Saturday, September 18, 2021 — Double-Double

Introduction

Unaccompanied entrants appear not to be welcome in today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon.

Should you still be interested, the review of last week's puzzle is finally available. I've been playing catch-up all week after spending most of the day Monday installing, configuring, trouble shooting, and programming new Internet, Wifi, television and telephone infrastructure and services in my home.

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	Hide on board // tug, one caught in wave (4,4)

S(TOW| A)WAY — {TOW (tug) + A (one)} contained in (caught in) SWAY (wave)

5a	Turned on after murmuring sound, // relax (4,2)

COO|L IT — LIT (turned on) following (after) COO (murmuring sound)

9a	Service carrier // breaking a treaty (3,4)

{TEA TRAY}* — anagram of (breaking) A TREATY

10a	Went overboard with biblical man’s // various duties (3,4)

ODD| JOB|S — ODD (went overboard; OD'D or overdosed)^* + (with) JOB (biblical man) + S ('s)

^* my best guess; any other ideas?

11a	Turned back completely: zero // available (2,3)

{ON TAP}< — reversal of (turned back) {PAT (completely; as in "to have something down pat") + NO (zero; as in "zero chance")}

12a	Resemble // spud with fake plastic stuffing (4,5)

TA({KE AF}*)TER — TATER (spud) containing (with ... stuffing) anagram of (plastic) FAKE

13a	Playwright // reworked Ocean World (4,6)

{NOEL COWARD}* — anagram of (reworked) OCEAN WORLD

16a	Car company with one // agent (1-3)

G-M|AN — GM (car company) + (with) AN (one)

G-man^[2] (likely short for Government man) is US slang for an agent of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).

18a	Future // portion of October (2-2)

_TO-BE_ — hidden in (portion of) OcTOBEr

19a	Screenager adapted // old TV sitcom (5,5)

{GREEN ACRES}* — anagram of (adapted) SCREENAGER

Yes, it exists!
Screenager[5] is an informal term for a person in their teens or early twenties who has an aptitude for computers and spends a lot of time on the internet.

22a	Small characters // wore laces undone (5,4)

{LOWER CASE}* — anagram of (undone) WORE LACES

24a	Note // 50 in 500 overweight (1,4)

D|-F(L)AT — L ([Roman numeral] 50) contained in (in) {D ([Roman numeral] 500) + FAT (overweight)}

26a	Treat wet hair // by taking short drive (4-3)

B(LOW| DR)Y — BY (†) containing (taking) {LOW (short) + DR (drive; abbreviation on street signs)

27a	Outstanding player // left second, getting in place for a sacrifice (3-4)

AL(L|-S)TAR — {L(eft) + S(econd)} contained in (getting in) ALTAR (place for a sacrifice)

28a	Endlessly spin around masculine // fitness buff (3,3)

GY(M) RAT_ — GYRAT[E] (spin) with the final letter removed (endlessly) containing (around) M (masculine; abbreviation used in grammar)

29a	Cover assumed by unaccompanied // gangster (2,6)

AL (CAP)ONE — CAP (cover) contained in (assumed by) ALONE (unaccompanied)

Down

1d	Planted outside, it would // take a load off (3,4)

S(IT D)OWN — SOWN (planted) containing (outside) ITD (it would; contracted as "it'd")

2d	1960s fad: // love and leave (2,3)

O|P ART — O (love; nil score in tennis) + (and) PART (leave)

3d	Gap // quickly filled by US tax collection agency (3,5)

A(IR S)PACE — APACE (quickly) containing (filled by) IRS (US tax collection agency; Internal Revenue Service)

4d	Yeats moved // so far (2,3)

{AS YET}* — anagram of (moved) YEATS

Scratching the Surface
W. B. Yeats[5] (1865–1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923; full name William Butler Yeats.

6d	Overly familiar // after introductions, hold chat (3,3)

_OLD|_HAT — [H]OLD [C]HAT with the initial letters of both words deleted (after introductions)

7d	Circus performer // adjusted normal tie (4,5)

{LION TAMER}* — anagram of (adjusted) NORMAL TIE

8d	Trial // going through pirate’s trunk (4,3)

TEST RUN — hidden in (going through) piraTES TRUNk

10d	A king in Old Testament regarding eastern // symbol of strength (3,4)

O(A|K) T|RE|E — {A (†) + K (king; chess notation or symbol on a playing card)} contained in (in) OT (Old Testament) + RE (regarding) + E(astern)

14d	Lower boom, exercising // freedom to move (5,4)

{ELBOW ROOM}* — anagram of (exercising) LOWER BOOM

15d	Boomer’s predecessor // suspicious about a BB shot (3,4)

WAR (BAB*)Y — WARY (suspicious) containing (about) anagram of (shot) {A BB}

17d	Moreover, Florida’s beset by ocean // crustacean (4,4)

S(AND| FL)EA — {AND (moreover) + FL (Florida)} contained in (beset by) SEA (ocean)

18d	Shaking KGB tail, // boast (4,3)

{TALK BIG}* — anagram of (shaking) KGB TAIL

20d	Released // group admission price around mid-april (3,4)

SET| F(R)EE — SET (group) + FEE (admission price) containing (around) R (mid-April; middle letter of ApRil)

21d	Pronounced gloomy weather // first-rate (5,1)

{GRADE A}~ — sounds like (pronounced) GREY DAY (gloomy weather)

Note to American readers: In Canada, "grey" is spelled with an "e". The "a" spelling is an Americanism.

23d	Jannings receives a // message online (1-4)

E-MAIL — EMIL (Jannings) containing (receives) A (†)

Emil Jannings^[7] (1884–1950) was a German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood; born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor (1927/28) for his roles in The Last Command (1928) and The Way of All Flesh (1927). No copy of the latter film is known to exist.

25d	Dismiss // French article on true Japanese game (3,2)

LE|T| GO — LE (French [definite] article) + (on) T(rue) + GO^[7] (Japanese [board] game)

Epilogue

Canadian readers, I'm sure, will need no explanation of a double-double — a Tim Hortons^[7] coffee with double sugar-double cream.

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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