Sanding both sides (Solution No. 3,345)

The solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,345 is below the fold.

Getting a smooth surface on a cryptic clue can be hard sometimes, as Hot and Trazom pointed out at Word Salad.  Just think how hard it must be to get a clue to work two different ways and give two different answers—Kevin Wald accomplishes that in the second of his two new puzzles from last week.  That’s a trick he specializes in: some of those special clues are very well camouflaged,  I had to work backwards from the final message to find the last double clue.  Hall of fame stuff.  

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/190265/puzzle-no-3345

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  Moderate, once I bypassed 1a and 1d.

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	COLOR A D(O)RIVER	COLOR (“for example, maroon”) + A (†) + DRIVER (“chauffeur”) containing (“taking”) ec^O^n (next to last letter indicated by “semifinal”)
9a	OFTEN	§OF TEN
10a	S(QUINT)ING	SING (“carol”) containing (“catches”) QUINT (“one of the Dionnes”)
11a	IDLE WILD	IDLE (“lazy”) + WILD (“fierce”)
12a	ST ROBE	ROBE (“flowing farment) following (“behind”) ST (“street”) They could have taken out the space between street and light.
14a	SP RIG	SP (“Spanish”) + RIG (“truck”)
16a	SHOR(T T)E RM	SHORE (“beachfront”) + RM (“room”) containing (“captures”) T T (“times”)
17a	B(I SHOP)RIC_	I (†) + SHOP (“buy things”) contained in (“covered with”) BRIC_k_ (“adobe,” omission of last letter indicated by “for the most part”)
19a	NY MPH	NY (“New York”) + MPH (“unit” [of speed])
22a	D(EP)UTY	DUTY (“responsibility”) containing (“concealing”) EP (“record”)
23a	REDACTOR	§RED ACTOR
26a	*CROCODILE	*ICE COLD OR (anagram indicated by “put another way”)
27a	AM I GO	AM I (“question about self-identification”) + GO (“game”)
28a	TEN ZING NOR GAY	TEN (“supremely good-looking person”) + ZING (“an exciting quality”) + NOR (“not”) GAY (“attracted to members of the same sex”)

Down

1d	COOKIES	CO-OKIES (pun, reference to characters in The Grapes of Wrath)
2d	LIT(TL)ER	LITER (about a quart”) containing (“encapsulates”) bot^TL^ing (middle letters indicated by “the essence of”)
3d	RENE W	RENE (“Descartes”) + ^W^anted (first letter indicated by “originally”)
4d	DISC_L*OSURE	DISC_ount_ (“price reduction,” omission of last four letters indicated by “50 percent off”) + L (“50”) + *EUROS (anagram indicated by “wasted”)
5d	R(O)UT	O (“tire,” visual hint) contained in (“in”) RUT (“ditch”)
6d	*VINGT-ET-UN	*INVENT GUT (anagram indicated by “wrenching”)
7d	~RHIZOME	~RISE (“to grow”) + ~OM (“mantra,” homophone indicated by “chanted aloud”)
8d	AG*LEAM	AG (“silver”) + *MALE (anagram indicated by “distracted”)
13d	POACHED EGG	Pun
15d	G(HOST T) OWN	HOST (“army”) + ^T^roop (first letter indicated by “leader”) contained in (“found in”) GOWN (“part of a woman’s garment”)
17d	BO DICE	BO (“the first family’s dog”) + DICE (“bones”)
18d	S(*UPP)ORT	SORT (“kind”) containing (“to take in”) *PUP (anagram indicated by “injured”)
20d	MAT(T)ING	MATING (“having sex”) containing (“around”) ^T^acky (first letter indicated by “a bit of”)
21d	*HARMONY	*NH MAYOR (anagram indicated by “is corrupt”)
24d	ALAMO_	A LA MO_de_ (“with ice cream,” omission of DE (“two pieces of dessert”) indicated by “after putting away”)
25d	WIF_ I	WIF_e_(“spouse,” omission of last letter indicated by “cut off”) + I (“the first”)