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Puzzle #110 July 2010  "Topless"

Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (answers vary in length from three to nine letters, and five are capitalized) then enter them in the grid one after another in the same order as their clues, starting in the upper left corner. Across words that don't end at the right continue on the next row, and down words that don't end at the bottom continue in the next column. Fifteen across words won't fit in the grid unless one of their letters is omitted. Those fifteen letters, taken in order, spell a six-word phrase that suggests how three down words must be altered before they will fit  in the grid. Thanks to Kevin Wald for test-solving and editing this puzzle. (If you are having trouble printing these puzzles, you can download an Adobe Acrobat version of the puzzle and grid). [Want to see some hints?]

Across

  1. The name of a lady with a right to plunder
  2. Chair maker has time for a run
  3. A very small amount of extra cement
  4. Shale processed in semi-arid desert region
  5. Chess champion playing the undealt cards
  6. A book Sullivan returned is in back
  7. Tiny bits of mold and ergot
  8. Started to tear and run
  9. Soon to get one particle with a charge
  10. Crazy group's leader and Muslim official
  11. Ground meat is insipid
  12. Impulse not to start to clean
  13. Reportedly hollow part of feather
  14. Papa is back for a little drink
  15. Row about it going back
  16. North is in harmony for a change
  17. New topics in science
  18. Lean on Sonny
  19. Impulse not to start to throw
  20. Sound of dissonant note
  21. Spring flowers turned into magic orchids
  22. Hardness stops being uniform throughout sandbar
  23. Student Charles stupidly makes error only at the beginning
  24. Fouled net up with a goober
  25. Athens undefended in times gone by
  26. Breathless state of an ape in a frenzy
  27. Turner's heptagrammatic palindrome
    28.

Down

  1. Fellow that mixed an alcoholic drink
  2. Crown-like part of cracked acorn with core of rot
  3. Island's carbon network
  4. Reversed single chemical compound
  5. Take pride in writing about note
  6. Nora's picnic includes jelly
  7. Manuscript's opening
  8. Chuck made it without English grant
  9. Wear out in retirement
  10. Pop art
  11. Notable pictures about legendary events
  12. One hundred in spare change for divider
  13. So? Cover a bird
  14. Official dwelling in peripheral district
  15. Erin's endless rainbow
  16. Often one covers part of a joint
  17. Eat long, julienned fruit
  18. Remove top of pipe instrument
  19. Pregnant with rising emotion
  20. Stud stage of an insect's development
  21. The French farewell is "Go!"
  22. Coaster mended with a missing part
  23. Argon blown into pipe instrument
  24. Margaret Truman's first egg cracker

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