Excellent crossword! Quite testing and certainly fun, with enough continuous progress to keep you interested.
There were five types of clue.
1. Five “appendectomies” where the last letter had to be deleted before grid entry,
2. Five “births” where D for daughter or S for son had to be removed from the middle of the “mother’s” body,
3. Five “cosmetic procedures” which turned out to be liposuction – the removal of fats (in this case fat, lard, oil, ghi and butter),
4. Five “serious operations” on the clue, which turned out to be transplants, letter(s) being transplanted from the wordplay to the definition. I only solved these after completing the rest of the puzzle!
5. Twenty normal clues.
The first thing to do was to carry out a letter count on the clues. Ten had one letter more in the clue than in the diagram and five had several letters more. These last five I assumed to be the “cosmetic procedures”, which was confirmed by 33D SIGHING where the only word of four letters to fit in the grid was SING meaning GHI had to be omitted. At this time it was not clear whether this was three consecutive alphabetical letters or clarified butter! Later (FAT)ALLY confirmed the latter and the others followed quite quickly, apart from NUT BUTTER, the clue for which gave me great pleasure!
HUSS(Y) gave the lead to the appendectomies, and LEN(D)S to the births, though I remain unhappy about “donates” as a definition.
Solving time : several hours
| Appendectomy | |
|---|---|
| 25A | HUSS(Y) is a “drab”, anagram of shy round US |
| 8D | BILL(Y) is a “Scots brother” – B(atchelor) + illy (rarely poorly). I found it as a 1549 definition in Merriam- Webster online but not in Chambers. |
| 18D | INC(H) is “a little bit” – trim (p)inch (compress). This is the abbreviation mentioned in the rubric. |
| 31D | CREE(D) is “beliefs” – (ar)e in cred (short for credibility). Confusing that a D had to be removed – could have been a daughter, except that it didn’t come form the “body” of its mother! |
| 28D | PASTE(L) is “delicate” – anagram of pleats |
| Giving Birth | |
| 1A | SPA(D)E “bone” is the scapula – (i)s + pad (dressing) + E (drug) |
| 24A | RY(D)AL is a “village” in Cumbria – hidden in Angry Dalits |
| 34A | VI(S)A is an “endorsement” – it is vis-a-vis (opposite number) minus vis (force or power) as in Hooke’s law “Ut tensio sic vis” |
| 9D | LOO(S)E – double meaning, relax and producing plegm easily |
| 32D | LEN(D)S – not very sure about this as “donates”. It’s not in Chambers. l(ungs) + ends (dies) |
| Cosmetic Surgery | |
| 16A | POL(LARD)ED is “having had bits removed” – anagram of [old Pearl d(ied)] |
| 39A | BR(OIL)ED is “got extremely hot” – Br(other) + oiled (applied balm) |
| 6D | (FAT)ALLY is “resulting in death” though I’m not very happy about the grammar! Fat (obese) + All (every) + y(ear) |
| 23D | NUT (BUTTER) “a vegan would eat this” – and as a Spoonerism But (only) Nutter (crazy person). Love this clue! |
| 33D | SI(GHI)NG is “respiration”- anagram of [Singh i (one) g(ood)] |
| Clue Surgery | |
| 11A | LORIOT | R is transplanted so the clue becomes “Bird . . . .f |
| 15A | ACE | R is transplanted, so the clue becomes “Ca |
| 30A | ECLAT | ST is transplanted so the clue becomes “. . .pan |
| 2D | PRECIOUS | L is tranplanted so the clue becomes “Is coup |
| 22D | ISLANDS | N is transplanted so the clue becomes “. . . ge |
| Normal Across Clues | |
|---|---|
| 4 | PLAYABLE is “can be performed” – play (operation) + able (practised). |
| 10 | TRALEE is an Irish bay – anagram of tar + lee |
| 12 | RECITALS are “renditions” – anagram of articles |
| 17 | RECTITIS is “intestinal inflammation” – anagram of [citr(a)te is] |
| 21 | GONION is “part of jaw” – anagram of [ongoin(g)] |
| 26 | CREASE is a “wrinkle” – cr is a third of creams + ease (diminish) |
| 27 | FLATPACK is “a piece of self-assembly furniture” – a pack for the flat |
| 35 | DISTRACT is “divert attention from” (Princess) Di’s + tract (as in intestinal ditto) |
| 36 | TENDON is a “sinew” – tend (nurse) + on (leg – cricket side) |
| 37 | TAILLE is a “tax” – 1L in tale (archaic total) |
| 38 | MESSAGES are “teachings” – sage (wise man) in mess (confusion) |
| Normal Down Clues | |
| 1 | STRAIGHTEN is “smooth” – anagram of [treating h(i)s] |
| 3 | ELITE is “the best” – lit(erature) in e(arly) + E(nglish) |
| 5 | LEAST is “the minimum” – hidden in file a story |
| 7 | ARMOIRE is an “antique wardrobe” – Ar(abian) + moire (watered silk) |
| 13 | TACOMA is a “port” in USA – t(his) + a(ppalling) + coma |
| 14 | ADDLEPATED is “mixed-up” – anagram of [lad depa(r)ted] |
| 19 | TYRANT is “oppressor” – tyro (beginner) with o(ld) replaced by ant (worker) |
| 20 | FASCICLE is a “bundle” not only of nerves – F(orce) + asci (cells) + cle (anagram of cel(l). Two dictionary lookups here for me. Fascicle was unfamiliar as was ascus for a cell – plural asci. |
| 29 | CARIB is a South “American Indian” – c(hipped) + a + rib |
8D *is* in Chambers: POORLY = ILL (both synonyms of UNWELL), and the entry for ILLY is “(rare) ill”.
But I hadn’t noticed that the ‘births’ were each D or S.