Visors (Solution No. 3,297)

The other NHL rule change that got publicity was the rule calling for an extra minor penalty to a player who removes his helmet before an altercation (“altercation” is rules-speak for a fight).  We’ve had that rule in amateur hockey for several years: the reason for it is that players can fall and hit their heads on the ice either swinging, being hit, or wrestling with the opponent.  The kind of fights you see in TV hockey where the players drop their gloves, circle each other, throw punches and end up in a clinch are pretty rare in men’s league games: what we tend to see is one guy whaling on another or both guys trying to slap at each other until they lose their balance and fall down.

I support the rule: falling on the ice without a helmet is a good way to get a concussion.  But I fully expect there’ll be plenty of guys who ignore it.  They might get creative like the two players in a pre-season game who politely allowed their opponent to remove his helmet before commencing blows, or they might just blow off the rule and take off their helmets anyway, in which case fighting is going to be seven minutes instead of five.

The league is also mandating that rookies with fewer than 25 games experience wear half-shield visors to protect their eyes.  Because of this, they’re dropping the rule applying an extra penalty to a player who gets into an altercation while wearing a visor.

We have a similar new mandate in amateur hockey: all us referees must now wear visors, regardless of our age or experience.  Up until now, the visor was strongly recommended, but I went without one because I wore a pair of sports glasses designed for use with a helmet instead.  I switched from contacts to glasses because I have pretty bad astigmatism, which the contacts don’t help.  I see a lot better with my hockey glasses, plus my eyes are protected from stray sticks and pucks (fortunately, I’ve never been hit in the face in my officiating career: I’ve had enough stitches there already).

But I feared that a visor would reduce the airflow around my glasses when I skate, which I rely on to keep the glasses from fogging up.  I’m like a shark; as long as I keep moving, everything is fine.  If I stay still during a third-period stoppage when I’m all sweaty, that’s when my glasses fog up.  When the rule change was proposed, I appealed to the committee to grant an exception to those of us with alternate eye protection (the glasses actually protect me better than a visor would, since a stick blade can’t get under them), but I was unsuccessful.  Not surprising, because very few players or officials wear dedicated sports glasses: they just wear their everyday glasses under their helmet.

So I got a detachable visor, which I can take off when I’m working Penn and other non-USAH leagues and tournaments.  So far it hasn’t fogged too much, but summer league will be the real test.

Did this week’s The Nation puzzle (it was a hard one) fog your mind?  If so, I’ve got the solution and annotation below the fold.

Solution to The Nation Puzzle No. 3,297

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	*NARCOLEPTIC	Cross-reference to 25a (anagram indicated by “hit”)
7a	FIRST	Inverted clue: “T” is the FIRST letter of “trees”
8a	N | E(G)LECTED	^N^ickels  (first letter indicated by “originally”) + ELECTED (“chose”) containing (“to take”) G (“$1,000”)
10a	*REH(IRE)D	*HERD  (anagram indicated by “stampeding”) containing (†) IRE (“anger”)
11a	<N(*ERVO)US<	*OVER  (anagram indicated by “roiling”) contained in (“in”) <SUN<  (“star,”, reversal indicated by “receding”)
12a	F | AR F | ETCHED	F (“loud” [forte]) | ARF (“bark”) | ETCHED (“scored”) Some misdirection here, as “loud” could indicate a homophone.
14a	~DIRE	~DYER  (“one who changes colors,” homophone indicated by “sounds”)
16a	_GERM_	ti_GER M_oth  (hidden word indicated by “swallowing”)
18a	*SALSA MUSIC	*CASUAL MISS I would associate salsa with Puerto Rico more than Cuba.
21a	*TOSHIBA	*HIS BOAT  (anagram indicated by “rocking”)
22a	F(ERR)AR | I	ERR (“to slip”) contained in (“into”) FAR (†) + I (“interstate”) More misdirection, since “slip into” could also be read as the container indication.
23a	*RELUCTANT	*CATTLE RUN (anagram indicated by “amok”) Same thing: you could easily think that “run” was part of the indicator
24a	_EAT IN_	h_EATIN_g  (hidden word indicated by “central”) Not as much misdirection as the previous ones
25a	*ERIC CLAPTON	Cross-reference to 1a (anagram indicated by “playing”)

Down

1d	NOR | THE | R	NOR (“not”) + THE (†) + ^R^ainy  (first letter indicated by “front”)
2d	ROT | ARIES	ROT (“go bad”) + ARIES (“in springtime it’s a [zodiac] sign”)
3d	O(W)NED	ONE D (“linear”) containing (“inside”) W (“width”) I got the answer right away, but it took me a while to get “one-D” as the component.
4d	*ENGI(_NE_)ER	*SINGER (anagram indicated by “punk”) containing (“describing”) o_NE_s  (omission of first and last letters indicated by “naked”) Another really good misdirection.
5d	T(HE)ORY	TORY (“conservative”) containing (“comprehending”) HE (“that man”)
6d	COT | TONY	COT (“bed”) + TONY (“high-class”)
7d	FIREFIGHTER	¶FREIGHT (letter bank indicated by “accumulated bits of ”)
9d	DI(<STRA<)CTION	DICTION (“a way of talking”) containing (“about”) ARTS  (“painting and sculpture,” reversal indicated by “the rise of”)
13d	CHAR | ABA | NC	CHAR (“to burn”) + ABA (“lawyers’ group”) preceding (“dominating”) NC (“North Carolina”) Obscure fill, but fair because the wordplay is straightforward
15d	S | MAR | TEST	TEST (“experiment”) following (“underlying”) ^S^cientific  (first letter indicated by “beginning of”) + MAR (“damage”)
17d	RESOLVE	Pun
19d	SPAR | TAN	SPAR (“quarrel”) + TAN (“beat”)
20d	LIT | CHI	LIT (“on”) + CHI (“Greek character”)
22d	FAT | WA_	FAT (“lard”) + WA_s_  (†, omission of last letter indicated by “trimmed”)