All-Star Game (Solution No. 3,347)

The solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,347 is below the fold.

Pee Wee game Saturday night.  The home team led five to nothing after the first period, outplaying the visitors pretty comprehensively.  As often happens with youth games, the winning coaches don’t want to run up the score, so they make some deliberate changes to the game plan: passing a lot more than shooting.

So in the second period, when the home team got control of the puck in their end, they’d look up to find wingers breaking out into the neutral zone and try to reach them with a long pass.  The TV announcers call this the “home run pass” and some of us call those forwards “floaters.”  Old-time hockey people don’t like floaters, because those wingers aren’t coming back and playing defense. Refs like them even less, because a long pass like that forces you to race the length of the ice to pick up the play, and we don’t get to rest on the bench between shifts.

We got to the bench at the end of the period, and between gulps of water, I turned to my partner and said “looks like the All-Star Game out there [with all the long passes and no defense]: an All-Star Game minus the skill.

Solution to The Nation crossword #3,347

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/192289/puzzle-no-3347

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): hard, thanks in part to a few more challenging bits of fill like 18a and 22a.

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, “‡” Spoonerism

Across

1a	EL*EV(A)TOR	EL (“the Spanish”) + *VOTER (anagram indicated by “is upset”) containing (“about”) A (†)
5a	L(APT)OP	APT (“likely”) contained in (“found inside”) LOP (“prune”)
10a	P*ETER	P (“pass”) + *TREE (anagram indicated by “gnarly”)
11a	<_DIRIGIBLE_<	<tunn_EL BIG I RID_e< (hidden word indicated by “to help make,” reversal indicated by “westbound”)
12a	*ELEVEN PLUS TWO	Cross-reference with anagram (“switched around”) of 24a, definition in 30a
14a	~SUEDE	~SWAYED (“convinced,” homophone indicated by “orator’s”)
15a	<STEPP(E_D) UP<	<PUPPETS (“dolls”) containing (“holding”) D_ic_E (omission of middle letters indicated by “hollow”), reversal of the whole thing indicated by “back”
18a	A FORTIORI	Rebus: A FOR TI OR I (A replaces TI in “raTIonale” and replaces I in “persuasIve”)
22a	*EN VOI	*OVINE (anagram indicated by “blather”)
24a	*TWELVE PLUS ONE	Cross-reference with anagram (“switched around”) of 12a, definition in 30a
27a	ROCK *OPERA	ROCK (“stone”) + *A ROPE (anagram indicated by “twirled”)
28a	SPA GO	SPA (“health resort”) + GO (“to proceed”)
29a	~EILEEN	~I LEAN (“biased,” homophone indicated by “states”)
30a	T(*HIRTEE)N	*EITHER (anagram indicated by “strangely”) contained in (“in”) TN (“Tennessee”)

Down

1d	*EXPRESSWAY	*SPYWARE and SEX (anagram indicated by “malicious”)
2d	_EXT REME_	t_EXT REME_mber (hidden word indicated by “to keep it inside”)
3d	A GREE(ME)NT	A (“one”) + GREET (“welcome”) containing (“envelops”) MEN (“half of humanity”)
4d	OED I(PU)S	OED (“reference work”) + IS (†) containing (“is about”) PU (“plutonium”)
6d	_ARGOT	_m_ARGOT (“Fonteyn,” omission of first letter indicated by “going topless”)
7d	*TABLOID	*BID A LOT (anagram indicated by “engineer”)
8d	}P{LEA	{F}LEA (“a bug,” replacement of F with P indicated by “after turning down the volume”)
9d	T(RI)UNE	TUNE (“air”) containing (“surrounding”) RI (“Rhode Island”)
13d	*_UPSIDE DOWN	*_o_EDIPUS (cross reference to 4d, anagram indicated by “clumsy,” omission of O indicated by “drops ring”) + DOWN (“feathers”_
16d	<TAR<	<RAT< (“sing,” reversal indicated by “upside down”–cross reference to 13d)
17d	PRECURSOR	Pun
19d	*OPTICAL	*CAPITOL (anagram indicated by “in order”)
20d	*ON VIE W	*EN VOI (cross-reference to 2a, anagram indicated by “bananas”) + ^W^ere (first letter indicated by “initially”)
21d	IMP EACH	EAC (“a pop”) following (“pursuing”) IMP (“mischievous child”)
23d	VIOLA TE	VIOLA (“a stringed instrument”) + TE (“Lawrence”)
25d	<EMOT E<	<E-TOME< (“a book on your Kindle?”, reversal indicated by “turns up”)
26d	T RUE	T (“time”) + RUE (“to regret”)