Saturday, January 2, 2016 — Dance the Night Away

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon is not overly challenging. Perhaps the setters have taken pity on those who may still find themselves suffering the aftereffects of the New Year's festivities.

If you are up for a stiffer challenge, you may wish to check out yesterday's Bonus Puzzle if you haven't done so already.

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

Allow me to wish everyone a very Happy New Year full of delightful puzzles.

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   Garbage // boat (4)

JUNK — double definition

3a   Bad antagonist’s // lack of progress (10)

STAGNATION* — anagram (bad) of ANTAGONISTS

9a   Speaker’s giant // contract (7)

TIGHTEN~ — sounds like (speaker's; as uttered by a speaker) TITAN (giant)

11a   Insect going after cheese /for/ a short time (7)

BRIE|FLY — FLY (insect) following (going after) BRIE ([French] cheese)

12a   Walk in // part of green terrain (5)

_EN|TER_ — hidden in (part of) greEN TERrain

13a   Hawaiian garland connected with certain // time to relax (7)

LEI|SURE — LEI (Hawaiian garland) + (connected with) SURE (certain)

15a   Queen’s subjects circling revolutionary // trees (7)

BEE(CHE)S — BEES (Queen's subjects; in a hive) containing (circling) CHE (revolutionary; Argentinian revolutionary and guerrilla leader Che Guevara^[5])

16a   Grand puzzle/’s/ hot spot (7)

G|RIDDLE — G (grand; $1000) + RIDDLE (puzzle)

18a   In speech, visitor // speculated (7)

GUESSED~ — sounds like (in speech) GUEST (visitor)

21a   Group of Cub Scouts put a label on // country (7)

DEN|MARK — DEN (group of Cub Scouts) + MARK (put a label on)

American Cub Scouts assemble in dens while Canadian Wolf Cubs gather in packs — at least that was the case in my Cub days.

23a   Harry/’s/ plot—wicked (7)

BED|EVIL — BED (plot; in the garden) + EVIL (wicked)

Scratching the Surface
Might the surface reading be suggestive of Harry Potter[7]? And could he be hatching a wicked plot?

25a   Loose rivet /in/ famous fountain (5)

TREVI* — anagram (loose) of RIVET

The Trevi Fountain^[7] is a fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Pietro Bracci. Standing 26.3 metres (86 ft) high and 49.15 metres (161.3 ft) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. The fountain has appeared in several notable films, including Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita.

There is a long-standing tradition about throwing coins in the Trevi Fountain. The original legend says that if you throw a coin into the Trevi – with your back to the fountain, throwing the coin with your right hand over your left shoulder – that will ensure a return to Rome. Perhaps thanks in part to the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain and the Academy Award-winning song by that name which introduced the picture, a newer story also routinely makes the rounds that says throwing one coin means a return to Rome, a second coin leads to a new romance, and a third coin leads to marriage.

27a   Base info (3-4)

LOW-DOWN — cryptic definition

This is a common form of cryptic definition which combines a broad "straight" definition with a bit of cryptic elaboration to narrow the range of possible solutions. The entire clue is a cryptic definition in which "info" (the straight definition) is an informal short form for information. The adjective "base" provides the cryptic elaboration and is a play on "base" meaning "low" in the sense of violating standards of morality or decency.

28a   Sharing chopped // parsley, perhaps (7)

GARNISH* — anagram (chopped) of SHARING

29a   Commit // amount charged for each furry companion? (10)

PER|PET|RATE — PER (for each) + PET (furry companion) + RATE (amount charged)

To see how this clue works, one must read the wordplay and the solution as entire phrases. While the wordplay parses directly as the "RATE PER PET", this could equally well be expressed as the "PER PET RATE".

30a   Fish // the deepest part (4)

BASS — double definition (the latter found in a choir)

Down

1d   Bitter jugs for Rev. Spooner/’s/ dances (10)

JITTERBUGS — spoonerism (for Rev. Spooner) of BITTER JUGS

A spoonerism^[5] is a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect, as in the sentence you have hissed the mystery lectures. It is named after the Reverend W. A. Spooner (1844–1930), an English scholar who reputedly made such errors in speaking.

2d   Sleepwear // near neckwear (7)

NIGH|TIE — NIGH (near) + TIE (neckwear)

4d   Goes fishing after bit of twine // snarls (7)

T|ANGLES — ANGLES (goes fishing) following (after) T (bit [initial letter] of Twine)

5d   Joke about pellet in // idle chatter (7)

GA(BB|IN)G — GAG (joke) containing (about) {BB (pellet) + IN (†)}

6d   Stop splitting gold // until we meet again (5)

A(DIE)U — DIE (stop) contained in (splitting) AU ([symbol for the chemical element] gold)

7d   Infidel smashed // part of a diamond (7)

INFIELD* — anagram (smashed) of INFIDEL

The infield is part of a baseball diamond.

8d   Heard calls from a stable // opposing votes (4)

NAYS~ — sounds like (heard) NEIGHS (calls from a stable)

10d   Hector’s new // portable lights (7)

TORCHES* — anagram (new) of HECTORS

This clue would work even better in Britain, where torch is the name by which a flashlight is known. To those of us on this side of the pond, a torch^[3] is  portable light produced by the flame of a stick of resinous wood or of a flammable material wound about the end of a stick of wood.

14d   Little men loyal to King Arthur // most evenings (10)

WEE|KNIGHTS — WEE (little) + KNIGHTS (men loyal to King Arthur)

17d   Playing Tiger in // match, maybe (7)

IGNITER* — anagram (playing) of TIGER IN

Scratching the Surface
The surface reading is likely an allusion to American professional golfer Tiger Woods[7].

19d   Someone jostling // the Spanish garden structure (7)

EL|BOWER — EL (the Spanish; Spanish definite article) + BOWER (garden structure)

20d   Visionary // eatery accommodating six (7)

DI(VI)NER — DINER (eatery) containing (accommodating) VI ([Roman numeral for] six)

21d   Five hundred and eight divided by fifty, // please (7)

D|E(L)IGHT — D ([Roman numeral for] five hundred) + (and) EIGHT (†) containing (divided by) L ([Roman numeral for] fifty)

22d   Land // camera I repaired (7)

AMERICA* — anagram (repaired) of CAMERA I

The "land of the free and the home of the brave".

24d   Buzz // doctor at 1:00 (5)

DR|ONE — DR (doctor) + (at) ONE (1:00)

26d   Hit // friend’s back (4)

S|LAP< — reversal (back) of {PAL (friend) + S ('s)}

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by the nervous insects at 1d and the tiny horsemen at 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)

Happy New Year — Falcon