Saturday, August 15, 2020 — Theatrically Untracked

Introduction

This week's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon presents a real mixed bag of clues with no theme that I can discern.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Best Laid Plans

The puzzle was posted late this week as I was camping at the lake where I have no Internet service. I did make an ultimately unsuccessful effort to post the puzzle on Saturday, but in the immortal words of Robbie Burns ''The best-laid plans of mice and men / Go oft awry". I drove to the nearest town with public Wi-Fi service where I thought I would be able to accomplish the task. However, despite a successful dress rehearsal on Thursday on my way up to the lake, the production fell apart on Saturday. To be able to get any signal whatsoever, I had to park in full sunlight where it was not only blazing hot but the glare prevented me from clearly seeing the screen of my laptop.The Wi-Fi connection and Internet access both proved to be intermittent. To top things off, my computer began misbehaving in ways it has never done before. The bottom line is that I tried for over an hour to post the puzzle before throwing in the towel with my battery on the verge of dying.

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	Lunatic fringe—a cult // moving away from the middle (11)

CENTRIFUGAL* — anagram of (lunatic) FRINGE A CULT

7a	Jailbird keeps pounding // a bit of bread (7)

C(ROUT)ON — CON (jailbird) containing (keeps) ROUT (pounding)

8a	Chef is upset about one // angle in winter (3,4)

{ICE F(I)SH}* — anagram of (upset) CHEF IS containing (about) I ([Roman numeral] one)

10a	Some athletic competitions // self-evident in review (5,6)

{FIELD EVENTS}* — anagram of (in review) SELF EVIDENT

12a	Company that delivers // good times (3)

UPS — double definition, the first being the brand name of United Parcel Service^[7], an American multinational package delivery and supply chain management company.

13a	One who ruled // by dividing Rome the wrong way (7)

{EM(PER)OR}< — PER (by) contained in (dividing) a reversal of (the wrong way) ROME (†)

14a	Wise // Santa mostly eating pie (7)

SA(PIE)NT_ — SANT[A] with the final letter removed (mostly) containing (eating) PIE (†)

15a	Champion // roster of songbirds? (7)

TIT|LIST — a LIST (roster) of TITS (songbirds) would be a TIT LIST

The tits, chickadees, and titmice^[7] constitute the Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur in the northern hemisphere and Africa. These birds are called either "chickadees" or "titmice" in North America, and just "tits" in the rest of the English-speaking world.

18a	Refuse to relinquish // $1000 claimed by Eastwood with love (5,2)

CLIN(G) T|O — G ($1000) contained in (claimed by) CLINT (Eastwood; American actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood^[7]) + (with) O (love; nil score in tennis)

20a	Smell a // snake (3)

BO|A — BO (smell; body odour) + A (†)

21a	“Blemish” is a book by Italy’s foremost // actress (6,5)

MAR|IS|A| TOME|I — MAR (blemish) + IS (†) + A (†) + TOME (book) + I (Italy's foremost [initial letter])

Marisa Tomei^[7] is an American actress who came to international attention in 1992 with the comedy My Cousin Vinny, for which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

22a	European land // tumbling into sea (7)

ESTONIA* — anagram of (tumbling) INTO SEA

23a	Feeling crazy about // a party band (7)

A|DO|RING — A (†) + DO (party) + RING (band)

25a	Others address // period when Charles II reigned (11)

REST|ORATION — REST (others) + ORATION (address)

The Restoration^[7] is the name given to the period following the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland which took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in Europe.

Down

1d	Photograph // miss, framed by trophy (7)

C(LOSE) UP — LOSE (miss) contained in (framed by) CUP (trophy)

2d	Returned the number of yards needed for a first down // gain (3)

NET< — reversal of (returned) TEN (the number of yards needed for a first down [in football])

3d	Article penned by nomad // took too long? (3,4)

R(AN) OVER — AN ([indefinite] article) contained in (penned by) ROVER (nomad)

4d	Pals // when weekends start? (7)

FRI|ENDS — weekends start at FRI (Friday) ENDS

5d	Pageantries altered // what actors wear (11)

GREASEPAINT* — anagram of (altered) PAGEANTRIES

6d	Flowery neckwear with certain // ease (7)

LEI|SURE — LEI (flowery neckwear) + (with) SURE (certain)

7d	Furniture // wire wrapping pedal? (6,5)

C(OF|FEE T)ABLE — CABLE (wire) containing (wrapping) OF FEET (pedal; of or pertaining to the feet)

9d	Some trash—a sitcom in Gatineau—// deserves a bad fate (3,2,6)

_H|A|S IT COM|IN|G_ — hidden in (some) trasH A SITCOM IN Gatineau

Scratching the Surface
Gatineau[7] is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Canada's capital, Ottawa, Ontario. Together, the two cities form Canada's National Capital Region.

11d	The German complaints: // train wrecks (11)

DER|AILMENTS — DER (the German; German word meaning 'the') + AILMENTS (complaints)

16d	Kitchen appliance // rotates erratically (7)

TOASTER* — anagram of (erratically) ROTATES

17d	Rent trouble—// a natural disaster (7)

TORN|ADO — TORN (rent) + ADO (trouble)

18d	Mama with a Virginia // starch source (7)

CASS|A|VA — CASS (Mama; Mama Cass Elliot^[7] of the 1960s folk rock group The Mamas and the Papas) + A (†) + VA (Virginia)

19d	African // stranger, a big man (7)

GAMBIAN* — anagram of (stranger) A BIG MAN

24d	“Yes,” // we said (3)

OUI~ — sounds like (said) WE

Oui^[8] (pronounced 'WE') is the French word for 'yes'.

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 5d and 11d.

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Key to Reference Sources: 

  ^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition

  ^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)

  ^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)

  ^[4]   - TheFreeDictionarycom (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)

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Signing off for today — Falcon