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Word Salad.
ACROSS
1 Timepiece starting late—it requires a key (4)
3 There are seven narcs involving sly criminal in rackets (6,4)
10 Wine created by Gershwin (7)
11 Component of a train is iron, perhaps? About right (4,3)
12 Deviously hid smoke, consuming a piece of hashish in Arab territory (9)
13 Garden tool entails R&D for many people (5)
14 Grievous harm besets the French composer (6)
16 Superlatively strange wild ride, in a certain direction (8)
18 Avoiding the opening, smash North Pole window (8)
19 Slides and photographs as part of a lecture (6)
22 One way to identify speeding drivers: camera/darkroom contents (5)
23 Bishop was into a dissolute naval officer (9)
25 Crime fighter and soldier interrupting spoiled brat at first hint of lawbreaking (7)
26 A bit of hemlock (as much as you can carry) is bad for you (7)
27 “Great” means “engaged in the struggle,” for a former Communist (4,6)
28 Be without stamina, initially, and leave (4)
DOWN
1 Single payment broken down, plus… um… 1000? (4,3)
2 Core group’s California dreams, half-forgotten (5)
4 Beasts seen in Ethiopia and Eritrea? (6)
5 For the most part, pack coal in a winter month (8)
6 You and two gods protect box for teenage musicians… (5,9)
7 …in baroque concert, like this clue? (9)
8 A snake is a lousy present (7)
9 Choice directed the woman’s call for something to eat—that’s fishy (7,7)
15 Historian’s sub-point on our gang (9)
17 Gravity reshaped our ball to be round (8)
18 Beginning of Philippians’ fertile lesson (7)
20 Financial institution covers overtime where baseball might be played (7)
21 It’s, like, in New Hampshire, near the edges of USA! (6)
24 Attach very loudly in Provençal city (5)
ACROSS 1 REV + ITALIZATION 10 anag. 11 ANTONY + M 12 “ho, monk, you lie” 13 anag. 14 “sorry” 15 AT (rev.) + TEMPTING 18 pun 21 init. letters 24 anag. 26 anag. 27 I + NV(I)TEE (event anag.) 28 I’M + PET + US 29 anag.
DOWN 2 ECOM + MERCE (come anag.) 3 IS + L + AND 4 “a salt” 5 I + MAGINE (enigma anag.) 6 ANT + ELOPE 7 hidden 8 rev. 9 [f]INCHES 16 INN + OVA + TOR (rot rev.) 17 MAG(NET)IC 18 POP + PIES 19 ISRA + ELI (sari anag.) 20 UN[i]TY-I + N.G. 22 A + CROSS 23 WIMP + L[ik]E 25 hidden
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.