Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Thanks jazzgirl. I was thinking Master of Arts but Medical Assistant does get us into the medical area - except that it seems clear from your link that they are not doctors either. Ho hum.

Congratulations by the way on your contributions to the Maskerade debate. I dipped into that one from time to time for curiosity, but gave up trying to do the puzzle myself when I realised that about a third of the answers would come from googling to check guesses rather than from solving the clues. A pity. I used to enjoy Araucaria's Bank Holiday specials.

I don't think a Masters and a doctorate are the same thing, Jazzgirl?

but I take it the parsing for the clue is:
MDMA= drug (Ecstasy)
MD - Doctor of Medicine
MA - presumably meant to be another "doctor" to give the plural form "doctorS" n the clue?

All I can find for MA in Chambers is Master of Arts ; Massachusetts; and Morocco

Parsing correct Elle. David was querying MA as a doctor.

David, I did enjoy the Maskarade. Those alphabetical jigsaws are a favourite of mine. Mention them to my family and they put their fingers in their ears and go La La La

Yes, I realised that, JG.....but I cannot find anything to indicate that MA means "doctor"?

It seems a weak clue doesn't it Elle ? People can have an MA and yet have nothing whatever to do with medicine. Maybe I am missing something . No one else has a suggestion as yet.

On the official "i" site, there is now a discussion regarding MDMA and one contributor has said "Another small quibble here about MA being neither a medical qualification nor a doctorate, but given Tees’ quality it’s quite probable this works on some level that I’ve missed" !