I am familiar with ‘The Ace of Hearts’ from his(?) devious circular Listener puzzles, but a search of this site shows a few recent EVs and IQs, several of which I think I failed to complete. So a little trepidation at my first AoH blog…does CARY refer to Cary Grant? Or Mariah Cary (I think she has an ‘e’?)…
The preamble states that:
“In CARY, a letter must be removed from each answer wherever it appears before entry into the grid; definitions refer to the full unmutilated answer, and wordplay to the grid entry. In clue order, the omitted letters give a definition of a word (from Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary), which must be written below the grid. The three unclued entries are synonyms of this word.”
This is a fairly standard device, to any reasonably experienced barred-puzzle solver – requiring a mental disjoint/adjustment between looking for the definition and trying to parse the wordplay. I wasn’t familiar with the literary source, but there are ‘only’ three unclued entries, and they seem to have lots of crossers…
In the end this all fell in to place fairly smoothly…some concentrated solving helped a slow-but-steady grid-fill, and those crossing letters helped with some educated guesses at the unclued answers.
The removed letters eventually gave ‘AN ATTRIBUTE BELOVED OF DETECTED OFFENDERS’, and the unclued entries eventually had to be something like PITY, CLEMENCY and HUMANENESS. It just took a little Wiki-oogling to confirm the definition from said dictionary, to give ‘MERCY’ as the underwritten word:
It took me a little while to twig the title – I thought it was a pun on ‘caring’, i.e. if you show mercy you might be a bit care-y (Mariah again?), but I eventually saw the MERC in mercy, so it is CAR-Y…
An enjoyable solve, and thanks to the AoH for being relatively gentle with us this time! Must add ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’ to my Xmas present list…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Removed Letter | Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | CIGAR-SHAPED | A | CIGR-SHPED | Confused gophers, starved of oxygen, rounded up by police force in a cylindrical formation (9) / CI_D (police force) around (rounding up) GRSHPE (anag, i.e. confused, of G( |
| 8 | SCANT | N | SCAT | Mark time to substitute for runs in short supply (4) / SCA( |
| 12 | AUSPICE | A | USPICE | A good sign, you say, to diversify (6) / U (homophone, as in say – U sounds like YOU) + SPICE (vary, or diversify – e.g. in flavour?) |
| 13 | DATARIA | T | DAARIA | Papacy office initially didn’t allow song in cantata (6) / DA (initial letters of Didn’t Allow) + ARIA (song in cantata) |
| 14 | PATRICIA | T | PARICIA | I criticize retiring company woman (7) / PARI (I RAP, or I criticise, retiring) + CIA (‘the company’) |
| 16 | REEFER | R | EEFE | Beefeater is hiding cigarette laced with marijuana (4) / hidden word in ‘beEEFEater’ |
| 19 | SILURIST | I | SLURST | Ancient tribe member cast aspersions against saint (6) / SLUR (cast aspersions against) + ST (saint) |
| 20 | SUBCLAIM | B | SUCLAIM | Minor assertion musical should be reproduced (7) / anag, i.e. reproduced, of MUSICAL |
| 21 | PRAHU | U | PRAH | Winfrey fails to start boat (4) / ( |
| 22 | SUMMER SOLSTICE | T | SUMMER SOLSICE | Old pack-horse sold (reduced) by groom one day in June (13, two words) / SUMMER (obsolete, or old, for a pack-horse) + SOL (SOL-D, reduced) + SICE (groom, or chauffer) |
| 23 | CAREW | E | CARW | Female soldiers rejected cavalier poet (4) / WRAC – Women’s Royal Auxiliary Corps, or female soldiers, rejected = CARW |
| 25 | BARTERER | B | ARTERER | Trader arranged to trap immature sandpiper (7) / AR_R (arranged) around (trapping) TERE (tere-k, a sandpiper, not quite fully formed or immature?) |
| 27 | HEROISM | E | HROISM | Bravery displayed by Jethro is magnificent (6) / hidden word in, i.e. displayed by, ”jetHRO IS Magnificent’ |
| 29 | LURVE | L | URVE | Sentimental affection for all to see troubled Rev. (4) / U (cinema rating, fo all to see) + RVE (anag, i.e. troubled, of REV) |
| 30 | ALOE VERA | O | ALE VERA | Sail back to a particular point in time to get medicinal plant (7, two words) / ALE V (VELA, or sail, back) + ERA (a point in time) |
| 32 | VEINOUS | V | EINOUS | Igneous rocks abandoned by government for having loads of seams (6) / anag, i.e. rocks, of I(G)NEOUS, abandoned by G – Government) |
| 33 | INCREASE | E | INCRAS | Rarely become richer by way of crashing cars (6) / IN (by way of) + CRAS (anag, i.e. crashing, of CARS) |
| 34 | DETERMINACY | D | ETERMINACY | Entice army to construct settlement (10) / anag, i.e. to construct, of ENTICE ARMY |
| 35 | ROYCE | O | RYCE | Automobile pioneer appears regularly in crazy arcades (4) / regular letters of ‘cRazY arCadEs’ |
| 36 | PADDY FIELD | F | PADDY IELD | Priest to supplement product for rice growing area (9, two words) / P (priest) + ADD (to supplement) + Y_IELD (product) |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Removed Letter | Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 2 | DIPSADES | D | IPSAES | Snakes harassed apes occupying island (6) / I_S (island) around (inhabited by) PSAE (anag, i.e. harassed, of APES) |
| 3 | GAPER | E | GAPR | He yawns before a meal in Greece (4) / G_R (Greece) around AP (Latin, ante prandium, instruction on prescription) |
| 4 | SUCCULENT | T | SUCCULEN | Most of what uncle cooked is tasty (8) / SUC( |
| 5 | PARADISE REGAINED | E | PARADIS RGAIND | Adapting grandpa’s diary shortly, I will make poem (13, two words) / anag, i.e. adapting, of GRANDPAS DIAR( |
| 6 | ENDOSMOTIC | C | ENDOSMOTI | Concerning inward diffusion of fluid breaking into domes (9) / anag, i.e. breaking, of INTO DOMES |
| 7 | DETAIL | T | DEAIL | Journalist returned to trouble small number of troops (5) / DE (ed, or editor/journalist, returned) + AIL (to trouble) |
| 8 | SNEAK-UP | E | SNAK-UP | Shirker recalled United Kingdom in photograph (6) / SNA_P (photograph around K-U (Unitek Kingdom, recalled) |
| 9 | ASIDE | D | ASIE | Secretly, since inactive on vacation (4) / AS (since) + IE (I-nactiv-E, vacated) |
| 10 | TO SAY THE LEAST | O | T SAY THE LEAST | Athletes stay prepared without extravagant overstatement (12, four words) / anag, i.e. prepared, of ATHLETES STAY |
| 11 | KUPFERSCHIEFER | F | KUPERSCHIEER | Perks up about unionist joy accepting bit of igneous rock from Germany (12) / K_PERS (anag, i.e. up, of PERKS), around U (Unionist), plus CH_EER (joy) arpound (accepting) I (first bit of Igneous) |
| 15 | FURRIER | F | URRIER | Peltry dealer scratching head of one who treats leather (6) / ( |
| 17 | FUMEROLE | E | FUMROL | Short formula to correct volcanic hole (6) / anag, i.e. to correct, of FORMUL( |
| 18 | PARAMNESIA | N | PARAMESIA | Memory malfunction, chronic fatigue syndrome penetrating continent following number of strokes (9) / PAR (expected numver of strokes, in golf) + A_SIA (continent) around (penetrated by) ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome) |
| 24 | WINDORE | D | WINORE | Old bay perhaps in or between the outskirts of Weybridge (6) / W_E (outer/skirting letters of WeybridgE) around IN OR |
| 26 | REVERABLE | E | RVRABL | Bible book about learner being capable of commanding respect (6) / RV (Revised Version, of the Bible) + RAB (Baruch, book, also from the Bible, about) + L (learner) |
| 28 | SCRUMP | R | SCUMP | Rob apples from campus ground before disappearing (5) / anag, i.e. ground, of C(A)MPUS, losing A (Latin, antye, before) |
| 31 | SERVE | S | ERVE | Attend to nearly every drunk (4) / anag, i.e. drunk, of EVER(Y), nearly all of ‘every’) |