Welcome to Word Game 64. Much thanks to Rob for moderating the previous contest.

The title “French letter” is my cutesy way of meaning any letter that’s not one of the standard 26, whether it has a diacritic or a ligature or is some other kind of letter. Examples are æ or ç or ñ or ö. In this contest, please write and post here a cryptic clue whose answer is a word or phrase that is not totally foreign in English but does have one or more of these non-standard letters. The hitch is that if any wordplay wants æ clued by ae or ç by c, etc., it must have some possibly vague indication of the needed manipulation. Multiple entries are OK.

The deadline is December 6, 2021.

Like someone no longer with it, speak endlessly and wildly about sex without former spouse, and do it with an accent (5)

Luciano

Resident wastes time being a bit dotty and childlike (5)

Luciano

Feature of a word one found in the western outskirts of Hradec Králové? (5)

Luciano

Place to drink coffee and find éclairs, to begin with (4)

Turkish ogre and dragon, fighting past edge of flame -- gee, it's silent (7)

On Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 7:42:16 AM UTC-5, Mark Iredell wrote:
> Welcome to Word Game 64. Much thanks to Rob for moderating the previous contest.
>
> The title “French letter” is my cutesy way of meaning any letter that’s not one of the standard 26, whether it has a diacritic or a ligature or is some other kind of letter. Examples are æ or ç or ñ or ö. In this contest, please write and post here a cryptic clue whose answer is a word or phrase that is not totally foreign in English but does have one or more of these non-standard letters. The hitch is that if any wordplay wants æ clued by ae or ç by c, etc., it must have some possibly vague indication of the needed manipulation. Multiple entries are OK.
>
> The deadline is December 6, 2021.

There are only three-ish days left to enter! The more the merrier!
So far, below are the clues submitted for WG64 whose answers have a non-standard letter, and my attempts to solve them. I need help with at least one.

Luciano

Like someone no longer with it, speak endlessly and wildly about sex without former spouse, and do it with an accent (5)
PASSÉ; def = like someone no longer with it; SPEAk* about Sex; French letter indication = do it with an accent

Resident wastes time being a bit dotty and childlike (5)
NAÏVE; def = childlike; NAtIVE; French letter indication = being a bit dotty

Feature of a word one found in the western outskirts of Hradec Králové? (5)
[I need help please.]

Duke

Place to drink coffee and find éclairs, to begin with (4)
CAFÉ; def = place to drink; Coffee And Find Éclairs; French letter already indicated

Turkish ogre and dragon, fighting past edge of flame -- gee, it's silent (7)
ERDOĞAN; def = Turkish ogre; flamE + DRAGON*: French letter indication = gee, it’s silent

NAÏVE; def = childlike; NAtIVE; French letter indication = being a bit dotty
> Feature of a word one found in the western outskirts of Hradec Králové? (5)
> [I need help please.]

Mark:

ace (one) in HK (the first letters of Hradec Králové, which is, as we all know, a town in the Czech Republic) = hacek (or haček in Czech)
a feature of the word 'haček' is the haček, which is the diacritical mark (ˇ)

Lučiano

On Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 7:42:16 AM UTC-5, Mark Iredell wrote:
> Welcome to Word Game 64. Much thanks to Rob for moderating the previous contest.
>
> The title “French letter” is my cutesy way of meaning any letter that’s not one of the standard 26, whether it has a diacritic or a ligature or is some other kind of letter. Examples are æ or ç or ñ or ö. In this contest, please write and post here a cryptic clue whose answer is a word or phrase that is not totally foreign in English but does have one or more of these non-standard letters. The hitch is that if any wordplay wants æ clued by ae or ç by c, etc., it must have some possibly vague indication of the needed manipulation. Multiple entries are OK.
>
> The deadline is December 6, 2021.

Results of Word Game #64: French letter

Every entry clued an answer that was an acceptable word in English that had a non-standard letter, and every entry’s wordplay properly indicated the accent in some way, either with accented fodder or not. So well done by all contestants, and by all contestants I mean Luciano and Duke.

3 from Luciano...

Like someone no longer with it, speak endlessly and wildly about sex without former spouse, and do it with an accent (5)
PASSÉ; def = like someone no longer with it; SPEAk* about Sex; French letter indication = do it with an accent
The surface makes me think of Steve Martin’s wild and crazy guy character, now gone a little over the hill.

Resident wastes time being a bit dotty and childlike (5)
NAÏVE; def = childlike; NAtIVE; French letter indication = being a bit dotty
....and now gone quite far over the hill.

Feature of a word one found in the western outskirts of Hradec Králové? (5)
HAČEK; def = the whole clue (haček is the diacritical mark ˇ used in Czechia where that city is); ACE in HK; French letter indication = feature of a word… (haček has a haček!)
Good &lit! I didn’t know the name of a ˇ had a ˇ itself. Very reflexive! This is the winner.

2 from Duke...

Place to drink coffee and find éclairs, to begin with (4)
CAFÉ; def = place to drink; Coffee And Find Éclairs; French letter already indicated
Pretty straightforward clue with a clean surface that kind of gives up the answer.

Turkish ogre and dragon, fighting past edge of flame -- gee, it's silent (7)
ERDOĞAN; def = Turkish ogre; flamE + DRAGON*: French letter indication = gee, it’s silent
The definition fits. I didn’t know that that diacritical mark meant silence, but now I do! Runner-up.

Luciano is invited to moderate Word Game #65.