Hi mathprof,
In puzzles like this, you can usually find that the clues in a circle share some thematic character, so if you can sort out the wordplay for any of them, look for synonyms that could fit the other clues.
I managed this puzzle in about 3 1/2 hours, about an hour longer than last week but less than half the time I took on the puzzle two weeks ago. I don’t really like circular puzzles as there’s always a lot of cold solving, and for this one it took nearly 40 minutes for the last two entries to go in.