Silver! (Solution No. 3,289)

Sabers (right) with his first medal in an all-ages individual
tournament (he's won some youth and team events previously) 

Mission accomplished for Sabers at the Lehigh Valley Sportsfest.  Everybody fenced well and represented the sport well at an event with lots of spectators passing by, most of whom had never seen a live fencing match before.  In the interest of putting on more of a show, the organizers held an unprecedented three rounds of pool bouts.  Though he was the youngest competitor in the tournament, Sabers won one of those pools and was seeded second in the eliminations.

In the silver medal bout, Sabers got an early lead and held it at the break, but then lost focus and fell behind.  He and his opponent traded touches until the score was 14-11.  Back to the wall, Sabers tried a “point in line.”  It's like a defender in a basketball game establishing a position and trying to draw a charging foul.  The opponent took the attack, but didn't do it well enough to beat the blade, and the referee called the touch to Sabers.  At 12-14, Sabers went to the point in line again--with the same result--and again at 13-14.

14-14.  Sudden death.  By protocol, the fencers salute each other and the referee.  It also adds to the drama.  One touch for the silver.  Point in line one more time, the opponent attacked right into it, two lights, and the referee gave the winning point to Sabers.  He let out a yell that was half triumph and half relief.  The physical part is important, but this win took brains and guts, which is why fencers like their sport.

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

Themework: 26a tells us there’s something you need to complete three other answers (to be precise, they were lacking from the clue and so would be inserted as literals (†) in the answer). That something was “pope” and the three popes are John Paul (Bishop Wojtyla if you’re the Reformation type), Benedict (Bishop Ratzinger), and Francis (Bishop Bertoglio).  Good pastors and good men all.  Note that they’re included in chronologic order!

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): once you figured out the theme, it wasn’t too hard.  I got the top right first and then the bottom left.

Musical content: 20a

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,288 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	JOHN PAUL JONES	Double definition
9a	_<MADNESS<_	<lunatic_S SEND A M_essage< (reversal indicated by “back”, hidden word indicated by “concealing”)
10a	*IMP(U)LSE	U (“uranium”) contained in (“at the core of”) *SIMPLE (anagram indicated by “explosion ”)
11a	BENEDICT *ARN | OLD	*RAN (anagram indicated by “doctor”) + OLD (“aged”)
12a	*SCULP | TED	*C PLUS (anagram indicated by “terrible”) + TED (“conference that’s a source for online talks”) I like the use of the plus sign in this.  And has anyone ever given a TED talk about crosswords?
14a	TI(*P TO)E	*OPT (anagram indicated by “bogus”) contained in (“in”) TIE (“link”)
17a	*AND HOW	*HAD WON (anagram indicated by “engineer”)
18a	PANG | LOSS	PANG (“pain”) + LOSS (“bereavement”)
20a	FRANCIS *POULE(N)C	*COUPLE (anagram indicated by “odd”) containing (“embracing”) N (“northern”)
24a	S(TOM)AC | H	TOM (“turkey”) contained in (“in”) SAC (“pouch”) + ^H^en (first letter indicated by “head”)
25a	IN (VI)TRO	INTRO (“opening”) containing (“swallowing”) VI (“six”)
26a	ALE | X | AND | ER POPE	ALE (“beer”) + X (“for adults only”) + AND (†) + ER (“um”)

Down

1d	JUMP	J (“Jack”) + UMP (“referee”)
2d	H(EDGE | FUN)D	EDGE (“fringe”) + FUN (“entertainment”) contained in (“in”) HD (“high definition”)
3d	~PIECE	~PEACE (“harmony,” homophone indicated by “sung”)
4d	*UNSOILED	*DELUSION (anagram indicated by “crazy”)
5d	JOINTS	Double definition
6d	*NO PARKING	*PINK ARGON (anagram indicated by “radioactive”)
7d	S | *ALVO	^S^ymbol (first letter indicated by “originally”) + *OVAL (anagram indicated by “broken”)
8d	NEEDLES | S	NEEDLES (“syringes”) + ^S^ting (first letter indicated by “at first”)
12d	S_T | ARFISH	S_hou_T (first and last letters indicated by “superficially”) + ARFISH (“like a bark”)
13d	*POOR CLARE	*CORPOREAL (anagram indicated by “strangely”)
15d	T | *WO AND TWO	me^T^al (middle letter indicated by “at heart”) + *WOOD WANT (anagram indicated by “to be molded”)
16d	*_PARO | DIED	*h_ARPO (anagram indicated by “clumsily”, omission of first letter indicated by “after the start”) + DIED (“did not get laughs”)
19d	*AS(T)HMA	*MA HAS (anagram indicated by “unfortunately”) containing (“around”) T (“Tuesday”) Uncharacteristically weak clue.
21d	A | ROMA	A ROMA (Italian for “to Rome)
22d	L | EVER	^L^ocated (first letter indicated by “in front”) + EVER (“at any time”)
23d	POKE	Double definition (“pig in a poke”)