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Puzzle #39– August 2004   "What's Missing?"

Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (words vary in length from four to nine letters and include two proper names and one foreign word), then enter them in the grid one after another in the same order as their clues, starting in the upper left corner. Across words that don't end at the right margin continue on the next line below; down words that don't end at the bottom margin continue in the next column to the right. Four words won't fit in the grid unless they are altered in a certain way; solvers are left to figure out how. Solvers are also invited to find another similarly altered word hidden in the completed grid and to answer the question posed by the title of this puzzle. As ever, I am indebted to Kevin Wald for help with the clues.(If you are having trouble printing these puzzles, you can download an Adobe Acrobat version of the puzzle and grid). [Want to see some hints?]

Across

  1. Modest and distinct in speech
  2. Fuel it with charged particle combination
  3. Less emotional about a new utensil
  4. Feline turned up with cellist
  5. First of entries in document is replaced by article nearer the end
  6. Historical text containing Old German
  7. Mulled port again with flavoring agent
  8. Started erratically with error and run for pitcher
  9. Small, trim outer garment
  10. Ring fee
  11. Printer's device initially spooks horse
  12. Oboe's core sound gets to a little shepherd
  13. An entrance in marble
  14. Desire in nautilus tested
  15. Lowland servant killing time
  16. Many holding up a plant
  17. Real mad monarch
  18. A father takes quiet aim
  19. Vine turning around one unguis
  20. Contend with core of mold at break
  21. Superior kind of gambler
  22. Hear political group speak persuasively
  23. Land's end is intrinsically separate

Down

  1. Crudely spliced by one adherent
  2. Dad and tennis champ chat
  3. Terminating power during a service interruption is a grievous offense
  4. Sound of tin covering stripped tires
  5. Lunch, for instance, includes scandium and peyote
  6. Writer assumes singular air
  7. Compartment left empty originally for conductor
  8. John's fuel in the new year
  9. Mixture of ethanol ions
  10. One leaving new court proceeding at the back
  11. Loud noise covers up start of sexual embrace
  12. Gloomy, tense innocence
  13. Unwilling tour leader replaces case of fish
  14. Disarrange all the French
  15. Take a few quick breaths right around noon
  16. Clumsy me! upsetting all but end of spool
  17. Defamatory writing turns up in double billing
  18. Remove top of pipe added to drain
  19. A Native American stronghold
  20. Material to give in clothing Virginia
  21. Small growths turning up in stalks
  22. Initial drink is standard at start of entertainments of various kinds

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