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ACROSS
1 Masseuse to avoid a bath toy (6,4)
6 Prepare soup for work (4)
10 Philosopher retreats in total panic (5)
11 and 12 President informed mechanic in crisis (9,2,5)
12 See 11
13 Places to work off frozen sweets (7)
14 Complains loudly about broken bracelet—it can give you a jump (7,5)
19 Detective and troublemaker on opposite sides of Venice’s borders (12)
22 Outpouring of what might cause a drunken brawl? (7)
24 Bite fish after turning over to ignore the alarm (5,2)
25 Please German with tear for a painful conclusion (6,3)
26 To their buddies, conceivably, Einstein and Newton are similar (5)
27 At heart, nasty person is kind (4)
28 Added an S to a dull prize, shockingly (10)
DOWN
1 Fix member of Congress’s appearance (6)
2 Offshoot of second-rate farm… (6)
3 …comes into play :-0 ;-) (9)
4 Braved getting up to get a drink (5)
5 Leader of aristocracy goes after peasant, ever since the time of Christ (6,3)
7 Vehicles in space bid exploded (8)
8 Upside-down cakes under pressure (8)
9 Young animal’s leg, in part (4)
15 Superficially Kafkaesque man captivated by sales pitch for a stiletto (5,4)
16 Narrow escape from one in the same area code? (5,4)
17 Gradually put battery terminals into a quarter? (3,2,3)
18 Go too far, messing up voter’s record (8)
20 Squirt runs into Olympic swimmer (6)
21 Mysterious rune in the 5, like much e-mail (6)
23 Top primate, at times (4)
24 Holiday tradition maintained by Sudanese dervish (5)
ACROSS 1 BLI(N)TZ 4 EN(TRY)WAY (yawne[d] rev.) 9 TENSP (anag.) + OT 11 SEC + R(E)CY (cry anag.) 12 anag. 14 R(I + DIC[k])ULE 16 S + HOE 17 VI(C)TORIANA (variation anag.) 19 IS + OTHER + MAL(e) 21 rev. 23 CIT (rev.) + RUSES 25 LAW(N)S 27 “symbol” 28 ME THANE 30 MO(N)O + POLY (anag.) 31 TO(K)ENS (stone anag.)
DOWN 1 BAT + TLES (anag.) + HIP 2 & 29 INN + ATE 3 T(OP)HAT 5 alternate letters 6 palindrome 7 WHEE + LB + ARROW 8 YO[t] (rev.) + YO[t] (rev.) (&lit.) 10 T(ERR)IER 13 CROCODI(LI)AN (accordion anag.) 15 SAINTS(A)ENS (nastiness anag.) 18 T(RAN)SOM (most rev.) 20 HAR(DB + O)P 22 B + LOTTO 24 S(M)ELL 26 anag
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.