Garlic fries (Solution No. 3,291)

Burger and garlic fries (courtesy Yelp)

One reason I'd been looking forward to this trip was the food.  Even a simple hunk of leftover sourdough for breakfast tastes amped up.  My best decision of the day yesterday was to ditch the conference-supplied box lunch and go get a perfectly-prepared burger and a mess of five-hour garlic fries.

Hot and Trazom are residents of the Bay Area and they get to feast on this kind of stuff every day.  Another thing to envy them for.

On to this week’s puzzle and solution...

Themework: I didn’t find any, though I did look to see if Winslow Homer had painted a picture called “Explorations.”

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Easy

Political/musical content: nothing in this department again, but we have theater, art, and literature.

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,291 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	WIN | SLOW | HOMER	WIN (“triumph”) + SLOW (“unhurried”) + HOMER (“smash hit”)
9a	OTTO	OTTO von Bismarck (Prussian/German chancellor) The only wordplay is the indicator: “whether advancing or retreating”)
10a	*ANTARCTICA	*A CAR INTACT (anagram indicated by “after a breakdown”)
11a	~PRIX FIXE	~PREFIX (“something like ultra,” homonym indicated by “announced something like”) Note this is a clue where the break between wordplay and definition comes in the middle of a clue word.
12	AS | IAN	AS (“for example”) IAN (“Fleming,” author of the James Bond novels)
13a	LEVI(TATE)S	TATE (“namesake of London Gallery”) contained in (“wearing”) LEVIS (“jeans”)
16a	VI | PS	VI (“write six”) + PS (“words as an afterthought”)
18a	<_NYP D_<	<reaD PYNchon< (reversal indicated by “in reverse,” hidden word indicated by “nab”)
19a	LATE | RALLY	LATE (“in the final moments”) + RALLY (“come back”)
21a	C | ROSS	^C^anada (first letter indicated by “first”) + ROSS (Betsy, “flag maker”)
22a	K(ICK | ED) IN	ICK (“that’s disgusting!”) + ED (“education”) contained in (“having broken up”) KIN (“family”)
25a	<EM(>PATH>)ETIC<	<CITE (“quote”) + ME (†)< (reversal indicated by “the wrong way”) containing (“incorporating”) PATH (“trajectory”)
26a	N | AIL	N (“no”) + AIL (“trouble”)
27a	EX | PLO | RATIONS	EX (“former”) + PLO (“former Middle Eastern group”) + RATIONS (“allowances”)

Down

2d	INTER}P} | LAY	LAY (“set”) following (“after”) }P}INTER (“Nobel-winning dramatist,” relocation of first letter indicated by “shifts opening”)
3d	~SIOUX	~SUED (“pleaded,” homonym indicated by “aloud”)
4d	OK | A | PI	OK (“approve”) + A (†) + PI (“detective”)
5d	*HOT SEAT	*THE OATS (anagram indicated by “stirring”)
6d	<MER | GANSER<	<RESNAG (“once again catch”) + REM (“some sleep”)< reversal indicated by “back”
7d	*RETRIEVAL	*TRAVELER I (anagram indicated by “misled”)
8d	S | CAN	S (“small”) + CAN (“jail”)
14d	*VIDEO GAME	*GIVE A DEMO (anagram indicated by “unsuccessfully”)
15d	*TAL(K)S SHOP	canuc^K^ (last letter indicated by “right wing”) contained in (“interrupting”) *SLAP SHOT (anagram indicated by “unfortunately”)
17d	*PHYSICIAN	*I SPY CHINA (anagram indicated by “doctor”)
20d	TAKE T(W)O	TAKE TO (“like”) containing (“eating”) ^W^atermelon (first letter indicated by “at first”)
21d	CAMP	Double definition
23d	C.O.C.O.A.	^C^onfer ^O^r ^C^onverse ^O^ver ^A^lcoholic (initials indicated by “at first”)
24d	~ENNUI	~ON WE (homonym indicated by “chattering”)