Saturday, October 31, 2015 — Hammering Away at Something Hard to Solve

Introduction

Like those of you who have already commented on  today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon, I found it to be a more difficult challenge than that to which we have become accustomed. For the first time in a long while, my electronic assistants got called out on a Saturday.

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

7a   Roth novel // hammering deity (4)

THOR* — anagram (novel) of ROTH

Thor's Battle Against the Jötnar (1872)

by Mårten Eskil Winge

In Norse mythology, Thor^[7] is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing and fertility.

Scratching the Surface
Philip Roth[5] is an American novelist and short-story writer. He often writes about the complexity and diversity of contemporary American Jewish life. Notable works: Portnoy’s Complaint (1969).

8a   A hearty cop busted // drug dealer? (10)

APOTHECARY* — anagram (busted) of A HEARTY COP

10a   Drive, by a prayer, /in/ hot rod event (4,4)

DR|A|G RACE — DR (drive; street address) + A (†) + GRACE (prayer; before a meal)

11a   Classified notice/’s/ dim bit (4,2)

WAN|T AD — WAN (dim) + TAD (bit)

12a   Yard structure/’s/ look and smell (6)

GAZE|BO — GAZE (look) + BO (smell; body odour)

13a   Bone found in pile // on the way to the graveyard (8)

MO(RIB)UND — RIB (bone) contained in (found in) MOUND (pile)

Figuratively speaking, "on the way to the graveyard".

15a   Awfully odd adornments /for/ a dramatist (6,7)

{EDMOND ROSTAND}* — anagram (awfully) of ODD ADORNMENTS

My initial guess had the letters of his last name in an incorrect order and I needed a bit of electronic help to get them into proper alignment.

Edmond Rostand^[7] (1868–1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is known best for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, Les Romanesques, was adapted to the musical comedy, The Fantasticks.

18a   Feel bad about group of whales flipping // Show Boat heroine (8)

{MAG|NO|LIA}< — reversal (flipping) of {AIL (feel bad) + ON (about; concerning) + GAM (group of whales)}

Magnolia Hawks is one of the principal characters in Show Boat^[7], a 1927 musical, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Based on Edna Ferber's bestselling novel of the same name, the musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over forty years, from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as "Ol' Man River", "Make Believe", and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man".

21a   Some pains, ultimately // slight (6)

_INS|ULT_ — hidden (some) in paINS ULTimately

22a   Where some Alaskans are // pronounced immortal (6)

JUNEAU~ — sounds like (pronounced)

As I mentally ran through the names of Alaskan cities, the state capital failed to come to mind.

Juneau^[5] is the state capital of Alaska, a seaport on an inlet of the Pacific Ocean in the south of the state; population 30,988 (est. 2008).

As a noun, immortal^[5] denotes an immortal being, especially a god [or goddess] of ancient Greece or Rome.

In Roman mythology, Juno^[5] was the most important goddess of the Roman state, wife of Jupiter — her counterpart in Greek mythology being Hera.

24a   A doubter’s question // as to this cryptic (2,4,2)

{IS THAT SO}* — anagram (cryptic) of AS TO THIS

25a   Someone tall and skinny // changed tennis garb (6,4)

{STRING BEAN}* — anagram (changed) of TENNIS GARB

26a   Something hard to solve /but/ not to hear? (4)

KNOT~ — sounds like (to hear) NOT

Down

1d   Lack /of/ game in coastline area (8)

SHOR(TAG)E — TAG (game) contained in (in) SHORE (coastline area)

2d   Leader of Tories set up European // killer (10)

T|RIG|GERMAN — T (leader [initial letter] of Tories) + RIG (set up) + GERMAN (European)

3d   Pair of cashews in dark red // cookie (8)

MA(CA)ROON — CA (pair [initial two letters] of CAshews) contained in (in) MAROON (dark red)

4d   Deluge // someone giving a demonstration (6)

SHOWER — double definition

5d   Hoax following Dali’s last // picture (4)

I|CON — CON (hoax) following (†) I (Dali's last; final letter of DalI)

6d   Decree // altered version of a Rodin (6)

ORDAIN* — anagram (altered version of) A RODIN

Scratching the Surface
Auguste Rodin[5] (1840–1917) was a French sculptor. He was chiefly concerned with the human form. Notable works: The Thinker (1880) and The Kiss (1886).

9d   Oriole manager arranged // spread of a sort (13)

OLEOMARGARINE* — anagram (arranged) of ORIOLE MANAGER

The Baltimore Orioles^[7] are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) East division.

Delving Deeper

The team was one of the American League's eight charter franchises when the league was established in 1901. The franchise spent its first year as a major league club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to St. Louis, Missouri to become the St. Louis Browns. After 52 often-beleaguered years in St. Louis, the franchise moved to Baltimore for the 1954 season and adopted the historic "Orioles" name in honor of the official state bird of Maryland. The Orioles name had also been used by several previous major and minor league baseball clubs in Baltimore, including the franchise that would eventually become the New York Yankees. Nicknames for the team include the "O's" and the "Birds".

14d   What’s at the foundation: // underwear piles (5,5)

BRAS|S TACKS — BRAS (underwear) + STACKS (piles)

16d   Miserly // sort’s face colouring (8)

Henry's contributed solution:

S|TINTING — S (sort's face; initial letter [face] of Sort) + TINTING (colouring)

Thank you, Henry, for pointing out the error in my original parsing of the clue.

The Solution That Should Never Have Seen the Light of Day

My original solution — which Henry charitably calls "inspired" — was: 16d   Miserly sort/’s/ face colouring (8) SKINT|ONE — SKINT (miserly) + ONE (sort) Skint[4,11] is British slang meaning having no money or penniless. I think it would be more common to see "the sort" rather than merely "sort" in this sense ⇒ she is definitely the sort to avoid. There were any number of red flags here — all of which I ignored. First, the word "skint" does not mean miserly, it means penniless (virtually the opposite). I think I was thinking in terms of "stint" even as I wrote "skint" (brain not engaged). Second, "skint" is a very British expression and it would be most usual for Cox & Rathvon to use it in a puzzle. Put it down to having done too many British puzzles. Third, as I pointed out in my original review, the word "one" is a poor match for "sort" — it really only matches the expression "the sort".

17d   Fantasy // in old use made new (8)

DELUSION* — anagram (made new) of IN OLD USE

19d   A big town adopting university/’s/ great vision (6)

A|C(U)ITY — A (†) + CITY (big town) containing (adopting) U (university)

20d   Make a sudden reach, grabbing round // loaf (6)

L(O)UNGE — LUNGE (make a sudden reach) containing (grabbing) O (round; letter having a round shape)

23d   Experience, in part, // one of the greats? (4)

_ERIE_ — hidden in (in part) ExpERIEnce

... one of the Great Lakes, that is.

Epilogue

The title of today's review was inspired by 7a and 26a.

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