1 1 1 (Solution No. 3,270)

I'm one of the few people who can explain the two-line pass, the LBW law (cricket: leg before wicket),  the concept of "right of way" in fencing (I made my debut as an fencing referee Thursday night, not that I plan to do more except in very informal circumstances), and the ordinal system in figure skating, but there was no difficulty in figuring out the results of the adult pre-bronze event at Keystone State Games this weekend: congratulations to The Other Doctor Mitchell, who made her salchow and did her best competitive skate ever to outdo a couple of younger skaters and win gold.

Working out all the answers to this week's The Nation cryptic was a pretty rewarding experience too.  Well worth the extra time to parse out the indicators as well as the wordplay. The answers are below the fold.

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/blog/172573/gratitude

Themework: 1a 13a 23a form a three word phrase made up of three anagrams

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): easy after you get the theme answer

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

Across

1a 13a 23a	DISCOUNTER INTRODUCES REDUCTIONS	“Redistributing assets each time” indicates that the same letters are to be used for all parts of the answer.
6a	N | ARC	throw^N^ (last letter indicated by “finally”) + ARC (“a curve”)
9a	A(B)IDE	AIDE (“assistant”) containing (“protecting”) ^B^rown (first letter indicated by “head”)
10a	W | <ATERG< | ATE	W (“with”) + <GRETA< (“Garbo”, reversal indicated by “making a comeback”) + ATE (“devoured”)
12a	*THUS	*SHUT (anagram indicated by “out”)
13a	see 1a
15a	MASS | *MEDIA	MASS (“Sunday event”) + *AIMED (anagram indicated by “deviously”)
17a	~RIME	~RHYME (reference to Robert Frost, poet)
19a	*NADIR	*DRAIN (anagram indicated by “busted”)
21a	LAND | S | CAPE	LAND (“alight”) + S CAPE (“two elements of Superman’s outfit”: the big S and the cape)
23a	see 1a
25a	~FIJI	~FEE (“expense”) + ~GEE (“golly!”)
27a	*MELODR | AMA	*REMOLD (anagram indicated by “dramatically”) + AMA (“doctor’s organization”)
28a	IN | D(I)E	Fugaz^I^ (last letter indicated by “at last”) contained in (“breaks into”) IN (“Indiana”) + DE (“Delaware”)
29a	N | ADA	unprove^N^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) + A (†) + DA (“prosecutor”)
30a	FAT | HOM_LESS	FAT (“obese”) + HOM_e_LESS (“vagabond,” omission of E indicated by “loses energy”)

Down

1d	DRAFTSMAN	Pun. This one had me thrown for a while: I was looking for the name of an artist.
2d	<SLIPUP< | S	<PUPILS< (“students”, reversal indicated by “climbing”) + ^S^chool (first letter indicated by “principal”) Good clue.
3d	_OBEY_	pr_OBE Y_ou (hidden word indicated by “internally”)
4d	NO WIN	NOW IN (heteronym: see http://www.thenation.com/blog/169422/hetero)
5d	*ENTERTAIN	*TREAT NINE (anagram indicated by “nuts”)
7d	*A(NARC)HY	*HAY (anagram indicated by “tossed”) containing (“around”) NARC (cross-reference to 6a) Some British constructors make extensive use of these cross references or use a cross-reference as the hint to a clue.
8d	~CHEWS	~CHOOSE (homonym indicated by “it’s said”)
11d	*RED CRO | SS	*RECORD (anagram indicated by “broken”) + SS (“social security)
14d	<EMBRACED<	<DE-CARB ME< (pun, reversal indicated by “retroactive”)
16d	*DALAI LAMA	**A MILD (letter bank indicated by “draw as needed”) Second letter bank in a few weeks, maybe time for a new symbol?
18d	*EYELINERS	*SERENELY I (anagram indicated by “mixed”)
20d	DID | D | LED	DID (“accomplished”) + ^D^og (first letter indicated by “face”) + LED (“moved to the front”) This was baffling if you’d never heard of a dogface (a GI or soldier), and misdirecting if you had.
22d	<A | RIA | DNE<	<END (“finish”) + AIR (“broadcast”) + A (†)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “rising”
23d	*ROMAN	*OR MAN (anagram indicated by “in translation”)
24d	_NEATH_	underli_NE A TH_eoretical (hidden word indicated by “connection”)
26d	FIR | M	FIR (“wood”) + ^M^arble (first letter indicated by “top”)