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Hints for Puzzle #128– January 2012 "The Strait"

Instructions: Parentheses around a clue mean that a letter must be omitted from the answer word before it will fit in the grid. Numbers in parentheses indicate lengths of answer words. An asterisk * indicates a capitalized word, a hash mark # a prefix, and arrow pointing up ↑ that the answer must be entered upside down.

Across

  1. *Mystery entry (4,7)
  2. (Loosen noose around Zeke's head for sleep) (6)
  3. Discover a dartboard concealing a detection system (5)
  4. (Commercial flue coming) (6)
  5. Nothing and everything sent back in pot (4)
  6. Boy covering range with fat (4)
  7. Hide/replace nail in fissure with tip of drill (4)
  8. See about King getting time for Olympic event (5)
  9. Deny creativity about poetry (8)
  10. Swell in the avenue (5)
  11. *Fabled garment covering a character in King Lear (5)
  12. Gambler cried in distress (5)
  13. Lead one is out of step (4)
  14. *Strange surrealistic painter (7)
  15. *(Fuel weight for a Chevrolet) (6)
  16. Saw about King getting nailed (6)
  17. (Wound up cobra died in closet) (8)
  18. Singer's false note initially recorded (5)
  19. Security officer trashed a drug (5)
  20. *(The scales used in calibrating) (5)
  21. *Mystery entry (4, 4)

Down

  1. Pretty woman is all right in funny role (6)
  2. Turf auctioned without land (3)
  3. (Arizona: a meadow and a flower) (6)
  4. Stem's shadow (5)
  5. (Lift to reveal movement) (8)
  6. Insect biting rodent in rebuke (6)
  7. Arabian dromedary carries man up front (5)
  8. (Frontal garment is hard to change) (6)
  9. Camouflaged darts and banner (8)
  10. Grain's protective covering (5)
  11. *↑Mystery entry (7)
  12. In Alaska, radar ranging encompasses venerable burrowing animal (8)
  13. Good god! A vegetable (4)
  14. Clever Gertrude collars usher in church (6)
  15. Duck disturbed deer eating wapiti's tail (5)
  16. (Doctor having advantage with coat) (6)
  17. *Provisions will include sheep (4)
  18. Assume section of bone is made right (5)
  19. Choice of course lectures (6)
  20. Spain threatens to impound oil, for instance (5)
  21. She has a tree (4)
  22. (Block eastern strip) (4)

© Copyright 2011. John de Cuevas. All rights reserved.