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 Composer taking and retaking ingredients of Advil? Not! (7,7)
10 What remains after a fire: a tree (3)
11 Herb’s terrible regret: getting involved in white nationalism at first (11)
12 Bookish queen loses head after a certain amount of drink (8)
13 Puzzle dances? That’s so cute! (6)
16 Considers violating vows in good humor (5,4)
18 Gets booty back in seat (5)
20 Where you might find actors in the beginning (5)
22 They make up your side with repeated helpings of meats (9)
I know that many important organizations are asking you to donate today, but this year especially, The Nation needs your support.
Over the course of 2025, the Trump administration has presided over a government designed to chill activism and dissent.
The Nation experienced its efforts to destroy press freedom firsthand in September, when Vice President JD Vance attacked our magazine. Vance was following Donald Trump’s lead—waging war on the media through a series of lawsuits against publications and broadcasters, all intended to intimidate those speaking truth to power.
The Nation will never yield to these menacing currents. We have survived for 160 years and we will continue challenging new forms of intimidation, just as we refused to bow to McCarthyism seven decades ago. But in this frightening media environment, we’re relying on you to help us fund journalism that effectively challenges Trump’s crude authoritarianism.
For today only, a generous donor is matching all gifts to The Nation up to $25,000. If we hit our goal this Giving Tuesday, that’s $50,000 for journalism with a sense of urgency.
With your support, we’ll continue to publish investigations that expose the administration’s corruption, analysis that sounds the alarm on AI’s unregulated capture of the military, and profiles of the inspiring stories of people who successfully take on the ICE terror machine.
We’ll also introduce you to the new faces and ideas in this progressive moment, just like we did with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. We will always believe that a more just tomorrow is in our power today.
Please, don’t miss this chance to double your impact. Donate to The Nation today.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and publisher, The Nation
24 Stern veers east unexpectedly (6)
26 Represent California university’s shifting defense (5,3)
29 ’70s singer is a total mess, initially interrupting party (5,6)
30 Admit cutting the front off dress (3)
31 Safe and honest combination holding what belongs to us for a whole year—they can be found in the completed diagram (3,4,7)
DOWN
2 Rethink thorniest achievements in baseball (2-7)
3 Undisciplined son keeps dependent ahead (7)
4 Spiritual banquet starting late (5)
Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.
5 Wives’ largely liberal opinion (4)
6 Competes to eat egg, potatoes, carrots, and so on (7)
7 Moving top to bottom of smooth 6 (5)
8 In Glasgow, John Irving adapted novelist’s introductions (3)
9 Corrected, I call a UFO sighting originally wrong (10)
14 Ida, a renowned journalist and snob, retaining name as a source (10)
15 Song of unprotected outcast (4)
17 Swap backs of enormous containers (4)
19 Start to obtain tattered futon covering to haul away (3,2,4)
21 Storm furiously at donor (7)
23 Mother incoherently rants watchwords (7)
25 No backing for Williams at empty stadium (5)
27 British politician wearing shirt in Arizona city (5)
28 Pronounced drain for plaintiff (4)
29 Note time period (3)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3477
ACROSS 1 CH(URCHGO)ER (Grouch anag.) 6 phonetic hidden 9 G(R)AIN 10 MIMI + C. KING 12 SKIP ANTS 13 PR(EPA)Y 15 SOMNO (anag.) + LENT 16 hidden 17 “cube it” 19 REP + ELLEN + T 21 AF(LO + A)T 22 M IS M + ATCH (anag.) 25 INPA (anag.) + TIE + NT 26 A(DIE)U 27 TUN A (rev.) 28 anag.
DOWN 1 C + AGES 2 U + RANI + UM 3 letter bank 4 GAMET(H)E + OR + Y 5 ELM + O 7 WHIS[t] + PER 8 ME + GAY + ACHT 11 CAROL + ELOM (rev.) + BARD 14 letter bank 15 SO + CIALIS + T 18 “pull Ben” spoonerism 20 ENT (anag.) + WINE 23 H + AUNT 24 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). Check out The Nation’s Current Issue page each week for the latest puzzle.