Bar exam (Puzzle No. 3,253)

An autumn breeze?  I knocked this one off while on my lunchtime walk.

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/170013/puzzle-no-3253

Hozom's comment: "Counting Words," in which Hot and Trazom comment on creating number 3,251.  I'll admit I didn't notice the word count when I blogged my comments, though the six long answers which were needed to bring the count down (32 - 26 = 6) got mention.  And it comes as no surprise to me that Hot and Trazom try and give themselves an extra challenge in constructing once in a while, to keep the task from becoming a chore.  Solvers do the same thing sometimes (see Crossword Golf for example).  What about you?  What's your extra challenge?  Share it with us in the comments.

Themework: see 25d.  No groaners in the theme answers.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): easy.  The NW and SE corners are easy, but they don't connect up much with the rest of the puzzle.


Solution and annotation below the fold.  

Legend: "!" theme answer; "*" 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	<OC | TET<	< TET (“holiday”) + CO (“ensemble”) < (reversal indicated by “from the East”) “ensemble” is a company, but not a “Co.” company
4a	PAN (*ORAM) IC	*ROAM (anagram indicated by “aimlessly”) contained in (“in”) PANIC (“terror”)
9a	_DEA_ | REST	iDEAl (omission of first and last letters indicated by “naked”) + REST (“relaxation”)
10a	*ASPIRIN	*IN PARIS (anagram indicated by “abused”)
11a	_RIFLE_	aRI FLEisher (hidden word indicated by “concealed by”)
12a	*OTHERWISE	*WHITE ROSE (anagram indicated by “arranged”)
13a	RICH	Double definition (Rich “Little”, comedian and impressionist: “the man of a thousand voices”; and “well heeled”: answer to 14a)
14a	WELL HEELED	Double definition (“like new stilettos”; and “rich”: answer to 13a) Everyone OK with a circular reference here?
17a	STALAG | MITE	STALAG (“German prison camp,” reference is to WWII POW camps, in case you never saw Hogan’s Heroes) + MITE (“bug”)
19a	*USER	*SURE (anagram indicated by “strung out”, i.e. on drugs)
22a	IM | PUG | NIN | G	IM (“I am”) + PUG (“a dog”) + NIN (“diarist” and erotic novelist Anaïs Nin) + G_rowl_ (first letter indicated by “beginning”)
24a	{T{OPIC	OP{T{IC (moved letter indicated by “heart to head”)
26a	~PRAIRIE	~PRAYERY (coinage, “resembling a solemn request” with homonym indicated by “sounds”) Unorthodox, but fair cluing
27a	THOR | EAU	THOR (“Norse god”) + EAU (“French water”)
28a	DISC | OVER | S	DISC (“O”) + OVER (“/”, division sign) + S (†) My hat is off to you if you got this from the wordplay instead of the crossing letters
29a	*EBERT	*BERET (anagram indicated by “unsightly”)

Down

1d	_ORDER	b_ORDER (“neighbor”, omission of B indicated by “bishop leaving”)
!-2d	<TRA >(FF | I)> C<	FF (“very loud”) + I (†) contained in (“get aboard”) <CART< (“vehicle”, reversal indicated by “backed up”)
3d	TIE | RED	TIE (“connect”) + RED (“Communist”)
4d	PET | ROLE | UM	PET (“favorite”) + ROLE (“part”) + UM (“er…”)
5d	NEAT | H	NEAT (“unmixed”) + H (“hydrogen”)
!-6d	REP | <ORTER<	REP (“agent”) + <RETRO< (“backward”, reversal indicated by “turned” [or vice versa!])
!-7d	MAR{T{IAL	MARI{T{AL (“conjugal”, moved T indicated by “a time shift”)
8d	CON TENDER	Inverted pun: before smoking was banned in prisons (hence the “formerly”) cigarettes were a frequent object of barter (“tender”) for a prisoner (“con”)
13d	R (*ESH) IPPED	RIPPED (“tore) containing (“covering”) *SHE (anagram indicated by “rudely”)
15d	LIT | I | GATES	LIT (“drunk”) + I (“the author”) + GATES (Bill Gates, “high-tech magnate”) Definition references 25a: “COURT”
!-16d	<KA (*NGARO) O<	<OAK< (“tree”, reversal indicated by “climbing”) containing (“suppresses”) *ORGAN (anagram indicated by “anguished”)
!-18d	<AP (*PEAL) S<	*PALE (anagram indicated by “horribly”) contained in (“amid”) <SPA< (“waters”, reversal indicated by “rising”) I would have used a reversal of “leap” instead of the anagram: it’s a more interesting word.
!-20d	SU( PR) EME	PR (“publicity”) contained in (“is included in”) SUE ME (†)
21d	*AT HO | ME	ME (“Maine”) following (after) *OATH (anagram indicated by “breaking”)
23d	IRENE	s_IREN (“temptress”, omission of first letter indicated by “topless”) + E (“ecstasy”) Shows you how much I know about drug culture…
!-25a	COURT	Theme: “court” as in woo, no wordplay since you are to figure it out from the common word that can go with seven of the downs.