Saturday, August 29, 2020 — Premature Delays

Introduction

The only delays one is likely to encounter with today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon are found in clue 28a.

Did someone at the National Post forget to press the Publish button today? As of 9:00 am Saturday, the ePaper was still not available online. However, when I checked a couple of hours or so later, it had finally appeared. As a result, I had to go "old school" with my preliminary post and scan the puzzle from the "dead tree" edition. I have now been able to replace the scanned version with a digital version.

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	Death Star wrecked competitive advantage (4,5)

{HEAD START}* — anagram of (wrecked) DEATH STAR

6a	Landscaping material // left in a lot (5)

MU(L)CH — L(eft) contained in (in) MUCH (a lot)

9a	Say // "absolute and total" (5)

UTTER — double definition, the first a verb and the second an adjective

10a	Shake down stranger // with a bird-like beak (4-5)

{HAWK-NOSED}* — anagram of (stranger) SHAKE DOWN

11a	Call from a hunter // awfully hot about friend (5-2)

{T(ALLY)-HO}* — anagram of (awfully) HOT containing (about) ALLY (friend)

12a	Mounted soldier, // doctor, and a thug (7)

DR|A|GOON — DR (doctor) + (and) A (†) + GOON (thug)

13a	Wrangler, at times, // involved in computer operations (5)

_R|OPER_ — hidden in (involved in) computeR OPERations

14a	Incessant rum // cases (9)

INSTANCES* — anagram of (rum) INCESSANT

As an anagram indicator, rum^[5] is used in a dated informal British sense meaning odd or peculiar ⇒ it’s a rum business, certainly.

17a	Appraised bananas // go missing (9)

DISAPPEAR* — anagram of (bananas) APPRAISED

19a	Bee amid that lady's garden plants (5)

HER(B)S — B (bee) contained in (amid) HERS (that lady's)

20a	Scholarly // Shakespearean king animated Flanders (7)

LEAR|NED — LEAR (Shakespearean king) + NED (animated Flanders)

King Lear^[7]* is a tragedy written in 1605 or 1606 by English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616).

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^* Lear^[5], a legendary early king of Britain, is mentioned by the 12th century Welsh chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae (circa 1139; first printed in 1508), an account of the kings of Britain.

Ned Flanders^[7] is a recurring fictional character in the animated American television series The Simpsons.

23a	Boron found in most recent // chemical analysis (3,4)

LA(B) TEST — B ([chemical symbol for] boron) contained in (found in) LATEST (most recent)

25a	What thorniest pitching may produce? (2-7)

{NO-HITTER}* — anagram of (pitching) THORNIEST

This is an &lit. clue^[7], a clue in which the entire clue is both the wordplay and the definition.

In baseball, a no-hitter^[5] is a game in which a pitcher yields no hits to the opposing team.

26a	Shopping bag with mall's initial // symbol (5)

TOTE|M — TOTE (shopping bag) + (with) M (Mall's initial [letter])

27a	Two quintets, or // a barbershop quartet singer (5)

TEN|OR — TEN (two quintets) + OR (†)

28a	Forum orator, I agree, embraces // delays (9)

_M|ORATOR|I|A_ — hidden in (embraces) foruM ORATOR I Agree

Down

1d	Frequent // hit with someone in the family (5)

H|AUNT — H (hit; baseball term) + (with) AUNT (someone in the family)

2d	Grazing animals // run into stakes (9)

ANTE(LOPE)S — LOPE (run) contained in (into) ANTES (stakes)

3d	Mister // Smith's first appeal to a higher power (7)

S|PRAYER — S (Smith's first [letter]) + PRAYER (appeal to a higher power)

4d	Figure of beauty // sadly atrophied (9)

APHRODITE* — anagram of (sadly) ATROPHIED

In Greek mythology, Aphrodite^[5] is the goddess of beauty, fertility, and sexual love. She is variously described as the daughter of Zeus and Dione, or as being born from the sea. Her equivalent in Roman mythology is Venus.

5d	Dragged // to get married (5)

TO|WED — TO (†) + WED (get married)

6d	Odd man, to an // Alberta neighbour (7)

MONTANA* — anagram of (odd) MAN TO AN

7d	Large, like this // rodeo prop (5)

L|AS|SO — L(large; clothing size) + AS SO (like this)

8d	Peculiarly dishonest // people looking for a good time (9)

HEDONISTS* — anagram of (peculiarly) DISHONEST

13d	Mars // ground replanted (3,6)

{RED PLANET}* — anagram of (ground) REPLANTED

As an anagram indicator, ground is used as the past tense or past participle of the verb grind^[5]. An anagram indicator is typically a word that denotes movement or transformation. Grind denotes transformation, for example, in the sense of grain being ground into flour.

15d	Rose's role: playing // bad sport (4,5)

{SORE LOSER}* — anagram of (playing) ROSES ROLE

16d	Builder of structures // fish go in (9)

CARP|ENTER — CARP (fish) + ENTER (go in)

18d	Football kicker keeps close to this // joker (7)

PUN(S)TER — PUNTER (football kicker) containing (keeps) S (close [final letter] to thiS)

19d	Headwear covers somewhat // typical place for a thing (7)

H(A|BIT)AT — HAT (headwear) containing (covers) A BIT (somewhat)

21d	Off-white // article worn by that woman (5)

A(SHE)N — AN (article) containing (worn by) SHE (that woman)

22d	Imagine // 500 sheets of paper (5)

D|REAM — D ([Roman numeral for] 500) + REAM (sheets of paper)

Although a ream is, in fact, 500 sheets of paper, in this clue it is merely an unspecified number of sheets of paper as the 500 is needed to clue the letter D.

24d	Pack a // Florida city (5)

TAMP|A — TAMP (pack) + A (†)

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 1a and 28a.

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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