Saturday, October 31, 2020 — Precarious Perches

Introduction

The bottom half of today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon was a treat, falling into place fairly quickly once I had established a couple of 28a. The top half, on the other hand, was far more tricky, demanding considerably more mental effort on my part before it eventually surrendered.

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

8a	Delicate // arachnid is hungry at first, eating piece of lettuce (8)

TICK(L)IS|H — {TICK (arachnid) + IS (†) + H (hungry at first; initial letter of Hungry)} containing (eating) L (piece [initial letter] of Lettuce)

9a	Island // also accommodating base (6)

TO(BAG)O — TOO (also) containing (accommodating) BAG (base; one found on a baseball diamond)

10a	Make a hash of popular // composer (6)

CHOP|IN — CHOP (make a hash of) + IN (popular)

11a	Urban dwelling // which one involved in wake (3,5)

RO(W HO)USE — WHO (which one) contained in (involved in) ROUSE (wake [from sleep])

12a	Irish patron bounding along with // stick (5,3)

ST(AND) PAT — ST PAT (Irish patron) containing (bounding) AND (along with)

14a	Cunning about Delaware, // to a great extent (6)

WI(DE)LY — WILY (cunning) containing (about) DE ([postal designator for] Delaware)

15a	Two pushers concealing // work (4)

_O|PUS_ — hidden in (concealing) twO PUShers

17a	Not dry yet // not very tasteful (5)

TACKY — double definition

18a	Two notices backing // movement in art (4)

{DA|DA}< — reversal of (backing) {AD + AD} (two [commercial] notices)

19a	Tenor stuck in introductory section, // for the moment (3,3)

PRO (T)EM — T(enor) contained in (stuck in) PROEM (introductory section)

21a	Reserve // time in shore region (3,5)

SE(T) ASIDE — T(ime) contained in (in) SEASIDE (shore region)

24a	With cons, arranged // trip (6,2)

{SWITCH ON}* — anagram of (arranged) WITH CONS

26a	Bad feeling // Al carried in vermin (6)

M(AL)ICE — AL (†) contained in (carried in) MICE (vermin)

27a	One Arab ship, // without a doubt (3,3)

AN|D HOW — AN (one) + DHOW (Arab ship)

28a	New tool shed /for/ small purchases? (8)

TOEHOLDS* — anagram of (new) TOOL SHED

Down

1d	Plastic in that // helmet (3,3)

{TIN HAT}* — anagram of (plastic) IN THAT

2d	Insect put in curling captain’s // sportswear (3,5)

SKI P(ANT)S — ANT (insect) contained in (put in) {SKIP (curling captain) + S ('s)}

3d	Volunteer // using new piece of paper (4,2)

{SIGN U}*P — anagram of (new) USING + P (piece [initial letter] of Paper)

4d	Blacken // fish found in the Arctic (4)

CHAR — double definition

5d	Say “Wow” at tricky, // sneaky rider (8)

STOWAWAY* — anagram of (tricky) SAY WOW AT

6d	A second-rate street // in a foreign land (6)

A|B|ROAD — A (†) + B (second-rate) + ROAD (street)

7d	Picnic dish // provokes a boy (3,5)

EGG S|A|LAD — EGGS (provokes) + A (†) + LAD (boy)

13d	Gathers // speaker’s formal wear (5)

TUCKS~ — sounds like (speaker's) TUX (formal wear)

16d	Tiny opening admitting double // drink (4,4)

POR(T WIN)E — PORE (tiny opening) containing (admitting) TWIN (double)

17d	To mother, sell // hatchet (8)

TO|MA|HAWK — TO (†) + MA (mother) + HAWK (sell)

18d	Bar // tag turned sickly yellow (8)

DI<|SALLOW — reversal of (turned) ID (tag) + SALLOW (sickly yellow)

20d	Irritable // in heat, etc., hydrate (6)

_T|ETC|HY_ — hidden in (in) heaT ETC HYdrate

22d	Cap for every // tinker (6)

TAM|PER — TAM ([Scottish] cap) + PER (for every)

23d	Choose // dice Ed cast (6)

DECIDE* — anagram of (cast) DICE ED

25d	Observe // Bond’s school from behind (4)

NOTE* — reversal of (from behind) ETON (Bond's school)

Early Start

Commander James Bond[7], the fictional Intelligence Agent created by the British journalist and novelist Ian Fleming, briefly attended Eton College at "12 or thereabouts", but is removed after two halves [two half terms]* because of girl trouble with a maid. * The English school year generally runs from early September to mid or late July of the following year. Most schools operate a three-term school year, each term divided in half. Autumn term runs from early September to mid December (half term falls in late October). Spring Term runs from early January to Easter (half term falls in mid February). Summer Term runs from Easter to mid July (half term falls in late May or early June). At the end of each half term, in October, February and May, there is a holiday which lasts about one week (usually nine full days, including two weekends). The Christmas holidays separate the autumn and spring terms, and the Easter holidays separate the spring and summer terms. Each holiday lasts about two weeks. The 'summer' holiday begins in late July, even though summer is largely over in England, and is usually about six weeks long, sometimes ending only two weeks away from the Autumnal equinox.

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 8a 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]   - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (Oxford Dictionary of English)

  ^[6]   - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (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