Clear Tuuks (Solution No. 3,348)

The solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,288 is below the fold.

With the clear holders, you could see how the runners
were attached to the skate.

Adding to the “cool” factor of my old plastic skates were the clear Tuuk blade holders. Tuuks were the first molded plastic skate chassis; they were introduced in the 1970s and quickly replaced the traditional tubular steel blades.

I wore the plastic skates for my entire playing career from high school through grad school. One night while I was playing for Penn, I blocked a dump-out with my skate, and the puck cracked the holder.  The blade stayed on though, and I managed to finish the game.  But the holder had to be replaced, and from then on I had one white holder and one clear one.

The skates gave out about the same time my shoulder did.  Though the rivets were redone a couple of times, the holder got loose at the heel, so I bought my next pair of skates in 1989.  By then, clear was out, and that pair was in plain white.

Solution to The Nation crossword 3,288

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/193033/puzzle-no-3348

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle: hard.  An uncommon word (trust the wordplay in those situations), some well-disguised indicators, and a good twist at 17a.

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	*CLAUDE MONET	*LEMONADE CUT (anagram indicated by “with booze?”)
7a	see 1d
9a	<NAT<TIER	<TAN< (“beat,” reversal indicated by “back”) + TIER (“someone who makes things even”)
10a	*ELATION	*TOENAIL (anagram indicated by “polished”)
11a	<FREN ETIC<	<CITE (“quote”) + NERF (“toy”)<, reversal of the whole thing indicated by “retract”
12a	*RETINA_	*NAT_t_IER (cross-reference to 9a, omission of T indicated by “after temperature dropped,” anagram indicated by “repaired”)
13a	_RIPE_	st_RIP E_verything (hidden word indicated by “necessary to”)
14a	ROAST BEEF	Pun.
17a	HAPLESSLY	cHAPlin
19a	_ECHO_	karat_E CHO_ps (hidden word indicated by “requiring”) I didn’t see the hidden word at first.
22a	NELSON	Double definition
23a	*MOONIES	*NOISOME (anagram indicated by “freaky”)
25a	*ASOCIAL	*IS A COLA (anagram indicated by “unpalatable”)
26a	*TITANI C	*IT AIN’T (anagram indicated by “surprisingly”) * C (“cold”)
28a	see 1d
29a	HAPPY MEDIUM	Pun

Down

1d, 7a 27d, 28a	CAN DID CAM ERA	CAN (“john”) + DID (“made”) + CAM (“a machine part”) + ERA (“time”) Note that the pieces all neatly matched the spaces in the grid.
2d	AN TWERP	AN (†) + TWERP (“idiot”)
3d	D RIVER	^D^anube (first letter indicated by “source”) + RIVER (“Rhine, for example”)
4d	MAR DI G RAS_	MAR (“spoil”) + DIG (“an excavation”) + RAS_h_ (“over-hasty, omission of last letter indicated by “mostly”)
5d	<NOEL<	<LEON< (“Russell,” reversal indicated by “looking up”) Knowing Hot and Trazom’s propensity for fair cluing, I was expecting this to not be two celebrities.
6d	TRA(VEST)Y	VEST (“garment”) contained in (“in”) TRAY (“in-box”)
7d	DE(I)CIDE	DECIDE (“choose”) containing (“to imprison”) I (“one”)
8d	DEN T(AL F)LOSS	ALF (“furry TV alien”) contained in (“amid”) DEN (“depression”) + LOSS (“bereavement”)
11d	FAR THING ALE	FAR (“remote”) + THING (“item”) + ALE (“beer”)
15d	*ASYMMETRY	*SMARMY YET (anagram indicated by “affected”) I started writing “symmetry” in the grid before I noticed it wasn’t long enough.
16d	DE(MO)LISH	DELISH (“yummy”) containing (“swallowing”) MO (“the usual way”)
18d	PA_LOOK A	PA_ramedics (first two letters indicated by “a couple of”) + LOOK (“examine”) + A (†)
20d	C(HI)ANT I	CAN’T I (“am I incapable”) containing HI (“a greeting”)
21d	GOETH E	GOETH (“doth wend”) + E (“east”)
24d	<PALS<	<SLAP< (“insult,” reversal indicated by “coming up with”)
27d	see 1d