The Atlantic Puzzler

by Emily Cox and Henry Rath von

“LIGHTSOME REELS”

(Acknowledgments to Azed)

Each numbered square in the diagram is surrounded by eight blank squares. All clues lead to words of eight letters, to be entered in the squares around their appropriate numbers; the words may run clockwise or counter-clockwise, beginning anywhere. Solvers will have to determine where each word begins and the direction in which it is to go. One answer, 6, is not common. Remember that punctuation in the clues may be used deceptively.

1. Most spacy items—pet rocks

2. Meat-head gear?

3. On hill, somersault for sum of money

4. Food that may be kept with salt or be pickled

5. Consult alopecist on sure serotherapy for bald spots

6. Diviner to use harp when unraveling unknown

7. Silver bullet’s last in a certain “rod”

8. Cricket to chirp when it gets left inside

9. Troll in southeast part of river is the one carrying off kids!

10. Not wearing clothes except at Leslie’s, briefly

11. Poison-pensters true—villains

12. Makes a point of thrashing rash writers

13. “Piglet”—Spanish for “king having gained pound”

14. Gardening plot can grow noiselessly

15. Rude manners to eat steak, bone, and scraps

16. All over Times—red and black marks

17. Makes agreeable to nose drops

18. Sun rotates inside earth, goddess sternly judges

19. Bit of communication from Zeus has sun god inside globe

20. Debut of pedal-operated instrument of eating

Note: The instructions above are the special instructions for this month’s puzzle. It is assumed that you know how to decipher clues. For a complete introduction to clue-solving, write to The Atlantic Reprint Department, enclosing a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

21.Shrouded by gossamer, I, Diana, circle round the earth

22. Restructure Emerald Isle internally for improvement

23. Foggy idea about song for you to play back and identify

24. Count keeps returning nose-ring

25. Keep nearly inanimate, but spirited

26. Person doling out $1000 for string

27. I act after prayer to statue

28. Don’t start killing for amusement

29. Gold ring and guinea briefly kept for fortune telling

30. Soak broken arm in tea

31. “Stormy Sea”—print by Winslow Homer, etc.

32. Result of broken bat triples—on base with none out

33. What led to romance between Mr. Wodehouse’s sheets

34. Missing original pieces of eight, king is for war

35. Fruit waste has little character

36. A carpet backed with bark from a tree

The solution to last month’s Puzzler appears on page 100.

Answers

to the December Puzzler, “NEWS CLIPPINGS”

Across. 1. DOPPELGANGER 7. REAL-TY; EVOLVE (love rev. + ve) 8. AREAS (hidden); ST(A)IR 9. STENO (anag.); TI(M)ES 10. ALI-B-IS; T-RAILS 12. PENT (hidden); AURA (hidden) 14. STATE (anag.); DARN-S 16. AC(CO’S)T; SPIDER (anag.) 18. P-O’S-E; BATS (first letters) 20. BRITON (homophone of Britten); ELAPSE (peels anag. around a) 21. Ll(quored-up preside)NT; E(A)VE 22. STERN’S; LO-SSES Down. 1. GESTAPO (anag.); DR(I)S-TAN 2. AVAILED (anag.); OESTRUS (anag.) 3. N-OR-M; P-AT-E 4. PLAN (hidden); GLEE (hidden) 5. EVAS-ION-S (save rev.); ETIOLATE (anag. 4 + e) 6. RESTS ([ac]tress anag.); LYRES (hidden rev.) 11. IN-ACT I-VE; ART-IS-ANS 13. OSTENDS (anag.); PERSEUS (super anag. around se[e]) 15. ADEPTS (tapes anag. around d); ROSTER (anag.) 16. ABBES (anag.); SPELL (double def.) 17. CARAT (hidden rev.); POLIO (pool anag. around i) 19. A-SHE; GO-ON