Everyman No. 3357 (30th January)
Posted by The Trafites on February 6th, 2011
Nick: It’s me doing the blog this week, as Lorraine is a bit busy, but reading her notes, this weeks was pretty tough.
As usual, thanks to Mr Everyman for a great crossword.
| Across | |||
| 1. | A doctor tucked into mother’s curry (6) | ||
| MADRAS | A DR in MA’S no after effects with this clue at all  |
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| 4. | Worry beads, article held inside chapel (8) | ||
| BETHESDA | THE in (BEADS*) see here, and make yer mind up what B? |
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| 9. | Parish priest, the old cartoon character (6) | ||
| POPEYE | POPE+YE(ye old way to say ‘the’) | ||
| 10. | A bishop’s treatise, hard to understand (8) | ||
| ABSTRACT | A+B’S+TRACT | ||
| 11. | Second lecture’s about old SE Canadian city (5,3) | ||
| MOOSE JAW | MO(second, as in ‘be there in a mo’)+JAW(lecture, i.e. talk) around O+SE | ||
| 13. | Gloomy king embraced by loved one (5) | ||
| DREAR | R in DEAR surely ‘gloomy’ should lead to ‘dreary’ here? |
||
| 14. | Phone foreign singer about British drug (14) | ||
| PHENOBARBITONE | (PHONE*)+(BARITONE around B) | ||
| 18. | Trooper understanding who’s paying for treatment? (7,7) | ||
| PRIVATE PATIENT | PRIVATE(trooper)+PATIENT(understanding) | ||
| 19. | Circles vowel in error (5) | ||
| LAPSE | LAPS(circles)+E(a vowel) a lapse is an error, sure. But can ‘e’ be defined by ‘vowel’? |
||
| 21. | Small bill sent to one by food company (8) | ||
| WEETABIX | WEE+TAB+I+X(by = x, as in 6 by 2 piece of wood) is weetabix a ‘food company’? |
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| 24. | Really popular result (2,6) | ||
| IN EFFECT | IN+EFFECT; sort of dd | ||
| 25. | Against one girl having to travel west for capital (6) | ||
| VIENNA | V(against, versus)+I+(anne<) | ||
| 26. | Common central spot in fish (8) | ||
| GREENEYE | GREEN(common)+EYE(spot) can’t work out what ‘central’ does in this clue? |
||
| 27. | Trainspotter, a girl, close to track (6) | ||
| ANORAK | A+NORA+(trac)K I guess people that do crosswords in todays ‘Internet’ age are anoraks too |
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| Down | |||
| 1. | Daughter falling off bike makes one be miserable (4) | ||
| MOPE | MOPE(d) in my day, a moped had to have pedals, like the ‘raleigh runabout’, but now these seem to have disappeared, and the law that defines a ‘moped’ |
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| 2. | An alcoholic declines nothing (5) | ||
| DIPSO | (DIPS=declines)+O a dipsomanic, like me |
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| 3. | Country once hell in one area (9) | ||
| ABYSSINIA | ABYSS+IN+I+A | ||
| 5. | Joint requiring oil and hard rubbing (5,6) | ||
| ELBOW GREASE | ELBOW+GREASE and a sort of cd | ||
| 6. | Loathed bowler, say, on journalist (5) | ||
| HATED | HAT(bowler hat)+ED | ||
| 7. | Shiver, unhappy in makeshift bed (9) | ||
| SHAKEDOWN | SHAKE+DOWN | ||
| 8. | Ratty, one criminal lawyer (8) | ||
| ATTORNEY | (RATTY ONE)* | ||
| 12. | BBC wary – joke misguided in nonsense verse (11) | ||
| JABBERWOCKY | (BBC WARY JOKE)* I liked (and only knew of, at the the time) the film |
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| 15. | Brutus, for example, portrayed in a musical, work of art (9) | ||
| HAIRPIECE | HAIR(a musical, lots of naked actors et al)+PIECE(a work of art) a brutus is a type of wig |
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| 16. | Check, having lost top copy (9) | ||
| IMITATION | (l)IMITATION | ||
| 17. | Orthography, it’s what witch is good at? (8) | ||
| SPELLING | sort of cd | ||
| 20. | Petite female caught by rising river (5) | ||
| ELFIN | F in (NILE<) | ||
| 22. | Private meal lacking starter (5) | ||
| INNER | (d)INNER | ||
| 23. | Highly disagreeable row (4) | ||
| RANK | three definitions of RANK | ||
February 6th, 2011 at 7:40 am
Thanks Nick. A few unusual references in the clues and answers this week, but still a straightforward and enjoyable solve. I would like to see Mr. Everyman act as mentor to whoever is setting the Quiptic tomorrow.
Re your comment on 13ac, I doubt if any Australian solvers would have had a problem with this. In the immortal words of Slim Dusty – “But there’s nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer.”
But the antipodeans would have probably been unsettled by 21ac. I grew up eating Weetbix (sic) and was convinced for a while there was an error somewhere. When I finally googled “weetabix” I was directed to “The Weetabix Food Company”. So Mr. Everyman was spot on.
And fortunately I have run across that bizarre alternate meaning of “anorak” before. What is with that?
February 6th, 2011 at 7:59 am
Many thanks, Nick, this was reasonably good.
However, today’s is more challenging: it contains a couple of errors but my lips are sealed.
February 6th, 2011 at 8:11 am
There is definitely a toughening up of ‘Everyman’ going on. Since the new year, I’ve not solved one totally unaided. Some of the Times puzzles have been easier lately. Still, always entertaining. In ‘GREENEYE’, central spot is ‘EYE, as in ‘Eye of a Hurricane’ I think.
February 6th, 2011 at 9:04 am
re 2. above.
7/8/9/8 in Everyman 3358 should be (6,2,8,4,4,8). Apologies.
February 6th, 2011 at 10:41 am
I was led to believe that Everyman was a good introduction to cryptics -but I’m getting nowhere with todays. Solved yesterdays FT in less than an hour so it is either me (certainly possible) or it is genuinely tough.
February 6th, 2011 at 10:57 am
Thanks, Nick.
I agree with AJK – this year there have been some tougher Everyman puzzles. Some more intricate wordplay, perhaps, or some particularly unusual words or definitions. I too had to flirt online to finish this one.
MOOSE JAW, for example, is fair, but it’s not exactly as well known as Quebec, and JAW is a pretty distant synonym for ‘lecture’, I think. So even with crossing letters I was struggling. I thought DREAR was fine and was also okay with E for ‘vowel’.
I was quite surprised to see WEETABIX as an answer, since it’s a company and a trade mark and I wasn’t sure what the house rules were on that. Can’t recall seeing anything similar before.
I’m not sure trainspotters would welcome being called anoraks! (Not that I personally am one, of course). It’s defined as ‘a socially inept or obsessive person with unfashionable and largely solitary interests’. As Nick says, that’s us lot then …
Colin @ no 1: I don’t know where it comes from, but I do remember that trainspotters used to wear anoraks a lot …
Thanks as always to Everyman for the Sunday morning solve.
February 6th, 2011 at 11:07 am
Nice puzzle, and the only valid reason I can think of to give WEETABIX a place in it, is that W?E?A?I? nor W?E?A??? leads to anything sensible.
Having said that, I don’t like it.
It seems to be a trend nowadays to use brand names in solutions, at least in the Guardian (and now in the related Observer).
What’s next? NESCAFE, DANONE, FAMOUS GROUSE, McCAIN’S …..
February 6th, 2011 at 11:10 am
Thanks Everyman for this and today’s correction – before I start it!
Thanks Nick for the good blog.
I thought this was a well-balanced and well-clued puzzle, although I had to look up SHAKEDOWN and MOOSE JAW. I didn’t know that POPE could be used for parish priest (in the Greek Orthodox Church) and, like you, was a bit stumped by the ‘central’ in 26, but I think AJK @3 has probably nailed it. Didn’t know the BRUTUS wig either.
Re. 19, I don’t see why E cannot be clued as ‘vowel,’ after all nobody seems to object to ‘key’ being used for A,B,C,D,E,F,G (and H, apparently.)
February 6th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Well I wouldn’t usually comment on today’s puzzle but since Everyman kindly dropped in to respond to Bryan, it seems fair game.
The online version I solved had (8,8,8,8). I appreciate the correction. Like Bryan I think there is one more error but I am happy to wait until next Sunday to make sure.
February 6th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Tokyo Colin @ 9
Everyman has corrected the only 2 errors that I identified.
I don’t know of any others.
February 6th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
BTW, the clue for 21 in today’s crossword has already been used this week
February 6th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
P.S. I agree with Bryan @10
February 6th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
I quite agree with Sil Van den Hoek @7.
February 6th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Welcome, Menno, and what a surprise!
BTW, I agree with you too
February 6th, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Glad I looked on here and spotted the error – would have caused much headscratching otherwise!
We too have found the last few crosswords far more difficult than previously (always enjoyable though)