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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 Immaculate lace tangled by a bunch of astronauts while holding two pieces of string (5,2,1,7)
9 Business gatherings grow (7)
10 With 99.5 percent reduction just past the head, metalworker becomes more willowy (7)
11 Conflict is an offense to Sadat (7,3)
12 Members of administration, lying to the exclusion of everything else (4)
14 French one’s no longer in style, so it’s still on the shelf (6)
15 Expert resource involving average code of conduct (8)
18 For the most part, athletic activity has to impart magnificence (8)
20 Dog is prying? (6)
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22 Spray a spice (4)
23 Write unadventurous word, almost what Shakespeare often wrote (10)
26 Cool performer missing opening of Rent, actually (2,5)
27 Mark pursues advanced degree (and a beauty aid) (7)
28 Queen redistributed letters from Maronite (5,10)
DOWN
1 Uniformed children’s bus crashing into crumbling stucco (3,6)
2 I see men sorted into a president’s list (7)
3 Country broadcast antelopes—and another antelope (3,7)
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4 German beginning to synthesize part of a nerve cell (5)
5 Know-it-all with independent ocean team does not make it to the end (8)
6 Turner with a Swedish outfit (4)
7 Dismantled attic in old passenger ship (7)
8 Primitive, like a nobleman? (5)
13 Builder’s short note to mother and child (10)
16 Yes, meandering race in body of water is one way to make a birthday party festive (5,4)
17 How endless fruit conceals a potentially large debt (4,4)
19 Satan provided ghastly ulcer externally (7)
21 Act up inside? Expel pariah! (7)
22 Palindromic start of a famous palindrome (5)
24 Experimental poet adopts medium pace (5)
25 Top pilot circumnavigating mountain’s summit (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3517
ACROSS 1 J(OC)K (co. rev.) 3 BIR + DC + AGES (rev.) 8 anag. 10 LEA(R)N 11 SUB A (rev.) + RU[e] 12 MA + LAYS + IA 14 PRI(V)ATE + ER (pirate anag., &lit.) 15 anag. 18 “seize” 19 L(UN(C)HT)IME (hunt anag.) 21 ALB + RIGHT 23 JE(S)TE + R 26 HBO + MB 27 SCO(RECAR)D (rev.) 28 OR + D(IN)ANCE 29 theme revealer
DOWN 1 JEAN S[tapleton] 2 C(ELEBR)ITY (rebel anag.) 3 BOO + K 4 RESTAU (anag.) + RANT 5 anag. 6 rev. hidden 7 SIN + GAP + ORE 9 anag. 13 WE, LLC + HOSE + N14 [mu/PI]-STACHIO 16 P(AIN’T)B + ALL 17 CHE + ESE (anag.) 20 RI(BB)ON (iron anag.) 22 B(LO)OD (&lit.) 24 RID + GE (rev.) 25 anag. (&lit.)
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).