Puzzled? No more cross words! Read Kosman and Picciotto on “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Puzzles.”
Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle.
ACROSS
1 Torn-up shoestring subjected to review (9)
6 God’s way to tell a mug from a demitasse? (5)
9 Helps Japanese prime minister with empty threats (5)
10 Run my bath? That’s crazy—say there are alligators in the sewers (5,4)
11 DIY garden tool is getting me angry (8)
12 Middle Eastern queen: an electronics pioneer (6)
14 That woman would lose small storage structure (4)
15 Indigenous Canadians accepting trees’ eerie quality (10)
18 Loopy, confused, uncouth lot (3,2,5)
19 What Fitzgerald did well: go away (4)
22 Rat can help cop become this! (6)
24 Community of learners directed a taxi most of the way west (8)
26 For example, de Klerk stuffing 33 percent of kangaroos into a chicken (9)
27 Raised objection about the Italian (5)
28 Restaurant remodeled in red (5)
29 Rider’s communication device holding Eliot back (9)
DOWN
1 Fish, see, feels pain (7)
2 Churned ice stream is smoother than all others (9)
3 Once again, add a bit of experience for curriculum vitae (6)
4 Loud, grand claims under suspicion at first (10)
5 Obligation extracted from last Bedouin upon returning (4)
6 Drug may snatch lives (8)
7 Parts of a kingdom covered by pornography laws (5)
8 Cruise had brought up flowers (7)
13 Volunteer group singing printed music about green vegetables? (5,5)
16 Men, pacing all around and putting up tents (9)
17 Farm animal (a pig) decapitated by fellow laborer (8)
18 Where you might grow a fruit or a vegetable (7)
20 Outside of theater, a performer’s vehicle (7)
21 Nontoxic or toxic, I bleed (6)
23 No politician ascends to be president in South America (5)
25 Running back offers harsh criticism of football move (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 33474
ACROSS 1 [s]AFAR[i] 4 MA(NIFE)STS (fine anag.) 10 LAN[e] + DOWNER 11 hidden 12 TRA + ITOR (rev.) 13 “humorous” 14 NEEDLES + SLY 16 [j]IFFY 18 initial letters 19 SHRINK “rap” 24 R + ALLIED 25 FL + OUNCE 26 initial letters 27 NE(VERMIN)D (den rev.) 28 MUSC (anag.) + L + ECAR (rev.) 29 LI’L + Y
DOWN 2 FUND + AMEN + TALISTS (anag.) 3 anag. 4 MAN + TRAS (anag.) 5 NAR (rev.) + W + HAL 6 FOR + U(M)S 7 anag. 8 SA(TISF)Y (fist anag.) 9 GLUT + [z]EN 15 S + I + R 17 O(KCOR)RAL (rock rev.) 18 pun 20 anag. 21 INF(A + V)O + R 22 anag. 23 DIES + EL
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.