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ACROSS
1 Comic Louis wearing extremely meager support for the spine (8)
5 Much obliged, Eliot hugs Williams (6)
9 In Miami, one Scottish playwright (7)
10 Skillful catcher and pitcher rejected rule involving baseball windup (7)
11 Herb, in the mountains, wields each bit at least once (9)
12 Like J. & H., going after shelter (5)
13 Famous Amos doughnuts (4)
14 Saint Jack, notably, getting approval for a revealing pastime? (5,5)
17 Foolishly unearth den below (10)
18 E’s destiny (4)
20 Power of misbehavior—that’s gross (5)
22 Prefigure a silent cost (9)
24 Indisposed while traveling, risk CIA disruption (7)
25 Speaker’s blnd? (7)
26 Winter conveyance made of pine surrounding large piece of ebony (6)
27 Harsh Russian region to the east of good German territory’s western border? (8)
DOWN
1 Newlywed’s second-rate car (5)
2 Gave Celsius over Fahrenheit, and got it wrong (9)
3 Darned creep’s bet won, overlooking the odds (6)
4 For the most part, display colored vessel full of hydrogen? That’s just a guess (4,2,3,4)
6 Goth busted in stylish, small sneakers (4-4)
7 New York and half of London fused synthetic material (5)
8 Extra fee: sudden increase to limit burn (9)
10 Simply enter uninvited, with gold for a politician (6,7)
13 Unfortunately, Ruth declaims around 500 times in a week (9)
15 Inaccurately named creature—a kind of dog with protruding appendage—is below deck (5,4)
16 Searching for fish: a serving of tuna-and-cod sashimi? (8)
19 Say no to a thing (6)
21 Scandinavian bouquet contains roses, originally (5)
23 Sneak taking off with artist’s equipment (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3443
ACROSS 1 pun 9 “a tax” 10 TUN(IS + I)A 11 DIS + APP EAR 12 MAN + I + C 13 D + ONE 14 “weight and sea” 18 PAL + IND + ROME 19 2 defs. 21 TI(LD)E 23 L + EVIA(THA)N (naïve rev., hat anag.) 26 anag. 27 GORE + TEX 28 letter bank
DOWN 1 A(WAR)D 2 ARTIS (anag.) + ANAL 3 E + ‘S + CAPE 4 alternate letters 5 LIT + ERA + TIM[e] 6 OR + NAME + NT 7 RO + SIN 8 anag. 13 DIP + H + THONG 15 A + P + RIL(FOO[d])L 16 anag. 17 anag. 20 FAB + [b]RIC[k] 22 L + ENIN (rev.) 24 VI[r]GIL 25 NIX + ON (rev.)
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.