Balm (Solution No. 3,305)

A Wall Street Journal article week called “Grooming Secrets of the NBA” coincides with the onset of cold, windy weather here.  It had me reaching for my skin lotion even on days I don’t skate.  A couple of seasons ago I turned 50, and around that time I started noticing that my skin sometimes felt raw after a game.

Skating a pair of games is like being outside for three hours in freezing weather with a wind of 10 mph gusting to 20.  It’s not so bad in spring and summer and fall; in fact it’s pretty pleasant.  But in winter, the rinks are as cold as the outside, and when the air is dry, your face gets dryer.

So I started carrying a bottle of moisturizer along with my gear.  The variety I use comes in a very thick little bottle, so I can keep it in my hockey briefcase and it won't break and spill all over my rulebook and manuals.  It’s worth it to get the good stuff; you only need a drop or two, and it doesn’t make my face feel greasy.  I might even use it between games of a doubleheader.  A calmer face makes a calmer referee, and a calmer referee makes a calmer game.

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	_CHIDE_	broa_CH IDE_as (hidden word indicated by “involving”)
4a	BARB(ADO)S	BARBS (“pointed comments”) containing (“about”) ADO (“kerfuffle”)
9a	*LARCENO | US	*CLEAR NO (anagram indicated by “astonishingly”) + US (“American”)
10a	LATTE_	LATTE_r_ (“the second,” omission of last letter indicated by “most of”) Good clue: could be interpreted several ways
11a	_NEIGH_	seve_N EIGH_t (“7/8,” hidden word indicated by “in”)
12a	PERRY COMO	PERRY (“Singer with a pop record”) + COMO (“how” in Spanish (“in Mexico”)) Exclamation point because “singer with a pop record” is both definition and wordplay
13a	*LOS ANGELES	*GLEE SALONS (anagram indicated by “rocking”)
15a	SEN | D	SEN (“Senate”) + D (“Democrat”)
17a	U | *NTO	U (“university”) + *NOT (anagram indicated by “surprisingly”)
19a	PEP | PERM | IN | T	PEP (“energize”) + PERM (“hairdo”) + IN (†) + T (“time”) I was first looking at “time for tea” as one part of the wordplay.
22a	TOP | DOLL | AR_	TOP + DOLL (“two traditional toys”) + AR_e_ (†, omission of last letter indicated by “nearly”)
24a	_UPPER	_s_UPPER (“dinner,” omission of first letter indicated by “start late”)
25a	<RAC< | ED	<CAR< (“wheels,” indicated by “setting in reverse”) + ED ([editor], reference to Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation.) Clearly Katrina is the most frequently name-checked individual in these puzzles: Hot and Trazom know flattery will get you everywhere.
26a	*CUNEIFORM	*OF NUMERIC (anagram indicated by “blend”)
27a	ALFRE_SCO	ALFRE_d_S CO (“[Alfred] Hitchcock’s company,” omission of D indicated by “lost 500”) I originally thought this was another enumeration mistake, but English dictionaries list this as a single word.
28a	RESIN	RE-SIN (pun)

Down

1d	~COLONEL MUSTARD	~KERNEL (“piece of corn”) + ~MUSTERED (“gathered”), homonym indicated by (“in an ear”)
2d	IN (_RUI_)NS	INNS (“hotels”) containing (“stocking”) _f_RUI_t_ (†, omission of first and last letters indicated by “peeled”)
3d	*ELEPHANT	*THE PANEL (anagram indicated by “disrupted”)
4d	*BIOSPH | ERE	*BISHOP (anagram indicated by “converted”) + ERE (“before”)
5d	R I S E R	^R^a^I^l^S^ n^E^a^R^ (alternate letters indicated by “oddly”)
6d	ALL + *EYS	ALL (“everything there is”) + *YES (anagram indicated by “unfortunately”)
7d	OUT COME	COME (opposite of “go”) + OUT (opposite of “in”), literal instructions
8d	SECOND STORY MAN	Pun
14d	*ESPERANTO	*REPEATS NO (anagram indicated by “in a different way”)
16d	CROUPIER	Double definition
18d	T_OPICAL	T_r_OPICAL (“warm,” omission of R indicated by “drops red”)
20d	*IMPIOUS	*OPIUM IS (anagram indicated by “treacherous”)
21d	C | OLDER	OLDER (“senior”) following (“under”) C (“100”)
23d	~LACKS	~LAX (“liberal,” homonym indicated by “sounding”) A few other homonyms come close, but none are quite right.