Philip (the class of the division), Sabers, and Willie |
After stepping in to referee a few bouts at the fencing tournament a few weeks ago so one of our originally-scheduled refs could compete and qualify the tournament for a higher rating, I figured I should get properly trained and tested. The club had a seminar Saturday, and I passed the test with flying colors—interpreting and explaining why a point in line wasn’t valid, and then spotting the missing tip screw in an epee. So now I have a third refereeing certification. I’m pretty sure there’s never been another combination hockey, fencing, and cricket official before.
Then The Other Doctor Mitchell got a call Sunday morning: one of the people assisting with the skating competition at her club had to go to the hospital—could she come early and serve as accountant? She agreed, and when she got there, the head accountant explained the basics of the job and said he’d guide her through it. He didn’t know that the essentials of the job: entering and organizing data, spotting errors and inconsistencies, and staying cool under pressure happen to be The Other Doctor Mitchell’s fortes. By the end of the day, he was insisting that he put her name in to the USFSA to be added to their roster of officials. That’s great because even if she doesn’t get paid for this, they’ll take care of travel expenses for events that she works, possibly some of the events Bangle will be skating at this fall. That will come at a good time, since she’s up to the level now where she and her mom are both on track to qualify for their respective Nationals.
Not quite flying colors on this puzzle though. I can’t fully parse 13d. Any of you get it?
Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,323
Themework: Nothing here, but I notice we’re getting
close to 3,333. Wonder if Hot and Trazom
have anything up their sleeve for that one.
Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Easy
to moderate. I sailed through the
top and bottom, and slowed down in the middle. Just can’t work out the wordplay of 13d.
Political
content: 25d
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
|
E_THER
|
E_i_THER (“each,” omission of I (“one”) indicated by
dropped”)
|
4a
|
¶REITERATE
|
¶IRATE (letter bank indicated by “letters–some of them
more than once”)
|
9a
|
PA(N_I)CKING
|
PACKING (“preparing for a trip”) containing (“around”)
^N^agasak^I^ (first and last letters indicated by “the outskirts”)
|
10a
|
T HUM B
|
HUM (“drone”) + ^B^omber (first letter indicated by
“at first”) following (“behind”) aircraf^T^ (last letter indicated by “rear”)
Didn’t we just see “drone” for HUM?
|
11a
|
_ORY X
|
_g_ORY (†, omission of first letter indicated by
“decapitated”) + X (“times”)
Our and lit for
the week.
|
12a
|
AD *DIS A BA BA
|
AD (“spot”) + *SAID (anagram indicated by “to be
shifted”) + BA BA (“two degrees”)
Lots of opportunity for misdirection, but this didn’t
fool me at all.
|
14a
|
STO(VETO)P
|
VETO (“put an end to”) contained in STOP (“put an end
to”) or vice versa, (“inside and out”)
|
15a
|
MAN *GLE
|
MAN (“fellow”) + *LEG (anagram indicated by “broken”)
|
18a
|
_HY BRID_
|
s_HY BRID_e (omission of first and last letters
indicated by “undressed”)
This one had me stuck for a while: can’t explain why.
|
19a
|
M(IN)ISTER
|
MISTER (“form of address”) containing (“outside”) IN
(†)
|
22a
|
T(<RAGIC<)O MIC
|
TO (†) + MIC (“speaker’s helper”) containing
(“holding”) <CIGAR< (“stogie,” reversal indicated by “back”)
|
24a
|
<SNIP<
|
<PINS< (“attaches,” reversal indicated by
“contrarian”)
|
26a
|
FE(<IG<)N
|
<GI< (“soldier,” reversal indicated by
“returning”) contained in (“in”) FEN (“swamp”)
|
27a
|
H(EIGHT)ENS
|
HENS (“chickens”) containing (“catches”) EIGHT (“8”)
I Iwas misdirected (looking for a cross-ref) only for
the briefest time.
|
28a
|
LA UNDER ED
|
LA (“city”) + UNDER (“governed by”) + ED (“Mayor
Koch”)
Ed Koch (“How’m I doin’”) was Mayor of New York in the
1980s.
|
29a
|
~SIGHS
|
~SIZE (“mass,” homonym indicated by “sung”)
|
Down
1d
|
*EMPLOYS
|
*SPY MOLE (anagram indicated by “irresponsibly”)
|
2d
|
HONE *YCOMB
|
HONE (“improve”) + *BOY MC (anagram indicated by
“clumsy”)
|
3d
|
RACK
|
Double definition
Did any of you solvers have a rack of lamb for Seder
or for Easter dinner? I got this
answer right away from the definition, but it took a while to recognize the
other definition
|
4d
|
RA(I)NDR OP
|
R AND R (“in the military, time off”) + OP
(“operation”) containing (“gets”) I (“one”)
|
5d
|
§INGRID
|
§IN GRID
|
6d
|
~EUTHANASIA
|
~YOUTH IN ASIA (“a Japanese teenager,” homonym
indicated by “listening to”)
|
7d
|
A CUR A
|
A (†) + CUR (“dog”) + A (†)
|
8d
|
*EMBRA C_E
|
*AMBER (anagram indicated by “waves”) + ^C^heyenn^E^
(first and last letters indicated by “outside of”)
“Outside” is a good misdirecting indicator.
|
13d
|
PETIT(ION)E D
|
I got this one from the definition and intersecting
letters, but I can’t parse it completely.
“particle” clues ION, while “inside” clues that it’s
contained in PETITE. D is a (†)
at the end. That leaves “to
place” which doesn’t define PETITE: is that supposed to clue TEE with some different particle?
|
16d
|
GUT *EN(B)ERG
|
GUT (“eviscerate”) + ^B^ook (first letter indicated by
“front”) contained in (“stuck in”) *GREEN (anagram indicated by
“malfunctioning”)
|
17d
|
*VIL(IF I)ED
|
*DEVIL (anagram indicated by “monstrous”) containing
(“was taken in”) IF (“assuming”) + I (†)
|
18d
|
*HATEFUL
|
*FAULT EH (anagram indicated by “nasty”)
|
20d
|
RE(PA)STS
|
PA (“dad”) contained in (“when parting”) RESTS (“takes
five”)
|
21d
|
MOTHER
|
Pun
|
23d
|
A(DIE)U
|
DIE (“cube”) contained in (“coated with”) AU (“gold”)
|
25d
|
T H U S
|
^T^he ^H^ouse ^U^ndermine ^S^ociety (initials
indicated by “leaders”)
|
The clue we submitted had a tiny D, so the intended cryptic reading was ION inside PETITE D. Sorry about that!
ReplyDeleteI feel vindicated.
ReplyDeleteThe error has been fixed online. I haven't seen the hard copy, but I'm told that it's correct.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hot. Great work, Matt.
Delete