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And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad.
ACROSS
1 Musical ensemble from the East: Holiday Company (5)
4 Roam aimlessly in terror about a large landscape (9)
9 Most precious ideal: naked relaxation (7)
10 Drug abused in Paris (7)
11 Weapon concealed by Ari Fleischer (5)
12 White rose arranged a different way (9)
13 Little and 14 (4)
14 13, like new stilettos? (4-6)
17 German prison camp with bug that is found in some caves (10)
19 Junkie is sure strung out (4)
22 I Am a Dog diarist beginning to growl, and attacking (9)
24 Subject of vision, heart to head (5)
26 Grassland sounds, resembling a solemn request? (7)
27 Norse god beside French water: a guy living next to a pond (7)
28 Finds O/S (9)
29 Film critic’s unsightly beret (5)
DOWN
1 Bishop leaving neighbor with a collection of families (5)
2 Very loud, I get aboard a vehicle backed up in congestion (7)
3 Connect Communist with multiple stories (6)
4 Favorite part? Er… It yields gas…(9)
5 …under unmixed hydrogen (5)
6 Journalist’s agent turned backward (8)
7 “Warlike” is a time shift away from “conjugal” (7)
8 Someone vying for cigarettes, formerly? (9)
13 Covering she rudely tore and sent again (9)
15 Goes to 25, drunk, with the author and high-tech magnate (9)
16 Animal climbing tree suppresses anguished groan (8)
18 Cries out, horribly pale, amid rising waters (7)
20 Greatest publicity is included in “sue me!” (7)
21 In Maine, after breaking oath (2,4)
23 Name for a woman on ecstasy (topless temptress) (5)
25 Seek an intimate connection, making two-word phrases with seven down entries (5)
ACROSS 1 2 defs 7 [f]AIRER 8 B(UTTER)CUP 10 [i]DEA GO T[o] (rev.) 11 anag. 12 CO(ATT)AILS (social anag.) 14 hidden 17 hidden 18 “sock her, Maugham” 20 BU(MPS + O)FF 22 DAM + PEN 24 anag. 25 O ZONE 26 C + OM + FOR + TABLE
DOWN 1 SE(RIG)RAPH 2 PER(MEAT)E (E + rep rev.) 3 RUB + E 4 anag. 5 anag. 6 hidden 7 anag. 9 PERFOR(MAN)CE 13 IP(SOFA)CTO (topic anag.) 15 S(E + MAP)HORE 16 anag. 19 E + STEEM (rev.) 21 M + EDOC (rev.) 23 G(L)UT (&lit.)
Joshua Kosman and Henri PicciottoJoshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto are The Nation’s puzzlers. To read more about Kosman, click here. To read more about Picciotto, click here. Kosman and Picciotto explain what they’re up to in “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Crosswords” (also available as a PDF). Check out The Nation’s Current Issue page each week for the latest puzzle.