Playoff weekend (Solution no. 3,318)

You’d look good too if you got to sleep as long as
our crocuses did.  They finally woke up a month late.

I can’t figure out come coaches.  My first game this weekend I had a coach who yelled at my partner and me a couple of times--when the calls we made were in his team’s favor.

The first was a situation where the white team goalie made a save but couldn’t control or cover the puck: it happens a lot at this level because the goalies aren’t that good.  Since the puck was loose and nobody was slashing at the goalie, I let them play.  Eventually, he covered the puck and I blew the whistle.

Then after the stoppage, a black team player hit a white team player in the back, and it was an easy roughing call.  I think the black team coach wanted to yell at me about the penalty, but he couldn’t because it was so obvious that his kid had hit the other kid.  So he yelled that I should have blown the whistle sooner.   I replied: “What?? You want me to take away your team’s scoring opportunity?”

The good part was that after a weekend where I did some fencing and skated a double, the only thing that was sore Sunday morning was my face (from the cold).

Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,318

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/178901/puzzle-no-3318

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): hard
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	JACK	Double definition
3a	CAR GO P ANTS	CAT (“Lincoln, e.g.”) + GOP (“Republicans”) + ANTS (“some soldiers”)
10a	SLAT HER	SLAT (“part of a blind”) + HER (“woman’s”) This had me thrown for a while, since I wasn’t thinking of a venetian blind
11a	*DIAGR AM	*A GRID (anagram indicated by “somehow”) + AM (“in the morning”)
12a	IMME D(I)ATE	IM ME (“declaration of identity”) + I (“one”) contained in (“adopted by”) DATE (“companion”) This parses out several ways, only one of which is right.
13a	§IDEAL	§I DEAL
14a	*ESPRIT	*PRIEST (anagram indicated by “reformed”)
16a	*D(<ROOP<)IER	<POOR< (“feeble,” reversal indicated by “when returning”) contained in (“in”) *RIDE (anagram indicated by “bumpy”)
18a	WARPLANE	WARP (“to damage”) + LANE (“road”)
19a	HOB(N)O B	HOBO (cross-reference to 26a: “vagrant”) containing N (“nitrogen”) + bom^B^ (last letter indicated by “at the rear”)
22a	L EARN	^L^esson (first letter indicated by “beginning”) + EARN (“net”)
23a	<E(YEP IE CE)S<	<SEE< (“to look,” reversal indicated by “back”) containing (“around”) YEP (“you betcha”) + I.E. (“that is”) + C (“cold”)
25a	*OMICRON	*MORONIC (anagram indicated by “drunk”)
26a	VA GRANT	VA (“Virginia”) + GRANT (“award”)
27a	FRAUDULENT	FRAU (“in Berlin, a woman”) + DU (“you” [still in German]) + LENT (“advanced”) There are going to be some complaints about this one, but it’s not afoul of the rules.  Many solvers will run right by that if they just work on filling in the grid.  We might see this one in an upcoming episode of Word Salad.
28a	<TRAP<	<PART< (“constituent,” reversal indicated by “in retreat”)

Down

1d	§JUSTICE	§JUST ICE I take my whisky with one ice cube.  If you go to a bar and ask for a whisky neat, you get it in a shot glass.  If you ask for whisky on the rocks, you get more ice than whisky.  Asking for one ice cube got me more whisky for my money, which was important when I was living on a grad student salary.
2d	C HARM	^C^an (first letter indicated by “initially”) + HARM (“hurt”)
4d	A IR B A G	A (†) *RIB (anagram indicated by “broken”) + A (†) +^G^ash (dirst letter indicated by “in front”)
5d	GA(D GET)RY	GARY (“Cooper,” film star) containing (“has”) ^D^esire (first letter indicated by “bit of”) + GET (“to understand”)
6d	PLACI(DO DOMI)NG O	PLACING (“locating”) + O (“love”) containing (“holding”) DO DO MI (“three notes”)
7d	*NORWEGIAN	*ON WEARING (anagram indicated by “slips”)
8d	SI(*MILA)R	SIR (“a knight”) containing (“hiding”) *MAIL (anagram indicated by “damaged”)
9d	~RHODE ISLAND RED	~ROW DIAL IN DREAD (“paddle and call in terror,” homophone indicated by “heard”)
15d	*PER CA PITA	*CAPER (anagram indicated by “absurd”) + PITA (“bread”)
17d	INTE(*RNA)L	*RAN (anagram indicated by “amok”) contained in (“consumed by”) INTEL (“information from espionage”)
18d	<WAL< D OR F	<LAW< (“rule,” reversal indicated by “overturn”) + D OR F (“possible bad grades”) Another one that rewards the effort to parse
20d	BUS STOP	BUSS (“a kiss”) followed by (“on”) TOP (“a peak”) I’d have clued this in a different order so as to imply the kiss being the peak of the day.
21d	HE(AVE)N	AVE (“hail”) contained (“swallowed by”) in HEN (“bird”)
24d	CHA(I)R	CHAR (“burn”) containing (“outside”) I (†)