Watching Figure Skating (Solution No. 3,313)

The solution to The Nation cryptic crossword #3,313 is below the fold.

With two skaters and a hockey ref in the family, there’s more than a little interest in the figure skating competion in Sochi.  While the TV coverage can be maddening at times with all the cutaways and “human interest” features, they get it right when the music starts and all eyes are on the skaters. 

Our eyes are often on the skate blades: are the edges deep and turns sharp?  Is there good balance?  Did they fully rotate the jumps?  Are the spins staying in one place on the ice?  In ice dance, are the couple’s skates close to each other while their bodies are, especially in the intricate parts?  Those are the skills it takes a lot of practice to get right, and what the judges are looking for in grading the execution.

We’ve watched (and done) enough skating to see a fall waiting to happen--usually the skater will be too far forward or back in the air, or will have come in too slow.  We cringe at the skaters when they bail out of a jump (the term is “pop” it) and turn a triple into a double or single, or when they spend too long loading up a jump.  And we admire the skaters who do the opposite and make the jumps look easy, and the ones who do something novel in their program.

The Other Doctor Mitchell also notices where the skaters are looking.  Many skaters are looking at the ice when they are jumping or executing a footwork sequence. The best are looking at the audience and the judges.  She’s also paying attention to details like the position of the hands, since her coach is always paying attention to them.

I look for the skaters trying to sell the program to the judges.  Most importantly, do they look like they’re having fun out there, or is it a chore?  In that respect, we might be using our parents’ eye.

And we definitely second-guess the judges (follow along with the scoring here).

What are you looking at?  Leave a comment.

Solution to The Nation puzzle No. 3,313 

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	*VESTED INTERES T	*TENTS I SEVERED (anagram indicated by “clumsily”) + midnigh^T^ (last letter indicated by “close to”)
8a	*APROPOS	*POOR SAP (anagram indicated by “manipulate”)
9a	ADMIR_ AL	ADMIR_e_ (“respect,” omission of last letter indicated by “largely”) + AL (“Alabama”)
11a	YELL OW JACK ET	YELL (“holler”) + OW (“that hurts”) + JACK (“knave”) + ET (“and in France”)
13a	*RE(CO)IL	CO (“company”) contained in (“taken in by”) *LIRE (anagram indicated by “counterfeit”)
15a	F R(*UCT)OSE	*CUT (anagram indicated by “artless”) contained in (“in”) ^F^ilm (first letter indicated by “start of”) + ROSE (“American Beauty, for example”)
18a	UNCOMMON	Pun: the opposite of a proper noun is a common noun
19a	<MART HA<	<AH (”that’s nice”) + TRAM (“streetcar”)< (reversal of whole thing indicated by “returning”)
21a	<PART I CIP< ANTS	<PIC (“snapshot”) + I (†) + TRAP (“catch”)< Ireversal of whole thing indicated by “inverted”) + ANTS (“members of an army”)
25a	S_E AWARD	AWARD (“Oscar, perhaps”) following (†) ^S^ein^E^ (first and last letters indicated by “banks”)
26a	GLU(T T)ON	T T (“time and time again”) contained in (“breaking”) GLUON (“something that binds”)
27a	*THREE-PIECE SUIT	*IT USE THE RECIPE

Down

1d	_VE AL_	nati_VE AL_askans (hidden word indicated by “eaten by”)
2d	*SURE	*RUSE (anagram indicated by “sneaky”)
3d	*EUPHEMISM	*PEE IS UM HM (anagram indicated by “embarrassingly”)
4d	_INS ULT_	it pa_INS ULT_imately (hidden word indicated by “inside”) Exclamation point because the clue and wordplay are the same.
5d	TEA(*MWOR)K	*WORM (anagram indicated by “exotic”) contained in (“in”) TEAK (“Asian tree”)
6d	_RUM BA_	humd_RUM BA_llroom (hidden word indicated by “held in”)
7d	S(TRIKE) OUT_	TRIKE (“children’s vehicle”) contained in (“in”) SOUT_h (“Dixie,” omission of last letter indicated by “for the most part”)
10d	*LUTHERAN	*HURT LEAN (anagram indicated by “cruelly”)
12d	TR(I)UMP HS	TRUMP (“real estate tycoon”) containing (“adopts”) I (“one”) + HS (“high school”)
14d	‡COCKROACH	‡ROCK COACH (“geology tutor”)
16d	CHA(*NTEU)SE	CHASE (“to pursue”) containing (“inside”) *TUNE (anagram indicated by “dissonant”)
17d	PO(*NIED U)P	POP (“daddy”) containing (“running around”) *NUDE I (anagram indicated by “crumbled”)
20d	HAG *GLE	HAG (“witch”) followed by (“over”) *LEG (anagram indicated by “broken”)
22d	I M AGE	I (“one”) + M (“thousand”) + AGE (“years”)
23d	<_ET TU_<	<m_UTTE_r< (hidden word indicated by “within”, reversal indicated by “coming back”)
24d	<K_ NIT<	<TIN (“can”) + lac^K^ (last letter indicated by “finish”), reversal of whole thing indicated by “riding up”)