Another official in the family (Solution No. 3,323)

Philip (the class of the division), Sabers, and Willie

Well that was an interesting weekend.  Sabers punched his ticket to Nationals and we upped number of officiating credentials in the family by 67%.

After stepping in to referee a few bouts at the fencing tournament a few weeks ago so one of our originally-scheduled refs could compete and qualify the tournament for a higher rating, I figured I should get properly trained and tested. The club had a seminar Saturday, and I passed the test with flying colors—interpreting and explaining why a point in line wasn’t valid, and then spotting the missing tip screw in an epee. So now I have a third refereeing certification. I’m pretty sure there’s never been another combination hockey, fencing, and cricket official before.

Then The Other Doctor Mitchell got a call Sunday morning: one of the people assisting with the skating competition at her club had to go to the hospital—could she come early and serve as accountant?  She agreed, and when she got there, the head accountant explained the basics of the job and said he’d guide her through it.  He didn’t know that the essentials of the job: entering and organizing data, spotting errors and inconsistencies, and staying cool under pressure happen to be The Other Doctor Mitchell’s fortes.  By the end of the day, he was insisting that he put her name in to the USFSA to be added to their roster of officials.  That’s great because even if she doesn’t get paid for this, they’ll take care of travel expenses for events that she works, possibly some of the events Bangle will be skating at this fall.  That will come at a good time, since she’s up to the level now where she and her mom are both on track to qualify for their respective Nationals.

Not quite flying colors on this puzzle though.  I can’t fully parse 13d.  Any of you get it?

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,323

Themework: Nothing here, but I notice we’re getting close to 3,333.  Wonder if Hot and Trazom have anything up their sleeve for that one. 

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Easy to moderate.  I sailed through the top and bottom, and slowed down in the middle.  Just can’t work out the wordplay of 13d.

Political content: 25d

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	E_THER	E_i_THER (“each,” omission of I (“one”) indicated by dropped”)
4a	¶REITERATE	¶IRATE (letter bank indicated by “letters–some of them more than once”)
9a	PA(N_I)CKING	PACKING (“preparing for a trip”) containing (“around”) ^N^agasak^I^ (first and last letters indicated by “the outskirts”)
10a	T HUM B	HUM (“drone”) + ^B^omber (first letter indicated by “at first”) following (“behind”) aircraf^T^ (last letter indicated by “rear”) Didn’t we just see “drone” for HUM?
11a	_ORY X	_g_ORY (†, omission of first letter indicated by “decapitated”) + X (“times”) Our and lit for the week.
12a	AD *DIS A BA BA	AD (“spot”) + *SAID (anagram indicated by “to be shifted”) + BA BA (“two degrees”) Lots of opportunity for misdirection, but this didn’t fool me at all.
14a	STO(VETO)P	VETO (“put an end to”) contained in STOP (“put an end to”) or vice versa, (“inside and out”)
15a	MAN *GLE	MAN (“fellow”) + *LEG (anagram indicated by “broken”)
18a	_HY BRID_	s_HY BRID_e (omission of first and last letters indicated by “undressed”) This one had me stuck for a while: can’t explain why.
19a	M(IN)ISTER	MISTER (“form of address”) containing (“outside”) IN (†)
22a	T(<RAGIC<)O MIC	TO (†) + MIC (“speaker’s helper”) containing (“holding”) <CIGAR< (“stogie,” reversal indicated by “back”)
24a	<SNIP<	<PINS< (“attaches,” reversal indicated by “contrarian”)
26a	FE(<IG<)N	<GI< (“soldier,” reversal indicated by “returning”) contained in (“in”) FEN (“swamp”)
27a	H(EIGHT)ENS	HENS (“chickens”) containing (“catches”) EIGHT (“8”) I Iwas misdirected (looking for a cross-ref) only for the briefest time.
28a	LA UNDER ED	LA (“city”) + UNDER (“governed by”) + ED (“Mayor Koch”) Ed Koch (“How’m I doin’”) was Mayor of New York in the 1980s.
29a	~SIGHS	~SIZE (“mass,” homonym indicated by “sung”)

Down

1d	*EMPLOYS	*SPY MOLE (anagram indicated by “irresponsibly”)
2d	HONE *YCOMB	HONE (“improve”) + *BOY MC (anagram indicated by “clumsy”)
3d	RACK	Double definition Did any of you solvers have a rack of lamb for Seder or for Easter dinner?  I got this answer right away from the definition, but it took a while to recognize the other definition
4d	RA(I)NDR OP	R AND R (“in the military, time off”) + OP (“operation”) containing (“gets”) I (“one”)
5d	§INGRID	§IN GRID
6d	~EUTHANASIA	~YOUTH IN ASIA (“a Japanese teenager,” homonym indicated by “listening to”)
7d	A CUR A	A (†) + CUR (“dog”) + A (†)
8d	*EMBRA C_E	*AMBER (anagram indicated by “waves”) + ^C^heyenn^E^ (first and last letters indicated by “outside of”) “Outside” is a good misdirecting indicator.
13d	PETIT(ION)E D	I got this one from the definition and intersecting letters, but I can’t parse it completely.  “particle” clues ION, while “inside” clues that it’s contained in PETITE.  D is a (†) at the end.  That leaves “to place” which doesn’t define PETITE: is that supposed to clue TEE with some different particle?
16d	GUT *EN(B)ERG	GUT (“eviscerate”) + ^B^ook (first letter indicated by “front”) contained in (“stuck in”) *GREEN (anagram indicated by “malfunctioning”)
17d	*VIL(IF I)ED	*DEVIL (anagram indicated by “monstrous”) containing (“was taken in”) IF (“assuming”) + I (†)
18d	*HATEFUL	*FAULT EH (anagram indicated by “nasty”)
20d	RE(PA)STS	PA (“dad”) contained in (“when parting”) RESTS (“takes five”)
21d	MOTHER	Pun
23d	A(DIE)U	DIE (“cube”) contained in (“coated with”) AU (“gold”)
25d	T H U S	^T^he ^H^ouse ^U^ndermine ^S^ociety (initials indicated by “leaders”)