Pairs

a cryptic puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

Solution

Answers to the fourteen clues under the heading "Pairs," once a single letter in each has been changed, may be matched up to form seven words or phrases to be entered someplace in the diagram. In each matched-up pair a letter shared by the two clue answers is changed to a common new letter.

(For example, the clue answers CRASS and WARD, with their As changed to Os, might combine to form CROSSWORD.) Six of the paired entries are related in a way suggested by the seventh. Words forming pairs are clued in no special order. Other clue answers, which are entered normally, include five proper nouns: 8 Across, 11 Across, and 14 Down are not common.

Pairs

  • a.
    Call for some paper (4)
  • b.
    Group C entering TV studio (4)
  • c.
    Catches space critter between poles (4)
  • d.
    Rent to hospital worker (4)
  • e.
    The first person's booby trap (4)
  • f.
    Attend school's first defeats (5)
  • g.
    Done with a doughy dish (5)
  • h.
    Large, headless specimen (6)
  • i.
    Wave at flying egret (5)
  • j.
    Charles gains nothing from anarchy (5)
  • k.
    In part of the Zodiac, incipient star comes to light (6)
  • l.
    Davis' movie rating: superior (6)
  • m.
    Great place to put in wire service article (6)
  • n.
    Porter gets low mark in summary (6)

Across

  • 6.
    Eminent physicist gives oral drill (4)
  • 7.
    Charge, capturing northern ruler (6)
  • 8.
    Polish noble I placed in history (5)
  • 9.
    Cares for shoes larger than 9-C? (5)
  • 10.
    Tease foremost of the brains (4)
  • 11.
    Close off part of a column (5)
  • 12.
    Little bug in a camper in Los Angeles (5)
  • 13.
    Kitty returned to European peak (4)
  • 16.
    Audio portion dear to the French (4)
  • 17.
    Someone in a hurrv eut short teacher (5)
  • 18.
    Quietly wash out shucks (5)
  • 21.
    Stunned at mid-penumbra (4)
  • 22.
    Fellow, about 49, in Italian town (5)
  • 23.
    Sailor in Arafat's organization has article (5)
  • 24.
    Get log reprinted and switch tpe (6)
  • 25.
    Get nothing out of footwear for women (4)

Down

  • 1.
    Mucks up southeastern animals' home (5)
  • 2.
    One wearing horn that's wild! (5)
  • 3.
    Arbiters voiced indecision, by the wav (4)
  • 4.
    Fortune-teller shocked Carole (6)
  • 5.
    Livelv Broadwav show coming up fetches $100 (6)
  • 14.
    Fish through most autographs (6)
  • 15.
    Sign of fish shot in African river (6)
  • 19.
    "Eureka" describes album in letter from abroad (5)
  • 20.
    Come to an understanding after work (5)
  • 22.
    Flightless bird born in biblical kingdom (4)