Jim Horne’s Manifesto (Solution No. 3,325)

The solution to puzzle no. 3,325 is below the fold as usual.

While we’re on the subject of difficulty (or lack thereof), I noticed a post from Jim Horne (proprietor of xwordinfo.com) asking “What are crossword bloggers thinking?”  He notes that many of the most popular crossword blogs, and their commentors, take inordinate pleasure in sniping at the puzzles they review, so he found it discouraging to blog.

The manifesto had seven points—I think they’re all insightful.

• Blogs are written by people who are not the target audience for the puzzles
• The blogs are written by people who have done so many puzzles that they've become tired of the standard forms.
• The bloggers seem to be more conservative than I am
• Bloggers have an unreasonable focus on the weakest short fill entries
• There’s a tendency to equate knowledge gaps with bad puzzle-making
• There is too much focus on symmetry and consistency
• There is irrational hand-wringing when made-up rules are broken

If I had to distill it down to a single point, it would be: “solvers and bloggers have to learn to meet the constructor halfway.” Go read the whole thing.

Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,325

Themework: see 29a.  The theme answers are the five ranks in a royal flush.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Hard, though the theme can help you. 

Political content: 16d.  I was trying to make ISSA (Darrell, R-CA) fit at first, but he’s from the San Diego area

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, 30a	SKIP ROP E	SKI PROP (“a pole”) + E (“excellent”) I’m going to take a page from Emily and drop a video at the end of the solution.
3a	*WHITE SPACE	*SHAPE TWICE (anagram indicated by “rearrange”)
10a	BIL(KIN)G_	KIN (“relatives”) contained in (“invested in”) BILG_e_ (“worthless stuff,” omission of last letter indicated by “mostly”)
11a	WEBSITE	Pun. You might find spiderwebs in the attic.
12a	LE GATE	LT (“the French”) + GATE (“door”)
13a	P SAL MIST	^P^etraeus (first letter indicated by “heading”) + SAL (†) + MIST (“fog”) I was misdirected for a while, trying to anagram “SAL TO THE”
14a	_GLE N_	goo_GLE N_ews (hidden word indicated by “covers”)
15a	PRO M_ QUEEN	PRO (“supporting”) M_c_QUEEN (“Steve,” omission of C [“$100”] indicated by “loses”)
18a	*APPLE(J)ACK	*PACK PALE (anagram indicated by “brewed”) containing ^J^anuary (first letter indicated by “beginning”)
20a	A(IM)S	IM (“instant message”) contained in (“interrupting”) AS (“ballplayers”)
23a	LEVI T ATE	LEVI (“man in the Bible”) + prophe^T^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) + ATE (“took in”)
25a	PRIES T	PRIES (“is a busybody”) + T (“true”)
27a	<_CAR(DIA)C<	<CRAC_k_ (“some cocaine,” omission of last letter indicated by “almost entirely”) containing (“to obtain”) AID (“help”), reversal of the whole thing indicated by “reject”
28a	*MOISTEN	*NO ITEMS (anagram indicated by “strangely”)
29a	ROY (AL F) LUSH	ROY (“Rogers”) + LUSH (“drunk”) containing (“capturing”) ALF (“alien life form”)
30a		see 1a

Down

1d	SUB T_LE	SUB (“hero”) preceding (“at first”) T_a_LE (“story,” omission of A indicated by “lacking A”) Placement of the SUB component at the end of the clue makes it harder.
2d	ILL(E) GAL	ILL (“sick”) + GAL (“girl”) containing (“taking”) E (“ecstacy”)
4d	HUG O	HUG (“display of affection”) + O (repeat of “hug”)
5d	<T(OWNS)FOL< K	OWNS (“has”) contained in (“lodged in”) <LOFT< (“garret,” reversal indicated by “up”) followed by (“above”) awestruck^K^ (last letter indicated by “last of”)
6d	<SI< BY L	<IS< (†, reversal indicated by “rising”) + BY (“near”) + ^L^acedaemon (first letter indicated by “capital”) Lacedaemon (where’d they get that one?) is a province of Greece.
7d	AS I N INE	Rebus
8d	*ELECTING	*CITE GLEN (anagram indicated by “freely”), cross-reference to 14A “GLEN” in anagram fodder
9d	PITT _ANCE	PITT (“Brad”) + _d_ANCE (“Lindy, say,” omission of first letter indicated by “past the opening”) Another challenging clue to parse.
15d	<_PRAC TI CAL_<	<shel_LAC IT CARP_enter< (hidden word indicated by “substance,” reversal indicated by “if inverted”)
16d	QUA TRAIN	QUA (“some”) + TRAIN (“exercise”) Subtle.
17d	CAB L<E CAR<	CAB (“taxi”) + ^L^imo (first letter indicated by “in the lead”) preceding (“dominating”) <RACE< (“competition,” reversal indicated by “uphill”)
19d	P OVER T Y	P OVER T (“P/T”) + emplo^Y^ments (middle letter indicated by “at the center”) Getting this one is why you should try and work out all the clues in these puzzles.
21d	*MAESTRO	*SOME TAR (anagram indicated by “mixed”)
22d	*STANCE	*ASCENT (anagram indicated by “ruined”)
24d	T<RIAL<	^T^he (†, first letter indicated by “entrance”) + <LAIR< (“den,” reversal indicated by “in reverse”)
26d	¶EMUS	¶MUSEUM This might be a first: an inverted letter bank.

Double Dutch Bus (Frankie Smith, 1981)