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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 and 14D At the 11th hour, securing bishop left in the custody of libertine singer-actor (6,10)
4 Excerpt from “Essay on a Radish”—this might be the last word (8)
10 Assembled blue blanket with front trimmed (5)
11 Political dealings in Nixon/Reagan era (9)
12 In the absence of leadership, gender pride muddled through (7)
13 Make a mistake stuffing dessert in state capital (6)
15 Divide and draw these bananas (9)
17 Classic movie (King and I) about alpha male (5)
18 Said, “Uncle, do mire mire?” (5)
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20 The author dines irregularly with long-suffering man—that’s a crime (6,3)
22 In Milan, you committed to one suit from the tarot cards (6)
24 Coach in chaotic terrain (7)
26 Showed the last thing to happen in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth? (9)
27 Thorough analysis involves African country (5)
28 Named item nearly came first (8)
29 Again, enter and peer randomly to take in toy packaging (6)
DOWN
1 Knave, taking shot, wore out fearsome beast (10)
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2 Bit dog, perhaps, after small nibble (7)
3 Made a cross and buried around back of tomb (9)
5 Insects surrounding mobile device (electronic)—they’re on the other side of the world (9)
6 Oxygen covering large part of the earth! (5)
7 A couple of animals (hare or rhea, for instance) (7)
8 A jump on the ice can lurch at first (4)
9 Potato salad ultimately underlies rise of shipping company (4)
14 See 1A
16 Bob, for example, is on TV separating ethyl radical (9)
17 Soak injured badger leg (9)
19 Traps manuscript file at last, encased in retro crap (4,3)
21 Ray and Juan breaking up for a month (7)
23 Tulip mysteriously casting shadows on the ceiling (5)
24 From bottom to top, improve a text’s ebb and flow (4)
25 Something useful for cutting through strange daze (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3509
ACROSS 1 letter bank 9 [h]OLDER 10 PUR(CHASE)R 11 AR(CHE)TY + PE 12 A + [e]MONG (rev.) 13 anag. 14 A(DOLE)SCENT 17 pun 19 rev. 22 P + LEAD 23 anag. 26 IN TENT + I + ON 27 PLAN O 28 pun
DOWN 1 AB + DUCTS 2 CUR + FEW 3 IMP-LY 4 CARD + [h]EALER 5 RE + HEARSE 6 L IS SOME 7 COL[d] + A 8 B(RIGHT)EN 13 EL + LIP + SIS 15 anag. 16 CR (rev.) + EDEN + CE 18 SHE(LT)ER 20 PREP + ARE (rev.) 21 rev. 24 P + INCH 25 POT + S (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).