ACROSS
1 Plastering bully, or getting inside fast (10)
6 Strike friends on the way back (4)
10 Time-keeper for Alaskan urban center? (9)
11 Acceptable run (5)
12 Prisoner to leave African flower (5)
13 All-over cooking ruins veal (9)
14 Composer’s little glockenspiels? (7)
15 Disastrous date in jail (6)
18 Abridge lecture on tape (6)
19 Dancer’s step linking start of act to end of scene (7)
21 Planter pivots head about Blitzer (9)
23 Waterston has a degree in dance (5)
25 Assail unarmed sector of the moon (5)
26 In Northern California, change direction like a bat (9)
27 City that’s the same as Amsterdam when new? (4)
28 Piece of equipment for Midnight in Paris gaffers (5,5)
DOWN
1 Poisonous plant French writer raised (5)
2 Clears up fish with a coating of mixed nuts (9)
3 One that bites and rips in phony display of emotion (9,5)
4 Festering Wound (hit mystery) (8)
5 Secure authentic lodging by the Sound (4,2)
7 So set up building blocks (5)
8 Sulky quality encountered downtown? (9)
9 Painter subsequently produces things to sneeze at? (7,7)
14 “That hay looks pretty threatening,” Tom said ________ (9)
16 Home for Lydia, or a teenage ninja? (4,5)
17 Soft piece, tiny piece (8)
20 Originally, Sarah Palin edited a certain column (6)
22 Landlord is a drag after the first (5)
24 Gleaming silver and blue (5)
ACROSS 1 2 defs. 6 CO + CO + A 9 GIN’S + ENG 10 MOO(DIE)R 11 [b]ROUGH[t] 12 2 defs. 13 hidden 14 MO(ONBEA)M (a bone anag.) 16 anag. 18 STUD + IO 20 anag. 23 2 defs. 24 OCUL(I)ST (locust anag.) 25 anag. 26 2 defs. 27 CARP + ENTRY
DOWN 1 FIG + URES (ruse anag.) 2 A(D NA)U + SEAM 3 beEthoven 4 E(IG)HT (rev.) 5 DOMIN(G)O 6 2 defs. 7 “chi, rho” 8 A(CRONY)M 15 anag. 16 LE GROOM 17 ROB + O + TIC 19 “odd a see” 21 E-QUIP 22 DO + PER
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.