Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

The Nation Puzzlers

Joshua 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.

More is More More is More

Sometimes, we just can't get enough

Mar 27, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Puzzle No. 3319 Puzzle No. 3319

Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle. And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad. ACROSS  1 Acts recklessly with jazz fans (4)  3 Disoriented flier, half-lost, circling O’Hare at first and LaGuardia (8)  9 Scold help after rude burp (7) 10 In bed, doctor can’t make a connection (7) 12 Letters from solution in every square (4) 13 Chesterton, grabbing us, swore terribly—which is what you might need to complete a puzzle (9) 15 “Father is Son”—painful final days of Christ (7) 16 Ancient god has become popular as a grape (6) 19 Fate, a thousand times confounded (6) 21 It consists of a bar, etc.! (7) 24 Make too much of voters’ tea parties (9) 26 Monthly payment advanced, after left-to-right conversion (4) 28 Giant bird dismembered Cain (7) 29 Chapter 50, including novelist Tyler’s fluid passage (7) 30 Praise from computer company captivating a nation (8) 31 High-class award given to 11 Across entries (4) DOWN  1 Beat 21 (4)  2 Bill heartlessly chomps 1 across (7)  4 Poor, practically unaffiliated man (8)  5 Scam for Roger Federer? (6)  6 Pieces of timber, including Northern pines (5)  7 Speakers in Oregon disrupted roast (7)  8 Row of urns for ointment (8) 11 Behold! A doll in a bag (4,4) 14 Verbalized a reason for the bike to be at the repair shop? (5,3) 17 Wild boar existing amid the trees (8) 18 Shocking scenes involving fascists: at the core, they can be physical (8) 20 Damage carpets and ranges (7) 22 Encountered queen in India, not surprisingly (3,4) 23 Dead guitarist upset tabloid spies (6) 25 Joke with my family, rising in the morning (5) 27 Kill, for example, to conceal trace of larceny (4) SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3318 1 2 defs. 9 CAR + GOP + ANTS 10 SLAT + HER 11 DIAGR (anag.) + A.M. 12 I’M ME + D(I)ATE 13 I DEAL 14 anag. 16 D(ROOP)IER (poor rev., ride anag.) 18 WARP + LANE 19 HOB(N)O + B 22 L + EARN 23 E(YEP + I.E. + C)ES (see rev.) 25 anag. 26 VA + GRANT 27 FRAU + DU + LENT 28 rev. DOWN 1  JUST ICE 2 C + HARM 4 A + IRB (anag.) + A + G  5 GA(D + GET)RY 6 PLACI(DO + DO +MI) NG + O 7 anag. 8 SI(MILA)R (mail anag.) 9 “row, dial in dread” 15 PERCA (anag.) + PITA 17 INTE(RNA)L (ran anag.) 18 WAL (rev.) + D OR F 20 BUSS + TOP 21 HE(AVE)N 24  CHA(I)R

Mar 26, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Name-Dropping Name-Dropping

  Handle with care

Mar 20, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Puzzle No. 3318 Puzzle No. 3318

Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle. And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad. ACROSS  1 Raise money (4)  3 Lincoln, for example, with Republicans and some soldiers’ apparel (5,5) 10 Part of a blind woman’s spread (7) 11 What you hope to fill somehow: a grid in the morning (7) 12 Direct declaration of identity, one adopted by companion (9) 13 What a pusher might say is a principle (5) 14 Liveliness of reformed priest (6) 16 More languid and feeble when returning in bumpy ride (8) 18 Military equipment to damage road (8) 19 Associate with 26 clutching nitrogen bomb at the rear (6) 22 Master beginning of lesson with net (5) 23 Lenses to look back around? You betcha, that is cold (9) 25 Letter from moronic drunk (7) 26 Virginia award for wanderer (7) 27 In Berlin, a woman precedes you with advanced criminal (10) 28 Capture constituent in retreat (4) DOWN  1 What some people like with whiskey? That’s right (7)  2 Loveliness can, initially, hurt (5)  4 It might prevent injury (a broken rib, a gash in front) (3,3)  5 Cooper has bit of desire to understand technological devices (8)  6 Singer locating love, holding three notes (7,7)  7 Henrik Ibsen, for instance, on wearing slips (9)  8 Not unlike a knight hiding damaged mail (7)  9 Chicken heard to paddle and call in terror (5,6,3) 15 Absurd caper with bread for each person (3,6) 17 Private ran amok, consumed by information from espionage (8) 18 Overturn rule on possible bad grades for historic New York hotel (7) 20 Where your commute might start with a kiss: on a peak (3,4) 21 Hail swallowed by bird in the sky (6) 24 Outside, I burn a piece of furniture (5) SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3317   1 letter bank 9 E(LLIPS)E (spill rev.) 10 anag. (&lit.) 11 PHE(NO MEN)A (heap anag.) 12 hidden 13 anag. 16 & 18 RED + RAW 19 anag. 21 “souls” 22 AND(ROME)DA 25 AVO (rev.) + CAD + O 26 T([e]RIC)ORN 27 2 defs. DOWN 1 S(LEEP)WEAR (peel rev.) 2 NO(L)TE 3 I’M PRO-VE 4 hidden 5 TIM + PAN + IS + T 6 EASTE(R)N (Senate anag.) 7 APPLET + RE + E 8 2 defs. 14 anag. 15 ACUT(ABO + V)E 17 DART + AG + NAN 19 M IS CAST 20 IV(OR)IES 21 hidden (&lit.) 23 DE[x]TER 24 EC(O)LI (lice anag.)

Mar 18, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Chez Henri Chez Henri

Eat, drink, and beam airy

Mar 13, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Puzzle No. 3317 Puzzle No. 3317

And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad.

Mar 11, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Tourney Time Tourney Time

Puzzlers gather in Brooklyn

Mar 6, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Puzzle No. 3316 Puzzle No. 3316

And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad.

Mar 4, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Hobgoblins Hobgoblins

The competing demands of consistency

Feb 20, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

Puzzle No. 3315 Puzzle No. 3315

And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad.

Feb 19, 2014 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto

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