Rhythm (Solution No. 3,324)

The solution and annotation to puzzle no. 3,324 is below the fold

As I mentioned Thursday, I had an easy time with this week’s puzzle thanks to getting 1a and 1d right off the bat.  That gave me the first letters of nine more answers, which were completed in due time.  A third of the puzzle was done before I looked up (actually, I had to look up to cross the street and to make sure I didn’t bump into anyone as I was on my walk/solve).

Next I started on the bottom (another easy 15) and worked up from there.  Not quite as many immediate answers off last letters than off beginnings (it’s how our memory banks are wired), but this puzzle had a definite feel of the two halves coming together in the center.

That made me think that a clever constructor could almost direct the solver through the puzzle by the relative placement of easy and difficult clues.  Variety cryptics sometimes work this way, the quintessential example being puzzles with an unclued theme.  It’s not as much fun if you can get the theme right away as it is if the theme emerges slowly as the solution builds up.

So a suggestion to constructors: think about where your hard clues and easy clues are.  Use easy clues to give solvers a way to build up a partial solution to the hard clues, and more customers will be satisfied.  Anticipate that most solvers will start at the top and work down from there.  And if there’s a theme, think about how the solver will get there, so it will be the climax of the puzzle.

UPDATE:  BEQ thinks the same way, and nailed it by explaining that the theme of the puzzle is like a punchline.  Timing makes it work.

Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,324

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Easy. 

Political content: 16d.  I was trying to make ISSA (Darrell, R-CA) fit at first, but he’s from the San Diego area.

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	CON FLAG RATION	CON (“prisoner”) + FLAG (“standard”) + ration (“allotment”)
9a	O AS-IS	O (“nothing”) + AS-IS (“even if damaged”)
10a	LAP-LANDER	Pun. Dusty likes to be a lap kitty (though he needs a pretty big lap); Joey not so much.
11a	_IC_ <EBERG<	s_IC_k (†, omission of first letters indicated by “naked”) + <GREBE< (“duck,” reversal indicated by “heading west”)
12a	RE ALI Z_E	RE (“note”) + ALI (“boxer”)  + ^Z^on^E^ (†, first and last letters indicated by “outside of”)
13a	JAGGE_ D_EDGE	JAGGE_r_ (“rock star” [Mick]) + D_r_EDGE (“dig deep”), omission of Rs indicated by “after losing rights” Novel.
15a	AGO G	AGO (“before”) + ^G^o (†, first letter indicated by “beginning”) Not the definition I would have chosen.
18a	RAKE	Double definition.
20a	PER SE PHONE	PER SE (“essentially”) + PHONE (“call”)
23a	MANTRA P	MANTRA (“repeated word”) + P (“softly”)
24a	*PURITAN	*A TURNIP (anagram indicated by “stew”)
25a	*RED PLANET	*PETREL AND (anagram indicated by “cuckoo”), definition is cross-reference to 23d: MARS
26a	<O MEG A<	<A GEM (“a jewel”) + O (“a ring”)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “returning”
27a	MACA_ RON IS A LAD	MACA_w_ (“bird,” omission of last letter indicated by “tailless”) + RON (“Howard”, film actor and director) + IS A (†) + LAD (“boy”)

Down

1d	*C(O)IKIE JAR	O (“ring”) contained in (“controlled by”) *CIA JOKER (anagram indicated by “renegade”)
2d	*NEST (EG)G	*GENTS (anagram indicated by “crooked”) containing (“concealing”) EG (“for example”)
3d	*LISTENER	*RE-ENLIST (anagram indicated by “somehow”)
4d	GU_ LAG	GU_ys_ (first two letters indicated by “pair of”) + LAG (“fall behind”)
5d	A SPA <RAGUS<	A SPA (“a health resort”) + <SUGAR< (sweetness, reversal indicated by “raised”)
6d	IN A JAM	Double definition
7d	NO(D)DING	NO (†) + DING (“minor scrape”) containing (“catches”) D (“democrat”)
8d	BRIE_	BRIE_f_ (“short,” omission of last letter indicated by “cut”)
14d	<_EYE OPENER_<	<i_RENE POE YE_lls< (reversed hidden phrase indicated by “reading back through”)
16d	GREE(N CA R)D	N (“Northern”) + CA (“California”) + R (“republican”) contained in (“consumed by”)
17d	SPUR IOUS	SPUR (“incentive”) + IOUS (“debts”)
19d	KIN G(DO)M	KIN (“family”) + GM (“car manufacturer”) containing (“hosting”) DO (“shindig”) Good choice of definition: one that makes you think “that’s right.”
21d	O *ATME _AL_	^O^ption (first letter indicated by “start”) + *MEAT (anagram indicated by “scramble”) + k^AL^e (middle letters indicated by “stuffing”) A complex clue made easier by fairly obvious indicators: I would have used “ground” as the anagram indicator.
22d	F(R)OLIC	stone^R^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) contained in (“gets into”) FOLIC (“a type of acid”)
23d	MARS	Double definition
24d	PU(T O)N	PUN (“paranomasia”) containing (“about”) ^TO^xophilites (first two letters indicated by “a couple of”) I’ll bet the point of this clue was to introduce that word to us wordplay enthusiasts.  If you parse out the parts of the word, para means second (think parallel) and nom means name.