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ACROSS
1 Cheerful brew pub to have food (6)
5 Belief in Edmonton athlete’s comeback maintaining soldier? No (8)
9 Like a bull in a china shop or in a sandwich shop, house pet with energy (10)
10 Make needed changes, when retracting what goes out twice a day (4)
11 After short time, discomfort and pain for a runner (6)
12 Communicating with a 15 under the weather (1-7)
13 Onetime campaign manager to staff a military installation (8)
15 A loose relative (6)
17 Congress, for instance, is initially scrupulous and precise (3,3)
19 Those people keeping symbol back to front as a way to understand 5A (8)
21 Diana the Magician embraces abomination (8)
23 Progenitor’s paint in correct English? (6)
24 Attempt to ensnare red cardinal, say (4)
25 Frenchman has to see inside apartment (4-1-5)
26 Persevere flying kite that contains ribbon from the other side (4,2,2)
27 Papa eats unfinished part of an egg that’s not quite fresh (3-3)
DOWN
2 Get through to write review about Spielberg blockbuster (9)
3 Matricide put God in office (7)
4 Talking head baked a piece of chicken (5)
5 Strangle characters gathering for broker (4-6,5)
6 Body of water that is perceived internally doesn’t drop off (4,5)
7 Mischievous entity swapping Russian government’s $1,000 for a different $1,000 (7)
8 Vegetable held over in Hanoi, normally (5)
14 30-day tyrant, having eliminated doctor one bit at a time, is forced to answer a difficult question (2,3,4)
16 Nine large bats, as a rule (2,7)
18 In a vessel, Cruz misbehaved (5,2)
20 New York supports clear vandalism? That’s a crime (7)
22 What there is in team, ultimately: tennis with excellent racket (5)
23 Quietly call up pattern (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3472
ACROSS 1 ALP + HA 4 A + U + TO{psi}ES 9 PUN + {chi}N 10 ANTI + [k]OCH 11 A([n]UD[e]){iota}PES 12 anag. 13 “sue, she” 15 D + RIPPED 18 BE[n] + ER{mu}G 19 L IS ZT 21 A{xi}S 22 ON{theta}BLE (noble anag.) 26 R(AILM)AN (mail anag.) 27 S{nu}GG(L)E (rev.) 28 anag. 29 O + MEGA
DOWN 1 APP + LA + USE 2 {pi}NED (rev.) 3 anag. 4 AP + NEA 5 T(RAVEL)ING[e] 6 PAT + H 7 IRONS (anag.) + IDES 8 S{phi}N + X 14 SUB (rev.) + S(ID)IZE 15 D(O + M + IN)ANCE 16 anag. 17 ETC[h] + ET + ERA 20 {tau}RUS[t] 23 HUS(K)S[y] 24 anag. 25 OM + IT
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.