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ACROSS
7 Carol devours Vonnegut’s first book (5)
8 Paradise is quiet, and almost madly angelic at the outset (7-2)
9 Credit card gets you texting large illustration (6)
10 Each perimeter entry consists of two of these, and has a definition
in the implausible to-do list below (6)
12 Oversized kimonos lacking front and back of netsuke (5)
13 With a small switch, put fear into (intimidate) one that cannot be
criticized (6,3)
15 Land, sad as the sky (5,4)
17 Heroic Spaniard taking possession of channel (1-4)
19 Things stay cold here, west of Finnish mountain crest (6)
21 Beginning to toast hot grain a few times (6)
23 Move briskly amid a swell substitute for grass (9)
24 Woman with incredible zeal embracing the author (5)
DOWN
1 Bill’s popular sin: eating doughnut (7)
2 Fitfully struggles, missing front of wooden arch (10)
3 For the human race, a father and a mother (4)
4 Skill when assimilating board-game slang (5)
5 Foolish despot with nothing on jerk (7)
6 Writer’s apartment including car service (8)
11 Like some research in wild, scenic setting for one healthy comeback
(10)
14 Dated, buggy code set involving segment of RAM (8)
16 A piece of gold to hear what a piece of gold might do (7)
18 Composer raised glass with Chianti, oddly (7)
20 Start to luxuriate in blood-soaked splendor (5)
22 Name on a tower without top or bottom (4)
TO-DO LIST
• Excavate whale legs
• Conceal agreement letters
• Fuel feeble criticism
• Dry black baton
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3459
ACROSS 1 S(ERIE)S 4 S + CRUNCHY 10 A BUSH (ELAND) A PECK 11 GRAM + MAR 12 L(ILYP)AD (I-ply anag.) 13 TAB + ER(NACL)E 15 T + REF 18 R + ARE (rev.) 20 MONTE + VIDEO 23 D + EVE + LOP 24 A-[me/F]-RICAN 25 PHO(TOJO)URN + A-LIST 26 2 defs. 27 CY + GNUS (rev.)
DOWN 1 S + LAUGHTER 2 “rue” + BARB 3 EP + HEM + ERA (rev.) 5 CAN(DLEL)IT (Dell anag.) 6 U + SABLE 7 C(HE)APER 8 Y(OK)E + D 9 2 defs. 14 A(MORP)HOUS[e] (prom rev.) 16 FO + OTNO + TES (rev.) 17 “ovaries, E” 19 R + A(V)IOLI 21 anag. 22 ALM(O)S + T 23 anag. 24 AW + R[o]Y
