Thank you to Carpathian. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Difficult assignment from High Command (4,5)
TALL ORDER : Cryptic defn: What you might call an assignment/order from High/tall Command.
6. Endless animal hunting expedition from a distance (4)
AFAR : 1st and last letters deleted from(Endless) “safari”(an expedition to hunt animals in their natural habitat).
10. Turn trophy around four (5)
PIVOT : POT(informal term for a “trophy”/prize in a sporting contest) containing(around) IV(Roman numeral for “four”).
11. Artist trapped in latched, damaged place of worship (9)
CATHEDRAL : RA(abbrev. for “Royal Academician”, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts/an artist) contained in(trapped in) anagram of(…, damaged) LATCHED.
12. Be taken in by fellow in favour of embracing everyone (4,3)
FALL FOR : [ F(abbrev. for “Fellow”) + FOR(in favour of/supporting) ] containing(embracing) ALL(everyone).
13. Laments of the French in unruly siege (7)
ELEGIES : LE(French for “the”) contained in(in) anagram of(unruly) SIEGE.
14. Time those people start to understand getting covered in sweet sauce to make a favourable impression (3,3,7)
CUT THE MUSTARD : [ T(abbrev. for “time”) + THEM(those people, in contrast to “us”) + 1st letter of(start to) “understand” ] contained in(getting covered in) CUSTARD(sweet/dessert sauce).
17. Spin around with one sound that’s motivating (13)
INSPIRATIONAL : Anagram of(… around) SPIN plus(with) I(Roman numeral for “one”) + RATIONAL(sound/based on valid reason).
21. Remove fly (4,3)
TAKE OFF : Double defn.
22. Revealed black labrador base (7)
BLABBED : B(abbrev. for “black”) + LAB(abbrev. for “Labrador dog”) + BED(base/bottom layer).
Defn: … by indiscreet talk.
24. Train Bill to become scintillating (9)
BRILLIANT : Anagram of(… to become) TRAIN BILL.
Defn: …/very bright.
25. Below part of certain fragment (5)
INFRA- : Hidden in(part of) “certain fragment”.
Defn: A prefix meaning ….
26. Exercise cyborg regularly accepted (4)
YOGA : 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(… regularly) “cyborg” + A(abbrev. for “accepted” – would be grateful if someone could give an example of this usage).
27. Wrong individual unfortunately sourer outside (9)
ERRONEOUS : ONE(individual/sole) contained in(… outside) anagram of(unfortunately) SOURER.
Down
1. Georgia perhaps is kind and brave (8)
TYPEFACE : TYPE(a kind/a sort) plus(and) FACE(to brave/to stand up to courageously).
Defn: Font, an example of which/perhaps is “Georgia”.
2. Left the day before with latitude to get even (5)
LEVEL : L(abbrev. for “left”) + EVE(the day before an event or occasion) plus(with) L(abbrev. for “latitude”).
Defn: …/equally balanced.
3. Fantastic Four withstood upset involving lasers initially (3,2,4,5)
OUT OF THIS WORLD : Anagram of(… upset) FOUR WITHSTOOD containing(involving) 1st letter of(… initially) “lasers”.
4. Strange code, strange protocol (7)
DECORUM : Anagram of(Strange) CODE + RUM(strange/odd).
5. Bad people trim tip off pig’s feet (7)
ROTTERS : 1st letter deleted from(trim tip off) “trotters”(pig’s feet).
7. Wanting to have recent US president accepting Democrat is unlawful (9)
FORBIDDEN : FOR(wanting/intending to have, as in “I’m for the cherry pie for dessert”) + BIDEN(Joe, recent US president) containing(accepting) D(abbrev. for “Democrat”, a member of the Democratic Party).
8. Enjoy flavour (6)
RELISH : Double defn.
9. Sweeping statement sadly alienating Rose (14)
GENERALISATION : Anagram of(sadly) ALIENATING ROSE.
15. Sparkling double sovereign covering pound (9)
TWINKLING : TWIN(double/consisting of an identical pair) + KING(a sovereign) containing(covering) L(or £, symbol for “pound sterling”).
16. Laggard’s fancy, fancy clothing (4,4)
GLAD RAGS : Anagram of(… fancy) LAGGARD’S.
18. Annoy popular celebrity crossing line (7)
INFLAME : IN(popular/fashionable) + FAME(celebrity/stardom) containing(crossing) L(abbrev. for “line”).
19. Judge cooked rarebit (7)
ARBITER : Anagram of(cooked) RAREBIT.
20. Small, fat, short, thick and strong (6)
STUBBY : S(abbrev. for “small”) + TUBBY(fat and short).
Defn: …/thickset.
23. Highly successful bachelor away with love (5)
BOFFO : B(abbrev. for “Bachelor”) + OFF(away/not here) plus(with) O(letter representing 0/love in tennis scores).
Defn: North American slang for ….
scchua -I am so sorry – I did try emailing you earlier when I saw the placeholder, but I had a total brainfart and blogged this as it came out.
Nho BOFFO – maybe a US indicator was necessary.
We’re listening to the Tiffany Aching series currently. Terry Pratchett aficionados will recognise Boffo as the witches’ product catalogue.
BOFFO I’m sure has been used in Wodehouse plenty, I know it comes up in one of the ‘Hitch-Hiker’s’ novels by Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett used Boffo as his joke shop in Ankh-Morpork. I’ve never been further west than Cork and I got it.
A is used as an abbreviation for ‘accepted’ in university applications. Thanks for the blog.
Lots of fun, straightforward, even got 23d from the wordplay despite being a NHO!
I enjoyed solving almost all of this, for a change, with the help of crossers. Some amusing clues, but also didn’t know Boffo.
I feel like BOFFO is a Variety-ism. The US magazine Variety is a trade paper for the acting profession (both stage and screen), and is notorious for using its own unique lingo, based on the slang of the theatre profession in the early 20th century. Because of the influence that film actors have on culture in general, a lot of Variety’s lingo leaked into general usage, some of it briefly, some of it more lastingly. And yes, while writing this I looked it up and can confirm that BOFFO came to us from Variety. Anyway, you won’t hear it in everyday usage anywhere in America.
NHO BOFFO but could figure it out. Likewise, I don’t see how accepted=a in 26A. Liked 10A and 14A.
This was probably my fastest ever solve in the quiptic but very enjoyable. Like everyone else I’ve never heard of BOFFO but with the crossers you can’t not solve it.
Not sure about the parsing of STUBBY; surely tubby just means fat not short, but STUBBY fingers are short and thick. But then I don’t get why strong is needed. This is the only clue that held me up as I thought it would be stable and I couldn’t parse it (I know stable isn’t exactly strong but we can thank the maybot for that connection being forever etched in my mind)
Thank you Scchua and Carpathian. Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and managed to get through it, albeit with the help of the thesaurus. INFRA is actually the way people here in Japan refer to Infrastructure, so perhaps for this reason, it came to be almost immediately, but actually I had never heard of INFRA as a prefix meaning. Never heard of BOFFO either. I agree it’s perhaps a bit too obscure for a Quiptic, but I suppose you have to include at least one obscure one or it’s too easy right. Still able to work out the answer through the parsing somehow. The top part of the puzzle went in super fast and then I started to slow down a bit but I never really got seriously stuck on any of the clues, which is probably thanks to the large number of anagrams.
STUBBY: “short, thick and strong” is the definition.
I notice that FORBIDDEN meshes two former presidents, but cluing the word as such might be tricky.
Had to reveal BOFFO, but everything else was smooth. Maybe I’m starting to get the hang of cryptic crosswords.