Puzzled? No more cross words! Read Kosman and Picciotto on “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Puzzles.”
Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle.
ACROSS
1 Dandies holding back largely beige instrument found in an operating room (7)
6 Psst… nice, crazy eyes (8)
11 American writer captivates Chapel Hill institution in spring (6)
12 Initially, chimp (or perhaps young ape) (4)
13 Irish patron briefly recalled bedtime melody about the west side of Tipperary (2,3)
14 Expect a short trip before the end of June (4)
15 Retract separate, incomplete term for “snare” (7)
16 String of beads for a small English fellow? (7)
18 Time in! Presto change-o for ceramicists (7)
20 Calling contact about sweetheart (7)
22 Peel speaker’s fruit (4)
23 Front-to-back space walks… (5)
25 …with Dadaist twist (4)
26 Visual artist, in the absence of a dramatist… (6)
27 …watched over Yelp, read incorrectly (8)
28 Photo one is absorbed by: clever, in a salacious manner (7)
DOWN
1 See introduction
2 Hate to be naked, goddammit (4)
3 Sun god protects no messenger, say (3)
4 Ignoring the odds, act out in bed (3)
5 Mucus in large quantities on the rise (4)
6 See introduction
7 Onset of storm delayed candidates (5)
8 Bird’s home with a layer of paint, they say (4)
9 War god embraced by majority rule (3)
10 See introduction
14 Man putting chicken on deli bread with shortening (5)
17 Psychologists, half-compulsive (4)
18 Table scraps for Eliot, without fail (4)
19 Most of kingdom is concrete (4)
21 In support of love, you and I come up short (3)
23 Car wrecked in a curve (3)
24 Greek character’s vital energy (3)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3372
1 CHART + REUSE 6 2 defs. 10 EMU + LATE 11 CON + FIRM 12 NUT(RI)A (tuna anag.) 13 VIC(A RAG)E 14 CAR(YGRAN)T (angry anag.) 16 T(OW)IT 18 hidden 20 anag. (&lit.) 22 ESCAP (anag.) + AD + E 24 ADO + BES[t] 26 TR(IV)IAL or TRI(VI)AL 27 “wholly sea” 28 “Lear” rev. 29 BOOMER ANGS[t]
DOWN 1 “croon, ex, wetter” 2 AD(U)LTERER (red alert anag.) 3 TEA + RING 4 [s]EVEN (&lit.) 5 SAC(R)IS TAN 7 hidden 8 T(EMPESTUOU)S + NESS (use up tome anag.) 9 hidden 15 ARMADIL (anag.) + LO 17 W AS H, B AS IN 19 NAP + KIN 21 anag. 23 C + HIDE 25 W + HIM
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.