Two-sheeter (solution no. 3,310)

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle no. 3,310 below the fold.

Well that was a helluva donnybrook Saturday night in Vancouver.  I tuned in just to see the referee drop the puck and the centers immediately drop their gloves.  Moments later there were five separate altercations going on.

I’ve never had to deal with a total line brawl like that, but I have had some multiple fight situations. There’s not much you can do, especially in amateur hockey, where the players are a lot less predictable.  NHL players mostly understand and follow the unwritten rules, but some mens’ league players tend to go apes*** when a fight breaks out (a little professional jargon there...), which is why we officials don’t go in to break it up until the combatants stop throwing punches.

Even in the NHL, two (linesmen) is less than five (fights).  So while the referees watch what’s going on so they can assess the proper penalties (as Kyle Rehman demonstrates above), the linesmen separate the combatants one pair at a time, starting with whichever fight is over first, or the worst mismatch (where there’s a risk of a player being injured).  So Lonnie Cameron and John Grandt are intervening in the altercation where the Calgary player is on top of the Vancouver player.

Back in the days of paper scoresheets before Pointstreak and other computer systems (which are common in a lot of leagues now) we’d call a game like that one a “two-sheeter” since there wasn’t enough room on one score- sheet for all the penalties.

Then after the fights were broken up, Vancouver coach John Tortorella was screaming at his Calgary counter-part and waving a stick at the Calgary bench.  I thought the refs should have dumped Torts then and there, but then I realized that at this level there’d be suspensions and fines, so the refs didn’t need to dole out the coaches’ punishment themselves.

Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,310

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/177922/puzzle-no-3310

Themework: With domestic surveillance in the news recently, this puzzle is full of “spies,” as in “CIA” and “NSA.”  Very timely.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): moderate to hard

Political content: besides the theme, there’s also the clue in 10a

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	U(TA)H	UH (“hesitation”) containing (“to bear”) TA (“thanks”)
3a	BEN *EFI(CIA)L	BEN (“Bernanke”) + *FILE (anagram indicated by “reorganized”) containing (†) CIA (theme)
10a	S(PIE)S	SS (“Social Security”) containing (“about”) PIE (“something to be shared”) This answer is cross-referenced in clues elsewhere.
11a	_OBSCENELY_	m_OB SCENE LY_ing (hidden word indicated by “amid”)
12a	RA(NSA)CK	RACK (“triangular frame” [for pool]) containing (“holding”) NSA (theme)
13a	C(H)ARTER	CARTER (“former president”) containing (“to secure”) ^H^aiti (first letter indicated by “opening”)
14a	PE NSA COLA	^PE^ople (first two letters indicated by “a couple of”) + NSA (theme) + COLA (“drink”)
17a	D(I)C E D	DI (“600” [roman numeral]) containing (“divided by”) I (“1”) + ^E^quals (first letter indicated by “at first”) + D (“500”)
18a	<AT S(E)A<	ASTA (“movie dog”, reversal indicated by “returned”) containing (“clutching”) bon^E^ (last letter indicated by “last bit”) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skippy_(dog)‎
20a	C OR (N SA) LAD	^C^hild (first letter indicated by “face”) + OR (†) + LAD (“boy”) containing (“eating”) NSA (theme)
23a	TI(<E GA<)ME	<AGE< (“epoch,” reversal indicated by “looking backward”) contained in (“in”) TIME (†)
24a	S(CIA)TIC_	CIA (theme) contained in (“among”) STIC_k_ (“staff,” omission of last letter indicated by “reduced”)
26a	CHAR(AC)TER	CHARTER (cross-reference to 13a) with AC (“air conditioning”) contained (“installed”)
27a	LOG I_N	LOGI_cia_N (“one who makes solid arguments,” omission of CIA (theme) indicated by “take … from”)
28a	*ENUN(CIA)TES	*NUT SEEN (anagram indicated by “unstable ”) containing (“around”) CIA (theme)
29a	G(R)AY	^R^elationship (first letter indicated by “originally”) contained in (“in”) GAY (“same-sex”)

Down

1d	<UN STRAP<	<PARTS (“leaves”) + NU (“greek letter”)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “turned up”
2d	_ALIGN_	du_AL IGN_ition (hidden word indicated by “on the inside”)
4d	<E B(O)OK<	<KOBE< (“Bryant,” reversal indicated by “flipped”) containing (“about”) O (“[Oprah] Winfrey’s magazine”)
5d	*EASY C HAIR	*CASEY (anagram indicated by “unexpectedly”) + HAIR (“locks”)
6d	*IRELAND	*IRAN LED (anagram indicated by “deconstructing”)
7d	I DENT I CAL_	I (“one”) + DENT (“dimple”) + I (†) + CAL_l_ (“term,” omission of last letter indicated by “practically”)
8d	*L(AY)ERED	^A^bbe^Y^ (first and last letters indicated by “walls”) contained in (“within”) *ELDER (anagram indicated by “rebuilt”)
9d	*ESPANA	*PAEANS (anagram indicated by “composed”)
15d	*NOSFERATU	*FEAR US NOT (anagram indicated by “bats”)
16d	*ORCHE <STRA<	*CHORE (anagram indicated by “frustrating”) + <ARTS< (†, reversal indicated by “bringing up”)
18d	*ARTICLE	*RECITAL (anagram indicated by “awful”)
19d	<A RAM AIC<	<CIA (theme) + MAR (“damage”) + A (†)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “rising”
21d	*SHIELD	*HE SLID (anagram indicated by “all over the place”)
22d	DECE_ N(C)Y	^DECE^mber (first four letters indicated by “half of”) + NY (“New York”) containing (“catching”) C (“cold”)
24d	*SERVE	*VERSE (anagram indicated by “free”)
25d	TI(G)ER	TIER (“story”) containing (“involving”) G (“general”)