The Puzzler

By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Saved Stories

STARLIGHTS

Answers to all clues are seven letters long. The first letter of each is to be entered in the appropriately numbered star nucleus, with the remaining letters orbiting sequentially, starting in any point and going in either direction. The thirty peripheral star points not shared by interlocking stars, reading clockwise from the apex, will reveal a quotation and its author. Answers include five proper words.

The answers to last month’s Puzzler appear on page 119.

CLUES

1. Bun with inch-long nuts left out

2. Frontiersman’s going around one remote territory

3. Keeping scratch covered with cord

4. One studying late century battering tool

5. Our sun: a blending of heavy metal

6. Bellyachers hunted birds

7. Stirring ire, rest judges again

8. Conductor in West having no seats left around front of train

9. Priest gains a source of power

10. Girl from Kansas has nothing planted in hot, dry ground

11. Tree label sent back to municipal worker

12. Marconi broadcast to Spanish island

13. Poison scare in Mobile?

14. Peg is involved in groups with keyboards

15. Travels east, taking a walk

16. Rosy, Laura, or Stormy?

17. Comedienne receives a caller from England?

18. CIA, slipping into underworld, gets screwy?

19. Informs of very bad, sick, wicked deed (two words)

20. Trendy snack food is returned, being tasteless

21. Friendly British princess wearing pink

22. Wiped wet Dole off

23. Merchants’ vaults, so to speak

24. More about rim’s round form

25. Liter’s swallowed by one yearning for beer

26. Pay for clergyman before crook?

27. More trite one in dunce’s place

28. Road ran all over Pyrenees land

29. Went in close around toppled tree

30. Writer in novel rose for introductions

31. Bass Street—not as green

32. Nut a little low in fiber at end of list

33. Painter shows aperture containing bee at home

34. Kowtowing loudly before shelter

35. Before eating Ann’s playing catch

36. Small model has flair for drink

37. Asian snarled at a lion

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 November Puzzles

“MISSING LINKS”

The missing-links word is SAUSAGES.

Across. 1. SNUB (rev.) 5. P-I-LING 10. TO(MA)TO 11. BE(A-NI)E 12. BA-SH 14. MOLES (double def.) 15. S(U)TURED (anag. + “) 16. PROPHET (homophone) 18. A-ROSE 21. S(TRAP)S 24. INGRES (anag.) 26. S-HOT 29. S(COW)LED 32. CAP-SIZE 33. THE-E 35. (p)ANTs 36. SIRIUS (homophone) 37. T-EAPOT (t + anag.) 38. TATERS (anag.) 39. DAT-A (rev.) Down. 1. STUMP (double def.) 2. NO M(OR)E 3. BABE (odd letters) 4. S(T)ASH 5. POS(S)ES 6. EST-ATE (set anag.) 7. INT(R)O 8. NI-XES (rev.) 9.G-E-ODES-Y 12. LONG (double def.) 13. BURRO-W 17. PICK SE (double def.) 19. DISCUS (hidden) 20. RETINU-E (rev.) 22. SC-ENTS (nest anag.) 23.A(L)ES 25. DEPOT (rev.) 27. HABIT (double def.) 28. O-PER A 30. (h)OTTER 31. DELT-A (homophone) 34. HA-D

ACROSTIC NO. 4

“I’ve never found a hat that looks right on me . . . fedora, homburg, Swiss Tirol, Irish tinker, deerhound, Russian lamb, baseball, ten-gallon, seaman watch, Greek fisher, garrison, pith or steel helmet, on me they’re all dunce caps.”

— E. L. Doctorow, Lives of the Poets