Handshake line (Solution No. 3,287)

Congratulations to the Blackhawks.  It's not often that you see both teams pulling their goaltender at the end of the game, but it happened tonight when the Hawks got the tying and Cup-winning goals within 17 seconds.  I liked the promo the NHL ran a few times during the broadcast, showing some famous players like Lanny McDonald in the post-game handshake line, with the tagline: "it isn't yours until you shake on it."

On to the week's puzzle, which was another one that will give the purists fits.

Themework: none, other than the circular cross-reference.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): very hard

Political or musical content: none

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,287 below the fold.

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; “§” heteronym, “¶“ letter bank

Across

1a	REF | RES | HERS	REF (“official”) + RES (“notes” [musical]) + HERS (“that woman’s”)
6a	TAL_ | C	TAL_l_ (“high,” omission of last letter indicated by “mostly”) + C (“cold”)
10a	*METER MAID	*DREAMTIME (cross-reference 28a, anagram indicated by “unfortunately”)
11a	*NYLO | N	*ONLY (anagram indicated by “coiled”) + ^N^eatly (first letter indicated by “at first”)
12a	~LUKE	~*CLUE (homonym and anagram indicated by “using a phonetic anagram”)
13a	EXECUTIVE	Pun
15a	REI(G)NS	G (“$1,000”) contained in (“in”) REINS (“checks”)
17a	BACKSTAB	Inverted clue: “bats” is the reversal (BACK) of STAB
20a	H(AIR | C)UTS	HUTS (“primitive dwellings”) containing (“adopting”) AIR (†) + ^C^onditioning (first letter indicated by “to start”) Have to be careful with this clue: at first I jumped to put an AC in it.
21a	*SENIOR	*OLDER (anagram indicated by “unacceptably”) 17 and 21 refer to the typical ages of high school and college seniors.
23a	IMP | ROMP | TU	IMP (“urchin”) + ROMP (“the first answer”: cross-reference to 1d) + TU (“you in Mexico”: Spanish language) I don’t think anyone is going to get this from the wordplay first: the crossing letters are how they’ll solve it, and then if they go back to try and parse the answer they’ll find the cross-reference.
25a	GAME	Double definition. Exclamation point since the phrase makes both definitions.
27a	HON | DA	HON (“sweetheart”) + DA (“lawyer”)
28a	*DREAMTIME	*METER MAID (cross-reference 10a, anagram indicated by “cataclysmic”) Well-hidden indicator.
29a	PALM	Double definition
30a	<SYN< THE SIZE	<NYS< (“New York’s,” reversal indicated by “in return”) + THE SIZE (“the magnitude”)

Down

1d	ROM}P}	}P}ROM (“formal dance,” relocation of first letter indicated by “opening ... postponed”)
2d	*FETTUCINI	*CUT IT FINE (anagram indicated by “chopped up”) Nice anagram.
3d	E | ERIE	E (“eastern”) + ERIE Ugly fill.
4d	HEAVE | N	HEAVE (“toss”) + N (“nitrogen”) This had me misdirected for a while, thinking “in the” indicated a container
5d	~RED CEDAR	~READ SEEDER (“interpreted” + “planting device”, homophone indicated by “in conversation”) This takes a while to parse correctly.
7d	AD | LAI_	AD (“commercial”) + LAI_d_ (“put down,” omission of last letter indicated by “nearly”) Answer refers to 1952 presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.
8d	CANTER | BURY	CANTER (“gallop slowly”) + BURY (“hide”) Definition cross-references 14d
9d	UN}BUCK{LE	UN{C}LE (“Tom or Sam,” replacement of C with BUCK indicated by “swapping $100 for a dollar”)
14d	ARCH(BI)SHOP	BI (“attracted to both sexes”) contained in (“in”) ARCH (“saucy”) + SHOP (“business”) “Saucy” for “arch” is a little obscure
16d	*NICHOLAS	*CONS HAIL (anagram indicated by “reformed”)
18d	TRI(U)M | VI(R)I	TRIM (“barber”) containing (“keeps”) U (“up”) + VII (“seven”) containing (“holding”) ^R^ome (first letter indicated by “leadership”)
19d	STU(PI)DLY	PI (“irrational” [number]) contained by (“exterior”) STUDLY (“sexy, well-built”)
22d	LU | CENT	CENT (“penny”) following (“beneath”) ^LU^ge (“Olympic sled”, first two letters indicated by “front half”)
24d	PAN | EL	PAN (“criticize”) + EL (“train”) Notice to constructors: in Chicago, it’s the “L”;  in Philly, it’s the “El” (which actually is underground through Center City)
25d	<G(IMM)E<	EG (“for example”) containing (“covering”) MMI (“2001”), reversal of the whole thing indicated by “retrospective”
26d	GENE	Double definition Gene Wilder, actor