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ACROSS
1 Measure of acidity sustained by Scandinavian nymph (6)
5 Like an ostrich or piebald cuckoo (7)
10 Craft spun out very loudly? That’s good enough (2,2,5)
11 Testosterone-laden revolutionary seen around Czech borders (5)
12 Design a game, making a connection that is frequently severed (10)
13 Beware Latin grotto (4)
15 Initially, Muhammad Ali toasts zwieback or unleavened wafer… (5)
16 …because lunch involves key preference for some travelers (5,4)
18 Plea to get 100 in midday quiz (2,7)
20 Desert natives cast headliner at outset of play (5)
22 Stake in the heart of giantess (4)
23 Slip on fragments, in some cases more than once—that’ll kill you (6,4)
26 I dissent about large piece of dental work (5)
27 Male in the beginning, or possibly the end? (9)
28 Fierce female soldier retreats, breaking lock (7)
29 Custodian to look back once more? (6)
DOWN
2 Entice by plot (7)
3 Heroin, smuggled by toy and game company, leads to gains (except for one side) (4,6)
4 Clarify enigmatic clue I see (9)
5 Obscure northward journey with Jan’s follower? (5)
6 Relentlessly question quiet official (4)
7 Death to start up again? (7)
8 New York intellectual cat is on the streetcar, singing (6,8)
9 Strict believer entertaining lady with New Testament elite (14)
14 Part of leaf surrounding rotten center (10)
17 Lush circles on a mountaintop, as it were (2,2,5)
19 Register California grad student record (7)
21 Rod, on the ball, embraces one wrong style of cooking (7)
24 Black-and-white swimmers, stripping for cash (5)
25 Over the phone, conceal personality’s evil side (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3434
ACROSS 7 anag. 9 pun 10 CAST + LE 11 M(EDIT)ATE 12 anag. 14 UN-DIES 15 END + UR[g]E 17 P + LAYER 20 a-tilde anag. 22 anag. 24 REP + HRASE (anag.) 25 2 defs. 26 B(E + F)ALL 27 anag.
DOWN 1 hidden 2 ST + ITCH 3 “yolk” 4 [s]QUAD + RU(P)LE + T 5 anag. 6 rev. hidden 8 DAM + NED (rev.) 13 anag. 16 anag. 18 RE + CRE(A)TE 19 TH(R)E AD 21 E + L + EVEN 23 A + POLL + O 25 S(P)AY
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.