Saturday, January 7, 2017 — Garden Fertilizer

Introduction

As several readers have already commented,  today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon definitely presents more of a challenge than we have been accustomed to recently.

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   Short // mutt with tail of russet (4)

CUR|T — CUR (mutt) + (with) T (tail [final letter] of russeT)

3a   Talk with Jerry Seinfeld’s friend, // “the Queen of her domain” (10)

CHAT|ELAINE — CHAT (talk) + (with) ELAINE (Jerry Seinfeld's friend)

Elaine Benes is a fictional character on the American sitcom Seinfeld^[7] that originally ran for nine seasons on NBC, from 1989 to 1998. She is the ex-girlfriend and later friend of the title character Jerry Seinfeld.

9a   Hit // lousy pitcher (4)

BUM|P — BUM (lousy) + P (pitcher; abbreviation used in baseball)

10a   Doctor wearing dress in an infirmary // robbery (10)

B(RIG)ANDAGE — RIG (doctor; tamper with or falsify) contained in (wearing) BANDAGE (dress in an infirmary)

12a   Peculiar lens distorted // astronomical event (5,7)

{LUNAR ECLIPSE)* — anagram (distorted) of PECULIAR LENS

15a   After the start, liking // charm (7)

_ENCHANT — [P]ENCHANT (liking) with the initial letter deleted (after the start)

16a   Real gun shot // tiny pellet (7)

GRANULE* — anagram (shot) of REAL GUN

17a   I go nuts about part of a sentence: // too weighty (7)

O(VERB)IG* — {anagram (nuts) of I GO (†)} containing (about) VERB (part of sentence)

19a   Criminal // printed in Cyrillic italics (7)

_ILLIC|IT_ — hidden in (printed in) CyrILLIC ITalics

20a   Lenin cabinet revolutionized // a certain anniversary (12)

BICENTENNIAL* — anagram (revolutionized) of LENIN CABINET

Scratching the Surface
Vladimir Ilich Lenin[5] (1870–1924) was the principal figure in the Russian Revolution and first premier of the Soviet Union 1918–24; born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov.

23a   New art’s models? (3,7)

{OLD MASTERS}* — anagram (new) of ARTS MODELS

This is an &lit.^[7] clue (or, as some like to call it, an all-in-one clue). The entire clue is both definition and wordplay — of course, under different respective interpretations.

As a definition, the clue suggests that artists may be influenced by the work of those who have gone before.

24a   Problem // not spoken aloud (4)

KNOT~ — sounds like (spoken aloud) NOT

25a   Race car for one // friend in Rome taking drive (10)

PAL|IN(D)ROME — {PAL (friend) + IN (†) + ROME (†)} containing (taking) D (drive; abbreviation found on a gearshift)

As the definition, "race car" is an example (for one) of a palindrome.

26a   Skirt // row of shrubs with no opening (4)

_EDGE — [H]EDGE (row of shrubs) with the initial letter deleted (with no opening)

Down

1d   Cowboys // hack everything with love (10)

CAB|ALL|EROS — CAB (hack) + ALL (everything) + EROS (love)

2d   Restraint in supporting retrospective // novel (5,1,4)

RO(MAN A CLE)F< — MANACLE (restraint) contained in a reversal (retrospective) of FOR (supporting)

4d   Bean // stuck in with a ricotta (7)

_H|A|RICOT_ — hidden in (stuck in) witH A RICOTta

5d   Labelling // good booze consumed by day in Germany (7)

TA(G|GIN)G — {G (good; abbreviation used by teachers to grade the work of students) + GIN (booze)} contained in (consumed by) TAG (day in Germany; German word for 'day')

6d   Excited, pulling in USA // scientist (5,7)

{LINUS PAULING}* — anagram (excited) of PULLING IN USA

Linus Pauling^[5] (1901–1994) was an American chemist. He is renowned for his study of molecular structure and chemical bonding, for which he received the 1954 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. His suggestion of a helical structure for proteins formed the foundation for the elucidation of the structure of DNA.

7d   Chief of Indians had control of // land (4)

I|RAN — I (chief [initial letter] of Indians) + RAN (had control of)

8d   Sheep // employ vocalizing (4)

EWES~ — sounds like (vocalizing) USE (employ)

11d   Stranger arbitrating about Eastern // country (5,7)

{GR(E)AT BRITAIN}* — anagram (stranger) of ARBITRATING containing (about) E (Eastern; abbrev.)

13d   Given provisions about oil, // worked (10)

F(UNCTION)ED — FED (given provisions) containing (about) UNCTION (oil)

14d   Small volume // I illuminated in middle part (10)

CENT(I|LIT)RE — {I (†) + LIT (illuminated)} contained in (in) CENTRE (middle part)

I expect the spelling here may well have been an issue for some American solvers.

18d   Host at the door // rearranged tree with German coat? (7)

G(REET*)ER — anagram (rearranged) of TREE contained in (with ... coat) GER (German)

19d   Meanwhile, // I confused net with basketball hoop (7)

I|NTE*|RIM — I (†) + an anagram (confused) of NET + (with) RIM (basketball hoop)

21d   Lowdown // deck on a ship (4)

POOP — double definition

22d   Celebrity /and/ I make love at first (4)

I|DO|L — I (†) + DO (make) + L (love at first; initial letter of Love)

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 8d and 21d.

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