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ACROSS

 1 What comes after I imitate mockery (4)

 3 In the absence of objective fact, send leader of team ahead of Yankee
slugger (4-5)

 8 Talking software in Panama, for instance, and beginning to babble in
bed (7)

10 Rotate front of skull 90 degrees with radioactive element (7)

11 Monstrous giant taking on most of tedious, mature behavior (8)

12 & 21 Philip and Jimmy (two musicians) in a precipitous position for
women and minorities (5,5)

14 Group of workers left a foot deformity lined with gold (5,5)

17 You and I getting approval for being aware of social injustice (4)

19 Proper athletic event (4)

20 Entered illegally, with locks broken by personal assistants (10)

21 see 12

23 Racist movement sounds totally unoriginal (3-5)

27 Dancer, perhaps stepping back, missing violin finale and sounding more
like an oboe (7)

28 Former Attorney General invested in sweetheart’s idea for a massive
Defense Department expansion? (7)

29 & 30 “Fight back frequently!”—cry for attention contained in valuable
2016 honorific awarded by the editors of the Oxford Dictionaries to one
of nine finalists in the completed grid (4,2,3,4)

DOWN

  1 Money for nothing (4)

 2 Plan initially devised to create a pattern (5)

 3 Place outside of Tripoli for naked babies (5)

 4 Doctors eating a piece of tasty fish (9)

 5 Badly want family-friendly sound from a banjo (5)

 6 Bearing one child at a time, finally, you almost get excited about small
quantity of liquor (9)

 7 Some deaths ravaged family dwellings (10)

 9 Pick up rock and toss jacket (6)

13 A South American capital beginning to comfort green, inexperienced
actress (3,7)

15 Porter, e.g., accommodating ruler in Rome, Italy—briefly an advocate of
separation from Europe (9)

16 Vermin allegedly from Scandinavia—or carried by returning sailor (what
a bore) (6,3)

18 Hispanic of any gender is careless to swallow metal (6)

22 Chip: fit or out of shape? (5)

24 At first, throw a garden tool in the lake (5)

25 In Denmark, a cozy quality (like a soufflé) rises after hours (5)

26 Called up to growl (4)

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3421

ACROSS 1 E + VERY + SO(O)FTEN
9 anag. 10 anag. 11 BOOT + H
12 GOO(DGRIE)F (dirge anag.)
13 alternate letters 15 LOBS + TER[n]
18 2 defs. 19 anag. 21 DO(E + SKI)N
23 FIN + EPRINT (anag.) 26 rev. hidden
27 I + GLOO[m] 28 BARRI(CAD)E
29 STAF (rev.) + FM + EMBERS

DOWN 1 ENTR(OP)Y 2 EARTHW (anag.) + OR + M 3 YO + UNG (rev.)
4 anag. 5 F + LUNG 6 ELIT (rev.) + 1ST
7 ZI(MBA)B + WE (biz rev.) 8 BEE + F
14 TEN(N)ISBUM (must be in anag.)
16 pun 17 RON(DEL)ET (rev.) 20 hidden
22 anag. 23 F + AIL 24 PRO + OF
25 hidden