New bucket (Solution No. 3,303)

Nobody likes a crabby referee.  And there’s little that will make anyone crabby faster than having your head pinched for an hour and a half.

While USA Hockey started recommending visors for on-ice officials in 2009, I went without one since my hockey glasses gave me better eye protection than a visor could: a stick blade could get under the visor but not my glasses.  But now they’re mandatory, with no exceptions.  So this summer I bought one (a pro-clip model so I can take it off for non-USA games) and installed it on my helmet, which as it was was just big enough.  But the nuts that hold the visor are right over my temples.  Some games, they were OK, but others were excruciating.  So I made an emergency trip up to the pro shop, looked very carefully at the fitting guides on the boxes, and figured out which helmet was the absolute biggest they had (my hat size is 7-7/8 so I can’t ever count on any headwear fitting).

Getting a helmet ready is even more involved than getting a whistle ready, and you’ve now learned much more than you need to know about whistles.  Take off the ear flaps (they’re required for players but not for refs), peel off the CSA and HECC stickers (ditto) for a cleaner look and painstakingly get all the excess glue off.  Put my Hockey Fights Cancer sticker on the back, screw on the visor clips, install the visor, adjust the chin strap, cut off the excess strap and flame the edge so it won’t ravel.
A lot of stuff, but well worth it for a helmet that looks neat and won’t hurt any more.

Not much pain in this week’s puzzle, which had a nice little chain of cross-referenced answers and some signature Hot and Trazom wordplay.

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,303 below the fold

Link to puzzle:

Political content: 22d, 27d (editorializing)

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, “‡” Spoonerism

Across

1a	*PARROTED	*PRORATED (cross-reference to 12a, anagram indicated by “incorrectly”)
5a	<ERO(TI)C<	<IT (†) contained in (“is in”) CORE (“the center”)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “turning”)
10a	*ROGET	*E.G. ROT (anagram indicated by “corrupt”) ERGOT would also anagram correctly, but doesn’t fit the definition: ergot is found in rot, not rot is found in ergot.
11a	<_IRREGULAR_<	<revolve_R A LUGER RI_cocheting< (hidden word indicated by “contents of”, reversal indicated by “backward”)
12a	*PRORATED	*PREDATOR (cross-reference to 24a, anagram indicated by “redistributed”)
13a	E(G | G) ON	(G (“$1,000) + ^G^ain (first letter indicated by “initially”) contained in (“consumed by”) EON (“longtime”)
15a	_OMINO US_	d_OMINO US_ers (hidden word indicated by “property of”)
18a	CAS(SAT)T	SAT (“posed”) contained in (“among”) CAST (“actors”) Mary Cassatt was a famous American painter, and the daughter of
19a	*INTERIM	*TERMINI (anagram indicated by “getting renovated”)
21a	*SATCHMO	*STOMACH (anagram indicated by “upset”) “Satchmo” was short for “Sachel Mouth,” which we will take as a compliment to Louis Armstrong’s wind capacity and playing.
23a	<SLEEP<	<PEELS< (“takes off,” reversal indicated by “backward”)
24a	*PREDATOR	*TEARDROP (cross-reference to 31a, anagram indicated by “destroying”)
28a	*RHAPSODIC	*CHOIR PADS (anagram indicated by “all over the place”)
29a	HOT | EL	HOT (“warm”) + h^EL^l (middle letters indicated by “the middle of”)
30a	PINCE}R}	P}R}INCE (“heir to the throne,” relocation of R indicated by “having delayed resistance”)
31a	*TEARDROP	*PARROTED (cross-reference to 1a, anagram indicated by “changing”)

Down

1d	PORT	Double definition
2d	R | IGOR	f^R^ankenstein (second letter indicated by “second ”) followed by (“overseeing”) IGOR (“his [Frankenstein’s] assistant”)
3d	ON(TAR)IO_	ONIO_n_ (“Bermuda,” definition by example indicated by “for one,” omission of last letter indicated by “mostly”) containing (“imprisons”) TAR (“sailor)
4d	EXI(S)T	EXIT (“die”) containing (“keeping”) ^S^ecrecy (first letter indicated by “at the forefront”)
6d	R | EGRETS	EGRETS (“birds”) preceded by (“covered by”) ^R^adio (first letter indicated by “head”)
7d	*TE(LEG | RAP)H	LEG (“stage”) + RAP (“hip-hop”) contained in (“in”) *THE (anagram indicated by “remix of”)
8d	C OR O NATION	^C^had OR ^O^man + NATION (implied by the category of Chad or Oman)
9d	*PREDICTS	*SCRIPTED (anagram indicated by “badly”)
14d	§COMIC STRIP	§COMICS TRIP
16d	IN THE MAIN	Double definition: “main” = “sea”
17d	SAM SPADE	*DAMES [with] SAP (anagram indicated by “beat”)
20d	RI(<POS<)TE	<SOP< (minor concession, reversal indicated by “reversing”) contained in (“in”) RITE (“religious observance”) Good to see another fencing word in a puzzle besides “epee”
22d	TEA(CHE)R	TEAR (“move quickly”) containing (“to capture”) CHE (“revolutionary”)
25d	E M C E E	^E^pidemiology ^M^ust ^C^ompletely ^E^radicate ^E^bola (initials indicated by “leaders in”)
26d	*OUTER	*ROUTE (anagram indicated by “alternative”)
27d	G(L)OP	GOP (“Republicans”) containing (“adopting”) ^L^oathsome (first letter indicated by “piece of”)