25th (Solution no. 3,340)

The solution to puzzle no. 3,340 is below the fold.  

Tomorrow, The Other Doctor Mitchell and I officially celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary (we had the party yesterday, and I’ve been waiting for the pictures to show up).  She likes puzzles and games, but she’s not a crossword person.  That’s OK because she’s just about perfect in all other respects.

Good puzzle this week: couldn’t tell you too much on Thursday, or else I would have given away the theme.  (continued below the fold)


All the cross-referenced answers were six letter words of the form xISxxx, and to solve the clue using the cross-ref, you had to deconstruct the word and take it literally.  So FISCAL (8a) translates to “F IS CAL.”  That one gets used in 3d: “Stream is green if [8] F IS CAL.”  So you need to find a pair of words where Fxxx is “stream” and CALxxx is “green”: like “Flow” and “CALlow.’  I’ve used color to highlight the theme-related answers.

Legend: “*” anagram; “~” sounds like; “<“ letters reversed; “( )” letters inserted; “_” or lower case: letters deleted; “†” explicit in the clue, “^” first or last letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters; “§” heteronym, “¶” letter bank, “‡” Spoonerism

Across

8a	FISCAL	F (“failure”) + I (†) + SCAL_p (“resell for a large profit,” omission of last letter indicated by “almost”)
9a	*TWO-SIDED	*DOWDIEST (anagram indicated by “jockeys”)
10a	_EDDA_	ch_EDDA_r (hidden word indicated by “inscribed in”)
11a	WELL-S POKE N	WELLS (“British novelist”) + POKE (“to nudge”) + auste^N^ (last letter indicated by “in the rear”)
12a	*EMPHASIS	*MISSHAPE (anagram indicated by “foreign”)
14a	*DISAR M	*RAIDS (anagram indicated by “brutal”) + ^M^otion (first letter indicated by “introduction”) Another Freudian political slip?
16a	}D{ADA	{ARM}ADA (“fleet,” replacement of ARM with D indicated by 14–DISARM)
18a	_LUFFA_	f_LUFF A_lways (hidden word indicated by “involves”)
19a	}H{ATE	{SED}ATE (“unruffled,” replacement of SED with H indicated by 20–HISSED)
20a	*HISSED	*DISHES (anagram indicated by “breaking”)
21a	RAN*DOMLY	RAN (“managed”) + *MOLDY (anagram indicated by “garbage”)
23a	C(_OLL_)ARBON E	p_OLL_y (omission of first and last letters indicated by “undressed”) contained in (“wears”) CARBON (“e.g. a diamond”) + ^E^arring (first letter indicated by “initially”) Took me a while to see the wordplay here.
26a	DISH	Double definition A charger is the (sometimes decorative) plate that is in the place setting when you sit down to a formal dinner and then usually is taken away and replaced by dishes of food.
27a	<NA<RRATED	<AN< (“an article,” reversal indicated by “that’s regressive”) + R-RATED (“not suitable for everyone”)
28a	*EISNER	*I SNEER (anagram indicated by “rudely”)

Down

1d	~WISDOM	~WHIZZED (“moved swiftly”) + ~UM (†, homophone indicated by “that sounds like”)
2d	S(CRAP HE)APS	SAPS (“suckers”) containing (“swallowing”) CRAP (“nonsense”) + HE (“man”)
3d	}F{LOW	{CAL}LOW (“green,” replacement of CAL with F indicated by 8–FISCAL)
4d	A(*T A LOSS FOR WOR)DS	*SORROWS FLOAT (anagram indicated by “uncontrolled”) contained in (“in”) ADS (“commercials”)
5d	HOR(*SE-DRAW)N	*WAS RED (anagram indicated by “plastic”) contained in (“inside”) HORN (“telephone”)
6d	}W{INO	{DOM}INO (“green,” replacement of DOM with W indicated by 1–WISDOM)
7d	SEW ER R AT	SEW (“darn”) + ERR (“blunder”) + AT (“near”) My first inclination was to take the ‘a’ in the clue as the rebus piece and think this was a mistake
13d	SOL*IDAR(IT)Y	SOL (“note”) + IT (†) contained in (“in”) *DIARY (anagram indicated by “madman’s”)
15d	*SCHO(OL DE)SK	*SHOCKS (anagram indicated by “frightful”) containing (“engulfing”) OLD (“ancient”) + E (“eastern”)
17d	ARI <ZONA<N	ARI (“Aristotle”) + o^N^assis (second letter indicated indicated by “number 2”) containing (“taking”) <AN (†) + OZ (“ounce”)<, reversal of that phrase indicated by “up”
22d	*LISTEN	*TINSEL (anagram indicated by “tangled”)
24d	}L{URE	{TEN}URE (“protected status,” replacement of TEN with L indicated by 22–LISTEN)
25d	}E{VES	{NER}VES (“trepidation,” replacement of NER with E indicated by 28–EISNER)