Saturday, September 23, 2017 — Dispensing Solutions

Introduction

In today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon, we drop into our local drug store. Given that the forecast for the next few days (at least, here in Ottawa) is for sunny skies with the mercury surpassing 30° C, the purpose of the visit is more likely to be to get a sunburn remedy than to pick up something to treat a cold.

I found this puzzle to be considerably more gentle than last week's stiff workout, although the bottom half seemed to put up a bit more resistance than the top half.

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 semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues. All-in-one (&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions are marked with a dotted underline. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Said, “Old MacDonald’s place is of use to // druggists” (11)

{PHARM|ACISTS}~ — sounds like (said) {FARM (Old MacDonald's place) + ASSISTS (is of use to)}

7a   Edge // held by chemists (3)

_HEM_ — hidden in (held by) cHEMists

At first, I dismissed the possibility that this clue could be part of the theme^*. However, when I discovered that the corresponding clue in the lower half of the puzzle is part of the theme, I concluded that this clue may well be included in the theme clues.

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^* Note that the theme clues occur in symmetrically arranged pairs (1a, 27a), (7a, 26a), and 11a, 20a).

In Britain, the term chemist^[5] can mean

• a shop where medicinal drugs are dispensed and sold, and in which toiletries and other medical goods can be purchased ⇒ antihistamine tablets are freely available in chemists; or
• a person authorized to dispense medicinal drugs.

9a   Greek city/’s/ rich, not poor (7)

CORINTH* — anagram (poor) of RICH NOT

10a   Indifferent // time in northeast Russian range (7)

NE|U(T)RAL — T (time; abbrev.) contained in (in) {NE (northeast) + URAL (Russian range)}

To be precise, I would think that the Russian range is the Urals or the Ural Mountains, not the Ural. After all, one would never say that the Rocky is a Canadian range.

11a   Copiers print out // doctor’s order (12)

PRESCRIPTION* — anagram (out) of COPIERS PRINT

14a   Prize // commercial about fighting (5)

A(WAR)D — AD (commercial) containing (about) WAR (fighting)

15a   Direct // Time media astray (9)

IMMEDIATE* — anagram (astray) of TIME MEDIA

Scratching the Surface
Time is a US newsmagazine.

17a   Eastern saint called Edward // “distant” (9)

E|ST|RANG|ED — E (Eastern; abbrev.) + ST (saint; abbrev.) + RANG (called) + ED (Edward; nickname)

19a   The place that // the woman held in my group (5)

W(HER)E — HER (the woman) contained in (held in) WE (my group)

20a   Druggists // answer the guy with tooth decay about marijuana (12)

A(POT)HE|CARIES — {A (answer; abbrev.) + HE (the guy) + (with) CARIES (tooth decay)} containing (about) POT (marijuana)

24a   Tavern coated with the right // paint product (7)

TH(INN)E|R — INN (tavern) contained in (coated with) THE (†) + R (right; abbrev.)

25a   Parrot // one partner, catching it (7)

I|M(IT)ATE — I ([Roman numeral for] one) + MATE (partner) containing (catching) IT (†)

26a   Toupee // used by druggists (3)

_RUG_ — hidden in (used by) dRUGgists

It is interesting to note that not only do both 7a and this clue play into the theme of the puzzle, but both are hidden word clues.

27a   Recall // guy at a cash register with druggist, initially (11)

COUNTERMAN|D — COUNTERMAN (guy at a cash register) + (with) D (druggist, initially; initial letter of Druggist)

Down

1d   Choose // miner’s tool (4)

PICK — double definition

2d   Oddly Aquarian // vibe (4)

AURA — the odd-numbered letters from AqUaRiAn

3d   Care about raw resource // concentrated to a lesser degree (7)

MIN(ORE)D — MIND (care) containing (about) ORE (raw resource)

4d   Sharing the presentation of // “Salmon Swindle” (9)

COHO|STING — COHO (salmon) + STING (swindle)

5d   Fly high, carrying nitrogen // detection device (5)

SO(N)AR — SOAR (fly high) containing (carrying) N ([symbol for the chemical element] nitrogen)

6d   Strike-caller sitting in snowmobile // had lousy posture (7)

SL(UMP)ED — UMP (strike-caller) contained in (sitting in) SLED (snowmobile)

7d   Rushes, containing fire // storms (10)

HURRI(CAN)ES — HURRIES (rushes) containing (†) CAN (fire)

8d   Hung around after Mom // pretended to be sick (10)

MA|LINGERED — LINGERED (hung around) following (after) MA (Mom)

12d   Evildoer/’s/ masculine element (10)

MALE|FACTOR — MALE (masculine) + FACTOR (element)

13d   Funny drawing // on cigar not exploding (10)

CARTOONING* — anagram (exploding) of ON CIGAR NOT

I think cartooning is being used as a noun as in cartooning is the professional of drawing funny pictures (or, phrased rather inelegantly, "funny drawing").

16d   Breaking from tradition, // stormed in wildly (9)

MODERNIST* — anagram (wildly) of STORMED IN

Modernist is being used as an adjective, not a noun.

18d   One playing Chopin // not vocalizing (7)

A|PHONIC* — A (one) + anagram (playing) of CHOPIN

19d   Sadder // little dock (7)

WEE|PIER — WEE (little) + PIER (dock)

21d   Greek island // planted in lilac or fuchsia (5)

_C|OR|FU_ — hidden in (planted in) lilaC OR FUchsia

22d   Month with a // Yucatan native (4)

MAY|A — MAY (month) + (with) + A (†)

23d   Heavy metal // solo (4)

LEAD — double definition

Epilogue

One did not have to look far for a theme in this puzzle. However, it occurred to me that I am somewhat like a pharmacist — we are both in the business of dispensing solutions.

I did note that the drug stores at 20a carry POT, something that apparently is not going to be the case in Ontario.

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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon