Opening the Crypt (Solution No. 3,277)

Apologies for posting delays: there've been connectivity issues around here the last coupla days.barga

Those of you who supported the Kickstarter for Patrick Berry's The Crypt should have received a bunch of PDFs yesterday.  My clipboard is nice and full now, and there's even a bonus 19 x 19: it's good to give the customer more than he bargained for.

The solution and annotation to this week's The Nation cryptic is below the fold.

Puzzle No. 3,277

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): moderate.  I sailed through much of the grid, then got stuck on 1d.  I also was stuck on 7d until I realized I had 12a wrong.

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, “¶“ letter bank

Across

1a	PASSING THE BAR	Double definition
9a	O | RATE	O (“zero”) + RATE (“value”)
10a	*ONION SALT	*LA NOTIONS (anagram indicated by “madcap”)
11a	H | AIRLINE	^H^ (“Houston”, first letter indicated by “chief of”) + AIRLINE (“transportation company”)
12a	C(AR)HOP	CHOP (“to cut”) containing (“around”) t^AR^t (middle two letters indicated by (“filling”) A carhop is the server in a drive-in restaurant
14a	TOKEN	Heteronym (TO KEN)
16a	BOO | BOIS(I)E	BOO (“show contempt for”) + BOISE (“western capital”) containing (“suppressing”) ^I^ntelligence (first letter indicated by “a hint of”) Nice connection between the answer and the word chosen to supply the I.  If you’re wondering, the word was coined by Mencken in 1922.  I couldn’t believe it was so old.
17a	SO | A | POP | ERA	POP (“father”) + ERA (“time”) following (“coming after”) SO (“such”) + A (†)
19a	_EXTRA_	compl_EX TRA_gedy (hidden word indicated by “appears in”)
22a	AU | THOR	THOR (“god”) following (“chasing”) + AU (“gold”) Good misdirection: presumably a reference to Stephen King, the popular novelist
23a	BAC_ | CARAT	BAC_k (“guarantee”, omission of last letter indicated by “largely”) + CARAT (“assessment of diamonds”)
26a	KNO(*W IT A)LL	*WAIT (anagram indicated by “awkward”) contained in (“amid”) KNOLL (“rise”)
27a	OP-I-UM	OP-TIM-UM (cross reference to 3d, “ideal”) substituting I for TIM (indicated by “if I were Tim”)
28a	<TIMO<N OF ATHENS	<OMIT< (“skip”, reversal indicated by “backward”) + NO (†) + FAT (“plump”) + HENS (“chickens”) The play is by Shakespeare.

Down

1d	~PROPHET	~PROFIT (“returns”, homonym indicated by “on the radio”)
2d	*SEASICK	*CAKE SIS (anagram indicated by “baked”)
3d	IDEAL	I DEAL (heteronym, reference to cutting a deck of cards)
4d	GROUND | BEE | F	GROUND (“street level”) + BEE (“buzzer”) + F (“loud”)
5d	~HEIR	~AIR (“a song”, homonym indicated by “heard”)
6d	BAN | GALORE	BAN (“suppression”) + GALORE (“aplenty”)
7d	REACHES	RE-ACHES (heteronym)
8d	*STAPLE	*PLATES (anagram indicated by “broken”)
13d	<RO(MAN A CLE)F<	MANCLE (“chain”) contained in (“in”) FOR (†, reversal indicated by “retrospective”)
15d	_NEO LOG IS M_	bor_NEO LOG IS M_alaysian (hidden word indicated by “in”)
17d	SPAN | KY	SPAN (“cross”) + KY (“Kentucky”)
18d	_ACT S OUT_	f_ACT SOUT_herner (hidden word indicated by “in”)
20d	*TER_ | MITE	MITE (“bug”) following (“in pursuit of”) *TRE_e (omission of last letter indicated by “almost”, anagram indicated by “chewed up”)
21d	*ARTEMIS	*IS TAMER (anagram indicated by “”)
24d	C | LOUT	^C^urtail (first letter indicated by “start to”) + LOUT (“brute”)
25d	_PAIN	s_PAIN (“European country”, omission of first letter indicated by “loss of leadership”)