Opinion from Volatile Russian Leader (Cryptic)

Words: 10 (5×5)

Average Length: 4.80

Today’s puzzle is a cryptic mini. I’ll explain the clues below, but first I want to plug a poem I posted last week. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

Our three-year-old granddaughter and one-year old grandson live with us, and I’m always surprised and tickled by things our granddaughter says.  (Our grandson also is talkative, but not in any comprehensible language – except that when he wants something, he says “zhie zhie,” so I’ll give him credit for “thank you” in Mandarin, perhaps spoken in a past life.)

Among my granddaughter’s fascinations are animals, about which she confidently voices manifold opinions and “facts.”  Three of her recent observations formed the seed for this poem, Learning About Animals from My Three-Year-Old Granddaughter, Ella.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled crossword blog, with an explanation of the clues in today’s puzzle. In a cryptic clue, a word or phrase acts as the definition, and the remainder of the clue is a form of wordplay – anagram, container, homonym, reversal, etc – from which you have to derive the answer.

1A: Opinion is the definition: the answer, “input,” is an anagram of Putin, the Russian leader. “Volatile” indicates an anagram

6A: The wordplay is a pun: Dancer, one of Santa’s reindeer, lives at the North Pole.

7A: Clichéd is the definition: “Trite,” the answer, comes from “true” (T) and “communion,” which is a rite.

8A: Noodles is the definition: “Ramen,” the answer, comes from “nurse” (RN) “outside” (surrounding) “Black church” (AME).

9A: Smell is the definition: “odor,” the answer, consists of letters contained in “good or bad”. “Some” often indicates a container clue.

1D: Lead is the definition: “intro,” the answer comes from reversing (“going up”) the state abbreviations from the bottom up to “one” (I).

2D: Defends the US and Canada is the definition: NORAD, the answer, comes from an anagram (signalled by “weirdly”) of Rando, an “unknown dude.”

3D: Top-notch is the definition: “Primo,” the answer, is formed from the first letters of the remaining words in the clue; “starters” is the indicator for this.

4D: Double definition

5D: Subsequently is the definition: “Then,” the answer, comes from removing “ed” (because of “Ed skips”) from “the end”