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ACROSS

 1 Stake tents I severed clumsily close to midnight (6,8)

 8 Manipulate poor sap on that point (7)

 9 Largely respect Alabama officer (7)

11 Holler, “That hurts, knave!”—and in France, it can sting (6,6)

13 Pull away from company taken in by counterfeit lire (6)

15 Artless cut in start of film (American Beauty, for example)—that’s sweet (8)

18 Rare and grammatically proper? (8)

19 That’s nice—streetcar returning in Washington (6)

21 Inverted snapshot I catch with members of an army (those who have enlisted) (12)

25 Oscar, perhaps, following Seine’s banks downriver (7)

26 Time and time again, breaking something that binds a pig (7)

27 Mixing it, use the recipe for an item found in the completed grid (5-5,4)

DOWN

 1 Meat eaten by native Alaskans (4)

 2 Absolutely sneaky ruse (4)

 3 Embarrassingly, pee is… um… hm… “number one,” for instance (9)

 4 It pains, ultimately, inside! (6)

 5 Synergy of exotic worm in Asian tree (8)

 6 Dance held in humdrum ballroom (5)

 7 Fan of children’s vehicle in Dixie, for the most part (6,3)

10 Cruelly hurt lean Christian (8)

12 Real estate tycoon adopts one high school and succeeds (8)

14 Bug Spooner’s geology tutor (9)

16 Singer to pursue dissonant tune internally (9)

17 Daddy running around nude—I crumbled and paid (6,2)

20 Negotiate with witch over broken leg (6)

22 Picture one thousand years (5)

23 Coming back within, mutter words of reproach (2,2)

24 Fabric riding up can lack finish (4)

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3312  

ACROSS 1 B[l]ACKOUT 5 B.U. COLIC 9 TEN + S + E 10 D(OWN)RIVER 11 E + A + SYTARGET (strategy anag.) 12 hidden 14 anag. 16 AL + TRUISM 18 YO + SEMITE 19 [ec]-HO ME-EC 21 [leg]ALLY 22 [t]REMORS + EFUL (anag.) 25 L + UNCHTIME (anag.) 26 I RATE 27 anag. 28 [b]ANK + LETS

DOWN 1 BUTTER(FLY BALL)OT 2 “sense” 3 anag. 4 anag. 5 “bye weakly” 6 C OR D 7 LEVAN (rev.) + TINE 8 CARS + ON + MC + CULLERS 13 B ROOMS + TICK 15 anag. (&lit.) 17 anag. 20 anag. 23 FLAK + E 24 init. letters