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ACROSS

 1 Lewis’s bun (7)

 5 Quite a lot of boxes (7)

 9 007’s beginning to wear right shirt to rest for the night (5)

10 State flower (9)

11 Criminals related to some electric guitars (9)

12 Make fun of a speaker’s drinks (5)

13 Vegetable decay (6)

14 Faced a prosecutor: “Thanks for what the NSA collects about your
phone calls” (8)

18 Ultimate value: ten nuts (8)

20 Favorite rug (6)

23 Cut a bit of leather into a belt (5)

25 With what a right triangle has… (9)

26 …one should not be upset with a small program (9)

27 Darn photograph (5)

28 Springsteen agent adopts adolescent (7)

29 Road congestion, which we reduced by adjusting nine clues (7)

DOWN

 1 You hit me with a frame (9)

 2 Support orator’s itinerary from East Greenbush, NY, to Portsmouth, NH
(4,3)

 3 Completely fried a donut in public (3-3-3)

 4 Loudly compare composite organism (6)

 5 Fondles curves (8)

 6 Cook ortolan, set evenly (5)

 7 Hug family (how adorable) heading to attractive Pacific island (7)

 8 Burn face of Swedish playwright (5)

15 Fallen angel occupies a large expanse of the world with lack of pain (9)

16 Real gold subsequently leads to twitching (9)

17 Fast, hard shell (8)

19 Test most of court declaration, for instance (7)

21 Bribed with a bit of pecuniary help to eccentric (4,3)

22 Soak up songbird’s note (4-2)

23 Quiet at the rear part of a mine (5)

24 Animal tails in fish biology evolve between millennia (5)

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3453

ACROSS 1 PRE-TEN-D 5 VISA + VIS[a] 9 TAR + PAUL + IN 10 CHO(M)P 11 rev. hidden 12 HUM + ILIATE (anag.) 13 LOU[d] + I + SQUAT + ORZE (anag.) 17 ref. 8D 21 NARC + IS + S + U.S. 24 D(R)AWN 25 PIN + TO 26 ALP HABITS 27 THO (anag.) + RIUM (rev.) 28 NO + SEGA + Y

DOWN 1 PI + T(I)ABLE 2 E + Z(RAP)OUND[s] 3 E(NAME)LS 4 anag. 5 [t/V]-ENOM (rev.) 6 SECU(L.A.)R (curse anag.) 7 Oliv[i]a anag. 8 SU(P)PER 14 anag. 15 ENG + RAVING 16 STANDS + BY 18 N + AIR + OBI 19 END + EARS 20 INKPO (anag.) + T 22 RON + DO 23 SPAS + M