Enigmatic Variations No. 1559: Save by Vismut

Is Vismut referring to the current cost-of-living crisis, and urging us to try and SAVE a few pennies?…

The (fairly complex!) preamble states that:

“In each of six clues the position of an extra word, to be removed before solving, indexes the letter to be selected in that word to give a description applicable to all of them. Six other clues lead to answers which must be thematically modified before entry. The wordplay in fifteen further clues generates the answer minus one letter which, when read in clue order, gives an instruction to be applied thematically. A member of the class (seven cells in a straight line) not matching the description should be highlighted in the grid. All words before and after any changes, SAVE one proper noun, can be found in Chambers Dictionary (2016) which is recommended.”

Even after a couple of reads, I misinterpreted one vital part of that first sentence, which didn’t help me later on! And each clue could be in one of those three categories, with 42 – 6 – 6 – 15 = 15 normal clues.

I got my head down with some solving, and managed to tease out a few extra words – ARMFUL, PELTER – and a few of the missing letters from wordplay, plus a few of the normal clues. The first inkling that something might be amiss was in the bottom left corner, where AWL, HAIRIEST and ENDEARED didn’t seem to want to cross with AWNS at 32D – if they were right, then it could only be entered as SWAN. I soon also had SPANKERS and SO LONG AS in the top right corner having to cross with GREET and LAIR…both of which could also fit as birds – EGRET and RAIL – which tallied with the SWAN below.

The six thematic modifications were completed by LOUSE -> OUSEL, DARTER -> TRADER and RIPPED -> DIPPER.

However, my misinterpretation of the preamble was that I took the indexing of the extra word positions to give a letter from the solution for those six clues. So for ARMFUL as the fourth word in the clue for DAIS, I took that to indicate S. Similarly, PELTER as the third word from ERRORS gave me R. Which suggested that there must be another ‘extra word’ clue between those two, or earlier, as I couldn’t think of a word starting SR…

Around this time, I started thinking about that ‘extra member’ – ‘seven cells in a straight line’ should trigger any EV solver worth their salt to inspect the diagonals, and I soon found what could possibly, with a couple of clashes, become OSTRICH in the leading diagonal. But I couldn’t for the life of me see how I would get the O, with OCTAVE and RITTERS both having a T where the O should be, and RANCE and RAP both placing R where the C should be.

This had all taken a couple of days, and a lot of picking up and putting down, when those pennies I was supposed to be saving finally dropped…the extra letters suggested ALTER TWO ENTRIES; I realised the error of my ways with the indexing and found FLYING, which reinforced the OSTRICH as a non-flyer; and I finally worked out that I could get the O and the C for OSTRICH by changing OCTAVE to AVOCET and RANCE to CRANE – two more example of the order AVES, itself a thematic modification of the title – SAVE!

 

One could quibble that the instruction was slightly misleading – although we had to alter those two last entries to be birds, we also changed ADOPTIONS to ADAPTIONS, RACER to RAVER, RITTERS to RIOTERS, VAT to EAT, POETS to POTTS, RAP to CAP, LENDERS to LEADERS and CARDS to NARDS – so technically ten alterations, although eight are single letter changes, rather than rearrangements. And anyway, rather than quibbling, I think that instead we should wonder at the grid construction, in that with all those changes we still have all real words.

I found this a fairly tough challenge – and very satisfying once all those elements dropped into place. My thanks to Vismut, and I trust all is clear below…although I’m not completely sure on my parsing of 37A ORDS.

Update – as Cap’n P’ng’n points out in the comments below, the six extra words are also anagrams of birds – not relevant to the solution or submission, but a nice thematic touch!

• ARMFUL -> FULMAR
• PELTER -> PETREL
• MANY -> MYNA
• TILTS -> STILT
• PINES -> SNIPE
• ROUGUES -> GROUSE

 

Across
Clue No	Indexed Letter/ Missing Letter	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing (not including the missing letters)
1	A	ARRY	Jolly vulgar Cockney miserable, so gets ignored (4) (SO)RRY – miserable, ignoring SO
4		SPANKERS	Second earl entertained by silly pranks and slappers (8) S (second) + PANK_RS (anag, i.e. silly, of PRANKS) around (entertaining) E (earl)
11	ARMFUL – F	DAIS	Dahlias arranged without armful Hal sent for high table stand (4) subtractive anagram, i.e. arranged, of D(AHL)IAS minus AHL (anag, i.e. sent, of HAL)
12	L	SO LONG AS	Provided that early spinach from the east (8, three words) SO_ON (early) + G_AS (SAG, Indian for spinach, reversed, or from the East)
13		OCTAVE / AVOCET	Stop ham overacting with stupid grin removed (6) subtractive anagram, i.e. ham, of OVE(R)ACT(ING), minus RING (anag, i.e. stupid, of GRIN)
15	T	RIT	Scot’s score, turning over Irish (3) RI – IR, or Irish, turned over
16	E	SATIRE	Fuss about Australian spoof (6) S_TIR (fuss) around A (Australian)
18	R	TREAT	Nipple nurse (5) subtractive, or additive, double defn. – a TEAT is a nipple; and to TREAT can be to nurse
19	T	EUSTON	Sue busy working in this station (6) EUS (anag, i.e. busy, of SUE) + ON (working) [the proper noun?]
20	PELTER – L	ERRORS	Leaderless tearaways pelter misses (6) (T)ERRORS – tearaways, leaderless
23		MULSE	Last pair of slippers swapped for out-of-date drink (5) MULES (slippers) with last pair of letters swapped = MULSE [mulse being obsolete, i.e. out-of-date, for a mixture of honey and water, or wine]
25		LOUSE / OUSEL	Bloodsucker defaced shirt (5) (B)LOUSE – shirt, losing its first letter, i.e. defaced
26		RIPPED / DIPPER	Sawn fir, apple and elder recycled, rubbish all free to go (6) another subtractive anagram, i.e. recycled, of (F)IR (A)PP(LE EL)DE(R), without the mixed up letters, or anagram, i.e. rubbish, of ALL FREE
27		NAUSEA	Loathing nationalist each embraces unlimited cause (6) N (nationalist) + EA (each), around USE (cAUSEe, unlimited)
30	MANY – Y	RANCE / CRANE	Bar Scottish, following many leaving country (5) (F)RANCE – country, with F – following – leaving [rance being Scottish for a prop, or bar]
33		PARIAH	Outcast’s shock before a meal sent back (6) HAIR (shock) + AP (ante prandium, Latin, before a meal), all sent back = PARIAH
34	W	AWL	It might bore a learner (3) A + L (learner, as in driver)
35	TILTS – I	SPHERE	World tilts at this point east of South Portugal (6) S (south) + P (Portugal) to the west of HERE (at this point)
36		HAIRIEST	Most alarming, freshest horse leads (8) H (horse) + AIRIEST (freshest)
37	O	ORDS	Odd points of darts thrown previously? (4) anag, i.e. thrown, of DRS – odd points, or letters of ‘DaRtS’ [Not sure what the ‘previously’ is doing – maybe indicating that ORD is an archaic usage? Or is the clue &lit-ish?…]
33		ENDEARED	Beloved finished tackling Listener (8) END_ED (finished) around (tackling) EAR (listener)
39		PSST	Covers from Pogues sent quietly over here (4) outer letters, or covers, of PogueS SenT
Down
Clue No	Indexed Letter/ Missing Letter	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing (not including the missing letters)
1		ADOPTIONS / ADAPTIONS	Selections of posters about elixir with power receding (9) AD_S (posters, advertisements) around OPTION (POTION, or elixir, with P sinking, or receding, lower in the word)
2	E	RACER / RAVER	Bishop grabbing a cold one in the heat? (5) R_R (Right Reverend, bishop) around (grabbing) A (one) + C (cold, as in hot/cold taps) [the heat here being a preliminary race!]
3		RITTERS / RIOTERS	Old knights lacking force in blows (7) (F)RITTERS, blows, as in spending/wasting money, lacking F – force [ritter being an archaic word for a knight]
5	PINES – N	POETS / POTTS	Favourite Scots pines primarily seen around Ohio – they make lovely compositions (5) P_ET (favourite) around O (Ohio), plus S (first, or primary, letter of Scots)
6		ALLIES	Joins everything that is square (6) ALL (everything) + IE (id est, that is) + S (square)
7		NO TRUMP	Never cut like equally powerful suits (7) NO_T (never) + RUMP (cut, of meat)
8	N	KNEES UP	Riotous party drink after Ecstasy dropped in supplement (7) KEE (eke, or supplement, Shakespearean, with E, or ecstasy tablet, dropping down) + S_UP (drink)
9		GREET / EGRET	Offspring welcoming leaders of Russian Embassy say hello (5) G_ET (offspring, of animals) around (welcoming) RE (leading letters of Russian Embassy)
10		LAIR / RAIL	Short estate owner in the Highlands that was flashy dresser from Perth (4) LAIR(D) – Scottish estate owner, short of one letter [‘lair’ being slang a flashily dressed man from Perth, Australia, not Scottish this time!]
14	T	VAT / EAT	Tax Victoria and Albert (3) VA (Victoria and Albert, as in the museum, etc.)
17	ROGUES – G	UNEVENEST	Most crooked rogues turn out from home to capture first of women (9) UN_NEST (turn out from home) around (capturing) EVE (first woman, biblically)
21	R	RESPIRE	Breathe eastern wind (7) E (eastern) + SPIRE (wind)
22	I	OLEARIA	Old painter of birds on a daisy-tree (7) O (old) + LEAR (Edward, painter of birds, among many other talents) + A
24		LENDERS / LEADERS	Suppliers fine when section goes south (7) (S)LENDER (fine) with S (section) heading south!
26		TRADER / DARTER	Dealer withdrawn over Aussie scheme (6) RE (over, regarding) + DART (Australian for a plan, or scheme), all withdrawn = TRADER
28		UNLID	Open fourth letter from Alabama taken from Dublin in recycling (5) subtractive anagram, i.e. recycling, of DU(B)LIN – taking away B – fourth letter of alaBama
29	E	NISSE	Scandinavian Brownie Norway misses now and then (5) N (Norway) + ISS (alternate letters, i.e. now and then, from ‘mIsSeS’
30		RAP / CAP	Blow borrowed Irish halfpenny (3) double defn. – a RAP can be a blow; and a RAP can be an Irish word for a halfpenny [I presume the ‘borrowed’ refers to the word being borrowed by English from Irish?]
31	S	CARDS / NARDS	Strong with clubs obliterating hearts, diamonds and spades? (5) (H)ARD (strong) with C (clubs) replacing, or obliterating H (hearts) = CARD [two suits in the wordplay, two in the definition!]
32		AWNS	Beards cut top to bottom (4) (S)AWN (cut) with the top letter moving to the bottom = AWNS!