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Puzzle No. 3396

Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

April 7, 2016

Puzzled? No more cross words! Read Kosman and Picciotto on “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Puzzles.” Or watch this video.

Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle.

ACROSS

 1 Lip-read to provide all the parts of a solid (14)

10 Howard going after laughable, unopened letter (7)

11 A vote in favor of packing a knife in school (7)

12 Bigot with a pronounced aversion to Buddhists or warrior princesses, depending on whom you talk to? (9)

13 Don is still in bed, after coming back (3,2)

14 Bag of wine (4)

16 Hearts, perhaps, can be seen in officer’s uniform? (5,4)

18 Feverish Republican, having gone crazy, is a militarist (9)

19 A bro’s counterpart, flaws and all (2,2)

22 Clergy’s fate is in church (5)

23 Conga-line dancing is nice (9)

26 Engineer a tinier sloth (7)

27 Rest uncomfortably after turning over throw pillow (7)

28 Par for the course, like The Man Who Knew Too Much, Pillow Talk, and so forth (3,2,1,4,4)

DOWN

 2 In a vehicle, one of the birds… (5)

 3 …put bar out of alignment without warning (6)

 4 Slow part of violent outburst (5)

 5 Wrongly deny jack and king outside means of keeping power (6,3)

 6 Parents wear a form of ID (8)

 7 Paper documents a race in the open, with leader dropping to last place (9)

 8 Criminal granted a systematic search (7)

 9 Sweet-talks x and y in partnership? (6)

15 Carpooler travels in the flesh (9)

16 Amazing staff of publication staying on top of #1 C&W hit (5,4)

17 Chief river of Italy—excuse me, central France (8)

18 Frustratingly, wait to receive vital energy in Midwestern city (7)

20 For example, eating animal fat (shortening) for pay (6)

21 Ripen and thaw, without winding up depressed (6)

24 In an upstanding manner, without Nellie? (5)

25 Artist abandoning Pennsylvania to get grounded? (5)

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3395

ACROSS 8 HAB (rev.) + AN ERA 9 “gay lick” 10 I DO + L 11 anag. 12 “lake lame” 15 MEDIC + I 17 initial letters 18 O.C. + TET 19 BONN[y] 20 AS + CENT 21 HO + USES IT 23 RE(HEARS)ALS (laser anag.) 26 “chow” 27 YE + L + LOW 28 anag.

DOWN 1 B AND W + AG(ON)S 2 [l]-EAR-L 3 anag. 4 NADA[l] 5 A GEL + I + M.I.T. 6 anag. 7 DIM + E 13 CINDEREL (anag.) + L.A. 14 2 defs. 16 CANDID + A + TES (rev.) 18 OUT + G(R)OWN 22 rev. hidden 24 E + YES 25 alternate letters 26 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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