Hello everybody. I remembered very much enjoying the last Jaques puzzle I solved, so I started this one in a good frame of mind. Of course it is an EV, so things can change … but in this case they didn’t! Thanks to Jaques for a puzzle with a certain je ne sais quoi.
The preamble reads:
Some entries have proved hard to define and are consequently clued by wordplay only. Each of the remaining clues contains a superfluous word; logical interpretation of their first and last letters spells out a quotation that was made somewhat EN PASSANT. Having filled the grid, solvers must highlight the speaker (five cells) in an appropriate colour. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
Things started encouragingly as early entries ELAN, CLIQUE and ENNUI, all from the French, revealed what was common to the unclued answers. As I like to do when the gridfill is progressing smoothly, I saved the end game until the end — and was glad I did, because even with a complete set of first and last letters it took me an embarrassingly long time to see how to “logically interpret” them. I tried quite a few things before I spotted that reading backwards did the trick:
SPEAK IN FRENCH WHEN YOU CAN’T THINK OF THE ENGLISH FOR A THING
I read the book many moons ago, but have a memory like a what-d’you-call-it and didn’t recognise the quote so looked it up. It is found by going Through The Looking Glass. Ah, now the logical interpretation is logical!
In the book Alice moves as a pawn on a chessboard. I never got into chess, but had an inkling that en passant might be, as they say, a thing. And so it is: it refers to a rule in chess whereby a pawn that has moved two squares on its first move (as Alice does) can be captured “en passant” as if it had just moved one.
“Speak in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing — turn out your toes as you walk — and remember who you are!” is spoken by the RED QUEEN, who is there in the grid once we highlight QUEEN red:
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with [superfluous] word and definition underlined | First/ lasT letters |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | DUTCH AUCTION | Dishevelled uncouth addict missing day for particular method of purchasing [pills] (12, two words) | PS |
| An anagram of (dishevelled) UNCOUTH A[d]DICT without (missing) D (day) | |||
| 10a | ÉLAN | Space surrounding US city (4) | |
| EN (space) surrounding LA (US city) | |||
| 12a | OGRE | One monstrously bad [aesthete] regularly chucked out doggrel (4) | AE |
| Regular letters, in this case the first of every three, deleted in (regularly chucked out) [d]OG[g]RE[l] | |||
| 13a | CLIQUE | Hint about Mensa member’s source of pride? (6) | |
| CLUE (hint) around (about) IQ (Mensa member’s source of pride?) | |||
| 14a | ENNUI | Somewhat lumpen nuisance (5) | |
| Contained in (somewhat) lumpEN NUIsance | |||
| 15a | STARETZES | Russian religious types glare and [interlink] riotous zest (9) | IK |
| STARE (glare) and an anagram of (riotous) ZEST | |||
| 16a | ENOW | [Firkin] just gone north of the border, it’s nut that’s sore (4) | FN |
| It’s EN (nut) + OW (that’s sore). North of the border indicates a Scottish term | |||
| 18a | ETYMIC | Ninety [earlier] microcomputers storing in the true sense of the word (6) | ER |
| NinETY MICrocomputers is containing (storing) the answer | |||
| 22a | AMANITA | A [common] excessive desire to eat starter of teriyaki mushroom (7) | CN |
| A (from the clue) + MANIA (excessive desire) containing (to eat) the first letter of (starter of) Teriyaki | |||
| 23a | AGELONG | [Whiplash] lasting years is good after old angle is adjusted (7) | WH |
| G (good), after O (old) + ANGLE is anagrammed (is adjusted) | |||
| 27a | OEUVRE | Naughty revue having nothing on (6) | |
| An anagram of (naughty) REVUE having O (nothing) next to it (on) | |||
| 28a | CLIO | [Each] conservative hero being incomplete is source of historical inspiration (4) | EH |
| C (conservative) + LIOn (hero) without the last letter (being incomplete) | |||
| 29a | OBJET D’ART | Died on decrepit strutting throwing projectile (9, two words) | |
| OB (died) by (on) JET (obsolete — decrepit — word for strutting) + DART (throwing projectile) | |||
| 32a | INDUE | Fashionable [yeoman] appointed don (5) | YN |
| IN (fashionable) + DUE (appointed) | |||
| 33a | NIRLIE | Kirsty’s niggardly Glaswegian to go back and [undo] general situation (6) | UO |
| RIN (to go, Scottish form of RUN) reversed (back) and LIE (general situation), with both Glaswegian and Kirsty’s being indicators of Scottish words | |||
| 34a | ROUÉ | American’s regular series of calls having lost line-out ultimately (4) | |
| ROU[t]E (American’s regular series of calls) without (having lost) the last letter of (… ultimately) line-ouT | |||
| 35a | DIEU | United press leading the way (4) | |
| U (united), with DIE (press) first (leading the way) | |||
| 36a | ENTREPRENEUR | Resurgence of a mystic song about returning jaunty Frenchman (12) | |
| The reversal of (resurgence of) RUNE (a mystic song) around (about) PERT (jaunty), reversed (returning …), and RENÉ (Frenchman) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | DECRETAL | Endless discussion after [Archbishopric] destroyed creed of papal edict (8) | AC |
| All but the last letter of (endless) TALk (discussion) after an anagram of (destroyed) CREED | |||
| 2d | ULLING | Filling to the brim not following for [tavern] making good losses (6) | TN |
| [f]ULLING (filling to the brim) without (not) F (following) | |||
| 3d | TAIL | Temperature trouble, [hottest] in shadow (4) | HT |
| T (temperature) + AIL (trouble) | |||
| 4d | HAUTE COUTURE | Race around truck in NZ county north of Maori settlement (12, two words) | |
| HARE (race) around all of: UTE (truck in NZ) + CO (county) before (north of, in a down answer) UTU (Maori settlement, Maori word for settlement of a debt) | |||
| 5d | USER | Old city absorbing [Nikkei] leads to stock exchange in long-established right (4) | NI |
| UR (old city) plus the first letters of (leads to) Stock Exchange | |||
| 6d | CINÉMA VÉRITÉ | Independent men with creative bent (12, two words) | |
| I (Independent), MEN and CREATIVE anagrammed together (bent) | |||
| 7d | TONTINE | [Overlook] money in temper for inheritance scheme (7) | OK |
| TIN (money) in TONE (temper) | |||
| 8d | ORIENT | Rising old [toff] Boris and gents losing cases (6) | TF |
| [B]ORI[s] and [g]ENT[s] without their outer letters (losing cases). Rising is an archaic (old) meaning of the answer | |||
| 9d | NEWS | [Eighth] earl in NSW struck oil there (4) | EH |
| E earl in NSW, anagrammed (struck). Oil is an informal Australian (there = in NSW) term for news | |||
| 11d | REATA | Artist about to devour what [nature] captures wild horses (5) | NE |
| RA (artist) around (about) EAT (to devour) | |||
| 17d | OLEO | Encouraging cry on [lowering] section of landing gear (4) | LG |
| OLÉ (encouraging cry) + O (on, ‘o) | |||
| 19d | CIEL | Line caught that is on [ski] lift’s summit (4) | SI |
| C (caught) + IE (that is) preceding (on, in a down answer) Lift’s first letter (summit) | |||
| 20d | SABOTEUR | Boast about Europe (8) | |
| BOAST anagrammed (about) + EUR (Europe) | |||
| 21d | BLEEDER | Haemophiliac’s lost complexion, [fresh] colour rising (7) | FH |
| BLEE (lost — obsolete — complexion) and the reversal of (… rising) RED (colour) | |||
| 24d | GABION | Small curiosity of Scott’s on [radio] after a big broadcast (6) | RO |
| ON (from the clue) after an anagram of (… broadcast) A BIG | |||
| 25d | GRANT | Concede base [trivia] should be removed from Sikh’s holy book (5) | TA |
| The last letter (base) should be removed from GRANT[h] (Sikh’s holy book) | |||
| 26d | MILIEU | One false statement in letter from abroad (6) | |
| I (one) + LIE (false statement) in MU (letter from abroad) | |||
| 29d | OWRE | Alistair’s [inch] over width in natural resource (4) | IH |
| Scottish (Alistair’s) word for over. W (width) in ORE (natural resource) | |||
| 30d | DEEP | Race back missing son’s heartfelt [groan] (4) | GN |
| [s]PEED (race), reversed (back), without (missing) S (son) | |||
| 31d | PLIÉ | Learner in confusion (4) | |
| L (learner) in PIE (confusion) | |||
Thanks for the blog Kitty, quite an accessible puzzle at the lower end of difficulty for an EV. Good fun though, elan and clique soon dropped and I thought this could be French words… So an earlyish PDM for once…. I sent this entry in, but, in true style, forgot to colour the Queen red. Even though I’d written in large bold letters on my entry form to do so… Zut alors!
Merci beaucoup Jaques pour les mots croisés