Enigmatic Variations No. 1583: Remedies by The Ace of Hearts

by

What ails the Ace of Hearts this week, that he should need to resort to ‘REMEDIES’?…

The preamble states that:

“One letter should be omitted from each answer wherever it occurs before entry. Definitions refer to the full answer, wordplay to the mutilated entry. Omitted letters in clue order spell out four possible REMEDIES for an ailment which must be highlighted in the completed grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; 24 is in Collins.”

(NB. I have just checked back on the two other AoH EVs I have blogged, 1407 and 1391, and they both use the device of removing a letter ‘wherever it appears’ and definitions referring to ‘unmutilated’ answers, so he is consistent in his approach, and his preamble wording!)

Nothing for it but to start scanning the clues and cold-solving as many as possible, and they did gradually yield some extra letters and mutilated entries. I kept a list of the first few clues solved – 27D (I often jump to the end in the hope that a shorter clue and possibly setter-weariness might combine to give something a bit quicker and easier to solve), 31A, 26A, 7D, 16A, 14A, 6A, then 1A, which helped with 1D, 4D, 5D, 6D… and so on.

The extra letters gradually started making some possible words, and eventually the leading diagonal surrendered the ‘ailment’ – a TOOTHACHE, heading upwards from the bottom right quadrant.

The last few clues seemed to be giving …DONTALGIC, which also suggested something to do with teeth and pain, and with a bit of effort and some closer cross-checking, I eventually came up with:

  • PRICKLY ASH – the toothache tree, so presumably some sort of relief from its bark?
  • TONGA – a Fijian toothache remedy
  • CLOVE – well, technically ‘oil of cloves’, again used as a toothache remedy, and
  • ANTIODONTALGIC – a generic term for any substance used in the relief of toothache

 

Plenty of obscure/new (to me) unmutilated words – SHRIKE, FORNICAL, ATTRIST, HORNITO, TITANIFEROUS, ARCHSTONE, NOCTILIO, LAMINARIA and IBERIS – and some tricky parsings, having to take into account the letter removals.

Overall though, I would say it was relatively gentle for an AoH puzzle, to whom thanks for an enjoyable challenge. I hope the puzzle wasn’t suggested by a recent painful episode for the AoH? And I hope no solvers are in need of any of these remedies at the moment, or in the near future!

 

Across
Clue No Omitted letter Solution /

Entry

 Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
1 P PEN AND INK /

EN AND INK

 Writing materials from English grandmother awfully kind (8)

E (English) + N_AN (grandmother) + D_INK (anag, i.e. awfully, of KIND)
6 R ROOFS /

OOFS

 Covers old money with spades (4)

OOF (obsolete Yiddish slang, money) + S (spades, cards)
9 I SHRIKE /

SHRKE

 Heartless financial swindler with energy makes veteran scream (5)

SH(A)RK (financial swindler, losing middle letter, so heartless) + E (energy)

[shrike being obsolete, so veteran, for shriek, or scream]
11 C FORNICAL /

FORNIAL

 Like arched formation adapted to turning in a lake (7)

FOR (adapted to) + NI (in, turning) + A + L (lake)
12 K SKETCHABLE /

SETCHABLE

 Worth drawing double of living person with section for female, good! (9)

(F)ETCH (apparition/ghost, or double, of a living person) with S (section) replacing F (female), giving SETCH, plus ABLE (good, as in good at ‘something’)
13 L ASHLAR /

ASHAR

 Dressed stone for instance, almost unyielding (5)

AS (for instance) + HAR(D) (almost hard, or unyielding)
14 Y IN STYLE /

IN STLE

 Newton splits plant fibre with panache (6, two words)

I_STLE (plant fibre) around (split by) N (newton, SI unit)
16 A SCHOLARSHIP /

SCHOLRSHIP

 Square rich posh learner organised student funding (10)

anag, i.e. organised, of S (square) + RICH POSH + L (learner driver)
18 S ATTRIST /

ATTRIT

 Bring down old naked unkempt fire-fighter regularly (6)

(T)ATT(Y) (unkempt, losing outer letters, so naked) + RIT (regular letters from fiRefIghTer)
22 H HORNITO /

ORNITO

 Smoke hole that’s yellow belonging to retrograde telegraph office (6)

OR (heraldic, yellow/gold) + NI (in, or belonging to, reversed, or retrograde) + TO (Telegraph Office)

[hornito being a volcanic fumerole, or smoke-emitting hole]
23 T TITANIFEROUS /

IANIFEROUS

 Scotsman provided mineral aggregate brought back by us containing hard metal (10)

IAN (generic Scotsman!) + IF (provided) + ERO (ore, mineral aggregate, brought back) + US
24 O ADORNER /

ADRNER

 One emblazons commercial with two thirds of carol singers and Queen Mary (6)

AD (advert, commercial) plus two sets of third letters – RN from ‘caRol siNgers’ and ER from quEen maRy’
26 N NUT OIL /

UT OIL

 Ben’s product, perhaps, you finally work hard (5, two words)

U (yoU, finally) + T_OIL (work hard)

[ben being a tropical tree, its fruit, the ben-nut, yielding ben-oil, or oil of ben]
28 G GRISLINESS /

RISLINESS

 Teacher reversed punishment for pupils and students at first in frightful state (9)

RIS (sir, teacher, reversed) + LINES (punishment – that a teacher might give to pupils!) + S (Students, at first)
29 A INNER EAR /

INNER ER

 Victor, heading off takes seconds to recover from lug’s internal structure (7, two words)

(W)INNER (victor, losing head, or first letter) + second letters from ‘rEcover fRom’
30 C SPACED /

SPAED

 Arranged intervals between pool and garden plot bishop abandoned (5)

SPA (pool) + (B)ED (garden plot, abandoning B – bishop)
31 L AGLET /

AGET

 Ape’s first to obtain anything dangling (4)

A (Ape’s first letter) + GET (obtain)

[an aglet being a dangling tag, or appendage]
32 O PROSELYTE /

PRSELYTE

 Convert plain language, leaving nothing out by edges of library table (8)

PR(O)SE (plain language, leaving out O – zero, nothing) + LYTE (outer letters, or edges, of ‘LibrarY TablE’)
Down
Clue No Omitted letter Solution /

Entry

 Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
1 V VESPA /

ESPA

 Takes pains grasping stinger (4)

hidden word in, i.e. grasped by, ‘takES PAin’

[Vespa being the wasp genus, hence stinger]
2 E ARCHSTONE /

ARCHSTON

 Quoin secret cut in half in this sense with people of fashion (8)

ARC(ANE) (secret, cut in half) + HS (Latin, hoc sensu, in this sense) + TON (people of fashion)
3 A DEERHAIR /

DEERHIR

 Sedge and hard stiff grass over Ireland (7)

DEERH (H, hard, plus REED , stiff grass, all over) + IR (Irish)
4 N NIFTY /

IFTY

 Smart independent fellow totally discontented (4)

I (independent) + F (fellow) + TY (TotallY, with contents removed)
5 T NOCTILIO /

NOCILIO

 Mounted painting with image showing winged beast (7)

OIL (painting) + ICON (image), all reversed, or mounted, gives NOCILIO

[noctilio being a type of bat]
6 I ONASSIS /

ONASSS

 Aristotle perhaps getting drunk with fool son (6)

ON (drunk) + ASS (fool) + S (son)

[Aristotle of the Greek shipping family, rather than the philosopher!]
7 O FALL INTO LINE /

FALL INT LINE

 Everyone must enter dodgy lift, nine conform (11, three words)

F_INT_LINE (anag, i.e. dodgy, of LIFT NINE) around (entered by) ALL (everyone)
8 D SLEEP MODE /

SLEEP MOE

 Drop off second electronic method of saving energy (8, two words)

SLEEP (drop off) + MO (moment, second, short time) + E (electronic)

[many computers have an energy-saving ‘sleep mode’]
10 O HORSETRADING /

HRSETRADING

 Hour on phone securing collection with radical wheeler-dealing (11)

H (hour) + R_ING (phone) around (securing) SET (collection) + RAD (redical)
15 N LAMINARIA /

LAMIARIA

 Tangle having distributed mail on air (8)

LAMI (anag, i.e. distributed, of MAIL) + ARIA (song, air)

[laminaria being the tangle genus of brown seaweed]
17 T THAT IS TO SAY /

HA IS O SAY

 In other words run Noel with date out of holiday season abroad (8, four words)

subtractive anagram, i.e. abroad, of HO(L)I(D)AY S(E)AS(ON) minus the letters of NOEL and D (date)
19 A TAVERNER /

TVERNER

 Publican set knight to divide two monarchs (7)

TV (television set) + ER_ER (Elizabeth Regina, former monarch twice) around (divided by) N (knight, chess notation)
20 L LAROUSSE /

AROUSSE

 French lexicographer’s move to acquire Chambers, at last (7)

AROUS_E (move) around (acquiring) S (last letter of chamberS)

[Pierre Athanase Larousse, French grammarian and lexicographer]
21 G WINGLET /

WINLET

 Small fan to gain permit (6)

WIN (gain) + LET (permit)
25 I IBERIS /

BERS

 Plant class covered by October sky (4)

hidden word in, i.e. covered by, ‘octoBER Sky’
27 C CLYDE /

LYDE

 In the end, call Mary and trace name of Bonnie’s boyfriend (4)

last letters (in the end) of ‘caL marY anD tracE’

[ref. Bonnie & Clyde, film]

 

2 comments on “Enigmatic Variations No. 1583: Remedies by The Ace of Hearts”

  1. Thanks to mc_rapper67 for yet another impressively thorough unravelling, and beautifully lucid presentation. I just hope plenty of people see and admire these tours de force by members of the EV commentary team, even if not moved to say so here! I would not call this puzzle gentle, even relatively so, but got there in the end via the first product of the missing letters, PRICKLY: then Chambers supplied Prickly Ash and its application, and it was downhill (relatively so) from there . LOI was 23A (T)I(T)ANIFEROUS: I carelessly forgot that there could be more than one instance of the missing letter, the only other such multiple (also T) being the very neat 17D, solved much earlier. Altogether a satisfying struggle, for which many thanks to Ace of Hearts.

  2. quenbarrow – thanks for your kind words – and the encouragement to the EV team – much appreciated, as always!,,,

Comments are closed.