“Solvers must remove a superfluous word from each of 23 clues before solving. Taking either the first or last letter from these words, in clue order, indicates how to LOOP the remaining answers for entry, resolving any clashes. All entries in the final grid are real words.”
I guessed the entry method for LOOPed clues quite early on. I had ABSTERGE and AIDE, and the A->B change was suggestive. Right enough, there were 26 clashes, and in each case a different letter in the altered entry had to be progressed to the next letter in the alphabet (with Z LOOPing back round to A). There were several ambiguities that were only resolved by ensuring one clash per letter (I initially had SUPS -> SUPT and MESA -> META).
The final list is as follows: AIDE, BURNS, CISCO, NEDDY, AERO, FAMINE, GOON, REHS, IURE, JERRY, ASKANT, SLUG, SMUGGLING, GNAT, OILING, SUPS, TALAQ, CHAR, HUSS, DIET, VALUE, VARY, OWEN, OXER, TREY, APOLOGIZE.
Elsewhere in the puzzle, sug is a new verb for me, a number of clues tied the extraneous elements into the surface reading nicely (e.g. Caliban/Prospero), and I particularly enjoyed ‘Superior resident’. Thanks, Jaques!
| Notation | |
|---|---|
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Jumbled entry | ALBUMIN* |
| Superfluous word | modern |
| LOOPed letter | GOON |
As always, please let me know if anything isn’t clear.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
O (Old) LOG (record) [enters] A PIZE (word of curse) – say sorry (9)
|
APOLOGIZE |
| 7 | American’s heavy GOO (sentimentality) N (new) (4) | GOON |
| 10 | AI (Sloth) DE (of French) president’s assistant (4) | AIDE |
| 12 | ALU (Arithmetic logic unit) [oddly left out] modern |
ALULAE |
| 13 | Drudge S (succeeded) LAVE (to wash old) photo (5) | SLAVE |
| 14 | < [Backing] |
AERO |
| 16 | Hastily made ERR (mistake) [in] JY (July) (5) | JERRY |
| 17 | DID (Worked) [around] SB (substantive) U (university) to nip off unopened flowers from view (6) | DISBUD |
| 18 | ENS (Begs) fiancée, ENS (being) [outside of] TREAT (favour) (8) | ENTREATS |
| 21 | VAR (Offside judge) Y (unknown) to deviate (4) | VARY |
| 23 | FAME (Celebrity)[‘s taken in] IN (by the method of) extremely little food (6) | FAMINE |
| 26 | Sort of mosquito not taking blood, < TANG (biting taste)[‘s rebuffed] (4) | GNAT |
| 27 | U (Sign of class) [in] VALE (the world) is worth (5) | VALUE |
| 28 | Drinks SOUPS (liquid foods) [missing] brOth[‘s essence] (4) | SUPS |
| 29 | ALKIE (Alcoholic) [has YN (yen) for I (one)] fermentable hydrocarbon, generally speaking (6) | ALKYNE |
| 31 | Third snag‘s TRY (attempt) [to cover] E (base) (4) | TREY |
| 33 | Absorb some memory Tony’s occupying Nancy’s farmhouse (8) | GIGABYTE |
| 34 |
ABA (Cloth covering) [initially] Completely US (unserviceable) counting crocheted frame (6)
|
ABACUS |
| 36 | Superior resident‘s CIAO (greeting) [with SC (special constable) coming in for A (afternoon)] (5) | CISCO |
| 38 | Salty crusts on soil < [turned] SH |
REHS |
| 39 | Edible root‘s MO (second) inch |
MOOLI |
| 40 | Sceptically ASK (seek) ANT (sociable type) (6) | ASKANT |
| 41 | OWE (Have to thank) N (Nationalist) Glendower, perhaps (4) | OWEN |
| 42 | Oversleep – regrets [regularly ignoring] R |
RUES |
| 43 |
Running M (miles) [in] SUGGING (apparently not pushing) [taking in] L (learner) (9)
|
SMUGGLING |
| Down | ||
| 1 |
Wipe golf {BAG [tangled up with] TREES}* (8)
|
ABSTERGE |
| 2 | Doing a bunk, < {NIL (zero) I (independence) [gained by] GO (turn)} [back] (6) | OILING |
| 3 | LET (Allow) boa [to catch] EVER (very) little hare (7) | LEVERET |
| 4 | Obstacle for horse bOX ERnie [maintains] (4) | OXER |
| 5 | Dodgy aircoN[‘s unit close] [to exit] |
IFFY |
| 6 | Elderly OAP to remove < NILE (flower) [coming up] [round] O (Ohio) (5) | ELOIN |
| 7 | [Most of] SUSH |
HUSS |
| 8 | O (Over) Zambia ALBUMIN* [is processed] for gum resin (8) | OLIBANUM |
| 9 | Victoria’s racehorse is EDDY (whirlwind) – [last in] run-iN, [comes first] (5) | NEDDY |
| 11 | PARA (Soldier) SANG (confessed) that Portaloo was some distance inside Persia (8) | PARASANG |
| 15 | By right U (unionist) [is wallowing in] IRE (keen resentment) (4) | IURE |
| 19 | ENV |
ENVY |
| 20 | Could be Caliban’s acts GISM (force) Prospero [to go after] < [rejected} AVAS (narcotic drinks) (8) | SAVAGISM |
| 22 | ALE (Beer) [consumed by] SALE (poet’s black), in no great demand (8) | SALEABLE |
| 24 | [Cycling round] SAME (unchanged) steep-sided hill face (4) | MESA |
| 25 | Sargent conducting, HE |
USHERING |
| 28 | Less upset than chilled [exotic] COLOBUS* (7) | SUBCOOL |
| 29 | Carriage to Central Asian‘s AR (autonomous region) [on] favourable BA (airline) (4) | ARBA |
| 30 | Pinched SN (tin), TOLE (New Yorker’s quip to distract) [occupies] (6) | STOLEN |
| 31 | Divorce form is [endless] TAL |
TALAQ |
| 32 | [Tip of] Butt [on] URNS (ashes’ receptacles) for cigarettes (5) | BURNS |
| 35 | Newly formed island CHAR |
CHAR |
| 36 | DT (Data transmission) [limiting] I (current) [with] E (electronic) assembly of Japanese (4) | DIET |
| 37 | Swallow insect larva (4) | SLUG |
| A | P | O | L | O | G | I | A | E | H | O | O | N |
| B | I | D | E | Y | P | F | A | L | U | L | A | E |
| S | L | A | V | E | A | F | R | O | T | I | J | E |
| T | I | K | E | R | R | Y | D | I | S | B | U | D |
| E | N | T | R | E | A | T | S | N | W | A | R | Y |
| R | G | S | T | N | S | G | A | M | I | N | E | U |
| G | O | A | T | V | A | L | V | E | S | U | P | S |
| E | A | L | K | Y | N | E | A | S | U | M | S | H |
| T | R | E | Z | C | G | I | G | A | B | Y | T | E |
| A | B | A | C | U | S | D | I | S | C | O | O | R |
| L | A | B | H | R | E | I | S | M | O | O | L | I |
| A | S | L | A | N | T | E | M | U | O | X | E | N |
| R | U | E | S | S | N | U | G | G | L | I | N | G |
thanks J and Mister! I enjoyed this but… I got stuck on the i/j and m/n shifts since they didn’t resolve ambiguities but in retrospect I should have been a bit more inquisitive and find the only options (iure/jure and smuggling/snuggling). put it down to laziness.
Wow! This was hugely impressive, so hats off to Jaques. To produce a message from superfluous words made with consecutive start/end letters and incorporate all 26 changes to make new words is a mind-boggling feat of construction. A real challenge to solve too and was very satisfying to complete.