Saturday, November 12, 2016 — Messy Underwear

Introduction

I progressed through today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon at a fairly rapid pace until I had but a trio of intertwined clues remaining — 21a, 30a and 14d. I swear that these three took as long to solve as the remainder of the puzzle combined.

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   Flower // came up (4)

ROSE — double definition

3a   Nut debates silly // young socialites (10)

DEBUTANTES* — anagram (silly) of NUT DEBATES

9a   Englander reformed // Danish province (9)

GREENLAND* — anagram (reformed; formed again or in a different manner) of ENGLANDER

Greenland^[7] is an autonomous country within the Danish Realm, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Thus the word "province" may not be the most precise description of its status.

Delving Deeper

The residents of Greenland are majority Inuit, whose ancestors migrated from the Canadian arctic beginning in the 13th century, gradually settling across the island. However, Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada. Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, although Greenland was not formally brought under the Norwegian crown until 1262. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century. Soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador (later applied to Labrador in Canada). In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again. To strengthen trading and power, the united kingdoms of Denmark and Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Norway lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union between Norway and Denmark was dissolved. Greenland is the world's largest island (it is smaller than Australia, which is considered a continent). Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480 (2013), it is the least densely populated country in the world. Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands.

11a   Part of a plant holding small // perch (5)

ROO(S)T — ROOT (part of a plant) containing (holding) S (small; abbrev.)

12a   Plan for // mother and brood (3,3)

MA|P OUT — MA (mother) + (and) POUT (brood)

13a   Works out // track runners? (6)

TRAINS — double definition (the second being cryptic as flagged by the question mark)

16a   Torch /and/ whip involved in attempt to escape (10)

F(LASH)LIGHT — LASH (whip) contained in (involved in) FLIGHT (attempt to escape)

Torch^[3,4,11] is the British name for a flashlight.

18a   Take care of // plot’s final conclusion (4)

T|END — T (ploT's final [letter]) + END (conclusion)

20a   Creep/’s/ chin busted (4)

INCH* — anagram (busted) of CHIN

21a   Brightly-hued // table put back into service (10)

CHART|REUSE — CHART (table) + REUSE (put back into service)

23a   100 in a love // nook (6)

A|L(C)OVE — C (100) contained in {A (†) + LOVE (†)}

24a   Chat about the French // mountain house (6)

CHA(LE)T — CHAT (†) containing (about) LE (the French; French word meaning 'the')

28a   Arena area containing great // big cat (5)

TI(G)ER — TIER (arena area) containing (†) G (great)

As I recall, this is not the first time that Cox and Rathvon have clued G as an abbreviation for "great". However, having searched my dictionaries, I can find no justification for this practice. The only instance that I can think of where one might find this occurring is in the abbreviation GB for Great Britain. However, it is my understanding that one should not employ such "partial abbreviations" which occur only as part of a longer abbreviation. Of course, a setter could construct wordplay that clues G as "Great Britain without the B", for instance "Great Britain having lost bishop". Should anyone be able to offer a compelling justification for the use of this abbreviation, I would certainly love to hear it.

29a   Cuts // fancy fabric prices (9)

LACE|RATES — LACE (fancy fabric) + RATES (prices)

30a   Moonshine // giving less traction before race (10)

BALDER|DASH — BALDER (giving less traction; said, for instance, of automobile tires) + DASH (race)

Moonshine^[3] is used in the informal sense of foolish talk or thought; nonsense.

31a   Fired // a Times editor (4)

A|X|ED — A (†) + X (times; multiplication sign) + ED (editor; abbrev.)

Scratching the Surface
Had this been a British puzzle, I would have said that the surface reading is alluding to The Times[7], a British daily national newspaper based in London. Given that Cox and Rathvon are Americans, the reference may be to  The New York Times[7] .

Down

1d   Urchin // cleaning item with a hand warmer inside (10)

RAG|A|MUFF|IN — RAG (cleaning item) + (with) A (†) + MUFF (hand warmer) + IN (inside)

2d   /Getting/ back treatments at a spa, // doze (5)

SLEEP< — reversal (back) of PEELS (treatments at a spa)

A chemical peel^[7] is a technique used to improve and smooth the texture of the skin, especially on the face. Chemical peels are intended to remove the outermost layers of the skin. To accomplish this task, the chosen peel solution induces a controlled injury to the skin. Resulting wound healing processes begin to regenerate new tissues. The dead skin eventually peels off. The regenerated skin is usually smoother and less wrinkled than the old skin.

Structure of the Clue

Although the word "getting" appears at the beginning of the clue, it is actually a link word. Its unusual positioning is caused by the inverted sentence structure used by the setters in this clue. If one were to rewrite the clue with a non-inverted structure, it would read: Doze /getting/ back treatments at a spa (5) which has a rather unsatisfactory surface reading but which clearly illustrates the point that the word "getting" is effectively a link word.

4d   Cheese // manufactured the wrong way (4)

EDAM< — reversal (the wrong way) of MADE (manufactured)

5d   Third nurse changed // top garment (10)

UNDERSHIRT* — anagram (changed) of THIRD NURSE

This is referred to as a "top garment" because it is worn on the top part of the body — and obviously not because it is worn on top of other garments.

6d   Air Force attack // worried (6)

AF|RAID — AF (Air Force) + RAID (attack)

I wondered if this might be another instance of a "partial abbreviation" (see discussion at 28a). However, I discover that the abbreviation AF^{[3,4,6,10,11]} for Air Force (or air force) is found in most of my dictionaries. In fact, Collins English Dictionary specifically identifies this a Canadian usage. Furthermore, the term appears only in the US English version of Oxford Dictionaries and not in the British English edition.

7d   Sounding factual, stitch together // wedding outfit (9)

{TROU|S|SEAU}~ — sounds like (sounding) {TRUE (factual) + SEW (stitch together)}

Note: from a homophone perspective, the first "S" in the solution is silent (which the non-bold italic typeface is intended to portray)

8d   Locate // tourist attraction for the audience (4)

SITE~ — sounds like (for the audience) SIGHT (tourist attraction)

10d   Poor Hun got // nothing (6)

NOUGHT — anagram (poor) of HUN GOT

14d   Sloppy // dish the First Lady started (10)

DISH|EVE|LED — DISH (†) + EVE (the First Lady; in the Bible) + LED (started; for instance, played the first card to trick in a card game)

15d   Bum steer David // plugged (10)

ADVERTISED* — anagram (bum) of STEER DAVID

17d   Heavenly being, // going through regular change, laughed (9)

_AR|CHANGE|L_ — hidden in (going through) regulAR CHANGE Laughed

19d   King // arranged going outside Thursday (6)

AR(THU)R — ARR (arranged; abbrev.) containing (going outside) THU (Thursday; abbrev.)

Arthur^[5] was a legendary king of Britain, historically perhaps a 5th- or 6th-century Romano-British chieftain or general. Stories of his life, the exploits of his knights, and the Round Table of his court at Camelot were developed by Malory, Chrétien de Troyes, and other medieval writers and became the subject of many legends.

22d   Gather // a ship’s hands in the sound (6)

{A|C|CRUE}~ — sounds like (in the sound) {A (†) + CREW (ship's hands)}

After some deliberation, I have concluded that the A from the clue is part of the homophone rather than a separate element.

Note: from a homophone perspective, the first "C" in the solution is silent (which the non-bold italic typeface is intended to portray)

25d   Paint // at a time well after dark, ten (5)

LATE|X — LATE (at a time well after dark) + X ([Roman numeral for] ten)

26d   Guess // cave dwellers returned (4)

STAB< — reversal (returned) of BATS (cave dwellers)

27d   Nails // new case (4)

ACES* — anagram (new) of CASE

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 14d and 5d.

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