Handwriting, part 2 (solution no. 3,300)

Thursday I noted that I try to solve my puzzles neatly, even if nobody else is ever going to see them.

Part of it is that my handwriting was more than awful when I was in middle school, so I’m especially aware and maybe even defensive about it.  I worked like hell on it in seventh and eighth grades, made a few changes at the behest of the teacher who was working with me on it, and eventually came to using all caps for much of my writing, which in fact takes after my father, though not necessarily by intent.

The other reason for trying to make neat grids is the extra challenge.  As you may remember, when I work on sudokus, I try to avoid writing notes in the boxes, to make them a bit more challenging.  I know I could write down partials or leftover letters to make anagrams easier to solve, but I don’t feel a strong need to do so, and I’d rather have the satisfaction of doing it all in my head.  I won’t even make notes in the margins, except to call out clues and answers I want to comment on in the blog post.

But I am not such an ascetic when it comes to variety cryptics: there’s too much going on like extraneous words in the clues not to annotate liberally on the page (which is also why I prefer to work most of my puzzles on paper).  Below the solution to this week’s The Nation puzzle is my solved copy of Kevin Wald’s ACPT puzzle from earlier this year (and yes, it was a doozy: harder than usual and with four layers of theme metas.  Go try it.

Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,300

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	§FLAT TIRE	§FL (Florida, place for “spring break”) ATTIRE (“bikini” as example of attire for spring break) We haven’t had (or I haven’t noticed) a heteronym in a while.
5a	AM I(C)| US	^C^alifornia (first letter indicated by “capital”) contained in (“interrupting”) AM I (†) + US (“American”)
10a	EX | PANS | ION	EX (“former spouse”) + PANS (“criticizes”) + ION (“particle”)
11a	_LY RIC_	joe_LY RIC_hardson (hidden word indicated by “excerpt from”) Joely Richardson (never heard of her) is Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter.
12a	~ABEL	~ABEL (“murder victim,” homonym indicated by “to be heard”)
13a	*ISAAC STERN	Cross reference to 21a (anagram indicated by “playing”)
15a	<SPACE-TIME<	<softwar^E^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) + MITE (“bug”) + CAPS (“limits”), reversal of the whole thing indicated by “overturning”
18a	*ALIBI	*BAIL I (anagram indicated by “jumping”)
19a	*CADET	*ACTED (anagram indicated by “without discipline”) Good indicator.
20a	FAS <CIS< TIC	TIC (“jerk”) following (†) FAS (“notes”) + <SIC< (“yes, you read that correctly,” reversal indicated by “backward”)
21a	*ASCERTAINS	Cross-reference to 13a (anagram indicated by “unlucky”)
23a	SKI | M	SKI (“slide”) + ^M^ountain (first letter indicated by “face”)
26a	_INT RO_	pa_INT RO_mantic (hidden word indicated by “setting for”)
27a	*ENCHILADA	*LEAD CHAIN (anagram indicated by “tangled”)
28a	NU(DIS)T	NUT (“enthusiast”) containing (“swallows”) DIS (“insult”)
29a	RE(LEAS)ED	REED (“grass”) containing (“outside”) LEAS (“pastures”)

Down

1d	¶FREE ASSOCIATION	¶FORNICATES (letter bank indicated by “offers the ingredients needed for”)
2d	APP | LE	APP (“program”) preceding (“topping”) LE (“the French”)
3d	_TANK	_s_TANK (“smelled nasty,” omission of first letter indicated by “with the lid removed”)
4d	RU(I)NS	RUNS (“moves quickly”) containing (“around”) jup^I^ter (middle letter indicated by “center of”)
6d	*MILES DA(VI)S	*MISLEADS (anagram indicated by “deceptively”) containing (“takes in”) ^VI^rtuosos (first two letters indicated by “a couple of”)
7d	CARE | *ERIST	CARE (“worry”) + *TRIES (anagram indicated by “cruelly”)
8d	¶SECOND IN COMMAND	¶COMEDIANS (letter bank indicated by “some of them repeatedly”)
9d	SNE(AK)ERS	SNEERS (“behaves scornfully”) containing (“about”) slov^AK^ (last two letters indicated by “last pair of”)
14d	*CENTURIONS	*RUNIC NOTES (anagram indicated by “reinterpret”)
16d	*ABDICATED	*A BAD EDICT (anagram indicated by “thwart”[?])
17d	*INF(RARE)D	*FIND (anagram indicated by “unusual”) containing (“wrapper for”) RARE (“unusual”)
22d	NIC(H)E	H (“^H^ogs head”—insert space) contained in (“hidden in”) NICE (“pleasant”)
24d	K | EATS	EATS (“takes in”) following (“under”) K (“$1,000”)
25d	PINE	Double definition