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ACROSS
1 Prime location Sting ruined for politician’s residence (3,7,2)
8 Late site of WWI battle, mostly captured in Old English (7)
9 Stop mud churning with cleaner’s implement (4,3)
11 Root out regressive ceremony involving cross and meat spread (9)
12 Scream at Italian hiding violin maker (5)
13 They’re innocent of North American conditions (5)
15 I’m moneyless originally, then I scrape and come here to settle (9)
18 False gossip attached to love nest (9)
19 Member of Congress locks in a leadership role (5)
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21 Animal sounds emerging from a cow and mule’s rear (5)
23 The study of how cultures develop and get no holy crackers (9)
25 Some snobs would resort to this option if they think you said it wrong (7)
26 Steer west of Independence Pass, holding a piece of zinc with rust (7)
27 Risk one’s life recklessly for Scandinavian explorer (4,8)
DOWN
1 Article on horrible, racist behavior designed to draw attention (9)
2 Activist participants in Montana Derby (5)
3 Play back Broadway musical, with agent initially outbidding agent (9)
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4 Push gently, for example, with a brown horse rearing up (5)
5 Miserable at closing, and missing the old days (9)
6 Island nation’s leaders, in sync, all make other arrangements (5)
7 Present-day Mister Neruda’s beginning to comprehend poem (6)
10 Proper end of adolescence for youth (5)
14 Ill-fated ones, unable to hear (5-4)
16 Where you can find a light—or find someone who smells as bad as you, all right? (9)
17 A geopolitical alliance airlifted catch from Turkey, more or less (9)
18 Monster harbored by Claude Monet (5)
20 Sounds frosty, it’s true, just like this clue (6)
22 Individual nabbing copper at the appropriate moment (2,3)
23 Timeless fear: making a mistake (5)
24 Drops moist bananas (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3439
ACROSS 1 anag. 5 anag. 9 TAB + O O 10 BACH + ELORS (anag.) 11 I DEAL + IST 12 G AND H, I 14 rev. 15 anag. 18 AFTERH (anag.) + OURS 19 “sorry” 22 “Thai, pissed” 24 G(A + DAB)OUT (bad rev.) 26 INC. + UM + BENT 27 hidden (&lit.) 28 anag. 29 anag.
DOWN 1 anag. 2 T(ABLE)S + ALT 3 I + F(ON)LY 4 AM(BASS)A + DOR (rev.) 5 [p]RICE 6 anag. 7 AL-OUD 8 anag. 13 THE R(E)AFTER 16 DRAC ON (rev.) + IAN 17 IR(IS + H.M.)AN 18 anag. 20 anag. 21 C(ACHE)T 23 initial letters 25 letter bank
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).