It’s May and Kcit (aka Phi) provides the EV entertainment. A blank bottom row, an unclued middle row comprising 4 components and an unclued bottom row – making new words in the grid. Sounds good to me.
An absolutely marvellous puzzle ensued.
A slow reveal, even though 1ac effectively identified all the missing letters NACHO or actually Na, C, H and O. The 4 elements visible in the middle row needed adding to the wordplay of several clues (see below). The numbers of each being removed being Na3 C6 H5 O7 or the formula for Sodium Citrate to be entered along the bottom row.
And the extra letters spelled out ‘MAKES CHEESE INTO NACHO SAUCE’ which is exactly what Sodium Citrate does (apparently).
Many thanks Kcit – I’ve been doing you puzzles for, I suspect upwards of 30 years, and this must be one of your best. Quite a feat of construction too. It took me quite some time to finally balance the chemistry with the parsing.
Key * anagram; Rev reverse; underline definition; DD Double definition
ACROSS
| Lost | To add | 2 Wrong to return in power – not the appropriate time for this? (11) |
| Na, C, H, O | Rev. Sin (wrong) in arm (power) = ANACHRONISM | |
| 12 Hot wind? I’m about to hide in Indian tree (7) | ||
| H | Im + a (about) in Sal (Indian Tree) SHIMAAL | |
| 13 Scots refusal to get chap bread (4) | ||
| M | Na (Scot’s refusal) + man (chap) = NAAN | |
| 14 Car acceptable in opera, on reflection (4) | ||
| A | U (acceptable) in Rev. Aida (opera) = AUDI | |
| 16 Elderly coward getting shiner, belted by thump from local (7) | ||
| Dad (thump) around star (shiner) = DASTARD | ||
| 17 Motorcyclist crossing river for prickly shrub (5) | ||
| K | Biker (motorcyclist) around r (river) = BRIER | |
| 18 Scots deny regret when holding degree back (8) | ||
| Rue (regret) around Rev. grade (degree) = REDARGUE | ||
| 19 Girl’s name encountered in Hellene areas (4) | ||
| E | Hidden helLENE Areas = LENA | |
| 22 Previous East German space station revolving (4) | ||
| O | Rev. ISS (space station) = OSSI | |
| 23 It magnifies completely, filling half of lens (5) | ||
| O | Up (completely) in Le (half of lens) = LOUPE | |
| 25 Former European bank on good terms with French (5, two words) | ||
| Na | EMI (Former European bank) = EN AMI | |
| 26 Lumbered with no date to claim seat (6) | ||
| S | Saddle (seat) in sd (no date) = SADDLED | |
| 32 American activated what alert in the past? (6) | ||
| C | A (American) + (what)* = AWATCH | |
| 34 Smuggle radish (though not from Wales?) (5) | ||
| C, H | Run (smuggle) = RUNCH | |
| 36 Reject pancake line (5) | ||
| C | Crepe (pancake) + l (line) = REPEL | |
| 39 Some virtuoso rather taken aback with the bow (4) | ||
| C | Rev. Hidden virtuosO RAther = ARCO | |
| 40 One in Scotland: Macbeth, say (4) | ||
| H | Thane (Macbeth possibly) = TANE | |
| 41 Old name of city OK for Australia – local plan accommodating that area (8) | ||
| E | Jake (OK for australia) in Dart (Plan) + a (area) = DJAKARTA | |
| 43 Roman helmet recalled historical period – mostly metal (5) | ||
| E | Rev. age (historical period) + lead (metal) – d = GALEA | |
| 46 Sibling upset back – abnormal stretching? (7) | ||
| C | Rev. sis (sibling) + ate (upset) = ECTASIS | |
| 47 Sailor’s slack, always, after start of voyage (4) | ||
| Eer (always) after v (start of voyage) = VEER | ||
| 48 Appear to be pursuing Northern source of oil (4) | ||
| S | Seem after n (Northern) = NEEM | |
| 49 Dashboard components, very secret, reversed aboard ship (7) | ||
| O | Rev. deep (very secretive) in SS ship = SPEEDOS | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 Agent of destruction, wrapped in rubber, ready for deployment (6) | ||
| Sab (agentof destruction) in ule(rubber) = USABLE | ||
| 3 Nests elevated in pass (4) | ||
| E | Rev. in + die(pass) = NIDI | |
| 4 Friend in Paris getting end of game after Level 1 (4) | ||
| I | Aim (Level) I (1) + e (end of game) = AMIE | |
| 5 Better source of research mostly suspended regarding fatty acids (7) | ||
| N | Cap (better) + r (source of research) + on ice (suspended) – e = CAPROIC | |
| 6 Character no longer stumped in competitive Scottish field (6) | ||
| Hair (character no longer) + st (stumped) = HAIRST | ||
| 7 Book on cotton fabric picked up – it’s a short book (7) | ||
| O, H | B (book) on Rev. aida (cotton fabric) = COBADIAH | |
| 8 After upset, continue with a new part of helmet (5) | ||
| T | Rev. last (continue) + a + n(new) = NASAL | |
| 9 Contents of cashpoint ransacked for a start (5) | ||
| O | cashpoINT Ransacked = INTRO | |
| 10 Article found in cereal is spinach (4) | ||
| O | A (article) in sago (cereal) = SAAG | |
| 11 Certainly American island’s wanting to bring in Democrat (7) | ||
| I (island) + needy (wanting) around d (democrat) = INDEEDY | ||
| 15 Impulse to eradicate good mallow plant (5) | ||
| Na | Urge (Impulse) – g (good) = URENA | |
| 16 Emphasise conclusion when taking up courses (8) | ||
| N | Rev. stress (emphasise) + end = DESSERTS | |
| 20 Note Nationalist amongst Australians? Head for Australia (4) | ||
| N (note) plus n (nationalist) in aa (australians) = NANA | ||
| 21 No longer daunt a mother with what mother supplies? (5) | ||
| A | A + ma (mother) + tea (what a mother supplies) = AMATE | |
| 24 Swinging some Indian clubs will do for this bone (4) | ||
| C | Rev. hidden indiAN CLUbs = ULNA | |
| 27 Form of sea-anchor unreliable below limited depth (6) | ||
| Rogue (unreliable) after d (depth) = DROGUE | ||
| 28 Tax cut – put out? (4) | ||
| O | Duty (tax) – y = DOUT | |
| 29 Good set for home cultivation (6) | ||
| H | G(good) + harden (set) = GARDEN | |
| 30 Grace has to tour Indonesia (6) | ||
| C | Has around RI (Indonesia) = CHARIS | |
| 31 Spots a diverting item on the street (4) | ||
| O | A + cone (diverting item on street) = ACNE | |
| 33 Rascal swindles priest (5) | ||
| S | Scams (swindles) + p (priest) = SCAMP | |
| 35 Picks up English and Latin art (5) | ||
| H | E (English) + ars (latin art) = HEARS | |
| 37 Head size not small (4) | ||
| Paste (size) – s = PATE | ||
| 38 Girl, after despairing cry, succeeded (4) | ||
| A | Alas (despairing cry) + s (succeeded) + LASS | |
| 42 Openings for King Uther, Arthur and Merlin out of place in Coriolanus (3) | ||
| U | Kuam (Openings for King Uther, Arthur and Merlin) = KAM | |
| 44 Be happy? Take care at school (3) | ||
| C | Cave (be happy?) = AVE | |
| 45 Perhaps was Lord Mayor of city in Yorkshire? Not quite (3) | ||
| E | Leeds (city in Yorkshire) – s = LED |
Enigmatic Variations 1537
Additive by Kcit
I enjoyed solving the clues, but, unusually, there were some which I could not fully parse, leaving me unsure of what letter, if any, to omit or add in those five cases. Because of that, I just had to hope that progress could still be made if, say, a couple of my letter counts turned out to be wrong.
The phrase I obtained from the 25 clues was MAKE?? CHEESE IN ? NACHO SAUCE, which I hoped would be good enough for use later. (twencelas, it makes nacho sauce, not cheese!)
The endgame was tricky at first. I could not identify the additive – not because of my dodgy letter counts in the middle but because I couldn’t connect the strange-looking middle row and the 25-letter phrase. Eventually, though, it dawned on me that I should read the middle row as a chemical formula for an unknown organic compound. Ignoring the numbers, ‘Na’ confirmed SODIUM, and the rest of the formula looked a bit like citric acid. SODIUM CITRATE then came to me without difficulty, and it turned out that my ‘Na’ count was the only correct one!
(It occurred to me how difficult this could have been if I lacked my school knowledge of chemistry – ‘sodium’ and ‘citrate’ are in the dictionaries, but, rather surprisingly, sodium citrate is not. I found the precise formula by looking up sodium citrate online.)
After my earlier difficulties, it was satisfying in the end to fill the grid and fully resolve the endgame, and I thought the whole thematic design was very well executed.
In the instructions I appreciated being told (1) the number of extra letters to find (25) and (2) the true answer lengths rather than the number of spaces in the grid.
Thanks to Kcit for an original and clever puzzle, and to twencelas for the blog and for clearing up my parsing difficulties.
Thanks Alan for pointing out my faux pas
twencelas
My comment @1 looks terribly formal with the ‘heading’ that was not meant to be there. I draft my (informal) comments for blogs soon after solving, and the heading can be useful for me because I am often working on more than one puzzle. I obviously meant to remove it.
And there’s the usual blog at http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/enigmatic-variations-no-1537-additive/
It’s not entirely about this puzzle, alas.
Thanks Kcit for another wonderful EV. {This is marred by the news that the puzzle is a goner in 2 1/2 months. The excuse seems lame to me. Like Phi/Kcit, I almost never solve a puzzle online. I wonder if the paper knows its solving audience?}
A nice construction on a theme that certainly wasn’t obvious. Having multiple letters missing from some clues’ wordplay added to the challenge, which I enjoyed. When finished, I wondered if the “nacho” reading of the formula inspired the idea and/or whether it was finding anachronism contained all the elements: I see from Kcit’s blog it was the former. Thanks to him and to twencelas.
I believe that some interactive puzzles will also have print options, so solvers of the back-page puzzle or Toughie, for instance, will probably be able to print those. However, only puzzles which are interactive will be available online.
This was a tasty puzzle! Thanks to Kcit/Phi, and twencelas
ub at #5 – your ‘news’ is new to me…and proXimal seems to confirm ‘something’ at #7. Is the news that there will only be a dead tree version of EV, or no EV at all? At the moment, I download a PDF from the Telegraph website, for which I pay an annual subscription. So is the value of my subscription about to be downgraded?…
mc_rapper67 @8: Someone sent me the note from the EV editor that apparently went out to setters and was posted on a solvers forum. It announced the end of the EV series with 31 July as the last puzzle. It’s a shame that all the setting talent that goes into this series will not have that outlet, but here’s hoping the setters can find somewhere else for puzzles they may have already compiled. Phi makes mention of this news on his setter’s blog.