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ACROSS
1 Buddy, heading west with newlywed, takes in German university town (9)
6 Mailer avoiding northern holiday celebration (5)
9 Sporting event where you’d see boats tear wildly around rod (7)
10 Good grade the night before, securing Yale student’s credit (7)
11 Interchanges tragic ending with what might happen during a breakup (12)
14 Principles of an alien minyan? (6)
15 Creator of 24 in 7 (8)
17 Quit 24 in 8 (8)
19 Shiny and grand, from a bygone era (6)
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21 Assuming liability for a footnote? (12)
25 Discussed reason at critical island beach in the Pacific (7)
26 Dog limits onset of dot-com crash (7)
27 Ugly green type (5)
28 Huge crowd you once encountered at defunct Las Vegas casino (9)
DOWN
1 Lampoon Fleischer and pet in therapy (10)
2 Gosh, son does exercises after taking up PE (2,8)
3 Deserter has to be in French asylum (7)
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4 It could be boring to support medical professional with slow, elongated manner of speech (5)
5 Hugged Aunt Bee and ran (8)
6 Composer’s garment covering fabrication (7)
7 Mammal turning over 8 (4)
8 7 growing grass (4)
12 Notice blithering idiot occupying hotel, too (2,8)
13 Sin, to Reverend Spooner: Nana’s hair (10)
16 Arnold doubled over, clutching crooked dice (8)
18 Discharge last one in accounting and rehire? (7)
20 Brazilian city consumed by cheers for ball team (7)
22 Crazy World War II soldier with a decisive blow (5)
23 Shoot Ford model with hairpiece (4)
24 Sing off-key or communicate silently (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3461
ACROSS 1 PRO-ST(R)ATE 6 C(O)LIC[k] 9 COCO[a] NUT 10 P(H)ANT OM 11 anag. 12 [r]estore[d] anag. 14 anag. 15 RO(Y + ALBL)UE (ball anag.) 17 DEA(DLYSI)N (idyls anag.) 19 hidden 21 hidden 22 2 defs. 24 EL(IT IS)M 25 R(HOD)IUM (Muir rev.) 26 S-[u/W]-EDE 27 ONEL (rev.) + EGGED
DOWN 1 PAC(K)ED 2 “or kestrel, sweet” 3 T(ANKAR[a])D 4 ANTIC + HRIST (anag.) 5 ESP + Y 6 CHAT + TEL (rev.) 7 LATER + AL + THIN + KING 8 COMBO + VER[y] 13 B(Y + ANDL)ARGE (land anag.) 16 anag. 18 LU(DDI)TE (did anag.) 19 EARL + OBE 20 SEE + MED 23 A.M. MO
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.