Enigmatic Variations No. 1667: Negatives by Stick Insect

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I hope I won’t be feeling NEGATIVE about this puzzle from Stick Insect by the end?!…

The preamble states that:

“The majority of clues contain an extra word which must be removed before solving. These words give all the NEGATIVES in a poem. Solvers must delete six cells to thematically represent the poem’s title and final word, leaving all real words in the grid (ignoring gaps). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; 23 is in SOED.”

There are 46 clues, so presumably that means at least 24 missing words…nothing to do but to get solving and to try and find some of them…

And they gradually started appearing – SUN in 7A; MOON in 12A; DAWN at 20A – so far so good – something to do with phases of the day? But then PROPER at 28A – a bit adjectival, after those simple nouns! And OF at 31A – a bit prepositional…

Towards the end I was getting BIRDS, BEES, FLOWERS and FRUITS, so it all became a bit rural and maybe seasonal? I had resisted the temptation so far to just stick a load of those words into a search engine, but in the end I had to succumb, and came up with the wonderful (if a bit depressing) poem ‘November‘, by Thomas Hood:

 

November by Thomas Hood

No sun — no moon!
No morn — no noon —
No dawn — no dusk — no proper time of day.

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member —
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! —
November!

(This poem is in the public domain)

 

So the NEGATIVES of the title become clear – the removed words are all things from the poem that supposedly don’t happen in November, or at least as enjoyably or profusely as in the previous few months of the year! And, remembering one of the cardinal rules of EV solving, to always check the main diagonals, there was ‘VEMBER’ down the leading diagonal, and removing it – NO VEMBER – left real words:

 

I didn’t notice (mainly due to the messy state of my working copy!) until I came to write up the blog that the words/phrases are not only in the same order as in the poem, they are all separated/punctuated by a ‘normal’ clue – nice touch, and one which much have added a layer of complexity to the clueing?

Fairly above-average toughness for an EV, IMHO, with all that going on, and quite a challenge – with some new/obscure (to me) words – EVOVAE; HOUT; ONEYER; AGENE; RIVA…to name a few. NGULTRUM and HWYLS were vaguely familiar from recent appearances in other puzzles I have done. I guess more learned and erudite solvers than myself might have been familiar with the poem and, having spotted the cadence/ordering of the words, might have got there straight away?…

Anyway, my thanks to Stick Insect for an educational and challenging solve – I will try to get through the rest of November without too many negative thoughts – and I trust all is clear below.

 

Across
Clue No No… Solution Clue (definition underlined, extra word in bold)

Logic/Parsing
1 STROP Criticism of strong work (5)

STR (strong) + OP (opus, music, work)

[second definition for ‘strop’ in Chambers]
7 SUN DSOMO Sun award second for cross female (5)

DSO (Distinguished Service Order, award/honour) + MO (second, moment)

[female of a dso, hybrid cattle]
11 CHOREES Unpleasant job, cleaning out enormous feet (7)

CHORE (unpleasant job) + ES (EnormouS, cleaned out – of inner letters)

[choree being a trochee, or a foot of two syllables in poetry]
12 MOON ULEX Gorse and rubber by moon (4)

ULE (rubber) + X (times, by)
14 ARGO Goods twenty per cent lighter in mythical ship (4)

(C)ARGO, goods, losing one letter of five, so 20% lighter!
15 MORN STOP Conclude morn is best (4)

S (contraction of is) + TOP (best)
16 LOUVRE / LOURE Confused lover embraces suitor’s second opening (6)

LO_VRE (anag, i.e. confused, of LOVER) around (embracing) U (second letter of sUitor)

[loure being French for an old slow dance (to bagpipes?!)]
17 NOON ONEYER About noon the old lie for great one, perhaps (6)

ONE_R (lie) around YE (the, old)

[Shakespeare – ‘…great oneyers…’, or great ones]
18 AGENE / AGEN Whitener accepted with embarrassment (5)

A (accepted) + GENE (embarrassment)

[nitrogen trichloride, formerly widely used as a whitening agent in flour]
20 DAWN ECARTES Dawn creates bizarre card games (7)

anag, i.e. bizarre, of CREATES
21 DODGEM / DODGE Car at fair clip previously starts to get engine moving (6)

DOD (archaic, hence previously, for to clip hair) + GEM (starting letters of ‘Get Engine Moving’)
23 DUSK SEA OAK Bathe around each dusk in seaweed (6, two words)

S_OAK (bathe) around EA (each)
25 EPAULE Apostle buttressed by Early English military support (6)

E_E (Early English) around (buttressed by) PAUL (one of the Apostles)

[military – the shoulder of a bastion]
28 PROPER BADMAN / ADMAN British publicist, proper outlaw (6)

B (British) + ADMAN (publicist)
30 TIME HELLUVA Have lull, almost loose in very informal time (7)

anag, i.e. loose, of almost all of HAVE LUL(L)
31 OF EDUCE / DUCE Develop education of universal church (5)

ED (Education) + U (universal) + CE (Church of England)
32 DAY WHATSO Wife puts a lid on opening of day outing, of whatever kind, for historian (6)

W (wife) + HATS (puts a lid on) + O (opening letter of Outing)

[archaic, so for a historian, for ‘of whatever kind’]
34 NARRAS / NARAS For lain, taste overflowed when knocking back fruit (6)

SAR (Scottish, hence Iain, as a stereotypical Scottis name, for savour, or taset) + RAN (overflowed) = SARRAN; all knocked back to give NARRAS

[both variations of a SW African melon-like fruit]
36 WARMTH RIVA Shetland’s opening warmth found in arrival (4)

hidden word in, i.e. found in. ‘arRIVAl’

[Shetland – cleft in rock]
37 ERRS Terrorist regularly goes wrong (4)

regular letters of ‘tErRoRiSt’
38 CHEERFULNESS LUAU Feast of cheerfulness likely under all Utopians initially (4)

initial letters of ‘Likely Under All Utopians’

[Hawaiian feast, or party]
39 ANELACE One Scottish fabric cutter, formerly (7)

ANE (Scottish, one) + LACE (fabric)

[archaic – short two-edged dagger]
40 HEALTHFUL STIME Special period for healthful particle in Islay (5)

S (special) + TIME (period)

[Scottish, hence in Islay, for a tiny amount, or a particle]
41 EASE SAYST Speak of old ease and waits, delaying time (5)

S(T)AYS, or waits, moving (delaying) T (time) until the end of the word = SAYST

[archaic, or old, for speak]
Down
Clue No No… Solution Clue (definition underlined, extra word in bold)

Logic/Parsing
1 SCALADE Weigh up involving Bill in breaching of walls (7)

SCAL_E (weigh up) around (involving) AD (advertisement, bill)
2 COMFORTABLE THRO By way of the mostly comfortable road’s northern half (4)

TH(E) (the, mostly) + RO(AD) (northern half of Road, given it is a down clue going south)
3 FEEL ROGUED Feel cheated when gourde changed (6)

anag, i.e. changed, of GOURDE
4 IN PEARE / PEAR Ed’s equal portion of hope in a reprieve (5)

hidden word in, i.e. portion of, ‘hoPE (IN) A REprieve’

[Spenserian variation on ‘peer’]
5 ANY BESEEM / BESEE Be worthy of society, entering any meeting space (6)

BE_E (meeting, e.g. spelling bee) entered by S (society), plus EM (space, printing)
6 MEMBER ESTOCS English member rebuffed taxes and swords (6)

E (English) + STOCS (scots, or taxes, reversed, or rebuffed)
7 DIONAEA Insect eater an aide cultivated to capture oxygen (7)

DI_NAEA (anag, i.e. cultivated, of AN AIDE) around (capturing) O (oxygen)

[the Venus flytrap – insect eater!]
8 SHADE SUPERADD Marvellous commercial director put on extra shade (8)

SUPER (marvellous) + AD (advertisement, commercial) + D (director)

[to add over and above]
9 MERE Pool club, nothing better (4)

triple defn. – a MERE can be a pool; or a war club; and MERE can mean nothing better
10 SHINE OXERS Shine fences for showjumpers, taking lead from dogs (5)

(B)OXERS – dogs, losing leading letters
13 LAY TO Philosopher, not quiet about yen to bring vessel to rest (5, two words)

(P)LA_TO (philosopher, without P – piano, quiet) around Y (yen – currency, not desire!)
19 BUTTERFLIES NGULTRUM No good ultimately, strange butterflies and rhino in Bhutan (8)

NG (no good) + ULT (ultimately) + RIM (strange)

[rhino – archaic slang for money]
22 ELUSIVE Difficult to find use with live broadcast (7)

anag, i.e. broadcast, of USE + LIVE
24 BEES KNESSET Parliament being for old bees in difficulty (7)

KN(O)T (difficulty) swapping ESSE (being) for O (old) = KNESSET
26 ALAPA Fold in rock introductory section (5)

A_A (volcanic rock) around LAP (fold)

[introductory section of a raga, in Indian music]
27 FRUITS EVOVAE Adam’s mate describes eggs, fruits in sequence of notes (6)

EV_E (Adam’s biblical mate) around (describing) OVA (eggs)

[a ‘Gregorian cadence’]
28 BANANA / ANANA Fruit in equal quantities after prohibition (6)

BAN (prohibition) + ANA (from recipes, ‘in equal quantities’)
29 FLOWERS MURRAY June’s predecessor eats primitive river flowers and eel (6)

M_AY (June’s predecessor, in the calendar) around (eating) UR (prefix – primitive, original) + R (river)
30 HWYLS Why cast less heartless divine inspirations? (5)

HWY (anag, i.e. cast, of WHY) + L(ES)S (less, heartless)

[Welsh – divine inspiration/emotional fervour]
31 LEAVES EAVES / AVES Tea leaves vessel holds within projecting structure (5)

hidden word in, i.e. held by, ‘tEA (LEAVES) VESsel)
33 HOUT Hawk’s beginning, loudly and clearly, to sound like owl (4)

H (beginning of Hawk) + OUT (loudly and clearly)

[variation on ‘hoot’]
35 BIRDS ARCS A Catholic saint discharges birds (4)

A + RC (Roman Catholic) + S (saint)

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