Wall Street Journal hints (January 24, 2015)

This weekend’s Wall Street Journal puzzle is a variety cryptic by Hex called “Guidelines.”  Since none of the answers are numbered, it’s up to you the solver to figure out where they go.  Hex have shaded three rows and three columns as “guidelines” and given you a subset of clues for those rows and those guidelines, but you still have to work out which go where.

To figure out the guidelines, note the third, seventh, and eleventh letters in each pair of guideline answers.  A couple of them are uncommon letters: there’ll be only one place in the grid where each can go, and that will give you the respective guidelines.

As you fill in the rest of the answers, be aware of two things:

1. Not all letters are checked: each square will have a letter in it, but some will be filled only by an across or only by a down.
2. The puzzle has regular crossword symmetry except for the center (guideline) row and column.

Below the fold are some hints to get you started.  I’ve provided the row or column in which each answer goes.  As usual, click and drag to see the hint.

Wall Street Journal hints: 1/24/14 

Guidelines
across	row		down	column
a	11		d	11
b	3		e	3
c	7		f	7

Regular entries
across	row		down	column
a	12		a	9
b	2		b	10
c	9		c	4
d	5		d	5
e	9		e	2
f	5		f	5
g	2		g	12
h	12		h	9
i	6		i	13
j	8		j	1
k	8		k	8
l	13		l	12
m	1		m	6
n	6		n	2
o	4		o	8
p	10		p	13
q	13		q	6
r	1		r	1