What is considered as "clever" ?
For a medium frequency RF circuit like this, I would first think of a conventional Colpitts circuit.
There is no reason why you should not use any of the other conventional oscillator circuits such as Hartley, Franklin, Vackar (Tesla), and their many variants.
You could also use a circuit such as the Wien Bridge, or the RC Phase Shift oscillator, neither of which requires an inductor.
On the other hand, you could use a VCO, such as those used in function generators.
Or if you want to be really silly, use a DDS such as an AD9850, you will also need some support device such as a PIC load the tuning words.
Simple it is not, but it could be considered as "clever".
JimB