Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle.
Puzzled? No more cross words! Read Kosman and Picciotto on “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Puzzles.” Or watch this video.
ACROSS
1 Making progress or making a bust? (7,5)
9 Failure leads us into genuine rejection (7)
10 1,000 + 0 = 10 (just add water) (7)
11 Romeo heading to the back—and beginning to yawn, too (6)
12 Support and exceed in honesty? (8)
14 Careless fellow pursues Elgin, losing his marbles? (9)
16 Guard barring Sunday admission (5)
17 Ape cut fruit (5)
18 The same iodine reduction: one calorie (9)
With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.
As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.
The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.
We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.
It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.
Onward,
Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
20 Fool holding court? Thanks, that should fix just about anything (4,4)
22 Excellent puzzle piece in enigmatic rebus (6)
25 Rush around wildly and crash into a young attendant (7)
26 Packaging outspoken master of rhyme and rhythm (7)
27 El trains delivering the necessities for a future kind of travel? (12)
DOWN
1 Pitiful choice of letters to complete the word COI_ED (7)
2 Ransack fund-raiser if legislators accept that (5)
3 Hurtful hormone takes time to grow at first (9)
Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.
4 A delay held up fancy event (4)
5 Along with Beethoven’s Fifth, dancing a minuet is something you can study (10)
6 Pests sustaining a traveler underground (5)
7 Teach lit differently—that’s a kind of scholarship (8)
8 One out of seven miners eyes New Zealand inappropriately (6)
13 Half the world is into marijuana at this point (10)
15 Spilling a mug with cola can generate disease (8)
16 Period of atonement starts late, with the period we inhabit following (9)
17 Veteran foiled a person disregarding the odds (3,3)
19 Three parts of a hospital for a woman giving birth? (7)
21 Mark a carrier (formerly fashionable) (5)
23 Ultimately, White Sox shortstop stole surgical boot (5)
24 Speaking to take advantage of sheep (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3440
ACROSS 1 10-DOWN [PRIME location] + INGST (Sting anag.) 8 O(VERDU[n])E 9 anag. 11 E(X)TIR (rev.) + PATE 12 hidden 13 NA + IFS 15 IM + M + I GRATE 18 DISH + O + NEST 19 C + HAIR 21 MOOS + E 23 anag. 25 pun 26 OX + I + DI(Z)E 27 anag.
DOWN 1 THE + ATRICS (anag.) 2 hidden 3 O + PER + ATIVE (rev.) 4 NUD + GE (rev.) 5 anag. 6 initial letters 7 M(ODE)R. + N 10 PRIM + E 14 anag. 16 MATCH B.O. + OK 17 A + NATO + LIAN (rev.) 18 hidden 20 “rimed” 22 ON(CU)E 23 [t]ERROR 24 anag.
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).