Saturday, March 28 — Equine Celebration

Introduction

From today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon, one may extract suggestions to slow down, disregard the weeping, and celebrate with some bubbly. Good advice in these times, perhaps.

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

Click here for an explanation of symbols and markup conventions used in explaining the parsing of clues.

Across

1a	Dew on a VW mistaken /for/ hail (4,4)

{WAVE DOWN}* — anagram of (mistaken) DEW ON A VW

5a	A northern spruce /in/ Irish county (6)

A|N|TRIM — A (†) + N(orthern) + TRIM (spruce; neat and tidy)

Antrim^[5] is one of the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, since 1973 an administrative district; chief town, Antrim.

9a	Overheard noble in the centre of // monumental structure (7)

PYR~|AMID — sounds like (overheard) PEER (noble) + AMID (in the centre of)

10a	Dad and tennis great // confer (7)

PA|LAVER — PA (dad) + LAVER (tennis great [Rod Laver])

Rod Laver^[5] is an Australian former professional tennis player. In 1962 he became the second man (after Don Budge in 1938) to win the four major singles championships (British, American, French, and Australian) in one year; in 1969 he was the first to repeat this.

11a	Number-running // joint, in part (5)

TEN|ON — TEN (number) + ON (running; operating, in use)

A tenon^[5] is a projecting piece of wood made for insertion into a matching mortise in another piece of wood to form a joint.

12a	Shocked expression // completely capturing an error (4,5)

WHO(A N|E)LLY — wholly (completely) containing (capturing) {AN (†) + E (error; abbrev. used in baseball)}

Delving Deeper

According to the Farlex Dictionary of Idioms, the expression Whoa, Nelly! (or Whoa, Nellie!) is an exclamation of surprise or astonishment, especially when something is more intense than one expected. The phrase, generally thought to have originated as a command to slow down a horse (wherein "Nelly" is the horse's name), can also be used as an expression said to any person, thing, or animal (especially a horse) that one is trying to get under control or coax into slowing down.

13a	Skilled worker // trains a bum (7)

ARTISAN* — anagram of (bum) TRAINS A

15a	Be concerned about daughter/’s/ inner circle (5)

CA(D)RE — CARE (be concerned) containing (about) D(aughter)

17a	Starchy // outfit I had (5)

RIG|ID — RIG (outfit) + ID ([contraction of] I had; I'd)

19a	Twelve // swine going around ninety (7)

BO(XC)ARS — BOARS (swine) containing (going around) XC ([Roman numeral for] ninety)

Boxcars^[3] is a throw of two dice that turns up six spots on each.

22a	Disregard // pests caught by Ned (5,4)

NE(VER MIN)D — VERMIN (pests) contained in (caught by) NED (†)

25a	Post office holding Fleming/’s/ set of keys? (5)

P(IAN)O — PO (Post Office; abbrev. used in mailing addresses) containing (holding) IAN (Fleming; English novelist Ian Fleming^[5] (1908–1964), known for his spy novels whose hero is the secret agent James Bond)

26a	Beans go bad /in/ food container (7)

{NOSEBAG}* — anagram of (bad) BEANS GO

27a	Having a closed mind, // I got in bed (7)

B(I|GOT)ED — {I (†) + GOT (†)} contained in (in) BED (†)

28a	Diarist taken in by humorist // in decline (6)

WA(NIN)G — NIN (diarist; American writer Anaïs Nin) contained in (taken in by) WAG (humorist)

Anaïs Nin^[5,7] (1903–1977) was a Cuban-American writer, born in France. She published her first novel House of Incest in 1936 and went on to produce collections of short stories, essays, diaries, and erotica. Her steamy personal diaries were published in multiple volumes and several editions — both before and after her death.

29a	Fine spa destroyed after 50 // years of existence (8)

L|IFESPAN* — anagram of (destroyed) FINE SPA following (after) L ([Roman numeral for] 50)

Down

1d	A stone from a fruit eaten by Wisconsin // deer (6)

W(A|PIT)I — {A (†) + PIT (stone from a fruit) } contained in (eaten by) WI ([postal abbrev. for] Wisconsin)

Wapiti^[3,4,10] is another name for elk (Cervus canadensis), a large North American deer.

2d	Covered porch // disguised a red van (7)

VERANDA* — anagram of (disguised) A RED VAN

3d	Granted, around the first of May, I // was in the driver’s seat (9)

DO(M|I)NATED — DONATED (granted) containing (around) {M (the first [letter] of May) + I (†)}

4d	Wife exchanged vow with // sports fanatic’s wife? (5)

W(I|DO)W — W(ife) + {I DO} (exchanged vow) + W(ith)

6d	Fabric // only reordered by name (5)

NYLO*|N — anagram of (reordered) ONLY + (by) N(ame)

7d	Blasted // present returned (7)

REVILED< — reversal of (returned) DELIVER (present [a speech, perhaps])

8d	Pretentious in “Mister Ed,” /and/ made to suffer (8)

M(ARTY)R|ED — ARTY (pretentious) contained in (in) {MR (Mister; abbrev.) + ED (†)}

Scratching the Surface
Mister Ed[7] is an American television situation comedy that aired from 1961 to 1966. The show's title character is a talking horse which originally appeared in short stories by American writer Walter R. Brooks (1886–1958).

10d	Charge Knicks for the audience // where the Suns play (7)

{PHOE|NIX}~ — sounds like (for the audience) {FEE (charge) + Knicks (†)}

14d	Wild gibbons // crying (7)

SOBBING* — anagram of (wild) GIBBONS

15d	Bubbly // winner a long time gaining first in Nationals (9)

CHAMP|AG(N)E —CHAMP (winner) + AGE (a long time) containing (gaining) N (first [letter] in Nationals)

16d	Mint // and a bit of nutmeg in beer (5,3)

BR(AND| N)EW — {AND (†) + N (a bit [initial letter] of Nutmeg) contained in (in) BREW (beer)

In my opinion, the clue would have been more appropriately worded as:

• Mint /and/ bit of nutmeg in beer (5,3)

 The wording provided in the clue seems to call for the insertion of a superfluous 'A' in the solution.

18d	Composer, surrounded by booze, // yields (5,2)

G(IVES) IN — IVES (composer) contained in (surrounded by) GIN (booze)

Charles Ives^[5] (1874–1954) was an American composer, noted for his use of polyrhythms, polytonality, quarter-tones, and aleatoric techniques. Notable works: The Unanswered Question (chamber work, 1906) and Three Places in New England (for orchestra, 1903–14).

20d	Turn on // what’s happening, eating pastry (5,2)

S(TART) UP — SUP ([contraction of] what's happening; 'sup) containing (eating) TART (pastry)

Sup^[5] (also 'sup) is an informal US expression, a contraction of what's up, used as a friendly greeting ⇒ sup, guys.

21d	Unemotional // court TV room (6)

WOO|DEN — WOO (court) + DEN (TV room)

23d	Mostly dressing // bird (5)

ROBIN_ — ROBIN[G] (dressing) with its final letter removed (mostly)

24d	Name one independent // Arab emirate (5)

DUB|A|I — DUB (name) + A (one) + I(ndendent; a politican not a member of an officially recognized party)

Epilogue

I detected the hint of a horsey theme in today's puzzle with 8a (Mister Ed), 12a (WHOA NELLY), 26a NOSEBAG), and (admittedly with a fairly substantial stretch) 24d (Arab). To toast our equine friends, we have the choice of either CHAMPAGNE (15d), beer (16d), or gin (18d).

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 Advanced 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)
^[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon