Saturday, August 21, 2021 — Gone Fishin'

Introduction

As Sal points out in the Comments, there are plenty of allusions to the great outdoors in today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon. Perhaps the winter sport is the most appealing during this period of sweltering temperatures.

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	Call about a final in Art I // class (8)

_C(A|T|EGO)RY — CRY (call) containing (about) {A (†) + T (final [letter] in ArT) + EGO (I)}

5a	Change // small character in Oz (6)

S|WITCH — S(mall) + WITCH (character in Oz)

Oz is the setting for much of American author L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz^[7] (and subsequent adaptations).

A bit of a sneaky move having this clue intersect with the Australian marsupial.

9a	Pine door’s pane shattered (9)

PONDEROSA* — anagram of (shattered) DOORS PANE

11a	Lament // early time of day for hearing (5)

MOURN~ — sounds like (for hearing) MORN (early time of day)

12a	Stringed instrument inlaid with name and a // crescent (6)

LU(N|A)TE — LUTE (stringed instrument) containing (inlaid with) {N(ame) + (and) A (†)}

13a	Second piece of peel came down // twisted (8)

S|P|RAINED — S(econd) + P (piece [initial letter] of Peel) + RAINED (came down)

15a	Somewhat nervous up in a temple, // rotate somehow (8)

_S|UP|IN|A|TE_ — hidden in (somewhat) nervouS UP IN A TEmple

16a	Depicted // one of the Barrymores (4)

DREW — double definition

Drew Barrymore^[7] is an American actress, screenwriter, film director, producer, model and author who is a descendant of the Barrymore family of well-known American stage and cinema actors, and is the granddaughter of film legend John Barrymore.

19a	Church // kindergarten peeve (4)

K|IRK — K (kindergarten; a K-6 school) + IRK (peeve)

Kirk^[5] is a Scottish and Northern English term for a church.

20a	Greek writer // left in place by bridge (8)

P(L)UT|ARCH — L(eft) contained in (in) PUT (place) + (by) ARCH (bridge)

Plutarch^[5] (circa 46-circa 120) was a Greek biographer and philosopher; Latin name Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus. He is chiefly known for Parallel Lives, a collection of biographies of prominent Greeks and Romans.

23a	Page a couple new // residents of the area (8)

P|OPULACE* — P(age) + anagram of (new) A COUPLE

24a	Escort lame // duck (6)

SCOTER* — anagram of (lame) ESCORT

The scoter^[5] is a northern diving duck that winters off the coast, the male of which has mainly black plumage.

27a	Fertile stuff // not so packed with oxygen (5)

L(O)ESS — LESS (not so) containing (packed with) O ([chemical symbol for] oxygen)

28a	Twang // coming from Diana’s alto neighbour (5,4)

_NAS|AL TO|NE_ — hidden in (coming from) DiaNAS ALTO NEighbour

29a	Walk nonchalantly, // for example, around wood (6)

S(ASH)AY — SAY (for example) containing (around) ASH (wood)

30a	A street demonstration // with a starry connection (8)

A|ST|RALLY — A (†) ST (street) + RALLY (demonstration)

Down

1d	Soft drink taking up // domed structure (6)

C(UP)OLA — COLA (soft drink) containing (taking) UP (†)

2d	Decade running // part of a joint (5)

TEN|ON — TEN (decade) + ON (running)

3d	Relative of ours // each time wearing purple (5,3)

GR(EA|T) APE — {EA(ch) T(ime)} contained in (wearing) GRAPE (purple)

"Ours" referring to us as a species.

4d	Overcharge // castle (4)

ROOK — double definition

A rook^[5] (also known by the informal, old-fashioned term castle^*[5]) is a chess piece, typically with its top in the shape of a battlement.

Ruffled Feathers
Despite what the dictionary says, chess purists—at least those frequenting Big Dave's Crossword Blog—argue vehemently that the proper name is rook and this piece should never under any circumstances be called a castle. And woe betide anyone who refers to a knight as a horsey!

6d	Where offspring develop, with respect to // marsupial (6)

WOMB|AT — WOMB (where offspring develop) + AT (with respect to)

In the wordplay, I think AT may be a preposition used to indicate the object of an emotion ⇒ (i) angry at the driver; (ii) shocked at his behaviour.

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A wombat^[5] is a burrowing plant-eating Australian marsupial which resembles a small bear with short legs.

7d	Lousy tenor hurt // Canada, lyrically (4,5)

{TRUE NORTH}* — anagram of (lousy) TENOR HURT

The solution comes from the lyrics of O Canada, the national anthem of Canada:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
...

8d	Find // 500 in barbarian settlement (4,4)

HUN|T (D)OWN — L ([Roman numeral] 500) contained in (in) {HUN (barbarian) + TOWN (settlement)}

10d	Desire // a piano, not very big (8)

A|P|PETITE — A (†) + P (piano; music direction to play softly) + PETITE (not very big)

14d	Member of a congregation // can lag in reforming (8)

ANGLICAN* — anagram of (reforming) CAN LAG IN

15d	Bass keeps passing // exotic dancers (9)

STRI(P)PERS or STRIP(P)ERS — STRIPERS (bass) containing (keeps) P (passing; successful outcome on a pass/fail exam)

Striper^[5] is another term for striped bass^[5], a large bass of North American coastal waters, with dark horizontal stripes along the upper sides, migrating up streams to breed.

17d	Miss cheers // winter Olympian’s equipment (3,5)

SKI P|OLES — SKIP (miss) + OLES ([Spanish] cheers)

18d	Prophetic // otherwise, a scoundrel lies about the Spanish (8)

OR|A|CU(LA)R — OR (otherwise) + A (†) + CUR (scoundrel) containing (lies about) LA (the Spanish; [feminine] Spanish definite article)

21d	Inquire into a Los Angeles // place bordering the Pacific (6)

A|L(ASK)A — ASK (inquire) contained in (into) {A (†) + LA (Los Angeles)}

22d	Young fish including slippery sort // by choice (6)

FR(EEL)Y — FRY (young fish) containing (including) EEL (slippery sort)

25d	Fish // run into ring (5)

T(R)OLL — R (run; baseball term) contained in (into) TOLL (ring)

26d	A family member // in unchanged condition (2,2)

A|S IS — A (†) + SIS (family member)

Epilogue

Henry's suggested title did give me inspiration but I didn't use it in its entirety as I didn't see the "connection".

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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