Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle.
Puzzled? No more cross words! Read Kosman and Picciotto on “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Puzzles.” Or watch this video.
ACROSS
1 Making progress or making a bust? (7,5)
9 Failure leads us into genuine rejection (7)
10 1,000 + 0 = 10 (just add water) (7)
11 Romeo heading to the back—and beginning to yawn, too (6)
12 Support and exceed in honesty? (8)
14 Careless fellow pursues Elgin, losing his marbles? (9)
16 Guard barring Sunday admission (5)
17 Ape cut fruit (5)
18 The same iodine reduction: one calorie (9)
We now confront a second Trump presidency.
There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.
Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.
Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.
The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.
Onwards,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation
20 Fool holding court? Thanks, that should fix just about anything (4,4)
22 Excellent puzzle piece in enigmatic rebus (6)
25 Rush around wildly and crash into a young attendant (7)
26 Packaging outspoken master of rhyme and rhythm (7)
27 El trains delivering the necessities for a future kind of travel? (12)
DOWN
1 Pitiful choice of letters to complete the word COI_ED (7)
2 Ransack fund-raiser if legislators accept that (5)
3 Hurtful hormone takes time to grow at first (9)
Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.
4 A delay held up fancy event (4)
5 Along with Beethoven’s Fifth, dancing a minuet is something you can study (10)
6 Pests sustaining a traveler underground (5)
7 Teach lit differently—that’s a kind of scholarship (8)
8 One out of seven miners eyes New Zealand inappropriately (6)
13 Half the world is into marijuana at this point (10)
15 Spilling a mug with cola can generate disease (8)
16 Period of atonement starts late, with the period we inhabit following (9)
17 Veteran foiled a person disregarding the odds (3,3)
19 Three parts of a hospital for a woman giving birth? (7)
21 Mark a carrier (formerly fashionable) (5)
23 Ultimately, White Sox shortstop stole surgical boot (5)
24 Speaking to take advantage of sheep (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3440
ACROSS 1 10-DOWN [PRIME location] + INGST (Sting anag.) 8 O(VERDU[n])E 9 anag. 11 E(X)TIR (rev.) + PATE 12 hidden 13 NA + IFS 15 IM + M + I GRATE 18 DISH + O + NEST 19 C + HAIR 21 MOOS + E 23 anag. 25 pun 26 OX + I + DI(Z)E 27 anag.
DOWN 1 THE + ATRICS (anag.) 2 hidden 3 O + PER + ATIVE (rev.) 4 NUD + GE (rev.) 5 anag. 6 initial letters 7 M(ODE)R. + N 10 PRIM + E 14 anag. 16 MATCH B.O. + OK 17 A + NATO + LIAN (rev.) 18 hidden 20 “rimed” 22 ON(CU)E 23 [t]ERROR 24 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.