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Puzzle #4--September 2001: "Labor Day"

Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (words vary in length from three to eight letters), 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 margin continue on the next line below. Down words that don't end at the bottom margin continue in the next column to the right. Eleven across words and eleven down words won't fit in the grid unless one of their letters is removed. Those twenty-two letters, taken in order, spell a five-word phrase related to the title of this puzzle. Answers include two proper names. [Want to see some hints?]

Across

  1. Ball roller derby
  2. NCO of the body
  3. Sound of strip keeping left
  4. Penelope's gait
  5. Calibration climb
  6. Cord with two starting ends
  7. Drew out character in me next to dead
  8. Long Henry, comparatively
  9. Introductory ump in step . . .
  10. And in ship collections
  11. Decapitatation of betrayal for cause
  12. Get narrower candle
  13. Legion entertainer
  14. Unfinished part of golf course
  15. Less experienced but more colored
  16. Peaks of animal psychology
  17. Uncommon state of meat
  18. Formal end to fish article
  19. Has connections and tells
  20. Target of dumb utterance
  21. Drugs for dummies
  22. Get air out of level in river
  23. Throw out after great increase
  24. Hype pain modification in moment of revelation

Down

  1. Dreary start of brain drain
  2. Bold at the front
  3. Dress about 50 in oak
  4. Chameleon changes alone
  5. Took a vote without horns
  6. Eight-fold couplet confusion
  7. Carry on about the atmospheric conditions
  8. Taj Mahal's place in drag racing
  9. This insectivore's also a scold
  10. Road surface to stop a snake
  11. Refuse to go down
  12. Academic title, one of a series
  13. Inclined or prostrate
  14. Plant in middle of street
  15. Comfortable footwear for sulfurous speakers
  16. Priam's wife has man in Havana
  17. Verses initially put off easy meaning
  18. Incoherent or "non up" part of speech
  19. Stars inside contain bones
  20. Built up, then torn down by hearsay
  21. Sheltering lace shredded by feeler
  22. Plan of action: get back in, wander

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