Another pleasing Sunday puzzle from Everyman, with the usual features: the ‘primarily’ clue, the paired long rhyming couplet, and the Grauniad misprint to confuse newer solvers.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Hoopla’s mainly@ restricting vital supply
PLASMA
There seems to be a random ‘at’ sign in the middle of this clue, in both the online and pdf versions. Given that my blogging colleague Quirister had to deal with half a clue missing last week, I’ll consider myself lucky. Hidden in (‘restricting’) HooPLAS MAinly.
4 Something sharp, with soda, knocked back somewhere in W Indies
BARBADOS
A charade of BARB and SODA reversed.
9 ‘Vroom’, ‘mwah’, ‘nosh’ oddly missing in book of Bible
ROMANS
The even (‘oddly missing’) letters of the first three words of the clue gives you the New Testament book.
10 In retrospect, playground superb, having banished quiet crazy demonic dog
CERBERUS
A charade of REC (short for ‘recreation ground’) reversed and (SU[P]ERB)* The reversal indicator is ‘in retrospect’; the removal indicator for the P for musically ‘quiet’ is ‘having banished’; the anagrind is ‘crazy’. CERBERUS is the multi-headed dog in Greek mythology who guarded the gates to the Underworld to prevent escape, and is also to be found in the phrase ‘a sop to Cerberus’, meaning an appeasement or a bribe.
12 Almost no-one sang about geometric figures
NONAGONS
(NOON[E] SANG)* Another subtractive anagram: the last letter removal indicator is ‘almost’.
13 Briefly hit it off … before he delivers trite observation
CLICHÉ
A charade of CLIC[K] and HE.
14 Prepared communal rice that won’t appeal to all
UNCOMMERCIAL
(COMMUNAL RICE)*
18 A land manager ordered hefty bill
AN ARM AND A LEG
(A LAND MANAGER)* Nice spot for the anagram.
21 Everyman’s quiet, regularly kitschy and rascally
IMPISH
A charade of I’M (‘Everyman is’), P once more for the musically ‘quiet’ and ISH for the even letters of kItScHy.
22 Promo: ‘Bracket is tolerable!’
ADEQUATE
A charade of AD and EQUATE.
24 Without warning, secretive, underground hollow lair invaded
SUDDENLY
An insertion of UD for the outside letters (‘hollow’) of ‘underground’ and DEN in SLY. The insertion indicator is ‘invaded’.
25 Primarily, very elevated landscapes; dry treeless soil?
VELDTS
The initial letters of the last six words of the clue, and a cad.
26 Author knocked back rum, also known as ‘Molasses Intoxicator’ initially
MURAKAMI
No, I hadn’t either, but it’s clearly clued: a reversal of RUM, AKA and MI for the first letters of ‘molasses indicator’. Haruki MURAKAMI, Japanese author.
27 Starters of souvlaki and kofta put before Cypriots regularly in Greek island
SKYROS
Plenty of first letter indications in this puzzle. Here, the initial letters of ‘souvlaki’ and ‘kofta’, followed by the even letters of cYpRiOtS.
Down
1 Prune man stewed for a year
PER ANNUM
(PRUNE MAN)*
2 Alabama graduate to scrutinize regressive reference works
ALMANACS
A charade of AL, MA and SCAN reversed.
3 Staff keeps nametag that’s misprinted, showing core competencies etc
MANAGEMENT SPEAK
The surface is a bit meaningless, but it’s a charade of MAN and (KEEPS NAMETAG)* MANAGEMENT SPEAK (aka corporate jargon, or less kindly, business bullsh*t) is certainly irritating, but ‘core competencies’ is not the worst I’ve ever come across. ‘Are we all on the same page?’ (13 across). ‘Let’s touch base offline’ (you mean you want to meet up in person?). ‘We need to shoot the puppy’ (no, no).
5 Space that’s less humid, we’re told
AREA
A homophone (‘we’re told’) of AIRIER.
6 Dish of leftovers: undercooked mouse stew might do this
BUBBLE AND SQUEAK
A cd cum dd, and taking us into shoot the puppy territory. The two clues (this and 3dn) form the characteristic ‘rhyming couplet’ that Everyman usually gives us among the long answers.
7 Frank Capra’s job was to do this
DIRECT
A cad. The adjectival definition is ‘frank’, but Frank Capra was also a famous film director.
8 Nurse, one that’s got into habits
SISTER
A dd, the second one referencing the head of the nunnery.
11 Make more attractive posterior: lop off slice at first, then swap sides
ENDEAR
Everyman is inviting you to find REAR END as a synonym of ‘posterior’, remove the first letter and then reverse the two syllables: so EAR END becomes END EAR.
15 Reportedly scratched a Monet
CLAUDE
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of CLAWED.
16 Plant described by Actinobole and Ericaceae
OLEANDER
Hidden in ActinbOLE AND ERicaceae.
17 Horrible women love exits being unopened
OGRESSES
A charade of O for love (as in tennis) and [E]GRESSES.
19 ‘Thick Scum’ not about to become takeaway staple
DIM SUM
A charade of DIM and S[C]UM.
20 On the radio, noticed a creepy-crawly
SPIDER
Another homophone (‘on the radio’) of SPIED A. It’s not a homophone for those with rhotic pronunciation, but we have had this discussion lots of times. The clue is fine. Really. Truly.
23 Glitzy girl losing heart in the morning
GLAM
A charade of G[IR]L and AM.
Many thanks to Everyman for this morning’s puzzle.
I found this pretty straightforward, except right at the end, when I couldn’t figure out 11d at all – until I realised I had lazily put NONOGRAM at 12a. Once that was fixed, I saw what 11d must be. Like you, Pierre, no idea what the @ was doing in 1a – I just ignored it. Nothing much stood out for me, as either exceptionally good, or questionable – though my heart sank at 16d… until I saw the clever inclusion. I have not only heard of MURAKAMI – I have read several of his books. Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.
This was quite tricky I found, but I got there in the end. A couple of quibbles with the blog: The anagram for 1UNCOMNERCIAL should be (communal rice). And a SISTER is any nun (in a habit); an abbess or prioress would be the specific sister who is head of the nunnery. Thank you for the explanation of ENDEAR ehich had me flummoxed. My favourite was OLEANDER. Merci beaucoup to Pierre and to Everyman.
(Now waiting in an insomniac way for this week’s to appear in the app…)
*14 UNCOMMERCIAL* Sorry!
I was slightly less keen on this one in general. ROMANS and ENDEAR in particular seemed a bit weak, though I did enjoy ALMANACS, BUBBLE AND SQUEAK, and DIRECT gave me a good chuckle. Thank you for the blog-particularly for CERBERUS which I failed to fully parse!
two uses of ‘knocked back’ in same puzzle felt a bit clumsy, and surely a better clue could be found for ROMANS… still, I enjoyed the rest as it was within my range
Congrats TassieTim on having read the author, a nho for me. Yes, ignored the @, and had a pleasant enough Sunday stroll. 18ac reminded me of the old one in which God sees that Adam needs a wife and gives him an exhaustive sales pitch on how delicious and devoted she will be. Adam: What will it cost? God: An arm and a leg. Adam: What would I get for a rib?
DIRECT was a good concept that didn’t really follow through – I preferred SISTER out of the dds this week. ADEQUATE was neat, though; one of the better bits of an underwhelming Everyman.
7d had me flummoxed for much too long. The obvious answer was DIRECT, but as far as I could see it was just a straightforward definition, as Frank Capra was of course a director. Eventually I twigged that it broke down into “Frank” (definition) and “Capra’s job was to do this” (second definition). A strange situation where you get the answer straight away and the struggle is to see why it is cryptic!
Apart from that I really liked the prune man stewing in 1d.
Many thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Fairly straightforward Everyman. Good rhyming couplets.
The clue for DIRECT may be a cad, but it is also a double definition. As you point out in the blog, frank = direct and the rest is the second definition.
I’m not sure what ‘Prune man stewed for a year’ means, although the wordplay is OK. I didn’t much like the ‘swap sides’ in 11D; maybe ‘parts’ or some such would have been more accurate.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre @ blog.
TassieTim, I did exactly what you did: meant nonagon and wrote nonagram. Took me ages to spot the deliberate mistake. I am with all others who queried 7d: still cannot see any cryptic element despite Pierre’s vey welcome best efforts. Overall, relatively straightforward and finished in pretty quick time. Thanks, Pierre, the explanations are always welcome, for some of the arcane clueing!
I, too, hesitated for an age over 7d, since DIRECT clearly wasn’t cryptic. And then it occurred to me that it is, of course, a direct and frank response. Which made it pretty neat, I felt.
I liked DIM SUM and am another who’s read some of Murakami‘s books. In fact, since he was the only author I could think of whose name begins “Mur…” I felt sure it was he – but embarrassingly, actually had to stare hard at the clue for a moment or two before twigging the rest of the parsing. Oh dear.
Also embarrassingly, I’ve always spelled it “Almanack”, but after consideration, switched the k for an s to make a plural. My excuse is that it was early in the morning. I get much more inspired after a lunchtime drink…
Thanks to Pierre and Everyman
Sara: 7d is indeed a highly unusual clue, because on the one hand it would work perfectly well as a non-cryptic clue in the Guardian’s Quick Crossword. On the other hand however it does also work as a cryptic clue, because as Robi and I said above, it can be read as a double definition – “Frank” = “direct”, in the sense of honest or open, and “Capra’s job was to do this” also means “direct”. And, as Pierre points out, the entire clue can also be read as the definition. I can’t quite make my mind up whether all this makes it brilliant or just a bit of an oddity!
Robi: what’s wrong with the surface of 1d? A “prune man” (someone whose job is to do with prunes) stewed them for a year. Perfectly normal situation…
Thanks for the elucidation and other thoughts on 7dn. It certainly could be read as a double definition, or as a clue as definition – slightly unusual construction, but one where once you’ve looked at it a few times, it makes good sense.
I’ve corrected the typo – thank you, Beobachterin.
Lord Jim @12 & Robi @9: I read 1d’s surface as referring to a prune (that a) man (had) stewed for a year with the words in parenthesis implied.
I thought DIRECT was very clever when I solved it. I am always hazy about precisely what constitutes an &lit but I thought it was there or thereabouts. What is the difference between &lit and cad? I’ve seen comments before which suggest any additional words prevent the &lit from being one. If the clue had been shortened to, say, “Frank Capra did this” or even “Frank Capra’s job”, would that have worked?
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
Mark: yes on reflection your reading of the surface of 1d is slightly more sensible than mine, thanks.
There was quite an extensive discussion of the meanings of cad and &lit on last week’s Everyman blog.
Lord Jim @15: this is my first time here (I think I recall it being your suggestion when I mentioned doing old Guardian puzzles on a Sunday). I shall look at last week’s discussion. Many thanks.
Hi Mark. Welcome to Fifteensquared. Last week’s discussion might, as Lord Jim says, give you some insight into the use of &lit and cad. On another topic, in the hope that you might comment again, there is already a ‘Mark’ who comments often on the Guardian thread, so you might want to think of another crossword name to use when you check in again.
Pierre @17: thanks for the welcome. And I believe I am that very Mark who comments at such length and so frequently on the Guardian blogs! Apologies for that. I was uncharacteristically succinct earlier :D. As I said, I think Lord Jim commended Everyman to me a few weeks ago. (And, funnily enough, another Mark did pop up on the Guardian recently and graciously conceded the moniker and went, I think, for Mark2!)
Evening Mark. You did in fact confuse me by leaving such a short comment. Welcome to this thread, then.
Cheeky devil!
Sorry, I see now that the clue for 1D should be read as: Prune, man stewed for a year.’ So, that’s OK then [but not ‘prune man’ which is somewhat nonsensical.]
Interesting choice of director in the clue for 7d. Many younger solvers will have not heard of Frank Capra. Maybe a film director from the past 20 or 30 years could have been used – Scorsese, Coppola, Speilberg, Cameron, etc?
Liked MURAKAMI – and I love hsi novels, too
Did not parse 11d END/EAR.
Thanks, B+S
Reasonably easy solve, no quibbles, thanks Pierre and EM
We got this done by morning tea, a record for us! Nothing too strenuous which is perfect for a bank holiday weekend here in NZ.
Liked this. Favourite was Claude.
This is the first Everyman I’ve found to be disappointingly simple. At last I can relate to the oft-blogged term “gentle stroll”.
Are the antipodeans solving the NZ Herald Weekender or an online Observer?
Good fun, straightforward other than not knowing 10ac. Not sure “bracket” equates with “equate”, but got there.
Enjoyed DIRECT after deciphering Frank
Are the antipodeans solving the NZ Herald Weekender or an online Observer?
Good fun, straightforward other than not knowing 10ac. Not sure “bracket” equates with “equate”, but got there.
Enjoyed DIRECT after deciphering Frank
Ok version this week. Liked 22a adequate.
Struggled with 9 down (LOI). Can never get used to the fact that Poms don’t pronounce the letter “R”.
Was nonplussed by “bracket” == “equate” in 22 across. Don’t get this at all.
Didn’t get the “frank = direct” bit in 7 down, but put in the answer anyway, with an ‘Oh well, what the hell.” Also failed to completely parse 11 down. And then felt a bloody fool when I saw Pierre’s explanation. (Thanks Pierre.)
I found 26 across to be very easy, since Murakami is one of my favourite authors. As a rather hopeless jogger (totterer) I particularly enjoyed his “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”.
Overall a very enjoyable puzzle.