‘Good morning one and all’ is the usual opening from Lorraine, when it is the Trafites’ turn to blog – but this week they are on a well-earned break, and I have the rare and occasional pleasure of an Everyman to cover. So ‘Good morning one and all’ from me, instead…
This had all the hallmarks of an Everyman – a few relatively quick gets (for me anyway) – OBESE, LOOSE, CHARGE, AORTA – to get a foothold; some real names – usually not too modern, as here with GLENN MILLER and ORSON WELLES, who was nicely misdirected towards Peter Sellers! – and a couple of &lit-ish/cryptic definitions – LENDING LIBRARY and CHINESE NEW YEAR. And a little sting in the tail – again for me – was my LOI with ASPIRATE, which took a while to parse, even though there weren’t too many candidates to fit the crossing letters… A wonderful image of a French pirate dropping his aitches ensued – ‘Aaargh me ‘earties – Allo Allo – leesten carefully, I weel parse this only wance”…
All in all a pleasant diversion for a Sunday morning, and I hope Lorraine and Nick had a pleasant diversion too…
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1A | CHARGE | Attack daily, say, from the rear (6) | Attack / CHAR (charlade, cleaner, daily) + GE (e.g., or ‘say’, backwards, or ‘from the rear’) |
| 4A | PORPOISE | Mammal having little power or balance (8) | Mammal / P (power, abbreviation, or ‘little’) + OR + POISE (balance) |
| 9A | ASPIRE | Hope for high praise (6) | Hope for / anag (i.e. high) of PRAISE |
| 10A | ASPIRATE | A Parisian doesn’t like to poach? (8) | (Something) a Parisian doesn’t (do) / AS (like) + PIRATE (transitive verb, to steal, or poach) |
| 11A | SON OF A GUN | Person’s expression of mild annoyance (3,2,1,3) | double defn. / jocular form of address for a rogue or a rascal (person); also an American interjection (mild expression of annoyance) |
| 13A | LOOSE | Free, toilets at end of esplanade (5) | Free / LOOS (toilets) + E (last letter, end, of esplanade) |
| 14A | CHINESE NEW YEAR | When goat follows horse, perhaps (7,3,4) | CD/&lit? / Goat follows Horse in the sequence of Chinese New Year |
| 17A | LENDING LIBRARY | Things in here are bound to be borrowed (7,7) | ditto?! / The books (things) in a library (here) are bound, and are there to be borrowed… |
| 21A | AORTA | Vessel from China or Taiwan (5) | (Blood) vessel / hidden word in ‘ChinA OR TAiwan’ |
| 22A | INSIDE OUT | Batting team dismissed, comprehensively (6,3) | comprehensively / IN (batting, cricket) + SIDE (team) + OUT (dismissed) |
| 24A | ADAMS ALE | Water, alas, made impure (5,3) | Water / anag (i.e. impure) of ALAS MADE |
| 25A | NO FEAR | Certainly not name of listener (2,4) | Certainly not / N (name) + OF + EAR (listerner) |
| 26A | OVERTURE | Open University about to make a proposal (8) | a proposal / OVERT (Open) + U (University) + RE (about) |
| 27A | ANGELA | A new member returned, a woman (6) | (a) woman / A + N (new) + GEL (leg, or member, returned) + A |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | CLASS ACT | Outstanding performer, in form, to play (5,3) | Outstanding performer / CLASS (form, in school) + ACT (to play) |
| 2D | ASPEN | Almost done in, lying beneath a tree (5) | (a) tree / A + SPEN(T) – almost spent, or ‘done in’ |
| 3D | GIRAFFE | Animal’s mistake crossing one river (7) | Animal / G_AFFE (mistake) around (crossing) I (one) + R (river) |
| 5D | ORSON WELLES | Actor, Sellers, won Oscar? Unlikely (5,6) | Actor / anag (i.e. unlikely) of SELLERS WON + O (Oscar, phonetic alphabet) |
| 6D | PAISLEY | Quiet passageway leading to yard in Scottish town (7) | Scottish town / P (piano, quiet, musical) + AISLE (passageway) + Y (leading letter of yard) |
| 7D | INAMORATA | Maria, not a fickle lover (9) | lover / anag (i.e. fickle) of MARIA NOT A |
| 8D | EYELET | Sounds like I allowed for a small opening (6) | a small opening / homophone – EYELET sounds like I + LET (allowed) |
| 12D | GLENN MILLER | Bandleader in valley around noon to meet factory owner (5,6) | Bandleader / GLE_N (valley) around N (noon) plus (meeting) MILLER (owner of a mill, or factory) |
| 15D | INEBRIATE | Drunkard at home with it, a beer, possibly (9) | Drunkard / IN (at home) + EBRIATE (anag, i.e. possibly, of IT A BEER) |
| 16D | HYSTERIA | Panic this year in resort (8) | Panic / anag (i.e. resort) of THIS YEAR |
| 18D | DEAD SET | Absolutely boring group (4,3) | Absolutely / DEAD (boring) + SET (group) |
| 19D | BED DOWN | Retire for the night in base, lying on soft feathers (3,4) | Retire for the night / BED (base) plus (lying on) DOWN (soft feathers) |
| 20D | HAD A GO | Tried hotel in the past, after seeing small advertisement (3,1,2) | Tried / H (hotel) + AD (advertisement, abbreviated, i.e. ‘small’) + A GO (in the past) |
| 23D | OBESE | Corpulent old boy represented at the centre (5) | Corpulent / OB (old boy) + ESE (central letters of ‘reprESEnted’) |
Thanks, mc_rapper67
Everything was straightforward except 18d, which I solved of course, but couldn’t (and still can’t) see how “dead set” can mean “absolutely”.
I still don’t get the ASPIRATE clue.
Thanks for blogging, mc, and hope Lorraine and Nick have had a good holiday.
No old films this week, but an old actor in ORSON WELLES, which I particularly liked.
AJK, ASPIRATE is a charade of AS PIRATE, as mc explains, and refers to the fact that French speakers don’t aspirate the ‘h’ at the front of words, so hôtel will sound like ‘otel’ and homme will sound like ‘omme’. Which is why French speakers find it very difficult to aspirate h’s in English and will say things like ‘I’m very ‘appy today’. The definition is ‘A Parisian doesn’t’. It was my last one in.
I too am struggling to see how DEAD SET could replace ‘absolutely’.
Ah, crosser @ 1, how lucky you are to be able to toss in that casual “of course”.
Great blog – many thanks.
Didn’t manage to finish NE corner as completely missed EYELET; nice clue, though. I thought 10ac had to be ASPIR— but didn’t get it.
Regarding 18dn., how about
DEAD = absolutely as in “you’re dead right, mate”?
As I often find with Everyman there is often one clue (amongst the gems) that I struggle with. This week it’s ASPIRATE – French people do sometimes pronounce “H” as in for example “Les Halles” and “la haie” (but then again I have a well-developed tendency to pedantry).
Thanks mc,
Your blog is very precise with all clues neatly explained. The puzzle was enjoyable as ever and like others,
I puzzled over ASPIRATE for ages. I’m not keen on the clue as I think the definition ‘A Parisian doesn’t’ is
pretty vague to say the least. Also this particular meaning of aspirate would not be known to many. However,
I did like CHINESE NEW YEAR, INSIDE OUT, ORSON WELLES and HYSTERIA. Thanks Everyman.
It took me almost as long to see ASPIRATE is it did to solve the rest of the puzzle, and it felt like a clue that had been added by a different setter.
As far as 18dn is concerned, if I was “dead set” against something I would be “absolutely” against it.
Bonjour Jovis.
Without wanting to turn mc’s blog into an arcane debate about French pronunciation, vous avez tort, I’m afraid. The French never, ever, aspirate the H at the front of words. The two words you have given would be pronounced ‘Les alles’ and ‘la aie’. They do both start with what the French confusingly call H aspiré, but it’s not aspirated. The difference is that you don’t make the liaison with H aspiré, so while les hôtels sounds like ‘lez otel’ les halles sounds like, well, les halles, with no z sound. Another H aspiré word is ‘héro’. So ‘the heroes’ is les héros [lay ay ro]. If you get it wrong and make the liaison, you’ll end up with [lay zay ro], which is les zéros, the zeros. Hero to zero in one quick step.
I’ll stop now. Terms and conditions apply. Other providers of French language tuition are available.
You can say ‘he was dead set against going’ in which case it does mean ‘absolutely’. I had no groan ers in this one, just a gentle jog through.
Kathryn’s Dad @ 7
Merci bien – I completely accept your points. Thanks for being so witty in the complete demolition of my position.
Hero to zero in one quick step, c’est moi
Not at all hero to zero, Jovis. Very many learners of French have made the same assumption, because the French do call it H aspiré when it’s anything but. Why? To hack off foreigners, perhaps.
And okay, DEAD SET can mean ‘absolutely’ in the context that others have kindly given.
Flipping heck, ten comments on an Everyman and it’s not even midday BST. We should invite mc to guest blog more often.
I was just coming back to contradict Jovis @4 – in the nicest possible way – when I saw that K’s Dad had already done it, and with style!
Rather than adding to the examples already given, I’d like to mention a strange phenomenon: the word “onze” in French is treated as if it had an H aspiré. In other words, you say “Un enfant de onze ans”, not “un enfant d’onze ans” (cf “un enfant d’un an”). How’s that for a piece of useless information?
Useless? Maybe but I like it – I am trying to improve my French at the moment so snippets like that are welcome. Thanks!
Thanks for all the comments and feedback – and French grammar lessons! Apologies for the lack of response from me but I have been stuck on a campsite in a field in Dorset with the flakiest of mobile/internet coverage for the last 4 days…back to ‘civilisation’ now.
I think ‘ASPIRATE’ has been covered pretty well by the comments above – a ‘charade’ is a much better categorisation than I gave it, thank-you K’s Dad – as has ‘DEAD SET’. These two seemed to have caused the most head scratching amongst the solvers commenting here.
At the current rate, I’ll be on for another Everyman blog in about two years…see you then!
Thanks from NZ for the above entertaining blogs-it’s almost worth being three weeks behind!
I really enjoyed this week’s challenge while simultaneously keeping an eye on three young grandchildren.
Great fun once again.
Had a lot of trouble with the top left corner and of course I didn’t get aspirate either. But I too enjoyed the above comments especially Kathryn’s Dad.
I also struggled with Aspirate and I’m in two minds whether it’s very clever or too clever by half
Thanks Everyman and mc_rapper
My favourites were 17a, 18d, 22a, 5d, 4a.
I failed to solve 10a but I now see that it is very clever and amusing. I also needed help to parse 11a.
New for me was “Adam’s Ale”, but I have heard people use “dead set against it” so that was not new for me.
Hi,
Coming to this very late (I’m working backwards through the online archive) – the explanation for 26A (OVERTURE – Open University about to make a proposal) seems to be missing. I was actually penning this to get some help with the answer as I was stuck, but it’s just come to me! I was snagged on OU and RE, wondering what on earth VERT was about. I’ve just twigged it’s OVERT for open, and of course U for University + RE for about. D’Oh!!
Kevin
Thanks, Kevin – a good spot and a blast from the past…keeping me on my toes…obviously a bit of a cut-n-paste error there…have updated the blog..