Comments on: Everyman No. 3349 (5th December)

By: The Trafites

The Trafites — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:59:36 +0000

I have to admit I thought Pet was short for petulance, as in having a petulant frenzy.

It was Nick who steered me on the right course.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Lorraine.

By: sidey

sidey — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:28:41 +0000

Pet is one of the great crossword words with many perfectly innocent meanings, and a few I’m sure Everyman would never reference. “Don’t have a pet, Pet” was a family phrase.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:38:53 +0000

Thank you Trafites – excellent blog as always, and another delightful Sunday morning puzzle to solve. The usual sprinkling of slightly less common words, which I always enjoy with Everyman because the clueing is so precise and accessible. I loved HAVE IT BOTH WAYS when I finally twigged it, and I liked DISTEMPER too. ‘Pet’ for temper I’ve only come across through crosswords; where I come from it’s ‘huff’ and where I live now it’s ‘mard’.

By: Robi

Robi — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:26:35 +0000

Thanks Trafites and Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle. I had to look up ‘prestidigitator’ and got confused by ‘odeum’ rather than ‘odeon,’ which didn’t fit the clue. Nahum was also a new one. I particularly liked 11a for which, like the Trafites, I went off in the wrong direction looking for song titles.

By: Stella

Stella — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:51:16 +0000

Thanks Trafites and Everyman. A very entertaining and instructive puzzle.

I’d never heard of the Book of Nahum, but Ramillies was vaguely familiar, and the wordplay was, as always immaculate.

Odeum was more familiar in its accusative form (I think – I don’t know Greek) ‘odeon’, being the ‘local’ cinema in High Barnet where I saw Bambi and one or two other films. What’s more, I hesitated with the correct answer, because it sounds hateful

By: Davy

Davy — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 09:35:07 +0000

Thanks Lorraine,

Yes, the Everymans seem to have been a bit more difficult of late and it took me ages to get Arbroath Smokie as I just didn’t see the anagram. The words jumped out at me through the crossing letters and suddenly all made sense. I’d never heard of RAMILLIES, ODEUM or NAHUM but the clues were clear enough. Thanks Everyman.

By: AJK

AJK — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 07:39:55 +0000

Thanks for explaining DISTEMPER Lorraine. Yes, some new words for me e.g.4d. I always try and do Everyman without dictionary help, so failed on this one. Nice clues though.