The Atlantic Puzzler

By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

“VICIOUS CIRCLES”

(acknowledgments to Trochos of The Listener)

The answers to all clues are six letters long. They are to be entered in the diagram radially—that is, from the circumference to the center—but, with the lone exception of 41, in mixed order.

When the diagram is complete, the first (i.e., outer) circle contains a famous line of poetry, reading from 1 to 48. Heavy lines indicate the separation of words.

The second circle contains the letters necessary to spell the phrase: PRACTICAL DUDS FIT GIRL TO A “T.”

The third circle contains, clockwise, the name of the quotation’s author.

The fourth circle contains six different letters.

The letter in the center circle belongs to all answers.

Answers to clues include two proper nouns. 43 is not a common word. Remember that punctuation in the clues may be used deceptively.

1. Extorts money and runs

2. Escapes enemy initially in mock duels

3. Bum rested in bars

4. Find reward in ditch

5. Dasher, as Dancer, was a Communist!

6. Red Sea, unfortunately, has dried up

7. People in taxis, once on street, become pedestrians

8. Want Dreiser’s unfinished novel

9. Artists (but not pop) like what A. Sexton does

10.Ends of unbending curve

11. Transgressor is half spiritual

12. Badly schooled, I snore in class

13. Joker and Jack set out with Queen

14. I make music in trees, dizzy with love

15. Yes, Dotty, in Germany it’s Spring

16. Wiser geisha comprehends Rachmaninoff, for example

17. Bumping ends—as in cars

18. Save fifty damsels in distress, all grouped together

19. Dad exercises and rests

20. They make holes in a quarter-deck?

21. Lack fare for street car, missing about five pence at the end

22. Are its caricatures burlesque?

23. Numberless tentacles coiling with spikes

24. Medieval setting for Chaucer’s first lively tales

25. Time alleviates worries

26. Pours right out, is boiling hot

27. Musical pieces with at least two flats

28. Insert: Wind circling SouthEast

29. Laugh at lady’s chops

30. Hurries—has setback

31. Brash? Yes, though apparently not in the extreme!

32. Grand master’s game has square boxes

33. Capone’s high card in France

34. Balances plates

35. Authenticated seance assembled on the periphery

36. Slayed horses around stalls

37. Elf seen from behind: short and fat

38. Smash fleas with a club without causing harm

39. Sets out to embrace lady—heartless, most foxy

40. Ways of writing with pens

41. I buzz Prufrock’s maker—briefly but repeatedly

42. Future hamburgers for pilots

43. Extracts from Last of the Mandolins

44. Group subsuming the French elite

45. Hit-and-miss

46. See Sally Saturday (or Tuesday that is)

47. Devious routes for attaining legal dispossession

48. Animals protest—nervously and unquietly

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.

The solution to last month’s Puzzler appears on page 128.

Answers to the March Puzzler, “MUSICAL CHAINS”

Across. 1. (m)ARCHERS 7. LORRY (homophone of Lorre) 11. CO(mm)ERCE 13. LAPSE (homophone of laps) 15. RADIO (anag.) 16. MANACLE (hidden) 17. G-ROVEL (anag. + y) 18. W-EIRD (anag. + w) 20. VISORED (anag.) 22. ROSE (double def.) 23. MINDS (double def.) 25. S(i)MlLE 28. M-ACE 30. REPLETE (anag. without a, p) 32. STAND (double def.) 34. A-LARtJM (mural rev.) 36. (s)MAL(l)-LARD 37. RAG-AS 38. SE(A)TS 39. RESORT (pun) 40. T-EASE 41. GUESSED (homophone of guest) Down. 2. ROAMER (hidden) 3. SPICE-D (anag. + d) 4. (up)RIGHT 5. REM-(l)OVE(r) 6. SLA-VI-C 7. LANES (anag. without y) 8. OP(tie)AL 9. RELIED (pun) 10. M-ELODY (anag. + m) 11. CROWNS (double def.) 12. R-E-CORDS 14. CORNETS (double def.) 19. ROLL (homophone of role) 21. TONIC (double def.) 22. RI(P)PLE (anag. + p) 23. ME-A-SURE 24. SAD-IST (anag.) 26. BASEMEN (hidden) 27. GUITARS (anag.) 28. DRU(M)MER (anag. + m) 29. FANFARE (pun) 30. MET-RIC 31. E-LATE 33. ARGOS (hidden) 34. ALAS (saliva rev. without i and v) 35. MASS (double def.)