Sleep of the dead (Solution No. 1,303)

The solution to the June 23, 1969 The Nation puzzle is below the fold

Man, it was good to finally be back in my own bed after two weeks on the road and that 4:15 am arrival.  It took two or three nights for the sleep deficit to get worked off, and with no orchestra or fencing anything else to take children to Saturday morning, I could leave the alarm off.  When I finally began to stir, it felt remarkable: my mind seemed completely powered down.  I imagine a lot of you solvers are also the type whose brains seem to be constantly humming.  It was quite refreshing to be the opposite for a while.

As for the Frank Lewis puzzle I posted last week, which you will recall was from 1969, I made a pretty good run at the top half and then got bogged down between some obscure answers and more single definitions than I was expecting.  I was over-thinking it and trying to find wordplay where it didn’t exist.  Maybe I should try and get my brain back into Saturday morning mode next time.

See you in 1964, two weeks from now.

Solution to The Nation puzzle No. 1,303     

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	TRIAL BY JURY	Double definition
9a, 11a	READ JUST	READ (“make something out of the letters”) + JUST (“barely”)
10a	HOCKS	Double definition
12a	MINER AL	MINER (“Clementine’s father” [“’twas a miner…”]) + AL (“Albert”) Good clue if you remember the song.
13a	RICHARD	RICH (opposite (“otherwise”) of “poor”) + HARD (“difficult”) This might have caught some flak for lacking any indication of the overlap (or omitted letter, if you prefer), but it’s a great clue.  Would you stand for Hot and Trazom doing something like this?
15a	AGITATOR	Single definition
16a	_EXTORT_	pret_EXT OR T_hreat (hidden word indicated by “out of ”)
18a	STORKS	Single definition I had “sterns” here, but I didn’t like it—trying to make more out of the wordplay.
21a	F(UTILE)LY	FLY (“take to the air”) containing (“about”) UTILE (“serviceable”)
24a	D IS CARD	CARD (“record”) preceded by richar^D^ (cross-ref to 13a, last letter indicated by “finally”) Not sure where they got the IS
26a	S(NIP)ING	SING (“what an entertainer might do”) containing (“is about”) NIP (“cut off”)
28a	See 2d
29d	See 4d
30a	OPEN	OPEN WATER (cross ref to 29a) is called “main”
31a	TALKING SHOP	Single definition I don’t like this clue.  So many better choices had you been looking for a pun.

Down

2d, 28a	RED LETTER DAYS	RED (“a radical”) + LETTER (“one who is permissive”) + DAYS (“time”)
3d	*ATH(WAR)T	WAR (“conflict”) contained in (“in”) *THAT (anagram sort of indicated by “condition”)
4d, 29a	BACK WATER	Double definition
5d	JUSTICE	JUST (“merely”) + ICE (“a term for diamonds”)
6d	RAJAH	RAJ (“a rule”) + AH (“expression of wonderment”)
7d	HEXING	Single definition
8d	USURER	Single definition
14d	DRIFT	Double definition
17d, 23d	TELEPHOTO LENSES	Single definition
19d	_TRIBAL_	firs_T RIB AL_ways (hidden word indicated by “has”)
20d	SARAWAK	Single definition Sarawak is on the island of Borneo and is now part of Malaysia.
22d	TENURES	Single definition
23d	See 17d
25d	CASCA	Single definition Another Shakespeare reference: “See what a rent the envious Casca made.” (Julius Caesar: III, ii, 170).  My original guess was close though: “Cesar”
27d	<ETON<	<NOTE< (“record,” reversal indicated by “upstanding”)