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ACROSS
7 It ends the discussion with 27 incorrectly (4,4)
9 Heavenly body is the butt of fifth graders’ jokes (6)
10 Actors in front of the French fortress (6)
11 Think deeply and make changes—spouse comes around (8)
12 22 redesigned bordello (8)
14 Garment becomes a zombie? (6)
15 Bear’s final desire: dropping $1,000 (6)
17 One involved in a game hen’s past, beginning to prosper (6)
20 Mistyped ã, in particular (6)
22 It spices up 12 in a stew (3,5)
24 Agent hears poorly: Put it another way (8)
25 Exhibitor’s party (6)
26 Happen to dance with internal energy and force (6)
27 Choose randomly from 7, shuffled (4,4)
DOWN
1 Fold a tab, as envoy presents a collection of records (8)
2 Pain and irritation dogging holy one (6)
3 Link part of an egg with your tongue (4)
4 One of four seasons originally leaves team with rule about quiet time (10)
5 Yearly observance rattled 16 (5,3)
6 Elusive Roosevelt-Bush connection is recalled (6)
8 Upsetting lair, insane and accursed (6)
13 Misprinted urine label is not to be trusted (10)
16 Martian’s weapon destroyed 5 (5,3)
18 Again, compose note on area covered by Greek island (8)
19 The commercial makes a case for red string (6)
21 Football team is tied after empty loss (6)
23 A survey on love god (6)
25 Fix prices, initially, in state (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3433
ACROSS 1 CARD IN AL 5 RAVE + N 9 WE(B)STER[n] 10 NU (rev.) + MERIC (anag.) 11 “[d]oubter” 12 initial letters 13 2 defs. 14 CHAR + GER (rev.) 16 BROW + N 18 [b]EAGLE 20 anag. 24 rev. hidden 25 B + EAR 26 RU(PE)E 29 pun 30 S + AIN’T 31 F(OOTB)ALL (boot anag.)
DOWN 1 CO(WBO)Y (bow anag.) 2 ROB + O + TIC 3 [w]INTER [pa]LACE 4 AIR + PLUG 5 & 28 RAM + JET 6 rev. hidden 7 pun 8 IND(O)OR (Rodin anag.) 15 E + GO 16 anag. 17 WE(BCAS)TS (stew rev., scab anag.) 19 GOLD(ON)I[e] 20 DWEE (anag.) + B[o]Y 21 LOREN + ZO (rev.) 22 hidden 23 B + ENGAL (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.