Saturday, September 5, 2020 — Natural High

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon presents a nice mix of clues. While not demanding strenuous exertion, there is a good selection of easy clues to warm up the mental faculties and few more challenging ones to give the brain a gentle workout.

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

9a	Out of order, Dad is in // contempt (7)

DISDAIN* — anagram of (out of order) DAD IS IN

10a	Greeting // partner of yon prince, at last (2,5)

HI THER|E — HITHER (partner of yon; hither and yon) + E (princE, at last [final letter])

11a	Everyday // luaus arranged (5)

USUAL* — anagram of (arranged) LUAUS

12a	Deck out // a European capital in fleece (9)

C(A|PARIS)ON — {A (†) + PARIS (European capital)} contained in (in) CON (fleece; swindle)

13a	Have a tantrum // if that row needs straightening (5,1,3)

{THROW A FIT}* — anagram of (needs straightening) IF THAT ROW

14a	Pub order includes old // vintner’s choice (5)

PIN(O)T — PINT (pub order) containing (includes) O(ld)

16a	Sinful desire getting endurance athletes high in a natural way? (15)

ENV(IRONMEN|TALL)Y — ENVY (sinful desire) containing (getting) {IRONMEN (endurance athletes) + TALL (high)}

20a	Comprehending butt of joke, you // laugh (5)

T(E)HEE —THEE ([archaic form of] you) containing (comprehending) E (butt [final letter] of jokE)

22a	Slide specimens: // a pair came apart (9)

PARAMECIA* — anagram of (apart) A PAIR CAME

25a	Eggy dish // Moe scrambled in town (3,6)

HAM (OME*)LET — anagram of (scrambled) MOE contained in (in) HAMLET (town)

26a	Jagged collar, so we hear (5)

ROUGH~ — sounds like (so we hear) RUFF (collar)

27a	Bronco I busted // with a lively spirit (3,4)

{CON BRIO}* — anagram of (busted) BRONCO I

28a	Speedster going from front to back and back to front (7)

RACECAR — cryptic definition consisting of a precise definition together with cryptic elaboration indicating that the solution is a palindrome

Down

1d	In a slight depression, only medium // change (10)

A|D(JUST|M)ENT — {JUST (only) + M(edium)} contained in (in) {A (†) + DENT (slight depression)}

2d	Publishing company // is litigious type (6)

IS|SUER — IS (†) + SUER (litigious type)

3d	Comparatively anemic // ending of this letter? (8)

S|ALLOWER — S (ending [final letter] of thiS) + ALLOWER (letter)

4d	Eunice finally discloses // group doing good works (6)

_UNICE|F_ — hidden in (discloses) EUNICE Finally

5d	Hot pepper tip Chloe cooked (8)

CHIPOTLE* — anagram of (cooked) TIP CHLOE

6d	Agitate // purist with changes (4,2)

{STIR UP}* — anagram of (with changes) PURIST

7d	Guarantee about a boy // not always available (8)

SE(A|SON)AL — SEAL (guarantee) containing (about) {A (†) + SON (boy)}

8d	Write about operator, // lowly worker (4)

PE(O)N — PEN (write) containing (about) O ([telephone] operator)

Does today's generation even know what a telephone operator is?

15d	Partly what transformed // a designer of choreography (5,5)

{TWYLA THARP}* — anagram of (transformed) PARTLY WHAT

Twyla Tharp^[7] is an American dancer and choreographer who, in 1966, formed the Twyla Tharp Dance company which merged in 1988 with American Ballet Theatre.

17d	Impassioned // old soldier captures macho guys (8)

VE(HEMEN)T — VET (old soldier) containing (captures) HE-MEN (macho guys)

18d	Centre of attention: a barbershop emblem adorning // pastry (8)

N(A|POLE)ON — N (centre [letter] of atteNtion) + A (†) + POLE (barbershop emblem) + ON (adorning)

19d	Cap on a hat-holder // tree (8)

TAM|A|RACK — TAM (cap) + (on; preceding in a down clue) A (†) + RACK (hat-holder)

21d	Leonard who wrote // “The Spanish Extra” (6)

EL|MORE — EL (the Spanish; Spanish word meaning 'the') + MORE (extra)

Elmore Leonard^[7] (1925–2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers.

23d	Pitcher Halladay keeps pitch // spinning (6)

RO(TAR)Y — ROY (pitcher HALLADAY) containing (keeps) TAR (pitch)

Roy Halladay^[7] (1977–2017) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies. On November 7, 2017, Halladay died when his ICON A5 amphibious plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.

24d	Tightly grip // group of eggs (6)

CLUTCH — double definition

25d	Illegally break into // taxicab (4)

HACK — double definition

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 16a.

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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