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ACROSS

 1 Be prepared for speeches and coughs (14)

 9 Key person narrated “The Story of Salmon” (9)

10 Diplomat’s deadly sin: hiding love (5)

11 Fort Pulaski’s chief dies, or I fail (8)

12 When withdrawn, intercession shows confidence (6)

14 Otherworldly extraterrestrial lines firs in nankeen caps… (5)

15 …with assistant wrapping pines (9)

17 Individual to hold this when talking! (4,5)

19 Lecher is strangely artsy (5)

21 Right-winger bamboozled no one, capturing leadership of committee (6)

23 One of the experts in a glazier’s catalog? (8)

25 Someone who might be anxious to go over backward (5)

26 Depraved ump is evil and unthinking (9)

27 I need time to consider this simpleton’s letters—some of them more than once (3,2,5,2,2)

DOWN

 1 Obscure electronic excerpts on Web Central (7)

 2 Policeman rising at week’s end, playing flute for a little change, perhaps? (9)

 3 Something soft and quiet found in copper atom (7)

 4 Source of one evil giant caught between alternatives (10)

 5 Each contorted in pain (4)

 6 Hazard concealed by Candice Bergen… (7)

 7 …ot at all the first woman to appear within newspaper’s covers (5)

 8 My note about beginning and end of trail: “Bush,… (6)

13 …e.g., is in favor of former liberal” (3,7)

16 Passionate about hopin’ to be heard with understanding (9)

17 Ape swallows an awning (6)

18 Agenda in support of the metric system? (7)

19 Eat properly inside and get bigger (5,2)

20 Traitor is about to be in French surrender (7)

22 Fluid ounce, just when called for (2,3)

24 Pope’s irrational onus? (4)

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3308  

ACROSS 1 SECUL (anag.) + AR[e] 5 B(OUR)B + ON 9 anag. 10 TU + LIP 11 W + [ht]EBCAM (rev.) 12 M(EALT)IME (late anag.) 14 VIRGINIA + S(L)IMS 18 MINNESOTA + [f]FATS (rev.) 20 FOI(EG)RAS (Rosa if anag.) 22 CIRC(L)E 25 OL (rev.) + DIE 26 DRA(MAT IS)T 27 anag. 28 anag.

DOWN 1 SINEW + AVE 2 C + LIMB 3 LIBRA + R(I)AN 4 [t]RITE[r] 5 BAR + BERS (anag.) + HOP 6 UN + TIL (rev.) 7 anag. 8 NE + PHEW 13 S + IDES + ADDLE 15 REM(A)INDER 16 anag. 17 AS BEST OS 19 A + F + FORD 21 2 defs. 23 CR + ISP 24 FAR + O