Train ride (Puzzle No. 3247)

I got my copy of this puzzle just before getting the train home.  Back before I got into cryptics, I would solve the dailies from the Philadelphia Inquirer or the New York Times, keeping track of my relative success by noting what station the train was at when I finished.  Well, this week's Nation puzzle was easy enough that I finished my first pass through by Wayne Junction, and by Fern Rock I had all but the bottom left done.  I might have been able to finish before Elkins Park had I guessed the wordplay type in 18a right, but I put the puzzle aside to finish later.

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/169058/puzzle-no-3247

Hozom’s comment: “On Bookshelves Now” http://www.thenation.com/blog/169106/bookshelves-now

Hot and Trazom review a new book of variety cryptics called, quite appropriately, "50 Variety Cryptic Crosswords" and interview author Roger Wolff.  Here's a link to buy the book at Amazon.  Maybe I'll take it on while I'm on vacation.  Hot?  Trazom?  There's one thing you left out of the review: are the puzzles mostly hard or easy?

Of course your bookshelf should also include a copy of the NPL cryptic compendium, which Hot and Trazom were the curators of--especially because the PDF is available for free(!) via puzzlers.org.  A great variety of puzzles and gimmicks, some of which are extraordinarily clever.

News:  Thank you very much to Hot and Trazom for plugging this blog in their Word Salad post last week.

Themework: None that I see, unless you count 5a 27a, which might line up with the Word Salad post.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  * * (Mostly easy).

[note that a * or * * rating means that a puzzle is easy: not that it's bad] 

Political content: none this week.  [oops, forgot Che Guevara in 12a]

solution and comments below the fold.

Legend: "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed; "( )" letters inserted; "_" or lower case: letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue, “^” first letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters

Across

1a	RAVENOUS	Pun
5a	Q | WE | *RTY	Q (“Queen”) + WE (“you and I”) + *TRY (anagram indicated by “desparately”) How many cryptic setters wish they’d thought of including this in a puzzle?
10a	_IN LET_	chaIN LETter (hidden word indicated by “featuring”)
11a	LIVER | POOL	LIVER (“organ”) + POOL (“association”)
12a	CHE | ROOT	CHE (“Cuban icon”) + ROOT (“to applaud”)
13a	S (CHER | Z) O	CHER (“singer/actress”) + Z (“the last character) contained in ( “in”) SO (“very”)
14a	~TOLD	~TOLLED (“pealed,” homonym indicated by “audibly”)
16a	*THOUSAND | S	*AND SHOUT (anagram indicated by “twist”) + sixtieS (last letter indicated by “end of”)
18a	*ANGL (I CAN) S	*SLANG (anagram indicated by “arcane”) containing (“includes”) I CAN (“words of confidence”)
19a	_VERB_	riVERBeds (“to search” is a verb, hidden word indicated by “in”)
21a	*DIOCESE	*CODE E IS (anagram indicated by “cracked”) Nice use of a second definition
22a	*CROAT | IA	*ACTOR (anagram indicated by “bad”) + IA (“Iowa”)
24a	ON | AVER | AGE	ON (“running”) + AVER (“to claim”) + AGE (“seniority”)
25a	<_NISEI_<	<treatIES INvolve< (reversal indicated by “reverting,” hidden word indicated by “intrinsically”) “Reverting” for a reversal seems marginal to me.
26a	SC | <YLLA<	SC (“South Carolina”) + <ALLY< (“partner,” reversal indicated by “brought back”) Scylla and Charybdis were legendary sea monsters cited in literature dating back to Homer.  You didn’t want to be between them.
27a	*WORD GAME	*DAME GROW (anagram indicated by “uneasy”)

Down

1d	RA (IN CA) TS | AND | DOGS	INCA (“Peruvian”) contained in (“interrupting”) RATS (“traitors”) + †AND + DOGS (“contemptible people”)
2d	VAL (V) E	V (“volume”) contained in (“in”) VALE (“hollow”)
3d	NOT | ION	NOT (“the opposite of”) + ION (“a particle”)
4d	UN (L) IT	L (“liters”) contained in (“in”) UNIT (a gallon is an example [“for instance”] of a unit)
6d	W | ARC HEST	W (atomic symbol for “tungsten” + ARCHEST (“most cunning”)
7d	*RIO GRANDE	*GRADE IRON (anagram indicated by “poor”)
8d	YELLOW SUBMARINE	Pun: extra mustard = YELLOW + sandwich = SUBMARINE
9d	*E (VAS) IONS	*NOISE (anagram indicated by “dreadful”) containing (“hides”) VA’S (“Veterans Administration’s”)
15d	*LEGIONARY	*ALIEN ORGY (anagram indicated by “perverse”)
16d	<TRA | DE GAP<	<PAGED ART< (reversal indicated by “mounting”)
17d	SIDE | REAL	REAL (“genuine”) following (“support for”) SIDE (“team”) A sidereal day is a complete rotation of the earth from the perspective of outer space instead of from the sun’s perspective.  Since the earth is getting a little farther in its orbit around the sun each day, it doesn’t have to make a complete 360° rotation for the sun to get back straight overhead.  Thus the sidereal day is about 4 minutes short of 24 hours.  (365.2425 ÷ 366.2425)
20d	*GOUNOD	*UNGOOD (anagram indicated by “lousy”) Charles Gounod (1818-1893) composed operas, the Vatican national anthem (“Pontifical March”), and the theme to “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (“Funeral March of a Marionette”)
22d	_CRED O_	saCRED Oath (hidden word indicated by “requires”)
23d	*T (O) SCA	*CAST (anagram indicated by “confused”) containing (“about”) O (initial [“lead”] of “Otello”)