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ACROSS

 7  Carol devours Vonnegut’s first book (5)

 8 Paradise is quiet, and almost madly angelic at the outset (7-2)

 9 Credit card gets you texting large illustration (6)

10 Each perimeter entry consists of two of these, and has a definition
in the implausible to-do list below (6)

12 Oversized kimonos lacking front and back of netsuke (5)

13 With a small switch, put fear into (intimidate) one that cannot be
criticized (6,3)

15 Land, sad as the sky (5,4)

17 Heroic Spaniard taking possession of channel (1-4)

19 Things stay cold here, west of Finnish mountain crest (6)

21 Beginning to toast hot grain a few times (6)

23 Move briskly amid a swell substitute for grass (9)

24 Woman with incredible zeal embracing the author (5)

DOWN

 1 Bill’s popular sin: eating doughnut (7)

 2 Fitfully struggles, missing front of wooden arch (10)

 3 For the human race, a father and a mother (4)

 4 Skill when assimilating board-game slang (5)

 5 Foolish despot with nothing on jerk (7)

 6 Writer’s apartment including car service (8)

11 Like some research in wild, scenic setting for one healthy comeback
(10)

14 Dated, buggy code set involving segment of RAM (8)

16 A piece of gold to hear what a piece of gold might do (7)

18 Composer raised glass with Chianti, oddly (7)

20 Start to luxuriate in blood-soaked splendor (5)

22 Name on a tower without top or bottom (4)

TO-DO LIST

• Excavate whale legs

• Conceal agreement letters

• Fuel feeble criticism

• Dry black baton

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3459

ACROSS 1 S(ERIE)S 4 S + CRUNCHY 10 A BUSH (ELAND) A PECK 11 GRAM + MAR 12 L(ILYP)AD (I-ply anag.) 13 TAB + ER(NACL)E 15 T + REF 18 R + ARE (rev.) 20 MONTE + VIDEO 23 D + EVE + LOP 24 A-[me/F]-RICAN 25 PHO(TOJO)URN + A-LIST 26 2 defs. 27 CY + GNUS (rev.)

DOWN 1 S + LAUGHTER 2 “rue” + BARB 3 EP + HEM + ERA (rev.) 5 CAN(DLEL)IT (Dell anag.) 6 U + SABLE 7 C(HE)APER 8 Y(OK)E + D 9 2 defs. 14 A(MORP)HOUS[e] (prom rev.) 16 FO + OTNO + TES (rev.) 17 “ovaries, E” 19 R + A(V)IOLI 21 anag. 22 ALM(O)S + T 23 anag. 24 AW + R[o]Y