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ACROSS
1 Member of the aristocracy! (8)
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5 Note in tub is an inspiration (6)
10 Chief of Loyola University caught in pool with commedia dell’arte lover (9)
11 Mammal to become narrower, we hear (5)
12 Promise a way to fill the blank in CRA_LING (4)
13 A bunch of stars in Asia copies Alien (10)
15 Eliminate boundaries for most hackneyed ceremonies (5)
17 Went along with improved score by Williams (8)
20 Caitlin gets addled when taking restricted antihistamine (8)
21 Ultimately scratched skin irritation in gutter (5)
23 Wicked author Sinclair, beginning to obey the Lord, filled with love (2,2,2,4)
25 Request a type of lily that’s clipped (4)
28 Park in front of range for sports tournament (3-2)
29 See inside cut, and cry (4,1,4)
30 Vacation spot to organize once more (6)
31 Control is essence of fresh transportation option (8)
DOWN
1 Support part of hospital in reverse (8)
2 Monarch runs through pasture, lurching in retreat (5)
3 Joshua, for one, resides in western America (4)
4 Momentarily stop pumping, like a carefree cop on patrol? (4,1,4)
6 Moving 1D, Russian city long ago lost leadership with respect to outside (10)
7 Start to etch within variegated patterns right now (2,7)
8 Race doesn’t finish before one initially helpful shout of encouragement (6)
9 Pins, for example, coming in large and small (4)
14 Observer at core, following star and moon motions! (10)
16 Allow Hawaiian singer to appear in endlessly uneasy charity events (9)
18 African prisoner proceeds to smuggle 50 head of elephants (9)
19 Country on the Pacific Ocean ultimately welcoming doctor’s offspring (8)
22 Final helping of soup in extraordinary dinner (6)
24 Fuel soft expression of surprise (4)
26 Beer times with a modern-day assistant (5)
27 Like this clue, what can precede each of 11 diagram entries to make a phrase (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3493
ACROSS 1 I + R + REVOC + ABLE (rev.) 7, 27D, 28, 1D CAN + TAB + RIG + IAN 9 N(EBUL)AE (lube rev.) 10 initial letters 11 anag. 12 anag. 13 rev. 14 anag. 17 ROO(MINES)S 19 hidden 22 BAND + IT 23 F(L)OUNDER 25 T-[o/WITCH]-Y 26 UP(STAR)T (put anag.) 29 PA’S + CHALLA[h] + M[o]B
DOWN 2 RUBE + LLA (rev.) 3 VA(LI[d])SE 4 “Perry, chai” spoonerism 5 B-[ol/LO]-T 6 EA + GLEE + YE 7 CONS + IGN (anag.) 8 “neck romancer” 11 DIS + TRIB + UTOR (anag.) 15 anag. 16 DIX + I + ECUP (rev.) 18 [j]OIN + KING 20 rev. hidden 21 “muscle” 24 A + YES
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.