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Word Salad.
ACROSS
1 Advocacy group embracing criminal, regressive cause, for the most part (5,3)
6 Backing up, turned toward beverage (5)
9 Capital’s principal newsrooms nag corrupt politician (13)
11 Deuterium offers protection for wombs (5)
12 Except for the speed of light, universe with pull (gravity) is getting through (8)
13 Fatal geometric configuration of grass, shorts and onions? (7,8)
17 German composer with horrible greed, or else evidence of a college education (9,6)
18 Hatch plots to mix gin and 11 (8)
19 In the beginning, cook requires barrels (5)
22 Just like some winds in spirit, the flower touches you at first (13)
23 Kept a rowboat going, or flew starting late (5)
24 Like nearly half of these clues, almost, unconscious habit reveals what can be found in these clues (8)
DOWN
2 Miltie, for one, is confused when abandoning Arkansas (5)
3 Nine bats eating inside of bug, producing boredom (5)
4 One in disgrace for each vocal number soon adopted a pitch, rising (7,3,5)
5 Payment, perhaps: only person under pressure gets an item of clothing (8,7)
6 Quarterdeck has cold beer of inferior quality (9)
7 Rated “for general audiences” in Alien: camera on fellow director (2-7)
8 Swell penalty (4)
10 Turmoil from the center, pal (6)
14 Ugly crone (peculiar, heartless) is overcome again (9)
15 Vishnu’s foot—where the E might be dug up? (9)
16 While this may be true, it is assumed by Steven Soderbergh (4,2)
19 Xerxes’ grandfather contributed to fancy ruse (5)
20 Yankee in list ruined pens (5)
21 Zany solo in Scandinavian city (4)
ACROSS 1 & 28 FIR STAND + FORE(M.O.)ST 5 C + AESAR (areas anag.) 10 2 defs. 11 & 25 “lox talk and beryl” 12 CAR + A VAN (&lit.) 13 DI(SOW)NS 14 TELEVISI + ONSET (levities anag.) 18 TO MA(TOKE)TCH UP 22 [s]E(TERN)AL 23 ICEDTE + A (deceit anag.) 26 TIN + G[iraff]E 27 O(XY)GEN (gone anag.)
DOWN 1 anag. 2 [d]RIVER 3 TELAV + IV (rev.) 4 hidden 6 ASS + [l]ISTS 7 S(TOP)WATCH 8 2 defs. 9 A C(ID)ROCK 15 anag. 16 anag. 17 AP (rev.) + PARENT 19 MAN DATE 20 sletter anag. 21 LE(GAT)O 23 hidden 24 TAN + GO
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.