Introduction
Happy Thanksgiving (albeit a bit belated) to readers south of the border.
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
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███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘
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
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| Symbols and Markup Conventions | |
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| Click here for further explanation and usage examples of the symbols and markup conventions used on this blog. | |
Across
| 1a | Miss score, absorbed by chance // underground traffic (5,6) |
B(LACK| MARK)ET — {LACK (miss) + MARK (score; scratch)} contained in (absorbed by) BET (chance)
| 9a | Gifts // a Liberal put in shelters (7) |
T(A|L)ENTS — {A (†) + L(iberal)} contained in (put in) TENTS (shelters)
| 10a | Threat to trespassers // repeated phrase by chief of police (7) |
MANTRA|P — MANTRA (repeated phrase) + (by) P (chief [initial letter] of Police)
| 11a | In brouhaha, vociferous // confusion (5) |
_HA/VOC_ — hidden in (in) brouhaHA VOCiferous
| 12a | Appearing in March, stylish // royal (9) |
M(ON)AR|CHIC — ON (appearing) contained in (in) MAR (March; abbrev.) + CHIC (stylish)
| 13a | Curve // a pitch, with a hit coming back (8) |
{PAR|A|BOL|A}< — reversal of (coming back) {A (†) + LOB (pitch) + (with) A (†) + RAP (hit)}
| 14a | Matrimonial // headgear for a nag, so to speak (6) |
BRIDAL~ — sounds like (so to speak) BRIDLE (heargear for a nag)
| 17a | Experimental subject // in Quebec: the rotten child (3,3) |
LA|B RAT — LA (in Quebec: the; feminine form of the French definite article) + BRAT (rotten child)
| 19a | Made gloomy // commercial interrupting broadcast (8) |
SH(AD)OWED — AD (commercial) contained in (interrupting) SHOWED (broadcast)
| 22a | Wines put inside leave a blemish on // snazzy vehicle (6,3) |
S(PORTS) CAR — PORTS (wines) contained in (inside) SCAR (leave a blemish on)
| 24a | Conservative requests barrels (5) |
C|ASKS — C(onservative) + ASKS (requests)
| 26a | 1920s style associated with booze // etiquette (7) |
DECO|RUM — DECO (1920s style; shortened variant name for Art Deco[7]) + (associated with) RUM (booze)
| 27a | Article in a painting, // essentially (2,5) |
A(T HE)ART — THE ([definite] article) contained in (in) {A (†) + ART (painting)}
| 28a | Recall how it affected // one sort of crime (5-6) |
{WHITE COLLAR}* — anagram of (affected) RECALL HOW IT
Down
| 1d | Set // time taken by German composer (5) |
BA(T)CH — T(ime) contained in (taken by) BACH (German composer; Johann Sebastian Bach[7])
| 2d | Ubiquitous // American League fan (3-4) |
AL|L OVER — AL (American League[7]; one of two leagues comprising Major League Baseball) + LOVER (fan)
| 3d | Big rack on awfully // dangerous creature (4,5) |
{KING COBRA}* — anagram of (awfully) BIG RACK ON
| 4d | Fit about clutter brought back // marshal (8) |
A(SSEM<)BLE — ABLE (fit) containing (about) reversal of (brought back) MESS (clutter)
| 5d | I’m involved in knockout, with no // robe (6) |
K(IM)O|NO — IM (I'm) contained in (involved in) KO (knock out) + (with) NO (†)
| 6d | Register // number of fingers on the other hand (5) |
TEN|OR — TEN (number of fingers) + OR (on the other hand)
| 7d | Tolkien villain concealed // flower (6) |
ORC|HID — ORC[7] (Tolkien villain) + HID (concealed)
| 8d | Riding in snowmobile, kiss // Dotty? (8) |
S(PECK)LED — PECK (kiss) contained in (riding in) SLED (snowmobile)
| 13d | Fence // royal assistant for audition (8) |
PALISADE~ — sounds like (for audition) PALACE AIDE (royal assistant)
| 15d | Red leaves // small volume with greeting in wireless device (9) |
RADI(CC|HI)O — {CC (small volume; cubic centimetre) + (with) HI (greeting)} contained in (in) RADIO (wireless device)
| 16d | Maintaining touch, support // deficit (8) |
SHOR(TAG)E — SHORE (support; as in to shore up a collapsing embankment) containing (maintaining; holding, as an opinion) TAG (touch)
| 18d | Bring up // ornamental pin in speech (6) |
BROACH~ — sounds like (in speech) BROOCH (ornamental pin)
| 20d | Holiday quaff // was prior to voyage (7) |
WAS|SAIL — WAS (†) preceding (prior to) SAIL (voyage)
| 21d | Rascal with one // seafood dish (6) |
SCAMP|I — SCAMP (rascal) + (with) I ([Roman numeral] one)
| 23d | Intentionally lose // most of the argument (5) |
TH_|ROW — TH (most of THe) + ROW (argument)
| 25d | Celebrity holding island // instrument (5) |
S(I)TAR[7] — STAR (celebrity) containing (holding) I(sland)
Epilogue
There is not much doubt about the theme today; in fact, I would say it is pretty black and white.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)
Signing off for today — Falcon
A quiet US Thanksgiving weekend here in the States. Fairly quick solve. Last to go in were in the NW - 14a, 8d and then 10a. Particularly enjoyed 15d and 8d. Thanks for posting, Falcon.
ReplyDelete... or perhaps NE?
DeleteAh yes, the NE.
DeleteI was thrown a curve in many of the clues today, last in was the NE corner, it took me a while to register the intent of the clues. Last in was 8d.
ReplyDeleteLiked 7d.
I had read the clue to 12a, but wrote what I thought was the answer into 10a, that lead me to the white-out tape to fix the problem.
Or is that black-out tape?
Good luck to all, and thanks Falcon for the post.
Clearly our beloved setters have not mellowed a bit from the harrowing experiences of 20202020... which seems interminable. I am experiencing perplexity about constructing a Scandium atom. Mañana ...
ReplyDeleteOne way to assemble an atom of Scandium is to merge one atom each of Carbon, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, in other words, CONFUSION.
DeleteI definitely ran into some tricky spots. It didn't help that MANTRAP was new to me, that I don't know Tolkein's characters, and that I'd always assumed BROOCH rhymed with MOOCH. I was also tempted, in parsing MONARCHIC and seeing MARCH in full, to wonder whether stylist could somehow be IC. Oh, well! But not as heavy Canadian content this week, after a couple of weeks largely foreign to this New Yorker.
ReplyDeleteI've seen MANTRAP several times in puzzles -- most often in its other sense of a seductive woman!
DeleteDitto re: NE corner. Couldn't see the parsing of 16d, so thanks, Falcon. Last in 10a, (unexpected). Favourite was 13d.
ReplyDelete16d -- although not the last to solve -- was last to parse.
DeleteHello Falcon and fellow puzzlers,
ReplyDeleteThank heaven for those down clues because my first pass of the across clues got me 3 solves! After the downs, it was pretty easy to fill in the remainder, although the NE corner held out the longest, same as for others. Last one in was 12a, the appearance of March in full threw me off. Favourite was 2d.
Thank you for posting Falcon. Methinks you have neglected to underline the definition in 1d.
Have a nice weekend everyone!
Cheers,
MG
Managed to sneak it past Henry, but not you!
DeleteAll now in order.
Delete