Saturday, June 18, 2016 — Star-crossed Lovers

Introduction

As several have already commented, today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon is a bit less challenging than some of their recent offerings.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's among the readership.

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   Harangue // leader of industry in deal (6)

T(I)RADE — I (leader [initial letter] of Industry) contained in (in) TRADE (deal)

4a   Romeo’s family // picture sequence including half of us (8)

MONTAG(U)E — MONTAGE (picture sequence) containing (including) U (half of Us)

Romeo and Juliet^[7] is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families.

The Montague family^[7] (in Italian, "Montecchi") was an actual political faction of the 13th century. The Montagues are generally portrayed as the 'better' of the two families, as they are not seen to be provoking fights and are often found trying to avoid fighting whenever they could, and occasionally found trying to dissuade the fighters to return to peace.

9a   Cryptic clue apt /for/ Juliet’s family (7)

CAPULET* — anagram (cryptic) of CLUE APT

The Capulet family^[7] (in Italian, the Capuleti) in the play was named after an actual political faction of the 13th century. Notably, the Capulet family is often portrayed as the 'bad' side, as much of the conflict is caused by them.

11a   Fruit // sweetie put in turnover (7)

T(ANGEL)O —ANGEL (sweetie) contained in (put in) TO (turnover)

In sports such as football and hockey, a turnover^[3] (abbreviation TO^[3]) is a loss of possession of the ball or puck to the opposing team, as by a misplay or an infraction of the rules.

The tangelo^[5] is a hybrid of the tangerine and grapefruit.

12a   Chuck // left, wearing belt (5)

S(L)ING — L (left; abbrev.) contained in (wearing) SING (belt)

13a   Naughty kid on the move // getting better (9)

IMP|ROVING — IMP (naughty kid) + ROVING (on the move)

14a   Charming woman carrying a gun, // something of little value (9)

B(A|GAT)ELLE — BELLE (charming woman) containing (carrying) {A (†) + GAT (gun)}

Gat^[10] is a mainly US slang term for a pistol or revolver.

15a   Dope eating popular // variety of grape (5)

P(IN)OT — POT (dope; marijuana) containing (eating) IN (popular)

Pinot^[5] denotes:

1. any of several varieties of wine grape, especially the chief varieties Pinot Noir, a black grape, and Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris, white grapes; or
2. a wine made from Pinot grapes.

16a   Out of gas, // note dashboard alert colour (5)

TI|RED — TI ([musical] note) + RED (dashboard alert colour)

Strictly speaking the word "dashboard" may be superfluous but it definitely adds to the surface reading of the clue.

In music, te^[5] (also ti^[2]) is the seventh note of the major scale in tonic sol-fa. Judging by a perusal of entries in American and British dictionaries, the only recognized spelling in the US would seem to be ti^[3,4,11] whereas, in the UK, the principal — or only — spelling would appear to be te^[2,3,4,11], with ti given as an alternative spelling in some dictionaries. Oxford Dictionaries is more emphatic, giving the spelling as te^[5] with ti shown as the North American spelling.

18a   Silent // lionesses roaming about (9)

NOISELESS* — anagram (roaming about) of LIONESSES

20a   Item in a springtime hunt, // for example, including flower, for example (6,3)

E(ASTER| EG)G — EG (for example; abbrev.) containing (including) {ASTER (flower) + EG (for example; abbrev.)}

22a   Modify // the place where you get married for the audience (5)

ALTER~ — sounds like (for the audience) ALTAR (the place where you get married)

24a   Compare notes about one // evergreen tree (7)

CON(I)FER — CONFER (compare notes) containing (about) I ([Roman numeral for] one)

25a   Wino bar changed // sign for Noah (7)

RAINBOW* — anagram (changed) of WINO BAR

In the Bible, Noah^[5] was a Hebrew patriarch represented as tenth in descent from Adam. According to a story in Genesis he made the ark which saved his family and specimens of every animal from the Flood. After the flood, a rainbow was given to Noah by God as the sign of a covenant "between me and you and every living creature that [is] with you, for perpetual generations", (Genesis 9:2–17).^[7]

26a   Show of erudition // Ed included in harsh review and essay (8)

P(ED)AN|TRY — ED (†) contained in (included in) {PAN (harsh review) + (and) TRY (essay)}

27a   A deadly sin /was/ in accord (6)

A|GREED — A (†) + GREED (deadly sin)

In Christian theology, the seven deadly sins^[10] are the sins of pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth. Since greed^[10] is synonymous with both gluttony and covetousness, I would guess that makes it doubly sinful.

Down

1d   Audibly put a strain on // nails (5)

TACKS~ — sounds like (audibly) TAX (put a strain on)

2d   Listener’s covering // hip-hop performance (7)

RAPPING~ — sounds like (listener's; to the listener) WRAPPING (covering)

3d   Buoyant inside, act // happy (9)

DE(LIGHT)ED — LIGHT (buoyant) contained in (inside) DEED (act)

5d   Movie director // reporting to me, oddly (4,9)

{OTTO PREMINGER}* — anagram (oddly) of REPORTING TO ME

Otto Preminger^[5] (1906–1986) was an Austrian-born American film director, noted for films such as The Moon is Blue (1953), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), and Bonjour Tristesse (1958).

6d   Dance // essential to most Angolans (5)

_T|ANGO_ — hidden in (essential to) mosT ANGOlans

7d   Misplaced nice rag // from a Mediterranean land (7)

GRECIAN* — anagram (misplaced) of NICE RAG

8d   Stretches // legs at one, exercising (9)

ELONGATES* — anagram (exercising) of LEGS AT ONE

10d   Solving method // riled narrator terribly (5,3,5)

{TRIAL AND ERROR}* — anagram (terribly) of RILED NARRATOR

14d   Flatter around opening of crushed // flower (9)

BUTTER(C)UP — BUTTER UP (flatter) containing (around) C (opening [initial letter] of Crushed)

15d   Introducing // sign of anxiety about game official (9)

P(REF)ACING — PACING (sign of anxiety) containing (about) REF (game official)

17d   See rind unexpectedly // coated with sticky stuff (7)

RESINED* — anagram (unexpectedly) of SEE RIND

19d   Each spread /of/ food that can be digested (7)

EA|TABLE — EA (each; abbrev.) + TABLE (spread)

Table^[3] is used in the sense of the food and drink served at meals; in other words, fare  ⇒ kept an excellent table.

21d   Small and delicate // Spanish article, part of a fish (5)

EL|FIN — EL (Spanish [definite] article) + FIN (part of a fish)

23d   Used oars to travel // course in the sound (5)

ROWED~ — sounds like (in the sound) ROAD (course)

Epilogue

The title of today's review is quite obviously inspired by 4a and 9a.

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