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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)
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.
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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)
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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).