The Observer crossword from Jul 7, 2019
We’re getting used the new-style Everyman, aren’t we?
Three entries in “X and Y” format, a sort of mini Nina, similar to what he did before.
A couple of weeks ago, someone commented saying “Is it just me, or is Everyman no longer a puzzle you would recommend to new solvers?“.
That was (and is), in my opinion, a valid question but this crossword wasn’t too demanding, I think.
Someone else said “There’s a looseness that maybe I need to get used to“.
I am somewhere in the middle – I like the “I’ll stick out my neck” approach but I also miss something that I’d often call finesse.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PEPPER | Pig called out for flavouring (6) |
| Homophone [called out] of PEPPA We all live in different worlds, no? But here’s all about the pig that I hadn’t heard of before: https://www.peppapig.co.uk/ |
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| 5 | THANK GOD | Acknowledge regularly ignored age-old expression of relief (5,3) |
| THANK (acknowledge), followed by the letters 2,4 and 6 of: age–old | ||
| 9 | SATURATE | With no end in sight, planet consumed in flood (8) |
| SATURN (planet) minus the N at the end, followed by ATE (consumed) | ||
| 10 | ICE CAP | I see Europe limit what’s threatened by global warming (3,3) |
| IC (I see, textspeak) + E (Europe) + CAP (limit) If I am honest, this is something that really infuriates me. E is just not ‘Europe’ (it can be ‘European’ or ‘euro(s)’ as jackkt1 @4 rightly explains). Setters who do not care about this (and other abbreviations), well, they won’t make it into my Top 10. |
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| 11 | GLOOM AND DOOM | Person trapped in grand lavatory departs with contrary mood and unpleasant atmosphere (5,3,4) |
| MAN (person) inside {G (grand) + LOO (lavatory) + D (departs)}, followed by a reversal [contrary] of MOOD Gloom and doom? Doom and gloom? (see Davy‘s comment @8). I didn’t think about it for one second, I just wrote it in. While both Chambers and Collins are not interested at all, the ODE gives: “doom and gloom (also gloom and doom)”. And the SOED only mentions what Everyman chose to use. |
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| 13 | SLID | Made smooth moves, fluttering lids (4) |
| Anagram [fluttering] of LIDS The first anagram of this puzzle and an easy one it is. |
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| 14 | AROMATIC | A nameless visionary with a pleasant odour (8) |
| A + ROMANTIC (visionary) minus N (name) | ||
| 17 | DAWN RAID | Surprising appearance of genetic material (lacking nitrogen) startled Darwin (4,4) |
| DNA (genetic material) minus N (nitrogen), followed by an anagram [startled] of DARWIN The solution is a term from the world of stock markets (which is clearly outside my comfort zone). |
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| 18 | AWAY | Far off and regularly war-weary (4) |
| The even letters of: war-weary | ||
| 20 | SAGE AND ONION | Expert with ‘original’ notion: spending time to get seasonal ingredients (4,3,5) |
| SAGE (expert) + AND (with) + an anagram [original] of NOTION without the T (time) Sorry but every time I see “…. and onion …” I have to think of this: Cheese and Onions. [it’s only about a year ago that I saw Neil Innes & Co live (including the inimitable Barry Wom on drums and paper-shredding!)] |
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| 23 | SKATER | ‘Little sister,’ princess admitted, ‘is smooth mover‘ (6) |
| KATE (princess) inside SR (sister, abbreviated) Now, this is another point for discussion. For most mortals, Kate Middleton isn’t a princess but ‘just’ the Duchess of Cambridge (whatever the relevance of that city is). Read this: Kate is … ? |
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| 24 | IMMODEST | Everyman’s introducing two ways to be revealing (8) |
| I’M (Everyman’s) coming before [introducing] MODE (way, of doing things) + ST (way, street) | ||
| 25 | STRADDLE | In her seat, the rider initially will do this! (8) |
| T[he] R[ider] inside SADDLE (seat, of a rider) The clue as a whole is intended to be the definition, so a sort of semi-&lit. I am totally fine with gender equality but, cryptically, I don’t see the need for ‘her’. And the more I think about this clue, the more I find it somewhat messy anyway. |
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| 26 | COYOTE | ‘Shy old Lawrence’ is actually kind of a wolf (6) |
| COY (shy) + O (old) + T.E. (Lawrence, of Arabia) This man. |
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| Down | ||
| 2 | EXAM | Morose at first, and cut up, faced with ordeal at school (4) |
| Reversal [up] of: M[orose] + AXE (cut] The new Everyman is sometimes criticised for his sort of weird definitions. I think, this is one of those. I do not understand ‘faced with’ either. |
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| 3 | PLUGGED-IN | Dragged in to fix something, being clued-up (7-2) |
| LUGGED (dragged) inside PIN ((to) fix (something)) | ||
| 4 | REASON | Absence of emotion in ‘About a Boy’ (6) |
| RE (about) + A + SON (boy) | ||
| 5 | THELMA AND LOUISE | Film in which maidens with auto hell-bent! (6,3,6) |
| Anagram [bent] of: MAIDENS + AUTO HELL I must admit I never saw this 1991 film , not even later when it was on Film 4. Probably because I do not like violent behaviour. As Lord Jim made clear @11, I probably should have underlined more than just ‘film’. Anyone familiar with its content would surely go for a ‘semi-&lit’. |
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| 6 | A BIENTOT | ‘In a while’: translation of note giving French farewell (1,7) |
| Anagram [translation] of NOTE, placed inside A BIT (a while, “see you in a bit”) Here’s one for Cookie. For me, ‘a bientôt’ is something like ‘see you soon’. But that’s not really ‘farewell’, or is it? |
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| 7 | KNEAD | Loudly demand massage (5) |
| Homophone [loudly] of NEED (demand) | ||
| 8 | ORATORICAL | Describing the Speaker‘s wild coital roar (10) |
| Anagram [wild] of COITAL ROAR Orderrrr!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4v7wddN-Wg |
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| 12 | FLEA MARKET | Quick to take in a bit of old cash in sale of old clothes (4,6) |
| A + MARK (bit of old cash), taken in by FLEET (quick) | ||
| 15 | A RAINY DAY | Save for one time cricket won’t be played (1,5,3) |
| (Sort of) Double definition You can save something for a rainy day, can’t you? |
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| 16 | BANNER AD | According to Spooner, conducted a terrible piece of campaigning (6,2) |
| Spoonerism of RAN A BAD (conducted a terrible) Am I the only one who thinks this Spoonerism doesn’t fully work? |
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| 19 | BIG MAC | Black Magic assortment is something avoided by dieters (3,3) |
| B (black) + an anagram [assortment] of MAGIC Wish they would! |
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| 21 | EXTRA | Run outside (5) |
| Double definition Like ‘Erato’, ‘extra’ is one of those crossword entries that have been clued so many times before [ask John Halpern, in particular!] that I would like to keep far from it. Perhaps, Everyman’s idea has been used before but, nonetheless, this is one of the better clues for this chestnutty word. Well, in my opinion, of course. |
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| 22 | PSST | Extremely pious holy man over here (4) |
| P[iou]S + ST (holy man, Saint) And to compensate the female use at 25ac, it’s a man that’s holy here. |
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*anagram
This was quite enjoyable to solve. My favourites were EXTRA, BANNER AD.
I could not parse 1a PEPPER. Hmm, now that I see what it is, I wonder if all the Brits know that theme park (or whatever it is) – it seems very niche GK to me, and it is also the type of branding that I prefer not to see in my crossword puzzles. Surely there are other ways to clue PEPPER?
Thanks Everyman and Sil
Thanks to both and especially Sil for trying to explain this. I found it more awkward than anything.
I disliked PLUGGED IN because of the “in” in the clue and it took a while to convince myself that was the answer.
DAWN RAIDs are used by immigration authorities as well when doing a round up.
BANNER AD was another I found hard to comprehend as it just plain does not work. Besides, I dislike spoonerisms.
The rest? I quite happily go along with the above attached comments. As always, it takes more time than the older Everyman puzzles and is not a write in. But it is doable, if not always enjoyable.
I am doing this week’s puzzle at the moment.
I still really miss the old Everyman.
I think this is the first time in 20+ years that I failed to complete an Everyman puzzle. As boredom set in I eventually used a solver to come up with PLUGGED IN which in retrospect I should have got. That still left me with 16dn outstanding and even using aids I wasn’t able to find the answer to that one – an utterly hopeless clue in my view.
I didn’t think about E = Europe too much as I am used to E = European (in Chambers and the Oxfords) and e = euro(s) (in the Oxfords) which appear regularly in The Times.
I spot a spamlink at #5
Thanks Sil for the blog and excellent comments. I agree with you totally about the Spoonerism: IMHO spoonerisms don’t really work unless you have a two-word phrase where each word begins with a consonant. Also, even though I’m well aware of the existence of Peppa Pig – actually quite a 21st century phenomenon – I did not twig this for ages.
I do feel that Everyman is no longer consistently one to recommend to fledgling cruciverbalists but still mostly enjoyable none the less.
You can’t please all the people all the time as this great website regularly shows.
Thanks Sil and Everyman. Hoping for a great match in the cricket World Cup today with a guaranteed new name on the trophy.
As a beginner I managed to get about 75% filled in. NW corner completely eluded me, as did BANNER AD – which seemed pretty weak…
COD coital roar, for the surface!
I found this easier than last week’s weeks although it did take me a long long time to get the last one which was…you’ve guessed it… BANNER AD which I thought was very poor and not even a proper Spoonerism, more a confusion of words. Nobody has mentioned it yet but the normal expression is DOOM AND GLOOM and I’ve never heard anyone say gloom and doom. I did however find the puzzle quite enjoyable. Thanks to Sil and Everyman.
Thank you Everyman for the puzzle and Sil for a super blog.
Collins gives “see you” and “see you later” as a synonyms for “farewell”, so I suppose “see you soon”, A BIENTOT, is all right…
This was more accessible than recent offerings, but on the whole if this is still a puzzle meant to appeal to beginners, then there’s still a way to go.
I do agree that some of the new Everyman’s definitions are a bit weird. (Particularly in the previous puzzle, “Part of Yorkshire” as the definition for PLAIN FLOUR!)
But I have to say that I thought 5d THELMA AND LOUISE was brilliant and I’m surprised it hasn’t had more comments. Sil, you’ve underlined “Film”, but surely the definition is the whole clue? (I suppose this is technically a semi &lit as “Film in which” isn’t part of the wordplay.)
In 5ac the regular letters of both ignored and age-old give G O D. So why are both there?
Oh whoops. I see I was wrong about ignored.
Pinky, taking letters in a regular way of ‘ignored‘ does not give you GOD.
Unless we have a different view on what ‘regular’ means.
What Everyman wants us to do is to regularly ignore [i.e. to forget about the odd letters in] ’age-old’ which indeed results in GOD.
I was about to make the point about the interchangeability of GLOOM AND DOOM when I noticed Sil’s addendum. Anyway, doom coming last makes more sense.
I don’t get on with Spoonerism clues, but I think the one at 16d is technically fine. It needn’t only involve the transposing of initial letters. BANNER AD = BAN A RAD = RAN A BAD. Would Spooner be incapable of spoonerising banner ad because the second word is two letters and starts with ‘a’? No.
Thanks Everyman, I agree with Sil’s observations.
E = Europe is just sloppy; so is the ‘in’ in 3D. Technically, the Spoonerism works but the meaningless phrase ‘ran a bad’ is not very pleasant. I didn’t like the ‘faced with’ in 2D where ‘resulting from’ or some such could have been used.
There were some nice clues though, and I actually thought the clue for STRADDLE was very good.
Nila @15 It doesn’t matter whether doom coming last makes more sense, the phrase that people use is doom and gloom. If you google “gloom and doom”, the results list transposes the words to doom and gloom.
Davy, it’s not a bone of contention with me, but anyway, the opposite is the case at Collins online – search for doom and gloom… https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/gloom-and-doom
The OED says either is valid.
On again a real struggle. This Everyman is no longer an amusing puzzle, more a trial by ordeal with some very dubious elements in the clues.
I’ve been doing the Everyman for as long as I can remember (at least 40 years) so must have experienced numerous compilers, but the change has never been so noticeable before. I’m seriously considering giving up as it has ceased to be a pleasure – too many sloppy clues which don’t really hang together. So pleased to find this blog, not only for the solutions but to know it’s not just me!
Whilst I agree with all the criticism above, I thought this a better effort from Everyman and rather enjoyed it. I ticked Banner Ad (had to say it a few times both ways first, though), Big Mac and Psst as nice PDM clues.
I did grumble at the repeated ‘in’ in 3D – two weeks in a row we’ve had this inflicted on us. So easily avoided too, ‘Dragged inside…’ for example. I recall Everyman telling us he has checkers – they are not doing him many favours by permitting looseness in a crossword which by its nature should be tighter than most, imho. Is that unduly harsh?
Oh, and Lord Jim @11, we are all different, I loved the ‘part of yorkshire’ def last week!
Stumped on 5D. Didn’t like 16D.
Liked 22D !
Rob.
Got this one out unlike last week, albeit with a question mark against a few answers. I’m with Lord Jim on Thelma & Louise – great &lit anagram, but I guess you have to know the film. Didn’t appreciate the French in the following clue though. Thanks Sil & Everyman.
no problem with Pepper as grandkids have introduced me to the horrid Peppa Pig. Never got banner ad or coyote as I was thinking of the wrong Lawrence! Never seen the film either but knew of its name. Very enjoyable. Thanks sil for filling in the blanks.
Didn’t finish. Liked some but weren’t impressed by others and agreed with Sil’s comments.
I, too, miss the previous setters.
Got it all out. Must admit I didn’t parse 3 down “plugged in” properly, not seeing “pin” = “fix”. Like others, found the repetitiion of “in” in the clue and the answer to be unacceptable.
Like Sil I believe that the Spoonerism in 16 down doesn’t quite work.
Aside from that, I found this puzzle to be pretty good. Perhaps a few “tweezies”, e.g. 5 down was unbelievably obvious.
Completing them but they are not using consistent conventions and sometimes with downright sloppy slang.