Saturday, June 26, 2021 — Explosive Celebration

Introduction

In today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon, the setters get an advance start on holiday festivities. As Canada Day falls roughly midweek this year, I will follow their lead and wish readers north of the border an early Happy Canada Day.

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	Interrupting show, hold up a // circus performer (7)

AC(ROB|A)T — {ROB (hold up) + A (†)} contained in (interrupting) ACT (show)

5a	Large pill containing extraterrestrial // mushroom (7)

BOL(ET)US — BOLUS (large pill) containing (†) ET (extraterrestrial)

9a	Outlet stocking 1,000-year // firework (9)

S(K|YR)OCKET — SOCKET ([electrical] outlet) containing (stocking) {K (1000; kilo-) + YR (year)}

10a	Note taken by German // feminist author (5)

G(RE)ER — RE ([musical] note) contained in (taken by) GER (German)

Germaine Greer^[5] is an Australian feminist and writer. She first achieved recognition with The Female Eunuch (1970), an analysis of women's subordination in a male-dominated society. Other books include The Change (1991), about social attitudes toward female aging.

11a	Infatuated with // boy holding skier’s position (5,2)

S(TUCK) ON — SON (boy) containing (holding) TUCK (skier's position)

12a	Paradise // right in Maritime region (7)

A(R)CADIA — R(ight) contained in (in) ACADIA (Maritime region)

The Maritimes is a region on Canada's Atlantic coast consisting of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.

Acadia^[5] is a former French colony established in 1604 in the territory that now includes Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island in Canada. Contested by France and Britain, it was ceded to Britain in 1763, and many French Acadians were deported to other parts of North America. Many later settled in Louisiana.

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Arcadia^[5] is a mountainous district in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. In poetic fantasy it represents a pastoral paradise and in Greek mythology it is the home of Pan.

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^* Pan^[5] is a god of flocks and herds, typically represented with the horns, ears, and legs of a goat on a man's body. His sudden appearance was supposed to cause terror similar to that of a frightened and stampeding herd, and the word panic is derived from his name.

13a	Whirling fireworks // show on the road before huge crowds (12)

TOUR|BILLIONS — TOUR (show on the road) preceding (before) BILLIONS (huge crowds)

I should have thought bigger than mere millions!

18a	Cryptic shone with stirring // fireworks (12)

PYROTECHNICS* — anagram of (with stirring) CRYPTIC SHONE

21a	Fire station hosting a // card game (7)

CAN(A)STA — {CAN (fire; dismiss from employment) + STA(tion)} containing (hosting) A (†)

23a	Company we embarrassed // shrank back (7)

CO|WE|RED — CO(mpany) + WE (†) + RED (embarrassed)

24a	Reveal // large school in England (3,2)

L|ET ON — L(arge) + ETON (school in England)

Eton College^[7], often informally referred to simply as Eton, is an English independent boarding school for boys located in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor. (show more )

Eton was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor". It is one of ten English schools, commonly referred to as public schools, regulated by the Public Schools Act of 1868.

Here and There

In Britain, an independent school[10] is a school that is neither financed nor controlled by the government or local authorities; in other words, an independent school[2] is not paid for with public money and does not belong to the state school system.  In Britain, a public school[2] is a particular category of independent school, namely a secondary school, especially a boarding school, run independently of the state and financed by a combination of endowments and pupils' fees. Another category of independent school is the private school[2,5] which is a school run independently by an individual or group, especially for profit and supported wholly by the payment of fees. What we in North America would call a public school[2], is known in the UK as a state school[5] or a maintained school*. * In England and Wales, a maintained school[5] is a school that is funded by a local education authority.

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25a	Splendid cheer about one // cluster of fireworks (9)

G(I)RAND|OLE — {GRAND (splendid) + OLE ([Spanish] cheer)} containing (about) I ([Roman numeral] one)

26a	Figured out // method of shipment, in fact (7)

DE(COD)ED — COD (method of payment; cash on delivery) contained in (in) DEED (fact)

27a	Ark must upset // rodent (7)

MUSKRAT* — anagram of (upset) ARK MUST

Down

1d	Judge // donkeys small (6)

ASSES|S — ASSES (donkeys) + S(mall)

2d	Sci-fi weapon // destroyed any rug (3,3)

{RAY GUN}* — anagram of (destroyed) ANY RUG

3d	Screens // “Hair” in contest (6,3)

B(LOCKS) OUT — LOCKS (hair) contained in (in) BOUT (contest)

4d	Sign // intended for Barbie’s guy (5)

TO|KEN — TO (intended for) + KEN (Barbie's guy)

Split the solution (2,3) and add a few Xs and Os and it could be the tag Barbie attaches to her boyfriend's birthday gift.

5d	Nocturnal flyer with claw around one // body in combat (9)

BAT|TAL(I)ON — BAT (nocturnal flyer) + (with) TALON (claw) containing (around) I ([Roman numeral] one)

6d	Reason // spelled out in blog I contributed (5)

_LOG|I|C_ — hidden in (spelled out in) bLOG I Contributed

7d	Kid about Swiss heroine // book by Dostoevsky (3,5)

T(HE IDI)OT — TOT (kid) containing (about) HEIDI (Swiss heroine)

Heidi^[7] is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. It is a novel about the events in the life of a 5-year-old girl in her paternal grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps.

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The Idiot^[7] is a novel by 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1868–69.

8d	Gross as a drifting // seaweed (8)

SARGASSO* — anagram of (drifting) GROSS AS A

14d	Playing her CD “Rage” // provided fresh energy (9)

RECHARGED* — anagram of (playing) HER CD RAGE

15d	Bugs // the Spanish Conservative family on “Dallas” (9)

LACEWINGS — LA (the Spanish; feminine Spanish definite article) + C(onservative) +EWINGS (family on "Dallas").

Dallas^[7] is an American prime time television soap opera that aired from 1978 to 1991. The series revolves around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who own the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle ranch Southfork.

16d	Dot-covered // check left in haste (8)

SPE(CK)LED — CK (check) contained in (left in) SPEED (haste)

Check is the US spelling of cheque.

17d	Refashioned cigar tin of igneous rock (8)

GRANITIC* — anagram of (refashioned) CIGAR TIN

19d	Love affair involving piece of registered // mail? (6)

A(R)MOUR — AMOUR (love affair) containing (involving) R (piece [initial letter] of Registered)

20d	Start // verse in a slight depression (6)

A|D(V)ENT — V(erse) contained in (in) {A (†) + DENT (slight depression)}

22d	In retreat, party with New York’s // council (5)

{S|YN|OD}< — reversal of (in retreat) {DO (party) + (with) NY (New York) + S ('s)}

23d	Marco converted // rebound (5)

CAROM* — anagram of (converted) MARCO

Epilogue

There are plenty of fireworks in today's puzzle to celebrate the upcoming Canada Day holiday.

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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