Saturday, January 22, 2022 — Kindergarten Rivalry (NP 220122)

Note to Readers

Following an announcement a week ago that due to copyright concerns the blog would no longer post a copy of the Cox and Rathvon puzzle, Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon (the setters of the puzzle) reached out to the blog indicating that they do not object to the blog posting a copy of the puzzle to which they own the copyright. Out of respect to the interests of the National Post, we have mutually agreed that the blog will delay posting a copy of the puzzle until one week following its appearance in the National Post. You can read more about this decision and the events leading up to it at An Exciting New Development. I am sure the hundreds of Hex fans who visit the blog every week join me in extending our sincere appreciation to Emily and Henry for their gracious gesture in allowing the puzzle to continue to be posted on this blog.

You can find a copy of the puzzle that the National Post published last week (which I have labelled NP 220115) at Hex Cryptic Crossword NP 220115 (Cox and Rathvon) and a review of it at Saturday, January 15, 2022 — Not a Morning Puzzle.

The review for today's puzzle (NP 220122) will be posted later today with the puzzle itself being posted next Saturday.

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon (which I have given the identifying number NP 220122 in an effort to provide an easy way to distinguish it from previous and subsequent puzzles) is a bit of a mixed bag. It is sort of like an abstract painting—every observer can see something different portrayed in it.

As some readers appear to be having difficulties printing the puzzle in PressReader or are getting a poor quality printout, I have prepared a detailed tutorial on Printing the Puzzle in PressReader.

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	Play area // forbade footwear as described by Rev. Spooner (7)

SANDBOX — as the esteemed reverend might mangle (as described by Rev. Spooner) the phrase{BANNED (forbade) + SOCKS (footwear)}

The Rev. W. A. Spooner has bequeathed to us the name for a slip of the tongue that is oft-encountered in cryptic crosswords. (show more )

William Archibald Spooner^[7] (1844–1930) was a long-serving Oxford don, notable for absent-mindedness, and supposedly liable to transpose the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, with unintentionally comic effect, as in the sentence you have hissed the mystery lectures. Such phrases became known as spoonerisms^[5], and are often used humorously. Many spoonerisms have been invented by others and falsely attributed to Spooner.

Spooner^[a] held a Doctor of Divinity degree and thus was entitled to be called Dr. Spooner. Therefore, in crossword clues, you may often find him referred to as either "Rev. Spooner" or "Dr. Spooner".

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^[a] Dr. Spooner of Oxford: An outline biography, age-of-the-sage.org

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5a	Attacked // a Doctor wearing headwear (3,2)

H(A|D) AT) — {A (†) + D (Doctor; as in Ph.D.)} contained in (wearing) HAT (headwear)

9a	Strain small bite, withdrawing // seed found in pesto (4,3)

{PIN|E NUT}< — reversal of (withdrawing) {TUNE (strain; melody) + NIP (small bite)}

10a	Erasing // “Stand” band track (7)

REM|OVAL — REM ("Stand" band) + OVAL (track)

"Stand"^[7] is a song by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released as the second single from the album Green in 1989.

11a	Sort of printer // changed art to dim “X” (3,6)

{DOT MATRIX}* — anagram of (changed) ART TO DIM X

12a	Guy going around the Italian // capital of Lombardy (5)

M(IL)AN — MAN (guy) containing (going around) IL (the Italian; Italian masculine singular definite article)

13a	Performance by a parrot // repeating note and shout (7)

MI|MI|CRY — {MI + MI} (repeating note; two instances of the third note of a musical scale) + (and) CRY (shout)

15a	Spread out, // hurried around place (7)

SP(LAY)ED — SPED (hurried) containing (around) LAY (place)

17a	Glanced // about Italy’s capital by day (7)

CA|ROME|D — CA (about; circa) + ROME (Italy's capital) + (by) D(ay)

20a	Tank fire surrounding one papal palace (7)

VAT(I)CAN — {VAT (tank) + CAN (fire; dismiss from employment)} containing (surrounding) I ([Roman numeral] one)

22a	Fan // left on (5)

L|OVER — L(eft) + OVER (on; above)

23a	Bar has odd new // panel with gauges (9)

DASHBOARD* — anagram of (new) BAR HAS ODD

25a	Observatory // familiar with Khayyam the astronomer (7)

PAL|OMAR — PAL (familiar; as a noun) + (with) OMAR (Khayyam the astronomer; Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam)

The Mount Palomar Observatory, which has a large (200-inch) reflecting telescope, is situated on Mount Palomar^[10], a mountain in southern California, northeast of San Diego.

26a	Turkey’s leader and caliph outlaw // Islamist group (7)

T|ALI|BAN — T (Turkey's leader [initial letter]) + (and) ALI (caliph) + BAN (outlaw)

Ali^[5] (c.600–661 AD) was the fourth caliph [until the early twentieth century, the chief Muslim civil and religious leader], cousin of Muhammad [Arab prophet and the founder of Islam] and husband of the prophet's daughter Fatima. Ali is regarded by Shiite Muslims as Muhammad's first true successor.

27a	Encumbered // Los Angeles study (5)

LA|DEN — LA (Los Angeles) + DEN (study)

28a	Returned uncooked fruit, losing one // power struggle (4,3)

{T||URF| WAR}< — reversal of (returned) {RAW (uncooked) + FRU[I]T (†) with the I ([Roman numeral] one) removed (losing one)}

Down

1d	Holy place // cuts man off (7)

SANCTUM* — anagram of (off) CUTS MAN

2d	Martial arts expert // Jack introduced to explorer’s ship (5)

NIN(J)A — J (Jack; playing card) contained in (introduced to) NINA (explorer's ship; the explorer being Christopher Columbus)

3d	Commit treachery, capturing a // radioactive emission (4,3)

BET(A) RAY — BETRAY (commit treachery) containing (capturing) A (†)

4d	Duplicates // ring kept by Persian king (7)

XER(O)XES — O ([letter that looks like a] ring) contained in (kept by) XERXES (Persian king)

5d	Breakfast // bagel yours truly fed to Danish prince (3,6)

HAM (O|ME)LET — {O ([letter that looks like a] bagel) + ME (yours truly)} contained in (fed to) HAMLET (Danish prince)

6d	Wicked, getting into unproductive // mischief (7)

D(EVIL)RY — EVIL (wicked) contained in (getting into) DRY (unproductive; like a cow or an oil well)

7d	Something sharp // embedded in ornamental onion (5)

TAL|ON — hidden in (embedded in) ornamenTAL ONion

8d	Widespread // tale about Moore of moviedom (8)

EPI(DEMI)C — EPIC (tale) containing (about) DEMI (Moore of moviedom; American actress Demi Moore^[7])

14d	Photographers // arrived with noodle soup (9)

CAME|RAMEN — CAME (arrived) + (with) RAMEN (noodle soup)

16d	Racket by percussion instrument absorbing poor fool (4-4)

DIN|G-(D)ONG — DIN (racket) + (by) GONG (percussion instrument) containing (absorbing) D (poor [academic grade])

18d	Scorned // rescue from the rear (7)

REVILED< — reversal of (from the rear) DELIVER (rescue)

19d	French philosopher // made central theme “decay” (7)

DID|E|ROT — DID (made) + E (central [middle letter of] thEme) + ROT (decay)

Denis Diderot^[5] (1713–1784) was a French philosopher, writer, and critic. (show more )

A leading figure of the Enlightenment in France, he was principal editor of the Encyclopédie (1751–76), through which he disseminated and popularized philosophy and scientific knowledge. Other notable works: Le Rêve de D'Alembert (1782) and Le Neveu de Rameau (1805).

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20d	Shade enveloping Italian // guest (7)

VIS(IT)OR — VISOR (shade) containing (enveloping) IT (Italian)

21d	Scramble // chlorine with old resin (7)

CL|AMBER — CL ([chemical symbol for] chlorine) + (with) AMBER (old resin)

Amber^[5] is hard translucent fossilized resin originating from extinct coniferous trees of the Tertiary period, typically yellowish in colour. It has been used in jewellery since antiquity.

22d	Lines about monkey // suit feature (5)

L(APE)L — {L + L} (lines) containing (about) APE (monkey)

24d	Under // end of bridge in windstorm (5)

B(E)LOW — E (end [final letter] of bridgE) contained in (in) BLOW (windstorm)

Epilogue

Finding a theme in today's puzzle is a bit like the blind men describing an elephant^*. Richard saw the "dot" and "dash" and thought of Morse code; Peter detected references to the Taliban and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden; there are also several references to Italy, as well as to various religions.

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^* Being blind, they were guided by their sense of touch and, depending on which part of the beast they touched, they had vastly different perceptions ranging from a thick snake (the trunk), a fan (an ear), a tree trunk (a leg), a wall (a side), a rope (the tail) to a hard, smooth spear (a tusk).

While Richard may well have twigged to the setters' intended theme, I've elected to base the title on the symmetrically opposed 1a and 28a—which themselves might suggest a golf course theme (although I've gone in a different direction with them).

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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