTRIA (country in Europe)

24a   Conductor returned wearing slob's // hairpieces (8)

P(ERIW<)IG|S — reversal (returned) of WIRE contained in (wearing) {PIG (slob) + S ('s)}

25a   One article among stuff // of a daughter or son (6)

FIL(I|A)L — {I ([Roman numeral for] one + A ([indefinite] article)} contained in (among) FILL (stuff; as a verb)

26a   Cool road meandering /in/ a mountainous U.S. state (8)

COLORADO* — anagram (meandering) of COOL ROAD

27a   Long time put into top // Russian label? (6)

L(EON)ID — EON (long time) contained in (put into) LID (top)

Leonid is a Russian masculine name; for instance, former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev^[7] (1906–1982).

Down

1d   Cats // chase the cuckoo (8)

CHEETAHS* — anagram (cuckoo) of CHASE THE

2d   Note funeral car /or/ train (8)

RE|HEARSE — RE ([musical] note) + HEARSE (funeral car)

3d   Plain people // I'm backing in shade of grey (5)

A(MI<)SH — reversal (backing) of IM (I'm) contained in (in) ASH (shade of grey)

5d   Decrease in penalties, with small // embellishment (11)

F(LOWER)INES|S — LOWER (decrease) contained in (in) FINES (penalties) + S (small; abbrev.)

6d   Young sage reformed // house of worship (9)

SYNAGOGUE* — anagram (reformed) of YOUNG SAGE

7d   British actor // also getting into cheer (6)

O(TOO)LE — TOO (also) contained in (getting into) OLE ([Spanish] cheer)

Peter O'Toole^[5] (1932–2013) was an Irish-born British actor. Notable films include Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Goodbye Mr Chips (1969); he was especially noted for his portrayals of eccentric characters.

8d   Shelter occupied by an // apartment resident (6)

TEN(AN)T — TENT (shelter) containing (occupied by) AN (†)

12d   Expedition's leader wandered behind spar on a ship, /and/ swiftly returned (11)

BOOM|E|RANGED — E (Expedition's leader [initial letter]) + RANGED (wandered) following (behind) BOOM (spar on a ship)

15d   Prize vessel turned // first-class (3-6)

{TOP-DRAWER}< — reversal (turned) of {REWARD (prize) + POT (vessel)}

16d   Heir eats everything // green in a salad (8)

SC(ALL)ION — SCION (heir) containing (eats) ALL (everything)

17d   Attacked, // dummy felt bad (8)

ASS|AILED — ASS (dummy) + AILED (felt bad)

19d   Important parallel // seen in retro picture (6)

_TRO|PIC_ — hidden in (seen in) reTRO PICture

A tropic^[5] is the parallel of latitude 23°26ʹ north (tropic of Cancer) or south (tropic of Capricorn) of the equator.

20d   Wind // tears back a piece of lettuce (6)

SPIR<|A|L — reversal (back) of RIPS (tears) + A (†) + L (piece [initial letter] of Lettuce)

23d   Audio level // boost (5)

RAISE~ — sounds like (audio) RAZE (level; demolish)

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 5d and 12d.

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