May 2001 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE

Craftwork

By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

Answers to this puzzle's clues are to be used as material for crafting a sort of work. The twelve entries with letters projecting out of the grid form the Frame; these are clued as a group, but in no special order. Bearing in mind some simple directions offered by the projecting letters should help solvers orient these entries, which do not intersect any of the shaded squares. Use the Frame as a guide for placing the Fill entries, which are also clued in random order. With all clue answers in place, only the centermost square will remain empty. Once the proper letter is added, your finished craftwork may be identified by reading the letters in the shaded squares column by column from left to right. If word-separating bars were shown, they would be seen to form a pattern that would be the same when rotated 180 degrees. Six answers are capitalized; Frame Clue f's answer is an alternate spelling.

The instructions above are for this month's puzzle only. See a complete introduction to clue-solving.

See the solution to last month's Puzzler.

Frame

a. One who crafts work, with direction (6)
b. Odd places for surgeons' unverified reports (6)
c. Taking care of inn's rug with alterations (7)
d. Bats 1000 in Texas town (5)
e. Bit of mold found in Russian bread and rolls (7)
f. Warn Al about sea creature (6)
g. Copper entering unit at the signal (2,3)
h. I complain about one of the Judds (5)
i. Zinc usually coats anvil (5)
j. A flimsy paper under discussion (2,5)
k. Set brew out for man of words (7)
l. Claim bar order, taking stage (6)

Fill

a. Rings inset with last of garnet floral pieces (6)
b. One who refuses to acknowledge measure of a cloth's fineness (6)
c. First person alien spaceship's leader encounters (5)
d. Cartoonist put the finishing touches on splitting mountain (2,4)
e. Bush's party spread earliest of reports (5)
f. Worldly head of London spy group returned (4)
g. Soaked coast penetrated by gale (8)
h. Fur-clad swimmer is warmer, except for the face (5)
i. Tripod I fixed with 100 of refractive lenses (8)
j. Ignited around oxygen, street exploded (4,2)
k. Bother with orange pasta sauce (5)
l. Twisted Iron's film style (4)
m. Holding horseshoe and cup, act confounded (6)
n. Little bird with the French name (5)
o. Feels sorry for accepting general's messy lodgings (8)
p. Tumultuous noise after Thompson's introduction (4-2)
q. Oddly neglected meteor site's unearthly (5)
r. Cracks resistance in stalemates (5)
s. Forward through time (4)
t. Hard workers not starting for former football team (6)
u. Like one opposite to North America? (5)
v. Piece for a chorale or a small group about love (8)
w. Irish area's sad result (6)
x. Team stripped screws (4)