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Puzzle #53– October 2005  "Dada"

Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (words vary in length from three to eight letters and include four proper names), 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 line, and down words that don't end at the bottom continue in the next column. Four across words and three down words won't fit in the grid unless one of their letters is removed. Those seven letters, taken in order, spell a word related to a four-word phrase hidden in the correctly completed grid. As ever, I am indebted to Kevin Wald for help with the clues. (Note that the grid for this puzzle is not the usual one.) (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. Ready to wed, initiated nasty union with ill humor
  2. Unfinished action involving odd case results in death
  3. Mineral dig begun to finish procedure
  4. Vegetable is Spanish, song English
  5. Writer found in street exhausted
  6. Music makers reset broken bone
  7. Why raiders keep log back
  8. Peoria has no musical instrument
  9. Pleasure at endless outpouring of smut
  10. Pick of three lectures
  11. Woman of Indian ancestry
  12. Beginning and end of grass cutting
  13. Lists foot parts
  14. Keep trainer endlessly confused
  15. Stripped, cut left, and took a leak
  16. Preclude living in manifest opulence
  17. Two notes found in bog
  18. Carmen holds a weapon
  19. Travesty about a class in biology
  20. Low average
  21. Started cooking tough beet
  22. Conspire to give up nothing for a braid
  23. Intense lamentation
  24. Prosecutor holds a flower

Down

  1. Get comfortable with new, polished steel
  2. Father eats a bit of lemon trifle
  3. What doesn't go off by error is dandy
  4. Mysterious East Indian
  5. Clear the throat with phosphorus and bhang
  6. Historian and head of department in social gathering
  7. Satisfied about line's end being located
  8. Ill will of musician with parasites
  9. A foot generating no speed
  10. Enclave, broadly, has the capacity to unite
  11. Coin covers one stain
  12. Immense tank containing hair
  13. Managed opening of drive for money
  14. Don't eat meal that doesn't contain energy
  15. Endless sound takes time to go around
  16. Hotel in Cincinnati
  17. City has love for lover
  18. Tale is a hoot when read backwards
  19. Keeper carries sword around
  20. Rely on tritium to decay
  21. A large number begin nesting in May
  22. Tarnish tantalum in error
  23. Fix to go someplace
  24. Waste care on lens cover
  25. Ultimately, his skin is thin

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