Location: Pod of Dolphins
Depth: 209

Solution to Dr. Nautilus's Secret Notes

Matt “halftime” Peairs

Answer: CARTWHEEL

Across Clues

Dr. Nautilus's favorite shapeSPIRAL
Firm employeeLAWYER
One of five in HamletACT
OveractorHAM
Poem of praiseODE
Song of praisePSALM
Introduction to Vegas?LAS
Card in a royal flushACE
Nice gnome?NAIN
"...like you've had too much wine, that's _____"AMORE
Beverage that may be iced or sweetTEA
Animator's outputCEL
Dwell on (a point)BELABOR
Any one of three brothers who fought alongside HollidayEARP
Tolkien character with an accent mark in her nameEOWYN
DubbedNAMED
Ser's partner in cannon transportHOWE
The R in PRRICO
Mononymous Parks and Recreation actressRETTA
Blood or phlegmHUMOR
AuthenticECHT
America's largest one is in King of PrussiaMALL
Type of cannonION
Wight, for oneISLE
One of many in a flightSTAIR
Concept that can be symbolized with two fingersPEACE
Label on a drawer that contains whatever (abbr.)MISC
Cheech's partner in comedyCHONG
Established factGIVEN
Feminine suffixENNE
Like Yogi or SmokeyURSINE
Bird of preyRAPTOR
How German?WIE
Filled (with)REPLETE
QuiteVERY
Even as we speakNOW
Like Gwen Stefani's "Escape"SWEET
LaconicTERSE
Free from (2 words)RID OF
Ivory's counterpartEBONY
Far from overdueEARLY
Keyword in a Java method that contains "return;"VOID
ComputeRECKON
Item on a desktopICON
Unladen weightTARE
Where you might send rambunctious kids to playOUTSIDE
CuteADORABLE

Dr. Nautilus's Clues

Like particularly egregious failsEPIC
Colorado ski resortVAIL
More BrobdingnagianLARGER
FittingAPT
Conservationist's prefixECO
"Mad" character encountered in the 2014 MIT Mystery HuntHATTER
Item stuck to a fridgeMAGNET
Not just some peopleEVERYONE
In the altogetherNUDE
Classic adventure game protagonist CalaveraMANNY
Corkscrew-shaped pastaROTINI
What Mike, Charlie, and Victor all representLETTERS
Activist played by Julia in 2000ERIN
Send, as paymentREMIT
Hoagie that might save the day?HERO
Christian on filmBALE
Huffed and puffedBLEW
The Realm of Unspeakable _____CHAOS
SerfPEON
Like the MIT Mystery HuntYEARLY
"I do" is oneVOW
Type of clue absent from this puzzleDOWN
Intellectual conclusion?ISM
Many a John Wayne filmOATER
Like a native of MuscatOMANI
Like some chambersANECHOIC
Pitched (a fit)THREW
Alt-rocker who sang about being "un perdedor"BECK
In cold storage (2 words)ON ICE
Home of the Senators and Maple LeafsONTARIO
Arizona city mentioned in the second verse of an Eagles songWINSLOW
AuthenticREAL
Org. with a style manualMLA
Part of velocity, along with directionSPEED
Nebraska's largest cityOMAHA
The largest object in the asteroid beltCERES
HexCURSE
Defeats utterlyROUTS
ConceptIDEA
Pint-sized explorerDORA
Run, as dye or paintBLEED
Swindle sheepishly?FLEECE
MealREPAST
Comedian DrewCAREY
When doubled, a city in WashingtonWALLA
Tears (into)RIPS

Dr. Nautilus's clues fill the grid in a spiral. (Indeed, the answer to the first Across clue indicates that her favorite shape is a spiral!) The across clues go across in each row, but there are extra letters: letters in the spiral that do not appear in any across clue. In fact, the extra letter can even be in the middle of an across clue. (For example, in the fourth row, an extra letter H, which appears in the Dr. Nautilus clue ANECHOIC, is in the middle of the across clue CEL.) All of these extra colors are darkened in the grid below. From the inside of the spiral going out, the extra letters spell the answer, CARTWHEEL.

S P I R A L L A W Y E R A C T
H A M O D E E P S A L M L A S
A C E N A I N A M O R E T E A
C H E L B E L A B O R E A R P
E O W R Y N N A M E D H O W E
R I C O R E T T A H U T M O R
E C H T M A L L I O N I S L E
S T A I A R P E A C E M I S C
C H O N G G I C V E N E N N E
U R S I N E R A P T O R W I E
R E P L E T E V E R Y N O W L
S W E E T T E R S E R I D O F
E B O N Y E A R L Y V O W I D
R E C K O N I C E O N T A R E
O U T S I D E A D O R A B L E