The Puzzler

By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

WORD LINKS

In this puzzle, words are linked in several ways. Each numbered hexagon is ringed by alternating squares and shaded triangles. The seven-letter answer to each Square clue should have one letter (not necessarily the first) entered in its correspondingly numbered hexagon; the other six go sequentially in the surrounding squares in either direction, beginning in a square to be determined. Triangle answers should be entered by the same method, but using shaded triangles. The letter in each hexagon is shared by its Square word and its Triangle word. Further connecting squares and triangles, and forming the diagram’s border, is a sequence of 14 words, each linked to the ones immediately before and after it (as in SAW-HORSEPLAY-BILL-FOLD). Answers include uncommon words at 6 Square and 19 Triangle and three proper nouns.

SQUARE

1. Feline coming back in heat disturbed one in foreign service

2. Tempts with ten novel frozen treats

3. Forsakes rightful reward

4. Jeweler’s first hit can burst zircon

5. Made up one court in five

6. Break code by jerk concerned with a Christian heresy

7. Seizing an amount of marijuana, police department made a surprise attack

8. Union interrupting talk on new source of caffeine (two words)

9. Feel lacking in money for education

10. Easiest oral exam for tenth-graders?

11. Struggles in sea go awry

12. Plucks Cobb goes after moolah

13. Sounded like Ella got lost

14. Looks around goal for receivers

15. Gravity of the stars relating to the digestive system

16. Study of anomalies in flight could make you golf strangely

17. Boats surrounding each dugong and manatee (two words)

18. Manuela, surprisingly, graduates

19. In marketplaces, neuter cats

TRIANGLE

1. Sigh about Kentucky horse’s introduction to bits (hyphenated)

2. After end of oil, start burning coal

3. North Africans laugh at tiny bugs

4. Commandeers greeting cards

5. School in possession of wood shop waste

6. Underlings minced onions outside

7. Tan producer from northern Los Angeles falling into cesspool

8. Officer likely involved in notorious fratricide

9. Doctor has it in for sesame pastes

10. Baltic republic is at one with changes

11. Style certain hairdo for monks

12. Grounds intertwined with covered passageways (two words)

13. Toys in cereal boxes for real

14. Opposes agreement in Italy cutting into vacations

15. Foremost of theories on aquatic mammals nearly collapses

16. Jogging behind the leader in deteriorating condition

17. Oregon turned back 1930s migrants and newcomers

18. Spirited horse is relatively roughsounding

19. Fish spear going through whale is terminal

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 May Puzzler

“CHOICE WORDS”

Letters passed over spell “The Road Not Taken.”Across. 1. BASd is 5. S(P.\cK(PORTS 10. A-MULE-TS 11.CHORALE (homophone) 12. HFiMORE)!) 13. RIPSAW (hidden inside tire) 14. POR RINGER 16. MORO(CC-A)N 17.DE(LET)ED 19. TLS( \ROR-A (anag. + a) 22. S(PILL)S 25. FIRE(B)LG (anag. + B) 27.BLHM1P 29. SON(NE)T 31. A-DO-RATION 32. MIN(ORE)D 33. SCAT (double def.) 34.SLRREAL (anag.) 35. TtHiRTSTs 36. sA(S-S)Y Down. 1. BA-H(A-MAS)AS 2. AMOROUS (anag.) 3. SUMAC-S (rev.) 4.SElMlNf.M. 5. STAN(D)S 6. ARIEL (Ira rev.) 7. (f)EAST 8. P(L)ATE-AU 9. sKiWiF.D 14. PORTABLES (anag.) 15. RES(U-L)T 18. SPIN-A-CH 20. UPBEARS (anag.) 21. REPORTEDLY (anag. + y) 23. IG-NOR-A-MUS (rev.) 24. HICK-O-RIES (rise anag.) 25. FORE(( MSI’ 26. BOO(K)S 28. STAR 30. SE(NOR)AS