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ACROSS
1 Something representative of the era: ? (4,2,3,5)
9 Read letters from Pinter, some more than once (9)
10 Get wet to perform at benefit (5)
11 Leads in opera house might sense some resistance (4)
12 After accident, date is cold and out of joint (10)
14 Close to interrupting convulsions with creative endeavors (4,4)
15 Morning test is value-free (6)
17 “Buzz off, laird,” Scotsman concluded (6)
19 Don’t waste time casually circling hotel with a spice (8)
22 Hothead overheard one with a passion for Greek letters? (10)
24 Idle group of doctors abandoning our country (4)
26 Record a large slacker (5)
27 Story of Madonna film, with happier ending, broadcast in reverse (9)
28 Supergiant contributions arranged for old person (14)
DOWN
1 Start to snore quietly, missing a very loud kind of TV show (4-3)
2 Guard’s ID badge, upside down (7)
3 Monster is so withdrawn (4)
4 Become a coffeepot coated with color orange (4,4)
5 Inherently complex tolerance for praise (5)
6 Charge from the subcontinent covering Treasury Department agents’ time (10)
7 “There’s a mouse,” a restaurant staffer said, “that’s as far as possible from the poles” (7)
8 Scientist: “Lend me bananas” (6)
13 Playwright is keen on classic Broadway musical during downtime (5,5)
16 To have a different opinion is a sin, after putting the end at the beginning (8)
17 Look—fruit under a piano (6)
18 Bad rule, regrettably, is likely to last (7)
20 Steve and I get a drink (7)
21 Male relative swaps two for one before showing subatomic particle (7)
23 Anaïs seen on Jamaica’s shores with a highly trained Japanese spy (5)
25 Indigenous people can advance frontally (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3416
ACROSS 1 BOW LOVER 5 SCAR + A + B 10 [p]ODIUM 11 A LA + BASTER 12 “dude eight” 13 PANT + HER 14 [d]READ[s] 16 anag. 18 MAR(DIG + RA)S 19 2 defs. 21 SHU-[tt/FF]-LE 22 rev. hidden 24 anag. 25 V(OD + K)A 26 “you reeker” 27 SP(HERO)ID (dips rev.)
DOWN 1 B([f]-LOOD-F)RO + MA’S TONE 2 WHIT (anag.) + E (&lit.) 3 OOMP(A)H 4 EV(AD)E 6 anag. 7 R(ATCH)EESE (chat anag.) 8 BAR + BRAS + TREIS (anag.) + AND 9 RAM PARTS 15 AIR + GUI + TAR 16 COR + DELIA (rev.) 17 HIP(FL)ASK 20 BMO (anag.) + VIE 22 2 defs. 23 RODE + O (&lit.)
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.