Spring solving season (Solution No. 3,363)

It’s Monday—time for a solution.  And I was wrong about the Harpers’ puzzle: I finished it in one go-round.

Solution to Puzzle No. 3,363

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	ARCH(R)IVAL	ARCHIVAL (“for the files”) containing (“storing”) ^R^esignation (first letter indicated by “letter of”)
6a	_LOGIC_	b_LOG IC_on (hidden word indicated by “features”)
9a	¶ANTITRINITARIAN	¶TRAIN (letter bank indicated by “takes … components and recycles them”) I think it would have been fair enough to indicate with “takes … components, leaving out the additional indication”
10a	DOCK ET	DOC (“cut”) + ET (“alien”)
11a	*BERTRAND	*BRAT NERD (anagram indicated by “ill-mannered”)
12a	SEE D O*UBLE	SEED (“plant”) + O (“orange”) + *BLUE (anagram indicated by “mixed up”)
14a	BEN D	BEN (“Franklin”) + ^D^elano (first letter indicated by “early on”)
16a	E N V Y	^E^ngland’s ^N^asty ^V^iolent ^Y^outh (initials indicated by “leaders of”)
18a	AUSTER_ITY	AUSTER (“novelist Paul”) + _p_ITY (“feel compassion,” omission of P (“power”) indicated by “losing”) Paul Auster is a contemporary novelist best known for The New York Trilogy.
21a	MISS POKE	MISS (“young woman”) preceding (“just before”) POKE (“jab”)
22a	NUN CIO	Pun (reference to CIO, Congress of Industrial Organizations)
25a	AT THE LAST MINUTE	Pun (“at the last” refers to working on the last of a shoe)
26a	HI RED	HI (“hello”) + RED (“ruby”)
27a	DAM A SCENE	DAM (“obstruction”) + A (†) + SCENE (“show of pique”)

Down

1d	A(WAR)D	AD (“bill” [reference to a poster]) containing (“lies about”) WAR (“fight”)
2d	CUTI(CL_)E	CUTIE (“good looker”) containing (“holding”) ^CL^ubs (first two letters indicated by “two of”)
3d	*RATTED ON	*NOT RATED (anagram indicated by “sabotaged”)
4d	*VAIN	*IVAN (anagram indicated by “the terrible”)
5d	*LOITERERS	*STERILE OR (anagram indicated by “disorganized”)
6d	LE(AN T)O	ANT (“soldier”) contained in (“appears in”) LEO ([zodiac] “sign”)
7d	GR(IMAC)E	GRE (“test”) containing (“involving”) IMAC (“Apple computer”)
8d	CANA(DA D)RY	DAD (“pop”) contained in (“swallowed by”) CANARY (“bird”)
12d	S(TEAM BAT)H	TEAM (“Penguins, for instance”) + BAT (“stick”) contained in (“in”) SH (“quiet”) Good clue: lots of possible ways to parse it.
13d	B(LACK H)AND	BAND (“gang”) containing (“concealing”) LACK (“shortage”) + H (“heroin”)
15d	BE(AU TI)ES	BEES (“gatherings to make quilts”) containing (†) AU (“gold”) + TI (“titanium”)
17d	VI<SITOR<	VI (“six”) + <ROTIS< (“flatbreads,” reversal indicated by “flipped”) Roti, a tortilla-like flatbread, thinner than that other crossword constructor’s favorite: naan, was originally made in India, but is now better known in the West Indies, particularly Trinidad.
19d	~INCLUDE	~INK LEWD (“colored liquid” and “obscene,” homophone indicated by “sounds”) I was trying to make “dye” work in this
20d	S P READ	READ (“book”) preceded by (“is covered with”) S (“salt”) + P (“pepper”) Usually “covered with” indicates a container, but this is perfectly fair.
23a	~OXEYE	~bangk_OK SIGH_ing (homophone indicated by “is heard,” hidden fodder indicated by “running through”) Haven’t seen this kind of combination before.  Good idea.
24a	A TOM	TOM (“cat”) following (“chasing”) A (†)