Saturday, April 10, 2021 — Turtle Soup

Introduction

You may find today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon to be a bit of a zoology lesson.

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 "wavy underline" - whimsical and inferred definitions
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of the symbols and markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	Top // racetrack contestant moving fast (8)

CAR|APACE — CAR (racetrack contestant) + APACE (moving fast)

A carapace^[5] is the hard upper shell of a tortoise or turtle.

5a	Help // sister stuck in a street (6)

A|S(SIS)T — SIS (sister) contained in (stuck in) { A (†) + ST (street)}

9a	Gas connected with northeastern // part of France (7)

ARGON|NE — ARGON (gas) + (with) NE (northeastern)

10a	Dad finished // pastry snack (7)

POP|OVER — POP (dad) + OVER (finished)

11a	US spy group with a claw inside // part of Spain (9)

C(A|TALON)IA — CIA (US spy group) containing (with ... inside) {A (†) + TALON (claw)}

12a	Wild West show // went on second of tours (5)

RODE|O — RODE (went on) + O (second [letter] of tOurs)

Rode meaning 'went on' as in "rode the 21d".

Alternate parsing:

• RODE (went) + (on) O (second [letter] of tOurs)

This alternate parsing violates the convention that, in an across clue, "A on B" indicates B followed by A^*. However, this is a convention which many setters (in particular, C&R) often ignore.

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^* The rationale being that for A to be written on B, B must have been written first. Since English is written left to right, "A on B" thus produces "B + A".

13a	Mistakenly rile pet // turtle, perhaps (7)

REPTILE* — anagram of (mistakenly) RILE PET

16a	Listeners including 50 // noblemen (5)

EAR(L)S — EARS (listeners) containing (including) L ([Roman numeral] 50)

18a	Result // spelled out in green suede (5)

_EN|SUE_ — hidden in (spelled out in) greEN SUEde

20a	“All wet,” // as in “a jerk” (7)

A(QUA)TIC — QUA (as) contained in (in) {A (†) + TIC (jerk)

23a	Travels // round among sheep (5)

R(O)AMS — O ([letter that is] round) contained in (among) RAMS (sheep)

24a	Three LPGA changes // send a message (9)

TELEGRAPH* — anagram of (changes) THREE LPGA

27a	Illustrate // the left side of a ship beam (7)

PORT|RAY — PORT (the left side of a ship) + RAY (beam)

28a	Hampton playing // “Mirage” (7)

PHANTOM* — anagram of (playing) HAMPTON

Scratching the Surface
For me, this clue brought to mind American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader Lionel Hampton[7] (1908–2002). However, I did stumble upon this video of Alexandra Hampton playing "Mirage".

29a	Most recent // den occupied by our group (6)

NE(WE)ST — NEST (den) containing (occupied by) WE (our group)

30a	Bottom // plants or nuts (8)

PLASTRON — anagram of (nuts) PLANTS OR

A plastron^[5] is the underside part of a tortoise's or turtle's shell.

Down

1d	Random // Gregorian songs heard (6)

CHANCE~ — sounds like (heard) CHANTS (Gregorian songs)

2d	Outspoken author // with more veracity (7)

RIGHTER~ — sounds like (outspoken) WRITER (author)

3d	Corrective // action finally taken by ring (5)

PE(N)AL — N (action finally; final letter of actioN) contained in (taken by) PEAL (ring)

4d	Freshly laundered // $100 tip (5)

C|LEAN — C ($100) + LEAN (tip; tilt)

6d	Swimming Euphrates, // get extremely warm (9)

SUPERHEAT* — anagram of (swimming) EUPHRATES

7d	Popular “Star Wars” villain // occupying force member (7)

IN|VADER — IN (popular) + VADER ("Star Wars" villain; Darth Vader)

8d	Turtle // egg is included in cake (8)

TORT(O|IS)E — {O ([letter that looks like an] egg) + IS (†)} contained in (included in) TORTE (cake)

10d	Level off // after deadline in Pennsylvania University (7)

P(LATE)A|U — LATE (after deadline) contained in (in) {PA (Pennsylvania) + U(niversity)}

14d	PS about meadow with certain // delights (9)

P(LEA|SURE)S — PS (†) containing (about) {LEA (meadow) + (with) SURE (certain)}

15d	Apartment left in New York behind one, not the proper way (7)

I|N(APT|L)Y — {APT (apartment) + L(eft)} contained in (in) NY (New York) following (behind) I ([Roman numeral] one)

17d	Reprint a novel, // “Turtle” (8)

TERRAPIN* — anagram of (novel) REPRINT A

19d	Pointer following Spanish // songbird (7)

SP|ARROW — ARROW (pointer) following (†) SP(anish)

21d	Fair ride // wheel that swivels around circle (7)

C(O)ASTER — CASTER (wheel that swivels) containing (around) O ([letter that looks like a] circle)

22d	Tribal mystic // fraud article (6)

SHAM|AN — SHAM (fraud) + AN ([indefinite] article)

25d	Starts to launder and press each luxury // suit part (5)

L|A|P|E|L — initial letters of (starts to) Launder And Press Each Luxury

26d	Mirror // face of grinning girl (5)

G|LASS — G (face of Grinning) + LASS (girl)

Epilogue

A tip of the hat to Richard for suggesting the title of today's review (which I liked better than the similarly themed title I had come up with). He has also summed up the rationale nicely in his comment — although it scarcely needs explanation.

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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)

^[15]   - CollinsDictionary.com (Penguin Random House LLC/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd )

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Signing off for today — Falcon