Inquisitor 58 – EVE by Schadenfreude

The preamble to the puzzle indicated that it included 12 unclued entries, four of which (11a, 35a, 22d and 24d) would represent a recent sequence in the correct order.

Four pairs of the remaining eight unclued entries would relate to one of the sequence in four specific, but different ways.

We were also told that seven of the clues had single letter misprints in the definition parts. The corrected letters would spell out a name which could be paired with one of the sequence. Finally, it was stated that the barred-off letters in the answers to these seven clues could be arranged to form a thematic phrase which had to be written below the grid.

The theme of this puzzle, which became evident fairly quickly, was ‘First Ladies’ of the United States of America.  This was also confirmed by EVE, the title of the puzzle, alluding to the very first lady of all.

The thematic First Ladies, in the order indicated were:

11a: ROSALYNN  – wife of Jimmy Carter, President 1977-1981

35a: NANCY – wife of Ronald Reagan, President 1981-1989

22d: BARBARA – wife of George H W Bush, President 1989-1993

24d: HILLARY  – wife of Bill Clinton, President 1993- 2001

A full term Presidency runs from 20 January in the inaugural year, for 4 years.

There was no mention of LAURA, wife of George W Bush, the incumbent President 2001-date

I found it fairly easy to link HILLARY and BARBARA with 2 pairs of each the remaining 8 unclued entries, as follows:

EDMUND (6a) PERCIVAL (25a) HILLARY – fairly topical given Sir Edmund’s recent death.

ALFALFA (1d) and PURPURA (32a) have the same structure as BARBARA with a repeated 3 letter word followed by A

I struggled a bit with the remaining two. I could associate LORETTA (between 1d and 2d) with LYNN (Country and Western singer Loretta Lynn) fairly easily, so thought there might be some link between ROSA and one of the remaining three words.

Assuming that all the remaining unclued entries were either names, or words in Chambers, I did a bit of research.

As a result I managed to identify a link between SALVATOR (between 18d and 19a) and ROSA  through Salvator Rosa (1615 – 1673), an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence.  I learnt, that as a painter, he is apparently best known as a proto-Romantic who was “unorthodox and extravagant” and a “perpetual rebel”.  His life and writings were said to be equally colorful.  (I was fixated on SALVADOR being the entry for a long time, which didn’t help)

That left .REVE (after 12a) and COT. (after 17d)  to be associated with NANCY.  There were a few possibilities for each, e.g. BREVE, TREVE and PREVE for the first one, with at least four possibilities for COT..  

A bit more digging identified the words

PREVENANCY and CO-TENANCY, giving me PREVE and COTE as the final pair.

The corrected misprints in the seven clues, actually in clue order, spelled out CLINTON, which is easily associated with HILLARY as shown above.

The barred off letters in these seven clues, in order, were 20a – Y, 28a – R, 37a – FD, 5d – L, 9d – A, 10d – IT, 33d – S

Re-arranged these spell out FIRST LADY, which had to be written below the grid to complete the puzzle.

All in all , a puzzle with a significant amount of thematic material which made me scratch my head for some time.  Solving the clues did not take that long – about 2 hours.  It took a few more days of thinking to make all the associations, but definitely an enjoyable experiance.  As usual, I learnt some new words whilst solving this puzzle

Across
No.	Misprinted word	First letter	Entry	Components
1			AULA	A (one) LA  (lo!, behold! = look) round U (university) = AULA (a hall)
12			FURTHER	Two meanings; FURTHER (promote or help forward) and FURTHER (at or to a greater distance)
13			AZERI	A1 (first class) containing (stopping) ZER (almost ZER[O]= nothing) = AZERI (Tabriz is the largest city in northwestern Iran and capital of East Azarbaijan, where the native people are Azeris)
14			VAMPIRE	A (accepted) + MP (politician) inside (goes in) VIRE (authorised redirection of funds) = VAMPIRE (extortionate parasite)
15			LATIMER	LA (‘the’ in French) + R (queen) containing (captures) TIME (The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time – Yeats) = LATIMER (Bishop Latimer 1485-1555, burned at the stake)
17			EUNICE	U film classification, suitable for all) in E (east) and NICE (Mediterranean port) = EUNICE (Girl’s name)
20	Boldness/Coldness	C	APATHY	A PATH (a course of action) + Y (ending in/last letter of glory) = APATHY (coldness)
21			NABOTH	Anagram (ruin) of ANOTHERBAD without ‘a red‘ = NABOTH (an Old Testament owner of a vineyard)
28	Bingo/Lingo	L	HERERO	HERE (in this place) + R (run) + O (Ohio) = HERERO (Language or lingo of the Bantu people of Namibia)
30			RETRIAL	RE (concerning) + T (time) + RIAL  (standard monetary unit of many Arabic countries) = RETRIAL  (a new hearing)
34			ABOIL	A (area) + BOIL (swelling) = ABOIL (in a bubbling state)
36			ORGANZA	ORGANA (methods of investigation, plural of ORGANUM) containing (blocked by)  Z  (Zambia) = ORGANZA (a thin material)
37	Teed/Tied	I	FETTERED	F (Fellow) + LETTERED (educated, but without L [Liberal]) = FETTERED (tied up)
38			CENSES	ENSE (an anagram [to change] of seen)  in  CS (Civil Service) = CENSES (obsolete word meaning ranks or conditions)
39			ADRY	A (active) + Y (yard)  containing (entering) DR (driver) = ADRY  (thirsty)

Down
No.	Misprinted word	First letter	Entry	Components
2			ASTRICT	A + STRICT (tight [Shakespeare]) = ASTRICT (compress)
3			MAHI-MAHI	HAM (meat[ham] reversed [sent back]) +/to I (India,) twice = MAHI-MAHI(the dolphin fish)
4			CLEVE	CLEVER (bright), without the (departing from)  R (rook, in chess)  = CLEVE (hillside)
5	tight/night	N	LYRA	Hidden (somewhat in) in disorderLY RAvers = LYRA (a northern constellation, only visible at night)
6			ENAMEL	CAMEL (a humped type of early aeroplane) with C (coloured) replaced by EN (a measurement of space in printing) = ENAMEL (a kind of paint)
7			MARINA	RAM (a warship with a pointed device on its prow) reversed (turning) + IN A = MARINA (berthing area for yachts = harbour)
8			UTERI	UTER (anagram of true) + I (independence) = UTERI (plural of uterus, the womb, where babies form)
9	park/part	T	NAVE	VAN (vehicle) reversed (returning to) + E (English)  = NAVE (main part of a basilica)
10	perky/porky	O	DIETER	DIE (stop working) +  TER (terrace) = DIETER (one becoming less porky, possibly)
16			RADAR	A DA (A District Attorney = lawyer) inside (installed in) RR (Rolls Royce [expensive car]) = RADAR (radio equipment for detecting objects)
18			ÉPÉE	E (initial letter of equipment) + PEE (urinate, same meaning as the phrase Jimmy Riddle) = ÉPÉE (duelling sword; weapon used in fencing)
19			VANTAGES	Anagram (up) of ‘Stan gave’ = VANTAGES (word used by William Shakespeare to mean opportunities)
23			ONIONED	ION (an electrical charged particle) in ONE D (One dimension [d]) = ONIONED (to produce by means of an onion [bulb])
25			PHONIC	P (softly) +  HO (stop) + N (number) + 1 (one) + C (one hundred)  = PHONIC (voiced)
26			CERCUS	C (cocaine) + ERCUS (anagram (diseased) of cures) = CERCUS (sensory organ in certain arthropods)
27			VOUGES	V (five) + OUS (ou is a man in S Africa; plural = ous) containing (carrying)  EG reversed (raised) = VOUGES (14th century weapon with a blade on a long staff = raised weapon)
29			RUN-IN	RUIN (wreck) containing (keeping) N (north) = RUN-IN (approach)
31			EARTH	EAR (anagram [changing] of are) + T (the) + H (hour) = EARTH (land and sea)’
32			PARE	Homophone (for the auditor) of PAIR (referring to ‘item’, defined as a couple having a romantic relationship) = PARE (to trim)
33	barter/banter	N	ROTS	TROTS (William Shakespeare’s term for old women) without/short of the T (time) = ROTS (to banter with)