Payday (Solution No. 3,322)

Look below the fold for the solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,322

One of the questions I’m frequently asked about refereeing is what we get paid.  I’m fortunate enough that the money isn’t as important as the physical and mental workout and as staying involved in the game even in my 50s, but the financial side was on my mind last week: first doing my accounting for tax purposes, and second because one of the paychecks I was waiting for from late 2013 finally arrived.

The short answer is that our game fees are on the order of $30 to $65 for youth games, depending on level, $80 to $100 or more for top-tier juniors if you’re good enough, and $60 to $80 for men’s league. There are a few programs that pay less (I’m not going to do any games for the rink that paid me only $20.00 for a single where I had to leave for the rink at 6:00 am).

When I finished my tax return, the bottom line was a small net income to declare, which means in effect that refereeing successfully paid for my trip to State Games on top of other expenses like the new helmet and visor.  Since I knew my expenses in 2013 were going to be fairly high, that was a satisfactory outcome.

Most officials work more games in a season than I do, and make more money, but they don’t have the family commitments (or the outside interests).  I’ll admit those men’s league doubleheaders are sweet when the checks come in though.  As long as my hockey avocation is earning money rather than costing it, I’ll be satisfied.

Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,322

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/179360/puzzle-no-3322

Themework: Nine of the clues included the phrase “this location,” referring to the location of the answer in the grid.  Not too hard to pick up.  17d was my favorite.

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): moderate. Once you get the theme, several answers will become apparent.

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	COUNTER TOP	COUNTER (“against”) + TOP (“this location”)
6a	~HIGH	~HI (“greeting,” homonym indicated by “overheard”)
10a	N(ANC)Y DREW	ANC (“Mandela’s organization) contained in (“in”) NY (“New York”) + DREW (“attracted”)
11a	MA DAM	MA (“mother”) + DAM (“stop”)
12a	_URGE_	_b_URGE_r_ (“patty,” omission of first and last letters indicated by “naked”)
13a	BO R(N AG)AIN	^B^arack ^O^bama (first letters indicated by “initially”) + NAG (“badger”) contained in (“putting … in”) RAIN (“shower”)
15a	EL EVENT H	EL (“train”) + EVENT (“happening”) followed by (“to precede”) H (†)
18a	*M(U)ESLI	*SMILE (anagram indicated by “wickedly”) containing (“eating”) s^U^garu (second letter indicated by “second helping”)
19a	T ISSUE	T (“time”) + ISSUE (“magazine”)
21a	BE HE MOTH	BE HE (“whether he is”) + MOTH (“a small insect”)
25a	*EMAIL LIST	*ITEM IS ALL (anagram indicated by “picked apart”)
26a	C_O IL	^C^hicag^O^ (first and last letters indicated by “the outside”) + IL (“Illinois”)
28a	IS LET	IS (†) + LET (“rented out”) No problem with misdirection here since there’s nothing that would be five letters to anagram.
29a	STAG E H AND	STAG (“deer”) + EH (“don’t you think?”) + AND (“also”)
30a	DOWN	Double definition
31a	BOTTOM *LINE	BOTTOM (“this location”) + *NILE (anagram indicated by “resort”)

Down

1d	C ONE	^C^onstruction (first letter indicated by “start to”) + ONE (“this location”)
2d	_UNNER VE	_g_UNNER (“artilleryman,” omission of first letter indicated by “losing head”) followed by (“on”) ^V^enic^E^ (first and last letters indicated by “the outskirts of”) One might quibble that it’s too similar to 26a
3d	~THYME	~TIME (“what there never seems to be enough of,” homonym indicated by “we hear”)
4d	*REREBIT	*I BARTER (anagram indicated by “crackers”)
5d	<ONWARD<	<DRAW (“randomly choose” + NO< (“number”, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “back”)
7d	<INDIA(N)S<	<SAID NI< (“what Monty Python’s knights did,” reversal indicated by “when moving up”) containing (“to surround”) N (“north”)
8d	HUM AN RIGHT	HUM (“drone”) + AN (“article”) followed by (“on”) RIGHT (“this location”)
9d	*IMMATURE	*TEA IM …RUM (anagram indicated by “mixing with”)
14d	LEFT B(<EH<)IND	<HE< (†, reversal indicated by “rises”) contained in (“in”) BIND (“a difficult situation”) following (“beneath”) LEFT (“this location”)
16d	E QUALITY	justic^E^ (†, last letter indicated by “ultimate”) + QUALITY
17d	HUB_	HUB_ble_ (“NASA telescope, omission of three letters indicated by “half of”)
20d	S(WALL)OW	SOW (“pig”) containing (“straddling”) WALL (“a fence”)
22d	EXTRA CT	CT (“Connecticut”) following (“chasing”) EXTRA (“bonus”)
23d	OR I(<GAM<)I	OR (†) + <MAG< (“periodical,” reversal indicated by “up and coming”) contained in (“in”) II (“two”)
24d	_FIASCO_	ma_FIAS CO_nspiracy (hidden word indicated by “covers up”)
26d	CR(E)AM	CRAM (“jam”) containing (“involving”) E (“excellent”) Cream was comprised of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce.  They performed together not much more than two years, but recorded several essential albums in that time.
27d	_EDGE_	disinfect_ED GE_rms (hidden word indicated by “around”)