Saturday, December 31, 2016 — Urchin Creating a Mess

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon fell quickly into place.

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

I wish all readers a happy and prosperous New Year replete with engaging 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   Look at // Gerard oddly (6)

REGARD* — anagram (oddly) of GERARD

4a   Alienate // sergeant badly (8)

ESTRANGE* — anagram (badly) of SERGEANT

9a   Said, “every seven days” // in a feeble manner (6)

WEAKLY~ — sounds like (said) WEEKLY (every seven days)

10a   Scheduling // sting around parking area (8)

S(LOT)TING — STING (†) containing (around) LOT (parking area)

11a   Undisguised present // in that place (4,5)

OVER T|HERE — OVERT (undisguised) + HERE (present)

13a   Somewhat horrible attempt // to sound like a sheep (5)

_BLE|AT_ — hidden in (somewhat) horriBLE ATtempt

14a   Confess about big dish // making a mess (11)

S(PLATTER)ING — SING (confess) containing (about) PLATTER (big dish)

18a   Street kid // put integers out of order (11)

GUTTERSNIPE* — anagram (out of order) of PUT INTEGERS

21a   Reportedly lousiest // sausage (5)

WURST~ — sounds like (reportedly) WORST (lousiest)

22a   Unfortunately, train isn’t // on the way (2,7)

{IN TRANSIT}* — anagram (unfortunately) of TRAIN ISNT

24a   Children’s game // concerning herder (3,5)

RE|D ROVER — RE (concerning) + DROVER (herder)

I spent a moment or two stalled at a RED LIGHT before realizing that the wrong children's game had popped to mind.

25a   Each // dessert eaten by fighter pilot (6)

A(PIE)CE — PIE (dessert) contained in (eaten by) ACE (fighter pilot)

26a   Unpaid worker, flushed, // reacted to a promised treat (8)

SLAVE|RED — SLAVE (unpaid worker) + RED (flushed)

27a   One wearing trousers // works with a brush and oils (6)

PA(I)NTS — I ([Roman numeral for] one) contained in (wearing) PANTS (trousers)

Note to British readers: In North America, the word "pants" would generally mean trousers rather than underwear.

Down

1d   Stir about who /is/ dwelling in town (3,5)

RO(W HO)USE — ROUSE (stir) containing (about) WHO (†)

2d   Left inside seriously // rasping (8)

GRAVE(L)LY or GRAVEL(L)Y — L (left; abbrev.) contained in (inside) GRAVELY (seriously)

3d   Again illuminated // inside of barrel itself (5)

_REL|IT_ — hidden in (inside of) barREL ITself

5d   Field events turned // obvious (4-)

SELF-EVIDENT* — anagram (turned) of FIELD EVENTS

6d   Groove with a snare, as // “Roots” (9)

RUT|A|BAG|AS — RUT (groove) + (with) A (†) + BAG (snare; literally, as a verb) + AS (†)

Scratching the Surface
Roots is an American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family; the series first aired on ABC-TV in January 1977.

7d   Dancing, Daniel // performed perfectly (6)

NAILED* — anagram (dancing) of DANIEL

8d   Momentous after the first // number (6)

_EIGHTY — [W]EIGHTY (momentous) with the initial letter deleted (after the first)

12d   Pick grain with the old-fashioned // detector (8,3)

ELECT|RIC E|YE — ELECT (pick) + RICE (grain) + (with) YE (the old-fashioned)

15d   Right poet, wrong // line (9)

TIGHTROPE* — anagram (wrong) of RIGHT POET

16d   Nineties excited // scientist (8)

EINSTEIN* — anagram (excited) of NINETIES

Albert Einstein^[5] (1879–1955) was a German-born American theoretical physicist, founder of the special and general theories of relativity.

17d   Dad’s carrying eagle’s tail // plumes (8)

F(E)ATHERS — {FATHER (dad) + S ('s)} containing (carrying) E (eagle's tail; final letter (tail) of eaglE)

19d   A prison division’s // prizes (6)

A|WARD|S — A (†) + WARD (prison division) + S ('s)

20d   Top-notch // vocalization of “Grey Day” (5,1)

{GRADE A}~ — sounds like (vocalization of) GREY DAY

Scratching the Surface
"Grey Day"[7] is likely just a convenient figment of the setters' imaginations, although it is the title of a pop song recorded by British pop/ska band Madness which reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart in 1981.

23d   The Greeks’ first //  mountain—that’s a laugh (5)

ALP|HA — ALP (mountain) + HA (that's a laugh; You really believe he'll repay you? Ha!)

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 14a and 18a.

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