7
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The answer to this puzzle is a list of ten thematically related words or proper names or phrases. Each of these is clued cryptically, and the theme is to be determined. Since the definition part of a cryptic clue would give away the theme, these cryptic clues use a family member (e.g., mom, sister) to stand in for the definition part of the clue. So for example, if the theme of the puzzle were chemical elements, "Sister picking at nit" would clue "tin". NOTE: Unlike many previous puzzles in this genre, clues are NOT sorted alphabetically; however, lengths of each answer are given with the clues. I hope you enjoy!

  1. Grandpa and you making way for boat captain (5)
  2. Uncle heard ewe mounting ram? (5)
  3. Sister moving up, impresses with short record (6)
  4. I left open incoming mail bin, aggravated aunt (12)
  5. Dad to extract invading weed (5)
  6. Brother's Original Musk overwhelms top floors of hotel (6)
  7. Mom throwing last Tau Lambda Delta daughter out (7)
  8. Son to drop boyfriend without final hug (4)
  9. Dregs of rum, one fifty-one; mess left for niece (5)
  10. Queerly, it's right-most senator helping leaders recognize Grandma (5)

HINT: Wow, normally these get crushed within an hour, but this one is harder.

The words are proper nouns, not English. Recommend following some of the straightforward wordplays, even if they don't seem to make sense.

HINT:

Start with #10. The wordplay is dead simple, but counterintuitive since the root language is Arabic.

HINT:

#5 and #9 also have straightforward wordplay. #5 is a Nyanja word, while #9 is Arabic, but with Latinate roots. #6 might also be a good one to break in.

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3
  • $\begingroup$ Is 10 rot13(FUVZE)? $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Jun 30, 2020 at 16:02
  • $\begingroup$ @El-Guest: no. Think easier wordplay. $\endgroup$ Jun 30, 2020 at 16:44
  • $\begingroup$ @postmortes: Looks promising for sure. $\endgroup$ Jun 30, 2020 at 19:02

1 Answer 1

7
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These are all

monetary unit subdivisions from African countries.

  1. Grandpa and you making way for boat captain (5)

THE(B_)E, 1/100 of a Botswana pula (solved by Tom)

  1. Uncle heard ewe mounting ram? (5)

BUT(ewe ~ U)T, 1/100 of a Gambian dalasi

  1. Sister moving up, impresses with short record (6)

(PE+SEWA)<, 1/100 of a Ghanaian cedi

  1. I left open incoming mail bin, aggravated aunt (12)

I+RA(IMBILAN*)JA<, 1/5 of a Malagasy ariary

  1. Dad to extract invading weed (5)

_NG WEE_, 1/100 of a Zambian kwacha

  1. Brother's Original Musk overwhelms top floors of hotel (6)

K(HO_)UMS*, 1/5 of a Mauritanian ouguiya

  1. Mom throwing last Tau Lambda Delta daughter out (7)

TA(-u)MBALA(-d)*, 1/100 of a Malawian kwacha ("Delta" is an anagram indicator here?)

  1. Son to drop boyfriend without final hug (4)

K.O.+B(-f)+O, 1/100 of a Nigerian naira

  1. Dregs of rum, one fifty-one; mess left for niece (5)

_M+I+LI+M_, 1/1000 of a Tunisian dinar

  1. Queerly, it's right-most senator helping leaders recognize Grandma (5)

Q_+I_+R_+S_+H_, 1/100 of a Sudanese pound

The title

"Change" can mean "a small amount of money".

Feedback

These were pretty hard because not only are the answers very obscure (which is fine!), many of them also look like they couldn't possibly be words in English. So even if you get part of the wordplay correctly, it's easy to dismiss it as wrong since "it's not like a word can start with NGW or QIR".

I like the creative use of indicators like "dregs of" and "top floors". Not sure I agree with "captain" for first letter in #1, though, if that is the intention? I don't really get how #7 works, although it looks likely that I have the correct word in that one. I'd be interested to know what the intended parsing is there.

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ 1) rot13(gur(o)r) $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Jul 1, 2020 at 9:20
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ You got them all! Sincere thanks for the feedback. I knew it would be harder given the theme, but you definitely got it without any spoilers. Re #1: rot13(V zrnag "pncgnva" nf "yrnqre", fvzvyne gb "puvrs")...too stretchy? Re #7: I used rot13(qrygn va gur zngu/fpvrapr pbagrkg sbe "punatr"). It maybe has "part-of-speech" issues, but it really does in context as well. $\endgroup$ Jul 1, 2020 at 11:50

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