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M A Y  1 9 9 8

The May 1998 Puzzler

by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon


Picnic
Previous Puzzlers:

  • "Three-Ring Circus"
    April, 1998
  • "Marching Orders"
    March, 1998
  • "Step by Step"
    February, 1998
  • "Celebrating the First"
    January, 1998
  • "Cryptacrostic"
    November, 1997
  • "Chessboard"
    November, 1997
  • "Haunted House"
    October, 1997
  • "Double-Crossers"
    September, 1997
  • "Scoreboard"
    August, 1997
  • "Celebrating the Fourth"
    July, 1997
  • "Fortune Cookies"
    June, 1997
  • "Slide Show"
    May, 1997

    		•  WITH this puzzle we invite you to a crossword lunch at which extra helpings are plentiful. We've fed one tidbit (a single letter) to each of the 36 clues below. In each case this letter is extraneous to the clue's solution, but taken in order (Acrosses preceding Downs) the 36 letters will pose a question of eight words. Meanwhile, we've fed one extra letter into each of 11 clue answers, fattening them into new words in the grid. Each of these letters falls in a cross-checked square. You may wish to circle the letters, which will spell (column by column from left to right) the answer to our 36-letter question. Eight clue answers and one new diagram entry are capitalized.

    See the solution to last month's Puzzler.
    Clues

    Across
    1. Club's lawyer? (6)
    6. Ring-tailed critter eats up thicket (6)
    11. Auntie is a French composer (7)
    12. Cloak that tore at the back (4)
    13. I grease our convertible for tricky exploits (9)
    14. Check new order for Pa (9)
    15. True Lies cast is more robust (7)
    16. Sees what swingers hit (5)
    19. Case of wee hesitations in consumers (5)
    21. Small jest with small whip (6)
    25. Prepare for battle in dead spot in Italy (5)
    26. Wandering with Brad Cartier (7)
    28. Vince, concerned with harboring wickedness, is dishonest (9)
    29. Irish heroine in a dungeon I'm frisking? (4,5)
    30. Warn ram vocally (4)
    31. "City transit" written inside chair leg (7)
    32. Ida was first wasted (5)
    33. Some bacon for the lady chasing rats (6)

    Down
    1. Stick purse outside place for plums (7)
    2. Faithless aunt goes topless on Parish Street (6)
    3. Half of Troy is infiltrated by Nile groups (5)
    4. Study acid's runs (5)
    5. Heard of royal bird's sorrow (6)
    7. Cause no storms, making sea good (7)
    8. Pastor's beginning to bury British swordsmith (6)
    9. Drunk on spree brings you key (6)
    10. Shrewd of Neptune aliens, making traps (4)
    17. Pro used plastic gathered into folds (6)
    18. Maneuver for trail of yellow fish (6)
    19. Sailor hurt in front of diner (7)
    20. Someone pulling out in traffic finally caught by speeder (7)
    22. Kuwait aristocrat has Japanese game name (5)
    23. Truce details false deeds (5)
    24. Sorceress starts in chanting nine rhymes come evening (5)
    25. Cats in Siam raised the wrong way (5)
    27. Fraction of camp shelter over child's head (5)

    Copyright © 1998 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.
    The Atlantic Monthly; May 1998; The Puzzler; Volume 281, No. 5; page 131.
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