Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (answers vary in length from three to eleven letters, three are capitalized, two are foreign, and one is a two-word phrase) 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. Four cells in the grid must accommodate two letters each, one from an across word and one from a down word. In addition, eight across words and seven down words won't fit in the grid unless one of their letters is omitted. Those fifteen letters, taken in order as they occur in across and down words, spell a three-word phrase related to the puzzle's title. If you are having trouble printing these puzzles, you can download an Adobe Acrobat version of the puzzle and grid.

1. Run back with stupid question and illogical conclusion
2. Marsupial must stop to turn back, losing every time
3. Kid I found in farm building
4. Fine for throwing fit in New York
5. Disgruntled ogre swallowed an evergreen tree
6. Fears failing to get better protected
7. Soldier beginning to rage with fury
8. "Yes" is Spanish for afternoon nap
9. Hand over injured serpent
10. Detective started to understand terror
11. Humble men to replace women in seven days
12. Magwitch has to learn
13. Jr., maybe, is new hire
14. Rainbow is seen around Rhode Island
15. Diagram of even numbers
16. Material of coarser genes
17. Author, in tears, deplored mockery
18. Peripatetic Etta's status in France
19. Sick in Virginia country house
20. Rotting vine has colored spots
21. Spontaneously let rip to get to third base
22. Shelves with large margins
23. Noxious bug in malt is causing a change of state

1. Thoughtful deacon tries circulating
2. A poet I finagled for drug
3. One thousand in force give way to Republican conservatives
4. Go with the flow
5. Withered rabbi in diocese
6. Aura of bachelor surrounded by rivals
7. Editorial notation of obstetricians
8. Acolyte is pickled silly after king's abdication
9. Cleopatra and I leaving mideastern country
10. Male verbalized lesson
11. Soundly beat her for booze
12. Quietly fashioned steel implement
13. Mother's beer
14. Uncommon state of meat
15. Little glass container is disgusting, you hear?
16. Help an opera
17. Means were found to include a reply
18. Clearing meshwork
19. Top of net taken off a German
20. Fisher spending day with Falco
21. Critical of King novella fellow
22. Film of this event
23. Medical specialist relocating in the States