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Word Salad.
ACROSS
1 Gingrich returns, superficially trustworthy and clear-sighted (6-6)
9 Revolutionary: “Free Earth from now on!” (9)
10 Spill beer around, beginning to mine for coal after a fire (5)
11 Tiger-like, or evoking the forest (6)
12 Island to the west—a steal (4-4)
14 Stop snake leaving pavement (4)
15 Holly is friendly (5-5)
19 Everything can be found in Washington city (5,5)
21 Engulfed by existential question, start to despair (4)
24 Chinese pianist’s nonstandard speech: omitting the first letter (4,4)
26 Look inside cover if you check validity (6)
28 Make slow progress with carpenter’s clothes and cobbler’s tool (5)
29 Deliberated, adding one more stroke of the pen back in office (9)
30 For the most part, suspect with jeans on, having one perceptual quirk that would help solve seven otherwise flawed clues in this puzzle (6,6)
DOWN
1 Rum drunk during work leads to disruption (7)
2 Pass or shuffle, please (6)
3 Carry to Tallahassee’s outskirts (4)
4 First of ten, approximately, in trunk (5)
5 Farm animals mounting male in tangled webs (3,5)
6 Newspaper, a bit old, is recycled (7)
7 Dog food (4,4)
8 Callas doesn’t begin operatic excerpt (4)
13 Musical instrument in A (though getting higher) (4)
16 Jackass is told off (4)
17 Doris brought up a bunch of empty verbiage (4,4)
18 Dance beat for Indians, perhaps (4,4)
20 Silence maintained by crazy loon in the distant past (4,3)
22 Wet some tin haphazardly (7)
23 Arab: “The old nickel captivated me” (6)
24 King abandons fortunate spouse of 27 (4)
25 Courage never fails (5)
27 Spouse of 24 down’s jittery side (4)
ACROSS 1 letter bank 9 E(YES)TRAIN 10 EL FIN 11 anag. (&lit.) 13 M/[l]-OBSTERS 14 [b]RANCH 16 CA(RI)B 18 anag. 21 pun 24 RING + O 25 anag. (&lit.) 26 WILL + I AM FRIED + KIN
DOWN 1 hidden 2 THE + E 3 HO (rev.) + TSEAT (State anag.) 4 SPA + NIARD (rev.) 5 ANNU(A)L 6 CHE APER 7 COFFIN + NAIL 8 anag. 12 ABO + RIG(IN)A + L 13 MI + C(ROB)REW 15 rev. hidden 17 BO(NJ)O VI 19 A B ALONE 20 B(ECAL)M[w] (lace rev.) 22 O + INK 23 CY + [m]AN
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.