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ACROSS
1 and 4A The French woman is skeptical about the French attorney’s pairs, four of which are displayed in this diagram (though one member of each pair is not clued) (5,8)
4 See 1A
9 Unimpressive individual conceals disparity in amplifier (9)
10 Not clued (5)
11 Invalid removing contents of nutshell (4)
12 Compelling return of electronic credit card by American agent (10)
13 Not clued (6)
15 Hang around with worker, swapping sources of trouble and litigation (6)
16 Help is not great when incomplete (3)
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18 Look inside slit for shoe (6)
20 Assumption in here: mistreated cow (6)
23 Putting off announcement about piano functioning (10)
24 Old South American hiding in mountain cabin (4)
26 Halt the start of elections, in case… (5)
27 …one survey in Ohio confused the masses (3,6)
28 Not clued (8)
29 Get rid of errors in an alphabetical sequence where Boston University is failing (5)
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1 European newspaper covering a child’s retail merchandise (8)
2 Escorts set up unaccompanied concert date (7)
3 Raise head of drowsy friend in California heat? (4)
4 Took the plunge, winning love and the heart of Carey Mulligan (2-4)
5 One kind of strength, mostly found in our gang’s tools (8)
6 Vital cure reformulated to make it profitable (9)
7 Use an ax when cutting into sap’s television drama (3,4)
8 Iron roundabout, without a charge (4)
14 Chew so messily when eating dessert that’s a masterwork (9)
16 Populous city in Ghana is unfortunately getting hot (8)
17 Second-rate rule entails similar violation (8)
19 Never drink red wine without beginning to darken (7)
21 Blunder involving party led by Mandela’s supporters as a group (3,4)
22 Lacking leadership, bank’s business is close (6)
23 Shakespearean character found on the ice? (4)
25 Not clued (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3498
ACROSS 1 [s]PAWN 3 TSA (anag.) + REV + ITCH 10 P(HOT)O’S + HOP 11 LO(GI)C[k] 12 RO + YAL (rev.) 13 OR + BITERS 16, 21, 5, & 28D LIT + HOG + RAP + HER 18 2 defs. 20 TRICE(RA)TOPS 22 AT(RAND)OM 24 CU BAN 27 hidden 28 HAILS + TORM[e] 29 F(OX + T)ERRIER 30 rev.
DOWN 1 PA(PERP)LATE 2 WOO + [la]DY 4 S + “cool, bored” 6 hidden 7 anag. 8 [c]HUCK 9 anag. 14 BANG + OR + MAINE + E 15 anag. 17 THIR-[s]-TY-S + IX 19 T(ESTC)ASE (sect anag.) 23 AT ONE 25 “boos” 26 hidden
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).