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ACROSS
1 Hold down a soda (lawyer’s drink) (4,6)
6 Close to the target with gun, perhaps (4)
9 Covered in oddly sour wine (7)
10 Orator’s someone who doesn’t have a coat (7)
12 Partially disturb our engine (5)
13 Without a date, Sinatra produces sluggishness (9)
14 Reduces the pain from a book of the Bible with no hesitation (5)
15 Republican editor, angry with humanitarian outfit (3,5)
18 Piece of cloth is inside out, shredded, and much appreciated (5,3)
20 Sprite goes after packaging for beautiful advertising vehicle (5)
23 For instance, Snapchat Mrs. Gorbachev at the onset of Last Judgment (9)
25 Pierce small fruit (5)
26 Graveyard legend of jumbled heap around gaping hole in the ground (7)
strong>27 Cheerful lad steals uranium from female relative (7)
28 Leading characters associated with manger at Galilean inn! (4)
29 In the East, elevating ancient body part as an object of worship (6,4)
DOWN
1 Picture Henri initially running away from torture device? (8)
2 The opposite of liquor? Put in a bit of salt to make snake oil (7)
3 Guitarist Ford, for example—a hill dweller—with an article about deprivation (6,7)
4 Tempted with something that might have been used to serve tea to a swan? (3,6)
5 Raise illumination source with 18 for river’s end (5)
7 Here in Mexico, “san” comes up for “saint” (7)
8 Pretentious baggage of Mister Victim (6)
11 Dirty so-and-so involved in smuggled goods, mostly—that’s extremely low (13)
16 Somewhere you can have sex, act young at heart, and run to embrace bishop (6,3)
17 Savage pirate provided drink (8)
19 Busy decapitating, using an ax (7)
21 Arranging flowers somewhat like bananas (7)
22 Rise of divinity in timid basketball star (6)
24 Louis Armstrong, dropping by with idiot (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3493
ACROSS 1 BAR ON ESS (&lit.) 5 B(RE)ATH 10 CO(L + U)MBINE 11 “taper” 12 W OR D 13 anag. 15 [t]RITES[t] 17 ESCOR (anag.) + TED 20 CLA(R)ITIN (Caitlin anag.) 21 D + ITCH 23 UPTON + O + GO(O)D 25 CALL[a] 28 P + ROAM 29 SHE(DATE)AR 30 2 defs. 31 [f]RES[h] + TRAIN
DOWN 1 BACK + WARD (rev.) 2 rev. hidden 3 hidden 4 2 defs. 6 R([p]ETROGRAD)E 7 AT PR(E)SENT (patterns anag.) 8 HURR[y] + A + H 9 L(EG)S 14 ASTR (star anag.) + ONOM (moon anag.) + ER (&lit.) 16 TE(LET + HO)NS[e] 18 CON + GO(L)ES + E 19 CHIL(DR)E + N 22 SU(P)PER 24 GAS + P 26 ALE + X + A 27 theme
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.