Saturday, May 14, 2016 — Scream of Pain

Introduction

For the most part, today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon is fairly gentle. However, it does contain one clue that should elicit a painful reaction.

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   Flipping sack in front of ship, // go ashore (6)

DEB<|ARK — reversal (flipping) of BED (sack) + (in front of) ARK (ship)

4a   Quite divided by dance // involving language (8)

VER(BALL)Y — VERY (quite) containing (divided by) BALL (dance)

9a   Safe // jump in gymnastics (5)

VAULT — double definition

10a   Possible // mixture of Lipton tea (9)

POTENTIAL* — anagram of (mixture of) LIPTON TEA

Lipton^[7] is a brand of tea belonging to the Anglo-Dutch multinational consumer goods company Unilever.

Delving Deeper

In 1871, Thomas Lipton opened his first shop, in Glasgow, Scotland and by the 1880s the business had grown to more than 200 shops. In 1929 the Lipton grocery retail business was one of several companies that merged to form a food group known as Allied Suppliers with more than 3,000 stores. In 1982, the supermarket chain was sold to Argyll Foods which rebranded it as Presto. Lipton believed the price of tea was far too high, so in 1890, he purchased his own tea gardens in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, and packaged and sold the first Lipton tea with the advertising slogan: "Direct from the tea gardens to the teapot." Lipton teas were an immediate success in the United States. The Lipton tea business was acquired by Unilever in a number of separate transactions, starting with the purchase of the United States and Canadian Lipton business in 1938 and completed in 1972 when Unilever bought the remainder of the global Lipton business from Allied Suppliers. Available in over 110 countries, Lipton is particularly popular in Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East, parts of Asia and Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) as well as Latin America and Caribbean. Despite its British origins, Lipton black tea is not marketed in the UK and is not found in mainstream British stores. However, Lipton Ice Tea and fruit teas are available in the UK.

11a   Leader of the oil field workers // sets off (8)

T|RIGGERS — T (leader [initial letter] of The) + RIGGERS (oil field workers)

12a   Woke up // a New York baseball player in Colorado (4,2)

C(A|ME T)O — {A (†) + MET (New York baseball player)} contained in (in) CO (Colorado; abbrev.)

The New York Mets^[7] are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City. They play in the National League (NL) East division in Major League Baseball (MLB).

14a   Graciously keeps // promises to pay (4)

_IOUS_ — hidden in (keeps) gracIOUSly

15a   Spoken for total // quartet (8)

{FOUR|SOME}~ — sounds like (spoken) {FOR (†) + SUM (total)}

19a   Author/’s/ slangier novel (8)

SALINGER* — anagram (novel) of SLANGIER

J. D. Salinger^[5] (1919–2010) was an American novelist and short-story writer. He is best known for his novel of adolescence The Catcher in the Rye (1951).

20a   Crafty // bow (4)

ARCH — double definition

23a   Big bags containing 1000 // emblems (6)

TOTE(M)S — TOTES (big bags) containing (†) M ([Roman numeral for] 1000)

25a   Get old // ground in victory (4,4)

W(EAR TH)IN — EARTH (ground) contained in (in) WIN (victory)

27a   Smartest // pair of climbers on the world’s highest mountain (9)

CL|EVEREST — CL (pair [initial two letters] of climbers) + EVEREST^[7] (the world's highest mountain)

28a   Board // left behind part of a window (5)

PANE|L — L (left; abbrev.) following (behind) PANE (part of window)

29a   Line up // clues he’d cracked (8)

SCHEDULE* — anagram (cracked) of CLUES HED

30a   Relief pitcher // not so far away (6)

CLOSER — double definition

In baseball, a closer^[5] is a reliable relief pitcher who enters a game in the final innings, typically to preserve a slim lead.

Down

1d   Dotty violated // a kind of joint (8)

DOVETAIL* — anagram (dotty) of VIOLATED

A dovetail^[5] is a (woodworking) joint formed by one or more tapered projections (tenons) on one piece which interlock with corresponding notches or recesses (mortises) in another.

2d   Shops // disapprove of some woods, by the sound of it (9)

BOU|TIQUES — sounds like (by the sound of it) {BOO (disapprove of) + TEAKS (some woods)}

3d   Puts fresh labels on // new grates (6)

RETAGS* — anagram (new) of GRATES

5d   Takes in // all but the first of exploits (4)

_EATS — [F]EATS (exploits) with the initial letter removed (all but the first of)

6d   Roll beam around a // small home (8)

BUN|G(A)LOW — BUN (roll) + GLOW (beam) containing (around) A (†)

7d   Folk stories about one // French river (5)

LO(I)RE — LORE (folk stories) containing (about) I ([Roman numeral for] one)

The Loire^[5] is a river of west central France. France’s longest river, it rises in the Massif Central and flows 1,015 km (630 miles) north and west to the Atlantic at St-Nazaire.

8d   Hue /and/ cry? (6)

YELL|OW — yell Ow! (cry)

10d   Lifts // up irons, roughly holding 50 (8)

PURLOINS* — anagram (roughly) of UP IRONS containing (holding) L ([Roman numeral for] 50)

13d   Shortest // cheese party? (8)

BRIE|FEST — BRIE (cheese) + FEST (party)

16d   Audio equipment // distorted one phrase (9)

EARPHONES* — anagram (distorted) of ONE PHRASE

17d   Fodder includes lamb // served ablaze (8)

F(LAMB)EED — FEED (fodder) contains (includes) LAMB (†)

18d   Mystery writer/’s/ $100 manager (8)

C|HANDLER — C ($100) + HANDLER (manager)

C^[11] (also C-note) is slang for a hundred-dollar bill.

Raymond Chandler^[5] (1888–1959) was an American novelist who is remembered as the creator of the private detective Philip Marlowe, who appeared in novels such as The Big Sleep (1939).

21d   Small bugs /and/ twigs (6)

S|TICKS — S (small; abbrev.) + TICKS (bugs)

22d   Push // rope into place (6)

P(ROPE)L — ROPE (†) contained in (into) PL (place; abbrev. found on street signs, for instance)

24d   Goatee that conceals // what’s in your mouth (5)

_TEE|TH_ — hidden in (conceals) goaTEE THat

26d   Ringer // inventor (4)

BELL — double definition

Alexander Graham Bell^[5] (1847–1922) was a Scottish-born American scientist. He invented a method for transmitting speech electrically and gave the first public demonstration of the telephone in 1876; he founded the Bell Telephone Company the following year.

Delving Deeper

Alexander Graham Bell[7] was born in Scotland (so the Brits think of him as a Scot), he moved to Canada at the age of 23 (so we Canucks think of him as a Canadian), and he was granted US citizenship at the age of 35 (so the Yanks think of him as an American). The year following his move to Canada, he began training instructors at schools for the deaf in the US — and, from that time until his death, he maintained residences in both Canada and the US and divided his time between the two countries.

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 8d.

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