The Puzzler

By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

BORROWERS AND LENDERS

Each diagram entry borrows one letter from its clue or lends one letter to its clue. For example, if an answer were STEW and its clue were “Wild West dish" (anagram), the answer might borrow an S from its due (leaving the due to read “Wild wet dish”), with the diagram entry becoming SSTEW, STSEW, STESW, or STEWS. Or STEW might lend an E to its clue (making the due read “Wield West dish”), with the diagram entry becoming STW.

Half the diagram entries (18) are borrowers and half are lenders. Clue answers include three proper nouns.

The solution to last month’s Puzzler appears on page 117.

ACROSS

1.After 100, irrational addition sign

7. Loesser musical’s beginning in Oregon

10. Note prettv Dotty Hoyle embracing male

11. Nuts mar clear candy

12. Middle of bench has mild crack

13. Spilled teas covering tie, say

15. Amid check for mortar

16. Hero’s mean, lean German article

18. Almost naked, niece gets tavern job

19. On piles, lose letter

25. Head of France relaxes in zoos

26. Scattered, partial insect bites

28. Bring, for example, whale back to one river

29. Desert was wet, strangely

30. Plead about wanderer’s wise expression

31. Singe most of sofa

32. Said song is grating when rendered backwards by error

33. Tres grotesque, Charles

DOWN

1. Heard task is hot in middle

2. Maine environment can produce a cone

3. Sort of aid for a woman’s heart in love

4. Family fat kept secret

5. “Slim-O-Tram” exercises for people who never diet

6. Greek character interrupts gangsters gun sale

7. State criminal weirdly given to smothering

8. New Jersey basketball players’ ears

9. Salt fed to Communist’s sows

14. Sick madmen improve

16. Ape lord shot at

17. Fiend’s secret writing about weapon recoiling

20. Bone, for one, held by osteopath

21. Rascal on train makes dive

22. Copper cried out

23. Remit half of debt on organ

S24. cottish lad’s low resistance

27. Aboard ship, villain doodles

NOTE: The instructions above are for this month’s puzzle only. It is assumed that you know how to decipher clues. For a complete introduction to clue-solving, send an addressed, stamped envelope to The Atlantic Puzzler, 745 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. 02116.

Answers to the February Puzzler

“VALENTINE”

“In studying your metabolism, we first listen to your heartheat. If your hearts beat anything but diamonds and clubs, it’s because your partner is cheating—or your wife” (Groucho as Professor Wagstaff in Horsefeathers).

1. GOLD-URN 2. RABBI-TRIES 3. OUNCE (double def.) 4. UN(F)IT 5. CHILI-ADS 6. HUMBUG 7. OR-BIT 8. (s)AUDI-(a)BLY 9. SI(CILIA)N 10. P-LOWBOY 11.RA(IT)T 12. ONE-ID-A 13. F(A)USTIAIN 14. ENSHROUD (anag.) 15.S(W)IFT 16. SCAR-CITY 17. O-BEY 18. RYES (homophone) 19.W-ANTON 20. A(BUTTER)S 21. GER(M)ANIUM 22. S-TUBBY 23.TR(Y)OUT 24. ANTONY-MY 25. FORENAMES (anag.) 26. FOUR (homophone) 27. INTUIT (into it homophone) 28. NIGH-THE-R-ON 29. HEYDAYS (hay daze homophone) 30. O(STEOP)ATH(poets rev.) 31. RUSSIA (rush a homophone) 32. SEAT(UR)TLE’s 33. EYED (homophone) 34. FIR’S-T 35. EWE (homophone) 36. ANGOSTURA (anag.) 37. TUBE-R 38. HER(M)ETIC 39. ICBONY 40. RA-DII 41. STRA(TEG)Y (get rev.)