Cryptic Puzzle

Declassification

Declassification

By Tom Toce

Eight of the answers in this puzzle, four across and four down, must be declassified before they can be entered in the diagram. The eight answers cross, and the squares at which two answers meet do double duty. Two different synonyms for class, one for the across entry and one for the down entry, would occupy each special square, were it not for the declassification the solver must perform, most likely by merely thinking about it. With or without the declassification, the entries are valid ones. In fact, the declassified clues have three parts, rather than two as in the usual cryptic clue: wordplay for the long answer and definitions for both the original and the declassified entry. The three elements may occur in any order.

One of the across answers is two words, both before and after declassification, with one of the two-word phrases a proper noun. (The other could be a proper noun, too, but doesn’t have to be.) All the other special answers are regular words, both before and after declassification. Besides the special answers, there are three more proper nouns. Two other entries come from double definition clues, where one definition is a non-capitalized word and the other definition is a proper noun or acronym. Everything else is playable in Scrabble.

Thanks to Bob Fink, Eric Klis, and Jerry Miccolis for test-solving and editorial suggestions.

Across clues

 1Pole dance for former president by leader of Antifa
 4Ruin a musical because of the singing
 8Buddy on the drums is too much
11Intended for flipping in a little bit, they say
13Turn back a little cousin outside of California 
14Ads returning featuring orange sparkling water 
15For example, Saint John the Baptist is Leonardo’s last, one learns at the outset
16Cloudy to a great degree at the alternative to the highway where we live
18Spastic bladder, Ron? That’s an uncertain condition, but of no interest to anyone
19Shortly, all of us would go crazy in Vegas
21“Body and Soul” in empty cello arrangement 
24A gun, maybe silver, and a great deal of hot air 
28Outstanding from the beginning: four amazing Beatles
29Representation of a Virginia cadet, sometimes
30Two-page article parsed improperly
33Josh is G.O.A.T.
34Acquires modern art hacks’ wall installations
37Waste time in the worst way with small, inside, home-repair practices
38Fanning through a fashion magazine
39Messes around as Tony’s losing focus
40Surveys telling us certainly again and again
41Boogie down to a new Common Era

Down clues

1Soup not quite unadulterated
 2Fortified with liquor and aggrieved, Al reacted badly
 3Puts up with slow LA commuting
 5When this is backwards, things are screwed up, Jack
 6Determine 3.1415 . . . the wrong way as a discontinued series
 7Married actor burns prescription
 9Translated “Lassie” to Basque and other languages with no demonstrable genealogical relationships 
10Christmases with singer Billie’s family 
12Maracas set tempo evidently on tape for class
16Hooked up with Casey Stengel, once 
17Subordinate one may free
20Passed stupidly at card game
22Mark invested in uPet, expensively
23Fearful company division, gaining only on divestment
25A cheap shot by an Army helicopter
26Darkness during short days causing sorrow!
27Held a hearing and made a couple of cuts to ET (credits lost)
28Like autumn leaves, all buried in a swamp
31Career like Sinatra, with no nonsense?
32Class held by university pedant
35Sale! Twenty-five percent off some beer
36Contemplate ocean sounds

Solution to Previous Issue’s Puzzle—Bored Games

Across clues

 1QUICKLY—Double definition 
 2REINVENT—REIN (“stop”) + VENT (“air duct”
 3PROTOTYPE—PRO (“being in favor of”) + TYPE (“To enter data”) 
 4BLITZ—BLITZ(EN) (“one of Santa’s reindeer cut short”)
 5FREIGHT – FReeway wEIGHT
 6VINEGAR—Anagram of “in grave”
 7JOE – Double definition
 8SUB – Double definition
 9HAND—Even letters in “the acned”
10AIDE—Anagram of “idea”
11AIS—pAISes
12END GAME—END (first letters of “Elgar never disappoint”) + GAME (anagram of “Enigma”—IN (“tossing in”)

Down clues

1ROADWORK—Anagram of “draw” and “rook”
 2OXYMORON—Anagram of “Roxy, ‘moon’”
 3VOLLEY—VOLatile motLEY
 4ZESTIEST—Anagram of “size test”
 5QUASH—(S)QUASH (“pumpkin after removing the top”)
 6JAGUAR—JAG (“a frolic”) + UAR (“Egypt and Syria once”) 
 7NEWT—Double definition (alluding to Newt Gingrich “who came somewhere in between Tip and Nancy”)
 8CANAL—CAN (“Canada”) + AL (“LA” reversed)
 9AVID—(D)AVID (“king is beheaded”)
10IFS—Import tarifFS
11POI—Anagram of “IPO”
12END—OFFEND—OFF (“officer”)

Hint #1
Alternative clue for 1-Across: QUICKLY—QUIETLY with ET (“ Elliott’s friend”) replaced by CK (“Louis”)

Solvers
Arlan Aakre, Steve Alpert, Anthony Amodeo, Dean Apps, Jack Brauner, Bob Campbell, Lois Cappellano, Jared Dashoff, Christopher Dickens, Mick Diede, Bob Fink, Phil Gollance, Pete Hepokoski, Catharine Hornby and Bruce Harvey, Max Jackson, Ruth Johnson, Eric Klis, Paul Kolell, Ken Kudrak, Ben Lynch, Mathew Marchione and Marika Brown, Dave McGarry, Jerry Miccolis, Jon Michelson, Jim Muza, David and Corinne Promislow, Alan Putney, Jay Ripps, Karen Skoglund, Bill Scott, Zig Swistunowicz, T. O. C. E. (Josh DenHartog and Sean Donohoe), Betsy and James Uzzell

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