| WORLDSAPART | Very distant or different (and a hint to what's hidden among the Across answers, in their logical or |
| CHANGEOFPACE | Something completely different, and a hint to the starts of answers to asterisked clues (12) |
| SANTAS | "Secret" figures hidden among the third, sixth, tenth, and thirteenth rows in this puzzle |
| HEBE | Shrub found hidden among the beech (4) |
| RAINOUT | Unwanted outcome for a sports match...and a hint as to how to make sense of twelve across answers in this puzzle |
| ITAKEITBACK | Retraction statement whose longest words are the opposites of "give" and "front": 4 wds. (Theme explanation: The third word is found backwards in this grid's circles; in the across answers, inserting |
| DRAWKCAB | How the Across answers appear in the top half of this puzzle vis-a-vis the bottom |
| SISISENOR | Acapulco assent (and a phonetic hint to four of the Across answers) |
| COVERUP | Illegal concealment ... and a hint to ten Across answers in this puzzle |
| DIVEBAR | Seedy hangout or a hint to finishing four Across answers in this puzzle |
| SKIJUMP | Winter Olympics event, and a hint to five of the Across answers |
| SWORDSWALLOWING | Activity one might see at a circus ... or in the Across answers containing circles? |
| MMM | "Delicious!" ... and a hint to every Across answer in this puzzle |
| FLAG | Point out specifically, as I do to you by noting that the clue to 1-Diagonal might be "Curses! ... and an accurate description of every Across answer in this puzzle" |
| BRIDGE | Apt word to substitute for each of four black squares to make sense of the across answers on either |
| MARYPOPPINS | Source of the long word made from the starts of eight Across answers in this puzzle |
| GIBILL | Legislation signed 6/22/1944 by FDR ... and, initially, what the nine longest across answers in this |
| INNERCITIES | Centres of population, as found in the rest of the across answers (5,6) |
| THEASHES | Emerge reborn . . . or what the ends of five Across answers in this puzzle do? |
| RISEFROM | Emerge reborn . . . or what the ends of five Across answers in this puzzle do? |
