SOLVED - Test Puzzle 5 - Get Better At Solving Puzzles

[Suspence]

Hope this one works.

1) Occupy, like a ghost (5)
2) Novels with Fabio on the cover (7)
3) Discomfort (4)
4) Least stable (11)
5) Italian sausage (6)
6) Poking holes in your lawn (8)
7) Hair bugs (4)
8) Loud noise, or forehead cover (4)
9) Pancake topping (5)
10) Candy-filled party sculptures (7)
11) Broad smile (4)
12) Jesus was born in one (6)
13) Having very little fat (4)
14) Assuage, calm (6)
15) Stand-up practitioner (8)
16) A dog might chase it's own (4)
17) Pull abruptly, jerk (4)
18) Outline for a meeting (6)
19) Criminal hideouts (5)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[ralphmerridew]

1) HAUNT
2) ROMANCES
3) PAIN?
7) LICE
9) SYRUP
10) PINATAS
11) GRIN
12) MANGER
13) LEAN
15) COMEDIAN
16) TAIL
17) YANK?
18) AGENDA

[Lepton*]

4) UNSTEADIEST
6) AERATING
8) BANG

Still a couple missing.

[Vagrant]

Posting what I'm thinking ...

Suspence has so far posted three puzzles in this series and in none of the previous puzzles were the clues numbered. They are in this one. This suggests to me that they need to be numbered. I haven't a clue why but it was my first thought when I looked at it because it struck me as odd.

[Vagrant]

[3iff]

19) Criminal hideouts (5) LAIRS possibly

[Suspence]

Confirming correct answers:

1) HAUNT
2) ROMANCE
3) PAIN
4) UNSTEADIEST
5) SALAMI
6) AERATING
7) LICE
8) BANG
9) SYRUP
10) PINATAS
11) GRIN
12) MANGER
13) LEAN
14) SOOTHE
15) COMEDIAN
16) TAIL
17) YANK
18) AGENDA
19) LAIRS

[Thok*]

I assume 5 = Salami and 14 = Soothe.

[Suspence]

Yes. You now have the complete list, edited into my post above.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[3iff]

Well, I don't see words within words (for all the clues) or anagrams...

It could be 6 groups of 3 to leave a single word or maybe words pair up...but I can't see any obvious matches at the moment.

But we're looking for a large leap. I'll need to stare at the clues for a while!

Unsteadiest and Aerating are hardly 'common' words.
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I've looked at reversing words, cutting out letters to make other words (ie BANG to BAN or BAG) and nothing works.

[Oscar]

Observations:

There are a lot more 'A's and fewer 'E's in the list than you'd expect in normal text, while the other letters are distributed fairly standardly. There are as many 'A's in the list (19) as there are clues and only four words don't contain that letter: LICE, SYRUP, GRIN and SOOTHE.
Of course it could be coincidence but it might be that 'A' is easier to manipulate within whatever technique Suspence has in mind...

Comfortably the longest word is 'unsteadiest' - it must be not 'steadiest' for a reason.

[3iff]

I too noticed lots of 'A's but if they are the key then I don't know how to use them. I'm not sure that's the key though (certainty 0%).

[Suspence]

I wouldn't even have noticed letter distribution. The large number of A's are not central to the solution, but they are a byproduct the words I had to choose from for this puzzle.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[3iff]

On the grounds that we don't yet know what we are looking for, we're considering all possibilities.

We know how devious puzzle setters can be.

[Oscar]

Aha! I have the connection! (more to follow...)

[3iff]

[Suspence]

Not be a a critic, but Oscar sure has some MOXIE, not revealing his breakthrough to the rest of the group. He didn't even give you any USABLE information. Let's hope he ATONES for it by solving the puzzle.

The rest of you did some nice work, but to no AVAIL. You'll REGAIN your sense of pride once you realize you nearly HAD it.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Oscar]

The word that put me on the right track didn't turn out to be the longest one, but one of the shortest - PAIN.

I was idly adding prefixes and noted that adding S gave SPAIN. I then tried adding that prefix to other words and got S-LICE but no more. Various more elaborate prefixes gave short term success but nothing convincing.

I had already noted that 'SALAMI' was almost an anagram of ISLAMIC and when I looked at 'LAIRS' the semi-associated 'ISRAEL' came to mind. 2 countries a coincidence? But MANGER is almost GERMANY - that aha! moment again!

I got about half of the rest by just looking at them, then gave in to Wikipedia:
HAUNT + B = BHUTAN
ROMANCE + O = CAMEROON
PAIN + S = SPAIN
UNSTEADIEST + T = UNITED STATES (nice!)
SALAMI + O = SOMALIA
AERATING + N = ARGENTINA
LICE + H = CHILE
BANG + O = GABON
SYRUP + C = CYPRUS
PINATAS + K = PAKISTAN
GRIN + E = NIGER
MANGER + Y = GERMANY
LEAN + P = NEPAL
SOOTHE + L = LESOTHO
COMEDIAN + A = MACEDONIA
TAIL + Y = ITALY
YANK + E = KENYA
AGENDA + R = GRENADA
LAIRS + E = ISRAEL

giving BOSTON HOCKEY PLAYER E ?!?
which I have to admit means nothing to me. If it had been 'PLAYERS' I would assume the answer was BRUINS but there is no country which anagrams to LAIRS + S so any takers for finishing it off?

[Suspence]

As usual, I'm impressed.

Actually, ISRAEL is a vestige of my initial layout as well, and could have been removed. It clues the missing letter once you solve for BOSTON HOCKEY PLAYER.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Oscar]

So the intended answer was BRUIN + E = BRUNEI?

Nice!

[Logain]

Very nicely done Oscar!

I tried many paths of adding letter(s), subtracting letter(s), substituting a letter and anagrams, but was getting nowhere.

For solving techniques, one thing I should point out is that Suspence "numbered" each of his clues.
Unless the puzzler is trying to lead you down a wrong path this means the order is very important, so for solving it helps rule out a lot of dead ends like rearranging the list or grouping them together for some purpose.

[3iff]

I saw MANGER as GERMAN but (stupidly) never thought about adding a letter. Had I done that, everything would (might) have fallen into place.

It's probably one of those moments I kick myself for not seeing that step.

Nice puzzle.

[Zag]

[Suspence]

[Oscar]

Kind words and much appreciated..

If there is a technique for making this sort of leap then it might be that if looking at the problem for some time with full-on concentration doesn't work then re-reading it almost as an abstract poem is often worth a go! (sort of like letting the subconscious take over)

Further to my first post in this thread, I did some analysis of 2 different lists - countries of the world and elements in the periodic table. The letter distributions were wildly different but both favoured 'A' against 'E'. It might still come in useful in some future puzzles!