The puzzle opens with an empty periodic table (lanthanides and actinides omitted) in which, at the positions of 21 elements, are what appear to be structural formulas. As indicated at seven other element positions, in these structural formulas nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, and cobalt are shown, but carbons are shown as unlabeled vertices, and hydrogens are omitted entirely. (Note that this is similar to the conventions for skeletal formulas, but those only omit hydrogens attached to carbons.) The formulas also contain B’s, which appear to be borons, but (as the flavortext hints) these are places where the formulas can “form a connection” (two B’s are superimposed and deleted, leaving an empty vertex). Combining the formulas in sets of two or three, without rotations, we can obtain forms of all the B vitamins (whose enumerations are given in the flavortext — the “vital, and pretty good” there also hints at B vitamins). This diagram contains the assembled B vitamins, with the B’s shown.
Each of the 21 cryptic clues must have one of those 21 elements inserted before solving. Their solutions (which are in alphabetical order) are as follows:
Clue | Answer | Explanation |
---|---|---|
59 minutes after the hour that’s 84.58 degrees too cold to melt gallium if the ring expands (* **) | 1 OF | 1° F with the ° expanded |
Help when eating chromium or biting (*****) | ACRID | A(CR)ID |
Alto at the Ptolemy Cluster getting indium to produce chord consisting of la, do, mi, and sol notes (*****, abbr.) | AMIN7 | A + M(IN)7 |
Speak of money one pays to be released after an unfortunate encounter with a copper bundle (****) | BALE | BAIL homophone |
Bismuth spinning or writing implement (****) | BIRO | BI + reversed OR |
Calcium tag depicts old Irish sport (****) | CAID | CA + ID |
Tin holds one son of Adam (****) | CAIN | CA(I)N |
Chlorine irritated vain know-it-all on Cheers (******) | CLAVIN | CL + VAIN anagram |
Caledonian ignoring the symbol on a Krypton native’s chest or bed (***) | COT | SCOT - S |
Longueuil company dealing with haptics and dubnium with beef (*-***) | D-BOX | DB + OX |
Eat iodine without cowgirl? (****) | DINE | IODINE - IO |
Note where people in a gold rush work with the third horseman (******) | FAMINE | FA + MINE |
Baked loaf resembling what the Lone Ranger’s Silver once was (****) [Start the big 21-part circle here.] | FOAL | LOAF anagram |
Mac & I ground up a mineral that’s called phlogopite if it contains enough magnesium (****) | MICA | MAC + I anagram |
Singer Simone’s semi-nice sodium (****) | NINA | NI |
UK entertainments from the son of Penelopeia and the Greek counterpart of Mercury upset sot (******) | PANTOS | PAN + reversed SOT |
Author of Heidi, Secret Agent left iridium (*****) | SPYRI | SPY + reversed IR |
Asian part of the iron horse’s track is mentioned (****) | THAI | TIE homophone |
Band in which Keith Emerson played (at that time) “What Xenon Forms Below 161.4 K” (*** ****) | THE NICE | THEN + ICE |
Nick and Nora’s dog flees astatine prong (****) | TINE | ASTATINE - ASTA |
Nickname (with “the”) for a newspaper from the state whose official mineral has reduced fluorine distribution, in part (****) | TRIB | hidden in disTRIBution |
If one letter or number is omitted from each of these answers, they can be assembled into the names of the B vitamins, and the number of parts is always the same as the number of parts in the structural formula for the B vitamin; we can thus match up each answer with a structural formula part (reading the structural formulas left to right, as stated) with the place in the periodic table that part appears in:
B Vitamin | Assembled answers | Assembled formulas, left to right (by place in periodic table) |
---|---|---|
Thiamine | TH |
Magnesium + Fluorine |
Riboflavin | Xenon + Indium + Krypton | |
Niacin | NI |
Iron + Gold |
Pantothenic Acid | PANTO |
Iridium + Bismuth + Copper |
Pyridoxine | Sodium + Gallium + Tin | |
Biotin | BI |
Calcium + Iodine |
Folic Acid | FO |
Chlorine + Astatine + Dubnium |
Cobalamin | CO |
Chromium + Mercury + Silver |
Using the two elements associated with each answer (the one in its clue, and the one for its corresponding formula part), we can form a giant loop. This gives us an ordering, starting (as stated) at FOAL:
Answer | Element from clue | Element for formula part | Extra letter or number |
---|---|---|---|
FOAL | Silver | Chlorine | A |
CLAVIN | Chlorine | Krypton | C |
COT | Krypton | Chromium | T |
ACRID | Chromium | Copper | R |
BALE | Copper | Mercury | E |
PANTOS | Mercury | Iridium | S |
SPYRI | Iridium | Sodium | S |
NINA | Sodium | Iron | N |
THAI | Iron | Magnesium | A |
MICA | Magnesium | Astatine | M |
TINE | Astatine | Iodine | E |
DINE | Iodine | Tin | D |
CAIN | Tin | Gold | A |
FAMINE | Gold | Fluorine | F |
TRIB | Fluorine | Xenon | T |
THE NICE | Xenon | Bismuth | E |
BIRO | Bismuth | Calcium | R |
CAID | Calcium | Dubnium | A |
D-BOX | Dubnium | Gallium | B |
1 OF | Gallium | Indium | 1 |
AMIN7 | Indium | Silver | 7 |
The extra letters and numbers spell out ACTRESS NAMED AFTER A B-17, which clues the answer SWOOSIE KURTZ (who was named after “The Swoose,” a B-17D Flying Fortress bomber her father flew in WWII).