IN THE PRIME OF HIS LIFE
A decagonal mini-crossword
Noam D. Elkies, 19 February 2014

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
H E LIX    1   RNA shape
E LIX I R    2   Bordeaux wine, to Dr. Dulcamara
LIX I V I A T E    3   Extract by washing or percolation
R I  B   O   S   E     4   RNA constituent
A O L E R    5   IM recipient, perhaps
T S E    6   Ц  as in Цvetaeva
E E R    7   Sonnet suffix or semper

No Down clues: this decagon is symmetrical about the main diagonal, and the same words appear Across and Down.

Hastily constructed for George Barany(=GB)’s 59th birthday (59 happens to be a prime number, whence the title’s pun); this might be my first attempt at a rebus puzzle, here using the Roman numeral LIX for 59. Not many common words contain this string, but fortunately three of them are appropriate to GB’s interests and interlock properly (even allowing a fortuitous link with RIBOSE), albeit requiring a rare grid shape.

As usual with these mini-puzzles, further (and proLIX) construction and clue notes follow in the small print.

The RIBOSE link would not be available had the first word been FE[LIX] as in Mendelssohn. The other common words I found were pro[lix] and bol[lix], neither of which is appropriate to a birthday present. Alas I couldn’t use SA[LIX] (botanical name for the willow), as in salicylic acid = precursor of aspirin. xwordinfo also gives a few proper/trade names such as B[LIX]EN, MUES[LIX], and NETF[LIX].
1: DNA = double helix (but the D doesn’t stand for “double”), RNA = single helix (see 4).
2: As revealed in an aside to the audience in Donizetti’s blockbuster comic opera The Elixir of Love.
3: Well what else starts with LIX!? At least GB is a chemist.
4: RNA = Ribonucleic acid (while the D of DNA stands for “de(s)oxyribo-”).
5: By a common crossword convention, the initialism in the clue (here “IM”) signals an initialism in the answer.
6: The Russian-letter clue is an exotic path to T.S.Eliot’s monogram, but the link to Tsvetaeva should give at least the first two letters.
7: EER = suffix in “sonneteer”; semper (as in semper fi[delis] or semper ubi sub-ubi) = always = E’ER in sonnets and such.