Saturday, July 3, 2021 — Geometrical Geography

Introduction

The clues in today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon are literally all over the map..

From a blogging perspective, Saturday was a bit of a disaster, to say the least. My intent was to post the puzzle before heading off camping. However, I started the day by oversleeping by a couple of hours. I did prepare the post but it would appear that I forgot to press publish before dashing off. I only discovered the oversight when I returned home on Sunday evening.

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

9a	Get twisted about // bottle from Treebeard’s cellar? (7)

ENT|WINE — ENT (of whom Treebeard was one) + WINE (bottle from ... cellar)

Treebeard^[7] is a tree-giant character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He is an Ent, a species of beings in the fantasy world Middle-earth who closely resemble trees.

A bottle from his wine cellar might be described as an "Ent wine".

10a	Mythical lady // in group and/or alone (7)

_P|AND|OR|A_ — hidden in grouP AND OR Alone

In Greek mythology, Pandora^[5] is the first mortal woman. In one story she was created by Zeus and sent to earth with a jar or box of evils in revenge for Prometheus' having brought the gift of fire back to the world. She let out all the evils from the container to infect the earth; hope alone remained to assuage the lot of humankind.

11a	Mistakenly, I recall crop // ring at a high latitude (5,6)

{POLAR CIRCLE}* — anagram of (mistakenly) I RECALL CROP

Polar circle^[5] denotes either of the Arctic and Antarctic circles.

Scratching the Surface

I presume that crop ring is meant to be another term for crop circle[5], an area of standing crops which has been flattened in the form of a circle or more complex pattern. No general cause of crop circles has been identified although various natural and unorthodox explanations have been put forward; many are known to have been hoaxes. The setters likely did not use the usual term crop circle in the clue to avoid using a word appearing in the solution.

12a	Sound of hesitation when eating a // serving of corn (3)

E(A)R — ER (sound of hesitation) containing (when eating) A (†)

13a	Awesome, two // arm bones (5)

RAD|II — RAD (awesome) + II ([Roman numeral] two)

15a	Sculpted bushes // I included in best sign of spring (9)

TOP(I)ARIES — I (†) contained in (included in) {TOP (best) + ARIES (sign of spring}

In astrology, Aries^[10] (also called the Ram) is the first sign of the zodiac, symbol ♈, having a cardinal fire classification, ruled by the planet Mars. The sun is in this sign between about March 21 and April 19.

17a	Returned mailbag drifting around // area of the Atlantic (7,8)

{BERMUDA TRIANGLE}* — anagram of (drifting around) RETURNED MAILBAG

The Bermuda Triangle^[5] is an area of the western Atlantic Ocean where a large number of ships and aircraft are said to have mysteriously disappeared.

19a	Unscientific // clone data tossed (9)

ANECDOTAL* — anagram of (tossed) CLONE DATA

21a	Leave // pass in narrow opening (5)

S(P)LIT — P (pass; result on a pass/fail exam) contained in (in) SLIT (narrow opening)

23a	Hit // golfer’s goal in reverse (3)

RAP< — reversal of (in reverse) PAR (golfer's goal)

24a	Marquee sits awkwardly // somewhere in the Big Apple (5,6)

{TIMES SQUARE}* — anagram of (awkwardly) MARQUEE SITS

Times Square^[3] is an intersection in New York City formed by the juncture of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan. Long noted as a center of the city's entertainment district, it is the site of annual New Year's Eve celebrations.

27a	Nothing in brass // band for a noble (7)

COR(O)NET — O (nothing; letter that looks like a zero) contained in (in) CORNET (brass [instrument])

In music, brass^[3] denotes brass instruments or their players considered as a group. I don't believe it is usual for it to refer (as here) to a single brass instrument.

A cornet^[5] is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but shorter and wider.

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A coronet^[5] is a small or relatively simple crown, especially as worn by lesser royalty and peers or peeresses.

28a	Get dirt all over // ground (7)

GRITTED* — anagram of (all over) GET DIRT

Ground is used here as in ground one's teeth.

Down

1d	Buzzer for every // paging device (6)

BEE|PER — BEE (buzzer; insect that makes a buzzing sound) + PER (for every)

2d	Less dramatic // old rites refreshed (8)

STOLIDER* — anagram of (refreshed) OLD RITES

3d	Level // drop in sound (4)

TIER~ — sounds like (in sound) TEAR (drop)

4d	Someone on a roll // treats ring badly (10)

REGISTRANT* — anagram of (badly) TREATS RING

5d	Grand saga // in the pictures (4)

_E|PIC_ — hidden in (in) thE PICtures

6d	Photographer // shot ad salesman (5,5)

{ANSEL ADAMS}* — anagram of (shot) AD SALESMAN

Ansel Adams^[5] (1902–1984) was an American photographer, noted for his black-and-white photographs of American landscapes.

7d	Dime or bucks?? (2-2-2)

{DO-RE-MI}* — anagram of (bucks) DIME OR

Do-re-mi^[4,a,b] is US slang for money ⇒ It takes too much do-re-mi to live in this part of town.

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^* [a] Farlex Dictionary of Idioms; [b] McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

8d	Sport // holey fabric donned by Antarctic explorer (8)

LAC(ROSS)E — LACE (holey fabric) containing (donned by) ROSS (Antarctic explorer)

Sir James Clark Ross^[5] (1800–1862) was a British explorer. He discovered the north magnetic pole in 1831, and headed an expedition to the Antarctic from 1839 to 1843, in the course of which he discovered Ross Island, Ross Dependency, and the Ross Sea. He was the nephew of British arctic explorer Sir John Ross (1777–1856) who led an expedition to Baffin Bay in 1818 and another in search of the North-West Passage between 1829 and 1833 (both of which Sir James was a member).

14d	Overwhelming // one sister by going out (10)

I|NUN|DATING — I ([Roman numeral] one) + NUN (sister) + (by) DATING (going out)

16d	Apple urges changing // Western plant (6,4)

{PURPLE SAGE}* — anagram of (changing) APPLE URGES

Purple sage^[10] is a plant of the mint family, native to California, having silvery leaves and purple spikes of flowers.

17d	Act as a twinkling // inspiration for Dante (8)

BE|A|TRICE — BE (act as; don't be a fool) + A (†) + TRICE (twinkling; very short period of time)

Beatrice Portinari^[7] (1265–1290) was an Italian woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, and is also commonly identified with the Beatrice who appears as one of his guides in the last book of the Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia), Paradiso, and in the last four canti of Purgatorio.

18d	Ladies’ men // irritate some soldiers (8)

GALL|ANTS — GALL (irritate) + ANTS (some soldiers)

A soldier^[5] is a wingless caste of ant or termite with a large specially modified head and jaws, involved chiefly in defence.

20d	World power // legislator in Ireland (6)

E(MP)IRE — MP (legislator; Member of Parliament) contained in (in) EIRE (Ireland)

Éire^[5] is the Gaelic name for Ireland and was the official name of the Republic of Ireland from 1937 to 1949.

22d	Try keeping finale // hot (6)

TR(END)Y — TRY (†) containing (keeping) END (finale)

25d	In chess, defeat // partner (4)

MATE — double definition

In chess, mate^[5] is short for checkmate (as either a noun or a verb). As a noun, checkmate^[5] denotes a position in which a player's king is directly attacked by an opponent's piece or pawn and has no possible move to escape the check. The attacking player thus wins the game. As verb, checkmate^[5] means to put one's opponent into checkmate.

26d	Almost completely // stop (4)

QUIT_ — QUIT[E] (completely) with the final letter removed (almost)

Epilogue

Was today's puzzle a geography class taught by a mathematician or a geometry lesson delivered by a cartographer?

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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