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ACROSS
1 I am always on time, ahead of you when texting, and spontaneous (9)
6 Scoundrel and French military trainee (5)
9 Gas an individual east of Kansas? Not any more (5)
10 One sharing responsibility to engineer crops soon (9)
11 On top of a roll, salsa perhaps? That’s too much (13)
14 Passage from Ezekiel is so memorably graceful (7)
16 Satellite in second place? A relative setback (7)
17 Small break, with the end coming a little early—that can be relaxing (7)
19 Nation’s chief, at rest, arranged talks (7)
21 Cue four jockeys to incorporate sense and smarts—you’d need that to make a White Russian (6,7)
24 After trading Utah for bright city lights, favorite location to get drunk (4,3,2)
26 Provide excellent witticism (5)
27 Oddly, played a UN song of praise (5)
28 You and I contributed to shamefully unread conclusion of lawyer’s briefs (9)
DOWN
1 Athletic organization hiding scam to abide rebel (10)
2 Operate on disintegrating corpses (7)
3 Pope Ratzinger presents a musical performance (5)
4 Horrible brute put ice in old TV part (7,4)
5 and 8 Presumptuous person boosts dessert (7)
6 Tailor low tunics to make funny clothes? (5,4)
7 Notice to suggest that only a loser would go to Switzerland to study nuclear physics? (7)
8 See 5
12 Not in the mood (11)
13 Cars crashing into e-communicator—you might see that in the big city (10)
15 Wheel dilapidated futon around, haul away (3,2,4)
18 Loud hotel? Change or get angry (7)
20 Former spouse beginning to employ attractive implement (7)
22 Baroque-era connection is bizarre (5)
23 and 25 Cover a fellow beside the Seine? (7)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3397
ACROSS 1 & 27 RAT + HER 3 2 defs. 9 NAI (rev.) + PAUL 10 DRAW (rev.) + SUP 11 DELICIOU (anag.) + S 12 DE(L)HI (hide anag.) 14 MO(VE)MENT 17 AZ + IMUTHS (anag.) 18 GUST + O[f] 20 BASE(BAL)L (Lab rev.) 24 [p]ROSECUT[e] 25 GR(OMM)ET[a] (Mom anag.) 26 anag.
DOWN 1 RENEGAD (anag.) + E 2 TRI-AL 3 anag. 4 I’D LED 5 KI-[n/D]-G + LOVES 6 rev. hidden 7 V(IS + COUNT)S 8 RE-PAST 13 LA(Z)Y’S + US + AN 14 anag. 15 MIGR(A)TORY (grim anag.) 16 RO(AD)STER 19 [l]IBERIA 21 BB(CT)V 22 DOG MA [i] (rev.) 23 O + O MPH
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.