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Bonus Puzzle – January 2007  "In Vitro"

Instructions: Each numbered line below contains two clues, and each clue defines a five-letter word to be entered in the grid either starting or ending at a correspondingly numbered petal point and in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. In the correctly completed grid, only one letter occupies each space, and the fifteen letters that occupy the petal point spaces spell an apropriate three-word phrase reading from 1 to 15 (see note below). Answers include five proper names. Thanks to Will Shortz for permission to adapt a grid that appeared in a New York Times puzzle. (If you are having trouble printing these puzzles, you can download an Adobe Acrobat version of the puzzle and grid).

  1. Cat beginning to growl in row / Poet is back for fabric
  2. Impetuous party keeping right / King, for one, taking part in march on Oran
  3. River fish / Elevate level of speech
  4. Run through game with sportswriter Smith / Sound family getting started
  5. Cell in use housing a Van Pelt / Knowledge about one river
  6. Summer snake / Iberian captures former Soviet police chief
  7. Asteroid sequence reported / Broadcasts Sunday's results
  8. Male bird is a thrush / Things that don't work, including English chaps
  9. At a key point, colt eats head of cabbage / Arab chief cut out hot part of letter
  10. Transaction involving originally clever design / Lie at first above sex partner
  11. Love in its present condition is a refuge / Curaçao without original bean
  12. Risk fight about germanium / Parrot's mouth getting filled with calcium
  13. River duck / Stand to facilitate start of labor
  14. Severity of radical Russian Prince / Fixed one in novel grid
  15. Dog and I being held in containers / Teams start soccer before midmonth
Note: I wrote this puzzle originally for Harvard Magazine, but it was never published.
I apologize if the theme is unfamiliar to non-Harvardians.

© Copyright 2001-2007. John de Cuevas. All rights reserved.