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Puzzled? No more cross words! Read Kosman and Picciotto on “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Puzzles.” Or watch this video.
ACROSS
1 What led to denials! (6,7)
9 Retreating generals sent relatives to conceal watchful quality (9)
10 Loose fuse, with start of ignition slightly delayed (5)
11 Healthy? Taking vitamins at first? Reduce by 50 percent (5)
12 Enthusiastic response from Getz, an Australian native (8,1)
13 Pushing corrosion into object (9)
15 Basic techniques to revise prose (5)
17 Playwright cited in rewinding of scenes, bizarrely (5)
19 Exotic man mishandled source of federal 22 (6,3)
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21 After commencement, student housing is possessed by baby rat (9)
24 Watch to the west: Yes, that is the beginning of sunset (5)
26 Send back Anne Hathaway’s initial dye… (5)
27 …in payment for education and understanding (9)
28 The art of governing (while excluding half the population?) can be built from the elements of pantheism (13)
DOWN
1 Belt containing piece of tanned hide (5)
2 Cryptic solver gets all but the initial letter of word for “masters” (9)
3 Robbins up and sent tangled knitwear (7)
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4 What’s left, for example, inside Doctor Strangelove’s head (5)
5 Longing for return, retiring prisoner embraces last unstable soldier (9)
6 Nation features terrible roué and cad (7)
7 Soprano introducing Ain’t Misbehavin’—that’s smooth (5)
8 Instrument of choice between two numbers, exchanging one for another one (5,3)
13 Drunk conceals most of legal document in semi-darkness (8)
14 “You tagged me!” (raising Peron’s old hat) (9)
16 What a biologist might use to study a favorite root vegetable, reversing the swap made in 8 (5,4)
18 I ran amok, taking lead in rock band (7)
20 Avoid decapitated cat in San Francisco neighborhood (7)
22 Money and entertainment outside of Dallas (5)
23 Bag with masculine symbol (5)
25 Admit it causes me pain to retract joke (3,2)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3469
ACROSS 1 BUT + TERF(L)YNETS (Steny, fret rev.) 9 WE + A ROUT 10 WHIM + PER 11 & 24 REP + AID 12 FL([h]-OURIS-H)ING 13 B(ED)ECK 14 VEND + ETTA 17 2 defs. 19 MA’S COT 22 M(ILK)Y WAY + BAR 26 hidden 27 U-N[u]CLEAR 28 anag.
DOWN 1 BO(W)ER 2 T + RAPPED 3 rev. hidden 4 FAT + HOM[bre] 5 Y(E(W)TRE)ES 6 EMIT + S (rev.) 7 S + OP(HIS)T 8 F(RAG)RANT 13 BO(HEMI)A + N 15 DR + A(GRACE)S 16 ME + TADA + TA 18 PU(LLTA)B (tall anag.) 20 C + HATE + AU 21 [h]O(BTU)SE 23 YO(GI)C (coy rev.) 25 DIR + GE (rev.)
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).