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ACROSS
1 Weirdly precise sets of instructions (7)
5 Fall with hesitation into tuna salad (6)
8 Cut and burn to get hot (5)
9 Restitutions (9)
11 Twins do become mixed up in a kind of strike… (3-4)
12 …in epic Colorado wind (7)
13 In Burton, I see menace (10)
16 Car, initially for Ike and Tina (4)
18 Be next to large orchestral instrument, facing left (4)
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19 Design for efficiency, therefore without amplification (10)
21 Sketchy donor is protected from the elements (7)
23 Like 26’s bridge feat in two clubs (7)
25 Review sci-fi film with phosphorus filling pit at the top of the world (5,4)
26 Religious believers back hotels on the outskirts of university (5)
27 Practice Prohibitionist campaign? (3,3)
28 Gets involved with evil that results from marriage? (5,2)
DOWN
1 Reviving addict rejected smuggler’s original quote (13)
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2 Toothpaste found in public restroom (5)
3 What? Porn made unacceptable? (6,2)
4 Consumer activist supports withered singer (9)
5 Total commercial scam never reaches completion (3,2)
6 Turning false into true in European ditch (6)
7 Dictator’s security concealing rise of independent defeat (9)
10 Newspaper department features every letter from inspector again and again (6,7)
14 One making a loud noise, submerged in the river (9)
15 Cheating lovers, beginning to trust without Mister Savage (3-6)
17 Gather fuel to escape capital of Eritrea (8)
20 Disturb the two of them even more so? (6)
22 Faint white lines after a short while (5)
24 Makes aromatic plants (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3518
ACROSS 1 CLEA (anag.) + NASA + WHI(ST)LE 9 BEES + WAX 10 S-[m/V]-ELTER 11 CRIME + ANWAR 12 hidden 14 UN + S + OLD 15 PRO + TO(C)OL 18 SP(LEND)OR[t] 20 pun 22 2 defs. 23 PEN + TAME + TER[m] 26 DEF + ACTO[r] 27 MA + SCAR + A 28 letter bank
DOWN 1 C(UBS)COUTS (bus anag., stucco anag.) 2 anag. 3 “gnus, eland” 4 S + AXON 5 W + I + SEA + CRE[w] 6 IKE + A 7 anag. 8 pun 13 S + TONE + MA + SON 16 LA(Y + ERCA)KE (race anag.) 17 HO[w] + MELO(A)N 19 LUC(IF)ER (ulcer anag.) 21 OU(TCA)ST (act rev.) 22 MADAM [I’m Adam] 24 TE(M)PO (poet anag.) 25 AC(M)E
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.