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Puzzle No. 3383

Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

December 3, 2015

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 Lead the way to overcome depression? (3,4)

 5 Detroit athlete, gaining height, gets increasingly tense (7)

 9 With some reconstruction and duplication, bolster up a side (8,7)

10 Overstuffed bin, put in front, would make an erstwhile target for the US (5)

11 Liberal, taken by cunning in an obsequious manner (9)

12 Xmas speech, perhaps, for something on the tree (10)

15 What you might encounter around the Internet: a lot of self-obsession? (4)

17 Birds found in science museums (4)

18 Reformed Catholic makes the case for Democrat and Republican in Playboy? (5,5)

21 In the OR, cut involving power is highly thought of (9)

23 Eager to eat orange duck (5)

25 Rewrite primal genealogy in Dungeons and Dragons, for example (4-7,4)

26 Seminar: “Perverse tools of American foreign policy” (7)

27 Part of the body’s extraordinary elation (7)

DOWN

 1 Bill ran and had a little snack (7)

 2 Twisted from an injury (5)

 3 Shakespearean locale amid hotels in Oregon (8)

 4 Behold fifty-fifty split, initially, in lounges (5)

 5 Oscillate wildly with electrical device (5,4)

 6 Naked oligarch breaking bulb (6)

 7 What’s for sale in a men’s shop: stocking that hurts the face of the superlatively sensitive (9)

 8 Tersely adjusted design again (7)

13 No closure arranged for lawyer (9)

14 Pacific Islanders’ beats surrounding Haiti after an earthquake (9)

16 Hear a gun going off, and deliver a tirade (8)

17 A murder untangled to supply requirement for hearing (7)

19 Audibly interpreted auction for something in the bloodstream (3,4)

20 Establish independence on both sides of river’s arm (6)

22 Defense is at fault in aimless course (5)

24 Turning over, dream about making a home for Michelle (5)

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3382

ACROSS 1 anag. 7 rev. 11 OPTE (anag.) + D 12 SUBS + TAN + T-[ai/IA]-L 13 MAN(UA + LLAB)OR (ball, Au rev.) 14 GR + EAT 15 UP(SILO)N (pun anag.) 17 anag. 18 R + ACE 19 alternate letters 20 hidden 26 anag. 28 anag. 29 [a/NO]-BLE 30 anag. 33 anag. 34 hidden 35 2 defs. 36 AS + TRO(N)OMI + CAL[m] (motor I anag.)

DOWN 1 ENORMO (anag.) + US 2 R + A TON 3 HYDRA + U + LIC. 4 anag. 5 K + EBAB (rev.) 6 NOT A RIAL 8 anag. 9 POL(I + TIC)K 10 Ag mine anag. 16 SP(RING + BR)EAK 17 spuri[ously] anag. 21 S(OUR)CREAM 22 A.M. ENDERS 23 MO(RAIN)ES 24 letter bank 25 COL. + OSSAL (rev.) 27 T(HEW)HO (hot anag.) 31 D(RI)ER 32 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.


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