Everyman 3,864

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3864.

Much as we have come to expect from Everyman, including the rhyming pair at 3D and 11D, and the ‘primarily’ clue at 6A. There are a few less (or more) than straightforward parsings, and mostly smooth surfaces. I thought 7D the stand-out clue.

ACROSS
1 SPATCHCOCK Spooner’s to ensnare Star Trek character that’s kind of chicken (10)
A Spoonerism of CATCH SPOCK. As a verb, to SPATCHCOCK or butterfly is to prepare meat for quicker cooking by splitting it; as a noun, it is a fowl so prepared.
6 ETHS English thorns; hoary symbols, primarily? (4)
First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘English Thorns Hoary Symbols’. In Old English letters ð eth and Þ thorn were used interchangeably for voiced or unvoiced th.
9 POMERANIAN A Tellytubby and Everyman executed Scotsman’s dog (10)
A charade of PO (‘a Tellytubby’) plus ME (‘Everyman’) plus RAN (‘executed’) plus IAN (crosswordland’s generic ‘Scotsman’).
10 FAIR Pleasing to the eye? Just (4)
Double definition.
12 ORANGE PEKOE Drink and fruit put before dog that’s eaten nothing (6,5)
An envelope (‘that’s eaten’) of O (‘nothing’) in ORANGE (‘fruit’) plus PEKE (‘dog’), for a kind of tea.
15 ECUADOR European Commission regularly ignored Uganda – or another country (7)
A charade of EC (‘European Commission’) plus UAD (‘regularly ignored UgAnDa’) plus ‘or’
16 STEALTH Secrecy as periosteal thrombus suppressed (7)
A hidden answer (‘suppressed’) in ‘perioSTEAL THrombus’.
17 CHORTLE Renovated Chevrolet, ‘less English version’: that’s a laugh (7)
An anagram (‘renovated’) of ‘ch[ev]rolet’ minus EV (‘less English version’). The word CHORTLE was coined by Lewis Carroll.
19 BESTREW Cover loosely with cream; finally, splatter some whiskey (7)
A charade of BEST (‘cream’) plus RE (‘finally splatteR somE)’ plus W (‘whiskey’, radio code).
20 MELANCHOLIA Random call-in at home with no time for gloom (11)
An anagram (‘random’) of ‘call-in a[t] home’, minus the T (‘with no time’).
23 LIVE Recant sin in front of audience (4)
A reversal (‘recant’) of EVIL (‘sin’).
24 ALGORITHMS Presidential hopeful mostly confused Smith with instructions (10)
A charade of AL GOR[e] (‘Presidential hopeful’ of a while back) plus ITHMS, an anagram (‘confused’) of ‘Smith’.
25 AHAB Mahabarata contains OT king (4)
A hidden answer (‘contains’) in ‘mAHABarata’, for the husband of Jezebel.
26 IN PROGRESS Elected Pence and Republican; ‘nasty woman’ finished? Not yet (2,8)
A charade of IN (‘elected’) plus P (‘pence’) plus R (‘Republican’) plus OGRESS (‘nasty woman’}.
DOWN
1 SAPS They’re simple drains (4)
Double definition.
2 ACME Came, scrambling, to peak (4)
An anagram (‘scrambling’) of ‘came’.
3 CARBON DATING Chemical analysis of cat DNA. Boring? Exciting! (6,6)
An anagram (‘exciting’) of ‘cat DNA boring’. I would not have thought of carbon dating as ‘chemical analysis’; the methods used hardly count as chemical.
4 CENTAUR Tiny amount of money: gold rush’s beginning to make you cross (7)
A charade of CENT (‘tiny amount of money’) plus AU (chemical symbol, ‘gold’) plus R (‘Rush’s beginning’). In one version of the story, centaurs were indeed a cross, between the man Centaurus and mares.
5 CHANGES Hang about first base and second for transfers (7)
A charade of C (circa, ‘about’) plus ‘hang’ plus E (‘base’ of Napierian logarithms) plus S (‘second’). ‘First’ indicates the order of the particles.
7 TO A SKYLARK Sky Sports broadcast talk – or a poem (2,1,7)
An envelope (‘sports’) of ‘sky’ in TOALARK, an anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘talk or a’, for Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem.
8 SCREECH OWL Under rock, dog left a bird (7,3)
A charade of SCREE (‘rock’) plus CHOW (‘dog’) plus L (‘left’).
11 SPEEDSKATING Slovakia, not Germany in search for partners for Olympic sport (12)
SPEED [d]ATING (‘search for partners’) with the second D replaced with SK (‘Slovakia not Germany’ IVR in both cases).
13 PEACH MELBA Dish that’s cheap, crude: a kind of toast (5,5)
A charade of PEACH, an anagram (‘crude’) of ‘cheap’ plus MELBA (‘a kind of toast’; both the toast and the peach dish are named after the singer Dame Nellie Melba).
14 YUGOSLAVIA Country a guy’s touring with viola (10)
An anagram (‘touring’) of ‘a guy’s’ plus ‘viola’. A one-time country, of course.
18 ECHELON Rank scent, obscene and frightful, essentially. Musk, perhaps (7)
A charade of ECH (‘scEnt obsCene and frigHtful essentially’) plus ELON (‘Musk, perhaps’)
19 BALFOUR Labour in disarray … entertaining loud PM (7)
An envelope (‘entertaining’) of F (forte, ‘loud’) in BALOUR, an anagram (‘in disarray’) of ‘labour’, for Arthur James Balfour, Prime Minister of the UK, 1902-1905.
21 SHOE Loudly scare off an animal: a mule, perhaps (4)
Sounds like (‘loudly’) SHOO (‘scare off an animal’), for ‘mule’ as a backless slipper or shoe,
22 USES Employs punsters on regular basis (4)
Alternate letters (‘on a regular basis’) of ‘pUnStErS‘.

 

image of grid

31 comments on “Everyman 3,864”

  1. Enjoyed this but didn’t get IN PROGRESS – how could I miss that.

    Liked ORANGE PEKOE, SPATCHCOCK, SCREECH OWL, ALGORITHMS.

    Didn’t manage to parse TO A SKYLARK.

    Thanks to PeterO and Everyman

  3. Also dnp changes, base e known but not coming to mind. Plus a couple of dnk bung and shrugs..Jezobel’s hubby and the Old English letter. Always something to learn. Thanks E and P.

  4. Attempted this as an alternative to the abandoned Sat ‘Prize’.

    Found it a lot harder than expected for an Everyman with some convoluted parsing.

    2.718 known but did not come to mind.

  5. Better than most recent Everymans with a vague dog theme running through it. Completely unwarranted Tellytubby reference made me chortle. I’m not convinced that CHANGES is entirely fair, nor that YUGOSLAVIA can still be defined as ‘country’.

  6. I’d agree with PeterO that this is standard Everyman fare, and none the worse for it.  I’m with Michelle in liking both SHOE and CARBON dating to which I’d add Fiona Anne’s ORANGE PEKOE and SPATCHCOCK.  I’m not always a fan of Spoonerisms but this one made me smile.  And, apart from Jim Kirk, what Star Trek character could there be?

    Yet another OGRESS turns up but what a great surface; particularly in the light of both the result and the timing of the US election.  I also gave ticks for the MELANCHOLIA anagram, the neat TO A SKYLARK with its lovely surface and, given my personal enjoyment of and predilection for puns, USES.  YUGOSLAVIA was clever, once I’d recalled the old country, and, finally, SPEED SKATING is just delightful.  If I allow myself the smallest of beefs, I find the reversal trick between EVIL/LIVE a little tired.  I’ve just seen it so many times before.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO

  7. [Pedro @4: interesting to see you’re here as a consequence of the Saturday Prize.  I’ve been challenged by another poster to give it a try and I’ve managed about half a dozen so far and I’m not finding the same satisfaction as normal but will soldier on.]

  8. One of Everyman’s best crosswords in weeks I thought. I had eight clue ticks which must be a record. All clues were parsable with a bit of effort and nothing too obscure although I’d never heard of ORANGE PEKOE.
    Favourite two clues were ALGORITHMS and ECHELON which both amused me when I saw the celebrity connection. I’ve just noticed that Musk is capitalised so that should have been a bigger clue than it was.

    Many thanks to Peter and Everyman.

     

  9. [Postmark: Likewise half a dozen not knowing where to put them of course. (grid as unhelpful as they get). Best say no more about it I guess. Good luck]

  10. Thanks PeterO and pleased to discover you share my criticism of 3D.
    Carbon analyses nuclear isotopes of a single element. It is a physics not a chemical analysis (unless Everyman got misled by Libby winning the Nobel prize for chemistry for this.) I did like 3A which I thought was a nice surface for a “primarily” clue

  11. [gif @3: – just in case you pop back – before tackling today’s Everyman I’ve just done the Indy on Sunday which contains a clue (my LOI) that would have more meaning for you than most others on this site! ]

  12. A nice mix of fairly do-able with a few head scratchers thrown in. Like Davy, I enjoyed 18d and 24a, also 8d. Think the loose definitions are just how Everyman does it, wish it wasn’t, but there we are. The ‘primarily’ clue is always an easy start, so perhaps should just enjoy it. It’s always fun to read the crits of those who know about subjects, thanks for your input, Cosmic. I’d never have known! Was just pleased to h e solved it.

  13. We might have expected Spock to crop up in a Vulcan puzzle, but he did make for a good Spoonerism. True, YUGOSLAVIA isn’t a country anymore, but there was also Po-land (but not La La Land) and Ecuador, the place head for if you fancy throwing snowballs over the Equator.

  14. I, too, found this a pleasing mix of dead easy and satisfyingly chewy. I was particularly taken with ALGORITHMS.
    [A tiny quibblet with PostMark’s comment about Star Trek characters: for those of a younger generation, Picard, Data and Seven are arguably just as iconic.
    I would get out more, but France is under national lockdown…,]
    Thanks to PeterO and Everyman

  15. Wellbeck @14: that’s an entirely fair challenge and I enjoyed watching all the characters you mention. In my defence I can only point to a classical education! :D.

  16. Like other, I thought “Is CARBON DATING a chemical analysis?” I would have thought it was physics – sorting out isotopes can’t be done chemically. And YUGOSLAVIA ought to be ‘Country once’, surely? I liked the way ALGORITHMS was clued. Still, good fun. Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  17. [Ta muchly for that PostMark @11. Just did the Indy, and yes I can often see it riffling Fishing Boat Harbour, about 1k to the west, and feel it soon after (and yes it was my loi too!)]

  18. [PS we can probably blame test cricket for its entry into the lexicon…it affects the way balls seam and spin and all that..]

  19. Thanks both.

    The clue for 9a misspells Teletubbies. What a horrible image the surface suggests! I always suspected that they weren’t as nice as they pretended to be.

  21. Agreed, typical Everyman fare.

    Just solved today, and found the political refs a tad jarring in light of latest news… guess I’m already trying to look forward and put all that behind me!

    I concur, YUGOSLAVIA could’ve used an indicator… been decades since it was a country.

    [Spoke to a dissident from Yugoslavia while traveling Europe as a young adult in the mid 80s… a fascinating and surprisingly hopeful discussion, yet tragic in retrospect given what befell the region shortly thereafter.]

    Had no issue re “chemical analysis” (and I’ve a physics degree 🙂 ). I took it in the sense of “analyzing the chemical makeup” not “analyzing using chemical techniques”. And while the underlying principle (i.e. radioactive decay of carbon) is based in physics, the typical measurement method (mass spectroscopy) is a staple of modern chemical analysis, and it’s the resulting chemical makeup (specifically the proportions of carbon isotopes) from which sample age is inferred.

    On a lighter note, the high point for me was ACME, a deftly (and ironically) down-to-earth clue that made me smile… quintessential Everyman.

    Tip o’ the hat to setter, blogger, and commenters!

  22. I agree with Odd Otter about carbon dating. Does a country cease to exist when it is no longer a political entity? Poles would certainly claim that Poland was real even when taken over and divided.

    i can’t see ACME without thinking of Roadrunner

  23. I’m with OddOtter @21 on ‘chemical analysis’ being fair. I used to teach radioactivity as part of Chemistry GCSE.

  24. Carbon dating certainly uses tools that chemists also use. Does that make it chemistry? Cabinet makers use tools that riggers also use – does that make cabinet makers riggers (or vice versa)? Probably only a moot point anyway, since chemistry is nothing but a branch of applied physics. As a geologist, I would always think of radiometric dating as an application of physics to geoscientific problems. Countries: I agree that the Polish nation existed right throughout that period up to just after the First World War, but the country didn’t. My Polish father-in-law was quite adamant about that.

  25. TassieTim, not sure I follow the analogy… here we’re talking about a process, not profession. I’d argue anyone (rigger, cabinet maker, or otherwise) who takes a tool typically used on wood, and uses it to in fact shape wood, is performing woodworking, whatever we might call them. Similarly, taking a tool typically used to analyze chemical makeup (literally by counting how many atoms of what type), and in fact using it to determine chemical makeup (and thereby infer age) of a sample, strikes me as performing a process of chemical analysis, regardless of their profession.

    But I agree the line btw chemistry and physics (particularly at this level) is arguably blurry/arbitrary. My old highschool chem text talks about all this (including the underlying radioactive decay theory)… as do comparable physics texts… lots of gray area to haggle over.

  26. Coming to this late, many thanks to PeterO for the parsing of 5 down (E being the base of Napierian logarithms).

    I seem to recall that having discovered the idea of logarithms, Napier spent the rest of his life laboriously calculating natural logarithms (to base e) and it dawned on him just before he died that logarithms to base 10 would have been so much more useful…

    (The other e-related thought comes from an agnostic/atheist friend with a maths degree who remarked once that Euler’s equation -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_identity – came nearer than anything else to making him believe in God)

  29. Got there in the end with a few chortles though needed help with 12 across having never come across the drink or the abbreviated dog breed. Thanks PeterO & Everyman.

  30. We waltzed through this NOT. But it was a good puzzle. Screetch Owl (8d) was tough, as was bestrew (19ac) and orange pekoe (12ac).
    We did it without assistance, and we feel good about that, but old English answers are a bit old, and English…

  31. Needed wildcard dictionaries to get several answers, including “algorithms”.  Kicked myself afterwards in respect of the latter, although I must say that algorithms are *not* instructions as such but rather  are organised *sets* of instructions.  Could not parse “changes” — kept thinking of “first base” as “b”. Sneakily misleading, I thought.  The base of natural logarithms never occurred to me — again kicked myself.  And likewise didn’t figure out “cross” in the clue for “centaur” as referring to “interbreeding”.  Another kick,

    Loved the spatchcock spoonerism, although I needed a (good!) wildcard dictionary to get it.  For some reason I got hung up on “Sulu” as the Star Trek character.

    I agree with others that carbon dating is *not* (even remotely) chemistry, although it was obviously the answer.

    Thanks to Peter O. for the explanations.  Thanks to Everyman for an enjoyable though challenging puzzle.

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