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Word Salad.
ACROSS
1 Argument after start of show rolling around a carnival act (5,10)
9 Does this mean we have to eat on the floor? That’s unusual (7)
10 Purple Italian car mostly maintains such realignment (7)
11 Dance with arm or leg overhead (5)
12 At last, Charlie understood tears and self-indulgences (3,5)
14 Functions silently, communicates aloud (5)
15 Water clock altered dry places (9)
17 Pollitt and Younge, e.g., being sassiest (shockingly) around the Fourth of July (9)
19 Communist without umbrella ultimately gets wet (5)
21 Father criticizes concealing a hint of emotion—and conceals a hint of emotion (8)
24 Small role came to naught (5)
26 Hawaii taxi returning Hawaii’s luau equipment, perhaps (7)
27 City of New Orleans (7)
28 Bury a friend of the magazine across borders (15)
DOWN
1 Serenaded young women with dark spectacles (10)
2 Holy Roman Emperor: man associated with an empire (7)
3 Mistrustfully label debt “sneaky” (9)
4 A question that might be answered by decapitation (5)
5 The uneaten part of a newt, swallowed by Romeo and others (9)
6 Take place of Orange County dog (5)
7 Guacamole, e.g., is practically nothing—send it back for having no taste (7)
8 Insect bite on the way up (4)
13 Good eating: by evening’s end, it could involve stargazing (10)
15 Fellow actor sabotaged CIA in Central American country (5,4)
16 Wise lawmaker eats stewed mice;…(9)
18 …for example, oregano stuffing prescribed for dessert (7)
20 Wicked Jimmy stripped clergyman Roberts (7)
22 Hide corporate assets with scenery (5)
23 Fish offers us his innards (5)
25 Asian to connect on the phone (4)
ACROSS 1 alternate letters 4 F + RE(E)VERSE 9 PR(E.T.)EEN 10 TE(LL)ERS (steer anag.) 11 EL + LENDEG + ENERES (legend anag., serene rev.) 13 BE(R)ET 15 hidden 17 RE(LENT)ED 19 hidden 22 EVER(G)RE + ENTREES (revere anag.) 25 WELLS + ET 26 DR + ESDEN (needs anag.) 27 RE + DRESSER 28 exces[s] anag.
DOWN 1 SEPT(EMBER)S (steps anag.) 2 NEE + D(L)ER (red rev.) 3 2 defs. 4 & 21 2 defs. 5 EX(TREME)S (sex anag.) 6 VEL(VET)EEN (eleven anag.) 7 REEL + ECT (etc. anag.) 8 anag. 12 R + EPRESENTS (pretenses anag.) 14 TE(N + DRESS)E 16 SECRE(T[reasur]E)S (recess anag.) 18 L(EVEL)ED 20 “wheed’ll” 23 THE + M + E 24 “you were”
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.