A white Christmas in Glenside (Solution No. 3,265)

The forecast was for a rainy Christmas Eve here in Glenside, but when the family service was over and we went out from church, we were greeted with snow!  Real, brush it off the car window snow!  I threw one snowball, but after that I made snow pucks because my face-offs weren't very good this past weekend and the wet snow made a satisfying splat when slapped down on the pavement.

The Nation Cryptic Crossword No. 3,265

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  Hard.  I had 1a wrong at first, and it took me a while to work out the wordplay for 14a and 29a.  The only Mr. McGregor I could think of was the one in Peter Rabbit.

Political content: 7d

Musical content: 25d

solution and annotation to puzzle no. 3,265 below the fold

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

Across

1a	CHARLES [LAUGH]STON	CHARLESTON (“dance”) containing (“around”) LAUGH (†) Charles Laughston (1899-1962) is best known for Mutiny on the Bounty and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
9a	P[L]UMP	PUMP (“try and acquire information”) containing (“about”) L (“large”)
10a	RE[S]PELLED	REPELLED (“disgusted”) containing (“eating”) ^S^eafood (first letter indicated by “a bit of”) “Ghoti” is a piece of wordplay which is to be pronounced “fish.”  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti
11a	_IC_ | ELAND | _IC_	ELAND (“antelope”) with m_IC_e (middle letters indicated by “uncovered”) before and after (“on either side”)
12a	~LYRE	~LIAR (“storyteller”, homophone indicated by “heard”)
14a	AS | SU[MI]NG	AS (“playing”) + SUNG (“vocal”) containing (“involves”) MI (“musical note”)
16a	_ON EDGE_	pois_ONED GE_lato (hidden phrase indicated by “some”)
18a	*TRANCE	*CRETAN (anagram indicated by “wobbling”)
20a	FLU SH O[U]T	FLU SHOT (“medical precaution”) containing (“including”) U (“uranium”)
23a	~SEEN	~SCENE (homophone indicated by “listened to”)
24a	AL[MA MA]TER	MAMA (“Cass Elliott”) contained in (“invested in”) ALTER (“doctor”) Mama Cass (neé Ellen Naomi Cohen) sang with the pop group The Mamas and The Papas.
27a	*H[Y]GIENIST	Y (“yes”) contained in (“wearing”) *NIGHTIES (anagram indicated by “tattered”)
28a	R | AMEN	R (“right”) + AMEN (“you said it!”)
29a	~BARE NECESSITIES	~BARRY (Barry MacGregor, actor) + ~ASSESS (“evaluate”) + A TEASE (“a kid”)

Down

1d	CAP | RI P[ANT]S	CAP (Cap Weinberger, former US Secretary of Defense) | RIPS (“tears up”) containing (“about”) ANT (“army member”) Finally an instance where using “army member” to define ANT fits the rest of the clue instead of being just a cute attempt at misdirection.
2d	AM | USE	AM (“morning”) + USE (“application”)
3d	*LI[P B | A]LM	*MILL (anagram indicated by “dilapidated”) containing (“taking”) PB (“lead”) + A (†)
4d	^S^ | TRIDENT	^S^hive (first letter indicated by “initially”) + TRIDENT (“spear”) Usually, constructors use “fork” to clue TRIDENT, but “spear” is just as good.
5d	ALS | ACE	AL’S (Al Pacino, actor) | ACE (“hole in one”)
6d	*GRE[M]LIN	*LINGER (anagram indicated by “suspiciously”) containing (“to harbor”) ^M^alicious (first letter indicated by “origin”)
7d	<TA | L[K RAD]IO<	<OIL (†) + AT (“by”) containing (“cloaking”) DARK (“shadowy”), reversal of the whole construction indicated by “boost”
8d	*NUDE	*DUNE (anagram indicated by “shifting”)
13d	*NECTARINES	*TRANSIENCE (anagram indicated by “fragile”)
15d	S | C | AVENGER	S (“small”) + ^C^oyote (first letter indicated by “principal”) + AVENGER (“nemesis:”)
17d	*CLEMATIS	*CLIMATES (anagram indicated by “changing”) A clematis is a flowering vine: they’re very attractive on lampposts.
19d	CAN | TEEN	CAN (“fire”) + TEEN (“youngster”)
21d	*SAMURAI_	*US AIRMA_n_ (omission of N indicated by “but not navy”, anagram indicated by “betrayed”)
22d	MA | <NIAC<	<CAIN< (†, reversal indicated by “raised”), following (“south of”) MA (“Massachusetts”)
25d	<TEM< | PI	<MET< (“converged on,” reversal indicated by “on the rise”) + PI (“an irrational number”)
26d	AHA | ^B^	AHA (“I see”) + ^B^eluga (first letter indicated by “trace of”)