No wordplay (Solution No. 3,358)

The solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,358 is below the fold.

The contrast between the cluing approaches of Hot/Trazom and Frank Lewis is really apparent in this puzzle.  If the Frank Lewis clues hadn’t been italicized, I probably would have been able to identify five or six of them.  The most obvious ones are clues like 1a and 25a, which lack the Ximinean construction of “a definition, wordplay, and nothing else.”  In most cases, Hot and Trazom hew pretty carefully to the Ximinean line. 

That’s not necessarily better or worse:  it’s different.  It takes a little more effort to make sure clues are neatly constructed, but it misses out on some of the associative possibilities that make you nod your head and smile when you figure out the answer. 

On the other hand, the British-style free association clues leave you grappling if you don’t see the clue phrase the same way the constructor does.  I find I have to rely more on intersecting letters, and often I need to see nearly all of them before the answer pops into my mind’s eye.  If you don’t have accessible answers crossing the clever ones, whole sections remain unsolved, and that’s where I think a lot of potential solvers give up on cryptics. 

Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,358

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	ACHES AND PAINS	No wordplay: if you were WELL, you wouldn’t have ACHES AND PAINS
9a	*TANGIER	*GRANITE (anagram indicated by “built from”)
10a	NEED LED	NEED (“a specific requirement”) + LED (“came first”)
11a	~CHILE	~CHILLY (homophone indicated by “one hears that”)
12a	*EXCESSIVE	*VICES + EXES (anagram indicated by “disgusting”)
13a	*EN(<TROP<)Y	*YEN (anagram indicated by “uncontrolled”) containing (“to take”) <PORT< (“sweet wine,” reversal indicated by “back”)
15a	AD-VERSE	Pun
17a	*ANENOME	*ONE NAME (anagram indicated by “possibly”)
19a	*ENCO<DER<	*ONCE (anagram indicated by “subversive”) + <RED< (“Communist,” reversal indicated by “repelled”)
21a	SPRIN_ *_KLER	SPRIN_t_ (“run,” omission of last letter indicated by “almost to the end”) + *_c_LERK (omission of C [“start of Coil”] indicated by “losing,” anagram indicated by “confused”) What’s your verdict on this, solvers?
23a	*NEPAL	*PLANE (anagram indicated by “transfer”)
25a	INTEGER	No wordplay: THREE-QUARTERS is not an
26a	*H(AI)TIAN	*A HINT (anagram indicated by “mangled”) containing (“involving”) AI (“artificial intelligence”)
27a	CURRENT ASSETS	Pun

Down

1a	ARTICLE	Literal
2d	_HINDI_	_s_HINDI_g_ (“party,” omission of first and last letters indicated by “boundless”)
3d	S*PIRITOSO	S (south: “point”) + IT IS POOR (anagram indicated by “unfortunately”)
4d	<NUR< SE _RY	<RUN< (†, reversal indicated by “up”) + SE (“southeast”) + bu^RY^ (last two letters indicated by “the end of it”) Notice that Lewis didn’t mind a few extra words in his clues.  Also notice that he wasn’t a stickler for specifying that two letters should be taken from the end of “bury”
5d	PAN ACE A	PAN (“criticize”) + ACE (“expert”) + A (†)
6d	*IDEAS	*ASIDE (anagram indicated by “turned”)
7d	SOLD(I)ERED	SOLDERED (“created strong connections”) containing (“all around”) ^I^raq (first letter indicated by “initially”)
8d	*ADH ERE	*HAD (anagram indicated by “broken”) + ERE (“before”)
14d	*THEOR <ETIC<	*OTHER (anagram indicated by “misrepresent”) + <CITE< (“quote,” reversal indicated by “when reviewing”)
16d	VA CA NC IE S	VA (“Virginia”) + CA (“California”) + NC (“North Carolina”) + IE (“that is”) + S (“satisfactory”)
17d	AU S TIN	AU (“gold”) + ^S^upplant (first letter indicated by “beginning”) + TIN (“a different metal”)
18d	*ENLARGE	*GENERAL (anagram indicated by “assembly”)
19d	§EARSHOT	§EARS HOT
20d	RU(L IN)GS	RUGS (“carpeting”) containing (“involves”) L (“a number”) + IN (†)
22d	*NIGER	*REIGN (anagram indicated by “wildly”)
24d	P RICE	P (“pass”) + RICE (“grain”)