Saturday, June 6, 2020 — Season to Taste

Introduction

I found today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon to be considerably more difficult than usual. Having wondered whether I was having an especially dim day or just not on the right wavelength, it was a relief to see that my experience was pretty well universal, judging by the comments below.

There does seem to be a lot of fidgety wordplay — initial letter of this, final letter of that. In the end, I resorted to a bit of electronic help on the sole remaining clue, having found myself stranded in the state on the west coast instead of the city with the big yellow letters on the approach to the White House. At least, I got over my infatuation with Tina Turner before having to seek counselling.

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	Pierce developed // formula (6)

RECIPE* — anagram of (developed) PIERCE

4a	Yank entering troubled polar // country (8)

{POR(TUG)AL}* — TUG (yank) contained in (entering) anagram of (troubled) POLAR

9a	Effect of burning // anger in hasty retreat (9)

F(IRE)LIGHT — IRE (anger) contained in (in) FLIGHT (hasty retreat)

11a	End of Sondheim song // title from West Side Story (5)

M|ARIA — M (end [last letter] of SondheiM) + ARIA (song)
 "Maria"^[7] is a song from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim. The song is sung by the male lead Tony when he learns the name of the girl he's fallen in love with is "Maria". The name "Maria" is spoken or sung in the song 27 times.

12a	Do the opposite of laugh last, breaking // glass (7)

CRY|STAL* — CRY (do the opposite of laugh) + anagram of (breaking) LAST

13a	Trash container // Hoffman placed around bee (7)

DUST(B)IN — DUSTIN (Hoffman; American actor Dustin Hoffman^[7]) containing (around) B (bee)

Dustbin^[10] is a British term for a garbage can or trash can.^*

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^* Dust^[10] is a British term for ashes or household refuse.

14a	Small table in a church holding mobile // half of a dining set (10)

S|ALT (CELL)AR — S(mall) + ALTAR (table in a church) containing (holding) CELL (mobile [phone])

 Mobile^[5] (short for mobile phone) is a British term for a cell phone^[5] (short for cellular phone) ⇒ we telephoned from our mobile to theirs.

17a	Cold boy // provided with clothing (4)

C|LAD — C(old) + LAD (boy)

19a	Giant, // green in colour (4)

HU(G)E — G(reen) contained in (in) HUE (colour)

20a	Back of the room taken up by upper // half of a dining set (6,4)

PEP|P(E|R M)ILL —  {E (back [final letter] of thE) + RM (room; abbrev.)} contained in (taken up by) {PEP PILL} (upper)

23a	South to be awarded $1000 // job for stevedores (7)

S|TO|WIN|G — S(outh) + TO (†) + WIN (be awarded) + G ($1000)

25a	Around Washington, collects // porters (7)

RE(DC)APS — REAPS (collects) containing (around) DC (Washington; District of Columbia)

27a	Netflix series set in Missouri, // Australia, and large boat (5)

OZ|ARK — OZ (Australia) + (and) ARK (large boat)

Ozark^[7] is an American crime drama web television series on Netflix. The series is set in the remote summer resort community of Osage Beach in the Lake of the Ozarks region of central Missouri.

28a	Annoying // items worn by a married cop? (9)

BADGE|RING — {BADGE + RING} (items worn by married cop)

29a	English economist adopting Old Testament // themes (8)

KEYN(OT)ES — KEYNES (English economist; John Maynard Keynes^[7]) containing (adopting) OT (Old Testament; abbrev.)

30a	Greek letter containing hint of tooth // mark (6)

S(T)IGMA — SIGMA (Greek letter) containing (†) T (hint [initial letter] of Tooth)

Down

1d	Gives new coats to // official wizards (7)

REF|ACES — REF (official) + ACES (wizards)

2d	Groom // spiced dish (5)

CURRY — double definition

3d	Active participant in a party // game having one idiosyncrasy (8)

POL(I||TIC)O — POLO (game) containing (having) {I ([Roman numeral for] one) + TIC (idiosyncrasy)}

5d	Chose // wrong depot (5)

OPTED* — anagram of (wrong) DEPOT

6d	Most subdued // radio band in experiment (6)

T(AM)EST — AM (radio band) contained in (in) TEST (experiment)

7d	Soldier embracing a raunchy // Italian patriot (9)

G(A|RIBALD)I — GI ([US] soldier) containing (embracing) {A (†) + RIBALD (raunchy)}

Giuseppe Garibaldi^[5] (1807–1882) was an Italian patriot and military leader of the Risorgimento. With his volunteer force of ‘Red Shirts’ he captured Sicily and southern Italy from the Bourbons in 1860–1, thereby playing a key role in the establishment of a united kingdom of Italy.

8d	Piece of literature made // scholarly (7)

L|EARNED — L (piece [initial letter] of Literature) + EARNED (made)

10d	Biblical sea // storm engulfing French island (7)

GAL(ILE)E — GALE (storm) containing (engulfing) ILE (French [word for] island)

The Sea of Galilee^[10] (also known as Lake Tiberias) is a lake in northeastern Israel, 209 m (686 ft) below sea level, through which the River Jordan flows. The region around the lake, known as Galilee^[10], was the scene of Christ's early ministry.

15d	Soldier // misplaced year in log (9)

LEGIONARY* — anagram of (misplaced) YEAR IN LOG

A legionary^[5] was a soldier in a Roman legion.

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^* In the ancient Roman army, a legion^[5] was a division of 3,000–6,000 men, including a complement of cavalry.

16d	In broadcast, Spain // had a goal (7)

A(SP)IRED — SP (Spain; abbrev.) contained in (in) AIRED (broadcast)

18d	Bum treading // slope (8)

GRADIENT* — anagram of (bum) TREADING

19d	Ottoman // possesses belt (7)

HAS|SOCK — HAS (possesses) + SOCK (belt; punch, assault)

21d	Pasta dish // Turner stuffed with dip (7)

LA(SAG)NA — LANA (Turner; American actress Lana Turner^[7]) containing (stuffed with) SAG (dip)

22d	Bit of gooey black fluid split // tree (6)

G|INK|GO — G (bit [initial letter] of Gooey) + INK (black fluid) + GO (split)

24d	Risk losing bit of main // area under the roof (5)

GABLE — GA[M]BLE (risk) with M (bit [initial letter] of Main) removed (losing)

26d	Impressing // a hockey player (5)

A|WING — A (†) + WING (hockey player; left-winger, right-winger, or Detroit Red Wing)

Epilogue

Today's puzzle provides the recipe for an intimate dinner. In addition to the accoutrements from the theme, our dining table is set with crystal and we are served curry and lasagna by firelight while the soundtrack of West Side Story plays in the background.

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