Saturday, April 11, 2020 — Cottontail Quartet

Introduction

I found today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon to be a rather harey affair, although I believe I threw in the towel too early. I got terribly bogged down in the northeast corner with several intersecting clues stubbornly holding out. I should have set the puzzle aside and come back to it later. I find this an effective strategy; it seems that the subconscious mind continues to cogitate even though one is not actively thinking about the puzzle. However, I fired up my wordfinder program and it produced lists of possible answers from which it then became easy to select the appropriate ones.

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

Symbols and Markup Conventions
"*" - anagram "~" - sounds like "<" - indicates the preceding letters are reversed "( )" - encloses contained letters "_" - replaces letters that have been deleted  "†" - indicates that the word is present in the clue	"//" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present "/[link word or phrase]/" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present "solid underline" - precise definition "dotted underline" - cryptic definition "dashed underline" - wordplay "double underline" - both wordplay and definition
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of the symbols and markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	Teacher makes a hole /in/ antenna (6,4)

RABBI|T EARS —RABBI ([Jewish] teacher) + TEARS (makes a hole in)

6a	Smart // Marx brother cut short (4)

CHIC_ — CHIC[O] (Marx brother) with the final letter removed (cut short)

The Marx Brothers^[5] were a family of American comedians, consisting of the brothers Chico (Leonard, 1887–1961), Harpo (Adolph Arthur, 1888–1964), Groucho (Julius Henry, 1890–1977), and Zeppo (Herbert, 1901–1979). Their films, which are characterized by their anarchic humour, include Duck Soup (1933) and A Night at the Opera (1935).

Spill engulfing California // mollusc (7)

S(CAL)LOP — SLOP (spill) containing (engulfing) CAL(ifornia)

10a	A penitentiary, you might say, // revolted (7)

UPRISEN~ — sounds like (you might say) {A PRISON} (a penitentiary)

12a	Fellow consumed by eastern // Everglades animal (7)

MAN|ATE|E — MAN (fellow) + ATE (consumed) + (by) E(astern)

13a	Satisfy // goon, holding ammo for some shooters (7)

AP(PEAS)E — APE (goon) containing (holding) PEAS (ammo for some shooters)

14a	Nun is busted pitching // some dirt (4,7)

{DUST BUNNIES}* — anagram of (pitching) NUN IS BUSTED

17a	Foolish // bit of laughter about bonk on the head came down (4-7)

HA|RE|B|RAINED — HA (bit of laughter) + RE (about) + B (bonk on the head; initial letter of Bonk) + RAINED (came down)

22a	Refraining from entering opera house with one // composer (7)

ME(NOT)T|I — NOT (refraining from) contained in (entering) MET (opera house) + (with) I ([Roman numeral for] one)

The Met^[5] refers to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

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 Gian Menotti^[5] (1911–2007) was a US composer; born in Italy. He wrote the operas The Old Maid and the Thief (1939), The Consul (1950), and Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951).

23a	Perform in player’s piece, // with feeling (7)

T(ACT)ILE — ACT (perform) contained in (in) TILE (player's piece [in Scrabble or Mah-jongg, for example])

25a	Southern European peninsula /is/ a cold, harsh place (7)

S|IBERIA — S(outhern) + IBERIA (European peninsula)

26a	Barrels // injured Lester (7)

HURT|LES — HURT (injured) + LES ([diminutive for Lester] Lester)

27a	Fall off // building where tools are kept (4)

SHED — double definition

Despite my initial misgivings, I did eventually discover that shed can indeed mean 'fall off'. Most of the dictionaries that I consulted listed only the transitive sense of the verb 'to shed' (transitive meaning that the verb takes an object); for example, Trees shed their leaves in autumn. Those that did show an intransitive sense of the verb merely dropped the object; for example, Trees shed in autumn (in which one could still infer an implied object 'leaves'). Only three dictionaries* showed the true intransitive sense of the verb employed by the setters today, namely 'fall off'; for example, Leaves shed in autumn.

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^* The Chambers Dictionary (British)^[1], Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary (US)^[11], Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Webster’s New World College Dictionary, (US)^[12]

28a	Whirlybird carrying assorted old // footwear (10)

C(LOD*)HOPPER — CHOPPER (whirlybird) containing (carrying) anagram of (assorted) OLD

Down

1d	Pick up // curriculum vitae (6)

RESUME — double defintion, the second which I would spell RESUMÉ

2d	Disturbed, warn by // displaying muscles (6)

BRAWNY* — anagram of (disturbed) WARN BY

3d	Key // is allowed (5)

IS|LET — IS (†) + LET (allowed)

4d	Temptress has no time at all /for/ sovereign (7)

_EMP_RESS — [T]EMP[T]RESS with both instances of the letter 'T' removed (with no T(ime) at all)

5d	Terminal in Vancouver regional airport mishandled bar // brawl (7)

R|HUB|ARB* — R (terminal [final letter] in VancouveR) + HUB (regional airport) + anagram of (mishandled) BAR

7d	The guy’s irrational fear // of Latin America? (8)

HIS|PANIC — HIS (the guy's) + PANIC (irrational fear)

8d	Flip // talk (8)

CONVERSE — double definition

11d	Long trapped by stop signal, // fretted (7)

RE(PINE)D — PINE (long) contained in (trapped by) RED (stop signal)

Repine^[5] is a literary term meaning to feel or express discontent; in other words, to fret ⇒ you mustn't let yourself repine.

14d	One who argues // does, perhaps, while gripping club (7)

DE(BAT)ER — DEER (does, perhaps; female deer being one of two possibilities) containing (while gripping) BAT (club)

15d	Imposter employs // detectives (8)

SHAM|USES — SHAM (imposter) + USES (employs)

Shamus^[10,12] is US slang for a policeman or private detective.

16d	In selecting Reno, blessed // site for the Olympics (8)

_G|RENO|BLE_ — hidden in (in) selectinG RENO BLEssed

The 1968 Winter Olympics^[7], officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games, were held in Grenoble, France.

18d	David’s wife /is/ a huge pain (7)

A|BIG|AIL — A (†) +BIG (huge) + AIL (pain)

In the Old Testament, Abigail^[10] is the woman who brought provisions to David and his followers and subsequently became his wife (I Samuel 25:1–42). [Actually the story is a fair bit more complicated than that; and one that I don't remember covering in Sunday School.]

19d	Famous lies about church // tallied (7)

NOT(CH)ED — NOTED (famous) containing (lies about) CH (church; abbrev.)

Here and There

Tally in the sense used here would seem to not exist in British English as a verb. British dictionaries indicate that tally[2,4,5,10,14] means to count or record a number or score (to tally votes, for instance) whereas US dictionaries give tally[3,11,12] the additional meaning of to score a point or points in a game In the third period, Smith  tallied his third goal of the game, Thus, in the US, Smith tallies a goal by scoring it whilst, in both the US and the UK, the official scorer tallies the goal by recording it. As a noun, tally[2,3,4,5,10,11,12,14] can mean an accummulated score in both British and American English Smith's goal in the third period brought his tally for the game to three. The same difference does not seem to exist when it come to the word 'notch' which appears to denote 'score (a goal)' on both sides of the pond. By the way, historically, tally meant to record by means of notches on a tally stick[12], a stick with cross notches representing the amount of a debt owing or paid: usually the stick was split lengthwise, half for the debtor and half for the creditor. Could the origin of the word 'score' (in the sense of scoring a goal) be that it was historically recorded by scoring or notching a stick?

20d	Incentive // Elizabeth’s husband articulated (6)

FILLIP~ — sounds like (articulated) PHILIP (Elizabeth's husband; Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh^[5], husband of Queen Elizabeth II)

21d	Number in score arranged /for/ screen (6)

{CE(N)SOR}* — N (number; mathematical symbol for an indefinite number) contained in (in) anagram of (arranged) SCORE

24d	Load // vehicle and leave (5)

CAR|GO — CAR (vehicle) + GO (leave)

Epilogue

At 28a, I had visions of our furry friends sporting said footwear and being totally unable to move, let alone hop.

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