The Puzzler
Clue answers, which are six or seven letters long, should be entered in sequence, clockwise or counterclockwise, around the appropriately numbered hexagons. Each central, numbered hexagon may be occupied by an appropriate letter from a seven-letter answer or may remain unoccupied. Neighboring answers should help to establish where letters go. The 42 hexagons forming the border will contain a riddle and its answer, starting in the top left hexagon. Answers include a Latin word and eight proper nouns.
HEX
See page 122 for Puzzler contest details. The solution to last month’s Puzzler appears on page 121.
CLUES
1. Most of “Hex’' described by myriad turning circles
2. Returned payments are best straightened out
3. Snake straddling border, half in Eastern European land
4. Attending are those crossed by knight
5. Make new rule; bid out of order
6. Obstruction from lawyer, no saint
7. Barium dumped in clean Illinois river
8. Weaving web on nurse and infant
9. Join search in back of house
10. The author was shy and cried like a kitten
11. Hesitate upon entering at first, being modest
12. Civil War soldier retreats, astride ailing charger
13. Ask about Iowa flower
14. Offering an inducement to box in military prison
15. In plot, retrograde 2001 computer ultimately was overloaded
16. Covering error, put new coloring in cheap whiskey
17. Confronted, about 500 belong to the Communist Parts
18.Dirty Water LP dude misplaced
19. Arrest during Christmas, back in country
20. Scary thing, but gas boom tails off
21. Spilled beer, holding our dance
22. Defended position concerning lack of trust
23. Forge bare, with single anvil, perhaps (two words)
24. Listen around TV without opening mail
25. Organized a trip—one to Caesar’s homeland
26. Temperature taken by a Yankee in southwestern town
27. Pharaoh circling a bog wrecked vessel
28. Stop terror around globe
29. Tramp understanding place in New Jersey
30. Promise a hand with soup containing outer parts of eggplant
31. At edge of sand, fish walk
32. Dresses behind street lights
33. Arrest experimental writer
34. Teen shot pellet at eastern Ugandan town
35. Kingly wrath taken back at length
36. Accommodating poorly, be a pill
37. Folks in gym lope freely
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 August Puzzler
“LITERAL INTERPRETATION”
Across. 1. C(ORE)D 4. LAR(BOAR)D 9. T-W-ICE 11. PLUM-B 12. V-O-WELLES’S 13. TEDDY 15. REDEEM (double def.) 18. A-L(TERN)ATE 19. SPANISH (hidden) 22. D-RUGS 24. RETINAE (anag.) 26. REDNES-S (sender rev.) 30. OLE(O)S 32. ATE UP (plateau anag.-L.A.) 34. TA(M)S (sat rev.) 35. M(OMEN)TA 36. M-I-SPRINTED 37. T(RISE-CT)ED Down. 1. COP(T)S 2. TO(PL-E)SS 3. (g)ET(n)UDE 4. LI(BY)ANS (snail rev.) 5. RE-VEAL 6. OWLET (anag.) 7. AI(LE)R-ON 8. RE(VERSE)D 10. CURSOR (homophone) 14. DIA(GNOS-I)S (rev.) 16. D-AFT 17. M-ALA(MUTE) 19. RO(TATE)D 20. MIXED UP (anag.) 21. DI(STEN)D 23. REL(A)Y 25. E(SCOR)T (rocs rev.) 27. SI-MP (rev.) 26. MAM(I)E 29. CENTS (homophone) 31. SASE (anag.) 33. P-ADS