The Puzzler

By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

SUBTRACTION

All clue answers in this puzzle are to be entered normally in the diagram. In addition, there are five subtractions to be solved. These are given in the shaded columns, with words below the minus signs to be subtracted from the words above them. Solvers may get results by placing the remainders on the blanks below the equal-signs. Answers include two proper nouns.

The answers to last month’s Puzzler appear on page 99.

ACROSS

1. Notes decreases (5)

5. Swamp vegetation covers ancient deity (6)

9. Split water (4)

10. Select a different instrument (7)

11. Tapes epic movie about legendary bird from the east (7)

14. Write about chic meeting place (5)

15. Artist’s “Earthling and Alien” (5)

16. Have a meal including a float (6)

17. Masters in oral literature (4)

18. Race official has mediocre place to store equipment (7)

21. Back issue covering garage service cheat (7) (hyphenated)

25. Backsliding, share gin (4)

27. foreign woman’s impaired reason (6)

28. Top bit of carpet nap (5)

29. Be coy in attack, alternating with left and right (5)

30. Woodpecker’s brief appearance (7)

31. Stars engulfing empty part of Indonesia (7)

32. Sharpen point in tool (4)

33. Under a sedative, somewhat wiped out(6)

34. Males carrying foot weights (5)

DOWN

1. Brush and stroke hussy (8)

2. Full fish up on one side of the boat (7)

3. Squawk from pain in the neck, swallowing baloney (7)

4. Migratory charts containing coot’s primary starting place (7)

5. What makes the ego insipid—a part of the brain (7)

6. Perfect hero cut capers (7)

7. Positions around street entrances (7)

8. Sailor’s map collection, minus the first, turned up (4)

12. Fiddled with sign before entering football score (8)

13. Unexpeeted coming on of a horologieal device (8)

19. Shake pursuer with last of short bursts (8)

20. To Kill a Mockingbird actor is hot and irritable (7)

22. Construction worker’s wife going with church official (6)

23. Cakes with a bit of rum put in packs (6)

24. One boarding farm animal, dead beat (6)

25. Broken-off stone stuck in the throat lozenge (6)

26. Expressed support for uprising (6)

29. Failing to score well on makeup (4)

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, 8 Arlington Street, Boston, Mass. 02116.

Answers to the August Puzzles

“COORDINATION”

The two extraneous letters in each clue appear after the answer, 1. TOPS-I-DE (rev.); fn 2. YE(A)RNS (anag. + a); hz 3. G(ARR)ETS; nit 4. G-HO-ST(L)Y; gs 5. CLO(UDE)D (due anag.); nc 6. AUR(OR)A; hit 7. G-ALL(ER)Y; In 8. POLTERGEIST (anag.); cy 9. SPOO-N (oops rev.); pa 10. OL-FACTION; dr 11. CO(URTSHI)P (his urt anag.); qa 12. TEEMS (homophone); nk 13. MATCH (double def.); av 14. (or)PA-RIAH (hair anag.); hn 15. WHI(LO)M; an 16. BIL(LI-ON-A)-IRE; oa 17. W(REATH)E (Thorea anag. minus o); ua 18. LAMINA-E (rev.); xa 19. MEANDER (hidden); az 20. BOUDOIR (anag.); kt 21. TES-LA (rev.); ri 22. PO-MEG(RAN)-ATE; pb 23. OCCU(L)T (anag. + l); an 24. NO(O)SE; ix 25. MAN-GE; iV 26. IC(ELAN)DER (cried anag.); we 27. O-BS(CUR)E; na 28. HE-CATE (acet anag.); fu 29. T(RACE)RY; gp 30. CO(RO)LLAR-IES; In 31. T-AMPA (a map anag.); vc 32. R(EEL)ED; as 33. HY-GIENE (homophone); gq 34. ORCHESTRA (anag,); nj 35. L-INTY; ne 36. SPL-OTCH (LPs rev.); gn 37. FR(E)IGHT; td 38. H(EYD)AY (y ed anag.); ran