Wall Street Journal hint (May 9, 2015)

This week’s Wall Street Journal variety puzzle is a variety crossword by Patrick Berry caled “Curly Quote.”  All the answers have seven letters and you’re given the location, but you have to figure out the direction.  As with most these puzzles of this type, some solvers might have trouble getting the first word or two into the grid even though they may have a lot of the clue answers.

One way to get a toehold is to try and find two adjacent answers that have only one letter in common. That letter has to go in the shared space, and with luck, there’s only one way to make the words fit. Get those, and you’re off and running.  The up and down pairs have two letters in common (remember they might not always be consecutive letters).  That takes a bit more thinking to find, but increases your chances of nailing down words once you find that pair of letters.

If you’re still stuck, look below the fold.  There’s a table of answer directions.  Click and drag the appropriately numbered box to see whether the central letter of the “curlicue” contains the first or last letter of the answer, and whether the answer runs clockwise or counterclockwise.

Wall Street Journal puzzle hint: 5/9/2015

	Center	Direction			Center	Direction
1	Last	Counterclockwise		22	Last	Counterclockwise
2	Last	Clockwise		23	Last	Counterclockwise
3	First	Clockwise		24	First	Clockwise
4	First	Counterclockwise		25	First	Counterclockwise
5	First	Counterclockwise		26	Last	Counterclockwise
6	Last	Counterclockwise		27	First	Counterclockwise
7	First	Clockwise		28	Last	Clockwise
8	Last	Clockwise		29	First	Clockwise
9	Last	Clockwise		30	First	Counterclockwise
10	Last	Counterclockwise		31	Last	Counterclockwise
11	First	Counterclockwise		32	First	Counterclockwise
12	Last	Counterclockwise		33	First	Counterclockwise
13	Last	Clockwise		34	Last	Clockwise
14	Last	Counterclockwise		35	Last	Clockwise
15	First	Counterclockwise		36	First	Counterclockwise
16	Last	Clockwise		37	Last	Clockwise
17	Last	Counterclockwise		38	Last	Clockwise
18	Last	Counterclockwise		39	First	Counterclockwise
19	Last	Clockwise		40	Last	Clockwise
20	Last	Counterclockwise		41	Last	Clockwise
21	Last	Clockwise		42	Last	Clockwise