Happy Birthday, Peggy (Solution No. 3,328)

And today it’s time to celebrate my mom’s birthday: she turns 3⁴ today.  She doesn't even look 2⁶, or even 7², does she?

Below the fold is the solution to this week’s The Nation puzzle.  Come back Thursday for our next installment in the summer-long Frank Lewis retrospective.  I’m pleased to inform you that we’ll be able to post some of those puzzles here for you.  This will be the first time that most of them have ever been available other than in old paper copies of the magazine or on microfilm.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): easy

Political content: 29a

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	END OWS	END (“to stop”) + OWS (“cries of pain”)
4a	*ASCENDED	*ADD SCENE (anagram indicated by “all about”) Easy first row.
10a	*INSUR ER	*RUINS (anagram indicated by “rebuilt”) + ER (“part of hospital”)
11a	OR LANDO	OR (†) + LANDO (“a character in Star Wars”) Lando Calrissian was the Billy Dee Williams character.
12a	_ON THE ROAD_	fr_ONT HERO AD_mits (hidden phrase indicated by “is found in”)
13a	PRIM E	PRIM (“neat”) + E (“irrational number”) I was looking for a cross-reference to 19a.
14a	_IMPS	_w_IMPS (“chickens,” omission of first letter indicated by “decapitated”)
15a	J*URY RIGGED	*GIRDER GUY (anagram indicated by “tossed”) following J (“Jack”)
19a	LOS T IN <_A FOG<	LOS (“the Spanish”) + TIN (“can”) + <GO FA_r_< (travel a great distance, omission of last letter indicated by “mostly,” reversal indicated by “westward”) Really the only difficult one in the puzzle
23a	<I TEM<	<MET (“encountered”) + I (“one”)<, reversal indicated by “coming back”
26a	_ME TAL_	la_ME TAL_ent (hidden word indicated by “show”) I would have preferred “shows”)
27a	AU<STRA<LIA	AU (“gold”) + <ARTS< (“techniques,” reversal indicated by “in a recession”) + LIA_r_ (“someone telling stories,” omission of last letter indicated by “largely”) Easy to get from the definition and the AU.
28a	*S(CH)OOLS	^CH^oir (first two letters indicated by “two members ”) contained in (“to get into”) *SOLOS (anagram indicated by “discordant”)
29a	<T(IM)PANI<	<MI (“note”) contained in (“sustained by”) INAPT (“unsuitable”)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “recall”
30a	CO(LOSS)AL	LOSS (“depletion”) contained in (“in”) COAL (“fossil fuel”)
31a	<ANAL OG<	<GO (“encouragement”) + LANA (“Turner”)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “backhanded” Good example of hiding the answer in plain sight.

Down

1d	*EDITORIAL	*IDEAL TRIO (anagram indicated by “composition”) And an easy get for the first letters of the acrosses.
2d	<DES(K_T)OP<	<POSED< (“sat,” reversal indicated by “up”) containing (“seizing”) ^K^remlinologis^T^ (first and last letters indicated by “case of”)
3d	WAR DEN	WAR (“conflict”) followed by (“over”) DEN (“family room”) This clue would have been better with a less obvious wordplay.
5d	S(*NOW D)AY	SAY (“for example”) containing (“keeping”) *DOWN (anagram indicated by “fluid”)
6d	<E(CLIP)TIC<	<CITE< (“quote,” reversal indicated by “looking up”) containing (†) CLIP (“excerpt from movie”) Maybe a few of you were confused by the two similar definitions.
7d	DEN(YIN)G	DENG ([Xiaoping], “former Chinese leader”) containing (“interrupted by”) YIN (“the female spirit in China”)
8d	DRONE	Double definition
9d	_ORMOLU_	dec_OR MOLU_ccan (hidden word indicated by “an element of”) Bleh.  This must have been the last word to go into the grid.
16d	REFS	Theme indicator
17d	DEMEANING	Pun
18d	<MIL(LION)S<	<SLIM< (“thin,” reversal indicated by “reversible”) containing (“coat for”) LION (“a big cat”)
20d	{S{ATCHE}L}	}L}ATCHE{S{ (“locks,” transposition of first and last letters indicated by “switched front and back”)
21d	*ARAL SEA	*LA AREAS (anagram indicated by “horribly”)
22d	*ON SITE	*ITS ONE (anagram indicated by “alternative”)
24d	T ELL A LL	Scot^T^ (last letter indicated by “close to”) + ELLA (“Fitzgerald”) + LL (“Mr. Bean”) Good clue.  “F. Scott Fitzgerald” would violate the “definition, wordplay, and nothing else” principle.
25d	T(RUM)AN	TAN (“cure”) containing (“taking”) RUM (“a drink”)
26d	MUS I C	MUS (“letters”) + I (†) + ^C^ollated (first letter indicated by “at first”)