Editing (Solution No. 3,282)

Over the weekend I solved several more of Tom Toce's puzzles (see last weekend's Sunday brunch).  I'll share some observations from the experience this week.  First, there were sometimes errors in the grids like a number in the wrong place, or errors in the instructions, such as a count of the number of proper nouns or other non-standard entries.  There were also some clues which weren't quite right.

What I realized was that Toce is a pretty creative constructor (he admits he's partial to unusual grids): he  just needs a good editor.  He's got test solvers who catch the big errors and make suggestions for improvements, but that's not the same as editing.  A good puzzle editor picks at all the details and spruces up clues as necessary.  From what I've read, Will Shortz as an editor is more inclined to change constructors' clues, particularly when editing the New York Times crossword.  

As long as the editor respects the constructor's style, it doesn't matter to me whether an editor is heavy-handed or just makes gentle suggestions, but it can be jarring to read an article written in two distinct voices.  Maybe Toce can assemble a collection of puzzles to sell through Puzzazz.  If he does, he'd be wise to engage Hot and Trazom (who edited the NPL cryptic collection) or some other editor to go over his puzzles first.  

On to the solution of this week's The Nation cryptic.     

Themework:  I don't know if Hot and Trazom intended it this way, but they paid tribute to the solvers in 1a, 19a, 28a.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  Moderate

Political content:  Not 18a! 

Musical content: 10a

Solution and annotation below the fold.

Solution to The Nation puzzle No. 3,282, constructed by Hot and Trazom

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, "¶" letter bank, "§" heteronym

Across

1a	<GAME<	<”E-MAG”< (“online periodical”, reversal indicated by “backwards”)
3a	*PROVIDENCE	*PEN DIVORCE (anagram indicated by “revision”)
10a	O(*EDI)PUS	*DIE (anagram indicated by “tragically”) contained in (“interrupting”) OPUS (“work”)
11a	SAW | LOGS	SAW (“spotted”) + LOGS (“records”)
12a	*NUMERO UNO	*ON OUR MENU (anagram indicated by “crackers”)
13a	I | DING	^I^ndentation (first letter indicated by “front of”) + DING (“minor surface damage”)
14a	PS | ALMS	PS (“an afterthought”) + ALMS (“something offered to the poor”)
16a	S_N | ITCHES	S_ki_N (omission of middle letters indicated by “superficially”) + ITCHES (“irritations”)
18a	*CABIN BOY	*ICON BABY OR (anagram indicated by “revolutionary”) I was stuck for a long time since I thought “Cuban” for “revolutionary icon.”
19a	<_PENCIL_<	<catho_LIC NEP_hew< (reversal indicated by “left-leaning”, hidden word indicated by “embraces”)
22a	BE}L{CH	BE{n}CH (“backup players”, replacement of N with L indicated by “if thu^N^ders center were left”
23a	LEI | SURELY	LEI (“vacation souvenir”) + SURELY (“indeed”)
25a	CON | FUSE	Pun: CON (prisoners) + FUSE (a short fuse meaning a potentially-violent temper)
26a	POP S | TAR	POPS (“father’s”) + TAR (“pitch”)
27a	*ELEMENTARY	*ALERT ENEMY (anagram indicated by “in turmoil”)
28a	G | RID	^G^et (first letter indicated by “at first”) + RID (“free”)

Down

1d	GRO(W_N)UP	W_oman’_S (first and last letters indicated by “clothing”) contained in (“in”) GROUP (“set”)
2d	MAD | AM	MAD (“crazy”) + AM (“morning”)
4d	RISQUE	R IS (†) + QUE (“what in Spanish”)
5d	}V{ISCOUNT	{d}ISCOUNT (“price markdown”, replacement of D [500] with V [5] indicated by “initially reduced by 99%”
6d	DOWN | IN THE DUMPS	DOWN (“feathers”) + IN THE DUMPS (“found at landfills”)
7d	*NEOLITHIC	*CHILI NOTE (anagram indicated by “its gone bad”)
8d	ENSIGNS	Visual pun: EN-SIGNS: the picture is of semaphore signals for N
9d	A | PART(MENT HO_) | USE	A PART (“a role”) + USE (“exploit”) containing MENTHO_l_ (“flavor in cigarettes,” omission of last letter indicated by “largely”)
15d	*AMBULANCE	*LAB ACUMEN (anagram indicated by “unusual”)
17d	JOL(LIES)T	JOLT (“cause a shock) containing (“on the outside”) LIES (“stories”)
18d	*CU(BIC)LE	*CLUE (anagram indicated by “treacherous”) containing (“about”) BIC (“writing implement”)
20d	*LA(Y)ERED	*DEALER (anagram indicated by “shady”) containing (“hides”) mone^Y^ (last letter indicated by “last bit”)
21d	<DIAPER<	<REPAID< (“made good,” reversal indicated by “in return”)
24d	_EATER	N_EATER (“more tidy,” omission of first letter indicated by “when starting late”)