By Tom Toce
I wasn’t sure it could be done, but here is the last in our rolling a seven series, six and one. I’m happy to say that there’s less junk in the grids than I feared, one abbreviation I wish I could have avoided. (Cryptic puzzles generally don’t involve abbreviations or other forms of crossword-ese.) Everything else is playable in Scrabble, except for a straightforward proper noun. There is one unusual word, though maybe not to Brits.
The clues are arranged by rows and columns, but the diagram for each clue is left for the solver to determine. The hints provide the correspondence. Numbers appear in the grids as they ordinarily would, but you don’t need them. Ignore punctuation, because I do.
Thanks to Eric Klis, Bob Fink, and Jerry Miccolis for test-solving and editorial suggestions.
Across
First row
- Between the third and the sixth of November, tree parts with leaves
- Take the pot with average holding, deuces wild
Second row
- Confident in later arrangement
- Shorter corridor for Henry V
Third row
- Cold opens a steer’s wound
- Charles’ll consider overdubbing tracks
Fourth row
- Engineer consumed by trigonometry
- Trysts must end at 3, idiot
- Meth clients dropping acid?
Fifth row
- Crazy hard–and crunchy, maybe
- Tending to angle in inappropriately
Sixth row
- Buck’s wife is made of money, I’m told
- One mortified by earlier version of Kindle, perhaps?
Seventh row
- Doctor twists bandages
- Cuts getting resistance from waitstaff
Down
First column
- Missions make mistakes and confess, at last
- Agreed on supporting Seattle’s embattled
Second column
- A résumé rewritten to standard
Third column
- Person overlooked and sore?
- Little pantomime on the outskirts of Charlotte’s promenade
Fourth column
- Val flipped over John
- Caisson rolling to gambling parlors
- Have a bad reaction to deliveries arriving late
Fifth column
- Transcribing Fitzgerald’s notes and getting mournful poems
- Ruler’s coverup after war turned
Sixth column
- Salvager finally took in a classic mink one winter
Seventh column
- Removes billboards from projects?
- Messy place starts to look elegant, really, and sumptuous for hairdressers
Previous Issue’s Puzzle—Five and Two
Across
First row
- AMERICA—Hidden in “bedlam, Eric: adapt”
- UPDATED—Anagram of “Dude, Pat”
Second row
- EGO—Outside “Embargo”
- MAVEN—M (“the fifth of Glenmorangie”) + (H)AVEN (“unopened Port”)
Third row
- ORIGAMI—ORI(GIN) (“Cut short at the outset”) + AM + I
- EFFORTS—T (“time”) inside “offers” anagrammed
Fourth row
- LIE—Double definition
- TAS—reversal of “Sat”
- UNCARED—Anagram of “durance”
Fifth row
- NITRATE—Terrible homophone of NIGH (“closely”) + TRAIT (”characteristic”)
- EXCLUDE—Anagram of “deluxe” around C (“center”)
Sixth row
- TAR—Double definition
- EDGER—Inside “wizened geraniums”
Seventh row
- SUSPECT—Anagram of “upsets” around C (“Cuba’s leader”)
- SUDSERS—SU (reversal of US from “We brought back”) + anagram of “dress”
Down
First column
- AMOUNTS—Pun on A-MOUNTS (“first-class steeds”)
- USELESS—Double definition
Second column
- FIX—Double definition
- MARNI—Anagram of “I am RN”
Third column
- DEFECTS—Double definition
- EVICTED—EVITED (“Sent on-line party invitations”) around C (“a hundred”)
Fourth column
- REGARDS—REDS (“Socialists”) around reversal of RAG (“contemptible issue”)
- AGO—A + GO (“fling”)
- LAP—reversal of PAL (“comrade”)
Fifth column
- TORTURE—Homophone of TORCHER (“arsonist”)
- IN A RAGE—Anagram of “rain” + AGE (“date”)
Sixth column
- METER—METIER (“field of work”) – I
- TAD—Double definition & literally
Seventh column
- ABIDERS—Anagram of “sidebar”
- DESSERT—Homophone of DESERT (“Fail”)
Solvers
Very few solvers used the hints, so I’m not showing the breakdown.
Jina and Michael Accardo, Steve Alpert, Anthony Amodeo, Dean Apps, Jack Brauner, Bob Campbell, Lois Cappellano, Daniel Clark, Todd Dashoff, Mick Diede, Dave Dougherty, Deb Edwards, Bob Fink, Mendy Friedman, Bruce Fuller, Phil Gollance, Ruth Johnson, Jason Helbraun, Mike Henley, Pete Hepokoski, Wade Hess, J & J Holloman, Paul Ivanovskis, Joe Kilroy, Eric Klis, Paul Kolell, Mike Kosciuk, Ken Kudrak, Ben Lynch, Michael Manos, Dave McGarry, Jerry Miccolis, Jon Michelson, Becky Moody, Jim Muza, David and Corinne Promislow, Alan Putney, Daniel Rhodes, Jay Ripps, Dan Schwallie, Bill Scott, Andrew Shewan, Zig Swistunowicz, T. O. C. E. (Josh DenHartog and Sean Donohoe), Betsy and James Uzzell, Jim Wickwire, Arlene Woodruff, Michael Zurhellen
TOM TOCE is a senior manager for actuarial services with Ernst & Young in New York and is a member of the Jeopardy Hall of Fame. Solutions may be emailed to him at Thomas.Toce@ey.com. In order to make the solver list, your solutions must be received by July 31, 2019.