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ACROSS
1 Bit of embroidery, awfully close to rococo, is found in cushion now and again (5,2,5)
9 Break purer tint in pieces (9)
10 Join nut, i.e., lunatic (5)
11 Wellington, say, beginning to hound assassin (5)
12 Charlie Brown’s brother in error involving 26, unfortunately (4,5)
13 Refusal to support oddly boozy actor: “Ta-ta!” (7)
15 Coastal inhabitant tosses seabird with no tail (7)
18 Lady of the night, before (3)
19 Photography pioneer snarled, “Namaste” (7)
21 Mafioso keeps drug runner in leather (7)
23 Five dollars, and Pinter revised something nobody ever reads (4,5)
26 On the return, beg riders to deliver sorrowful song (5)
27 Incomplete, unending melancholy in a cold house (5)
28 Playwright J.M. going around scoundrel’s roadblock (9)
29 Minnesota brought back a band on the radio with traces of old emotion for company workers—or mnemonic seen at the starts of five Across entries (5,7)
DOWN
1 Work in doorway increasing chaos (7)
2 It thrives on decay, the war’s devastation, or the onset of mold (9)
3 Mounting antelope at 12 is immature (5)
4 Was probably more popular than badly polluted oxygen (9)
5 Loud organ for cast (5)
6 Snob put up a Scrabble piece first (7)
7 Nation’s management degree in business revoked by our group (8)
8 Complaint from gathering on top of Fuji (4)
14 One who makes the court his home must be in confused circles around knight (6,3)
16 Feature of the Great Depression: “Can you spare a dime,” say? (9)
17 Poem from rising opera singer about semiconductor (8)
20 Where you might play in raffles and lotteries (7)
22 Peninsula dwellers with snake or bats (7)
23 After initial sign of fever, be sick and break down (4)
24 In favor of a logical argument (5)
25 Excerpt from smooth, rumbling drone (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3420
ACROSS 1 NO + OK 3 F, I REPLACE S 10 ALTE (anag.) + RED 11 anag. 12 ARC + HAN + GEL 13 initial letters 14 hidden 16 anag. (& lit.) 18 SOLD[i]ERED 19 DE-BRIS 22 anag. (& lit.) 23 anag. 25 P ON TIFF 26 FAI[r] + LURE 27 ON(EPERC)ENT (crepe rev., nonet anag.) 28 KI(L)N
DOWN 1 NIAGA + R + A (rev.) 2 [t]-OP-T-IC 4 IN + DIG + O 5 E + QUALITY 6 letter bank 7 COM(FORT)ER 8 SA + DNES + S (rev.) 9 anag. 15 ALLA[h] + TON + CE 17 T(ERR + IF)IC 18 SHAM POO 20 SOY + BE + AN 21 2 defs. 24 S-AUDI-[s]
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.