Everyman 3,799

by

The Observer crossword from Aug 4, 2019

The ‘new’ Everyman’s style is becoming quite a consistent one.


Slightly more demanding than the previous puzzle which was perhaps the easiest of all so far.
Just the right level this time, also less ‘loose definitions’.
As ever, a few rather ‘original’ indicators.
Once more, a lot of anagrams but many solvers seem to like them.
And, as we’ve come to expect, an extra (or, if you want, a nina) across the perimeter.
Today we had four ex-PMs at the beginning of each of the long ones.
Such a pity Boris couldn’t join them.

Across
1 HEATH-ROBINSON Over-complicated airport unfinished with, oddly, no bins (5-8)
HEATHROW (airport) without the W at the end, followed by an anagram [oddly] of NO BINS
In the Seventies I had two books (one was a present, the other was one I bought) of Heath Robinson’s inventions. Great fun but I gave it to a charity shop.
Didn’t know there was a hyphened version being the adjective meaning what Everyman tells us it is.
Never heard of Heath Robinson?  Find out more about him here .
10 REBUT Prove the stupidity of ‘Jerusalem artichoke turnover’? (5)
Reversal [turnover] of TUBER (Jerusalem artichoke, being an example – hence question mark)
11 BONE CHINA Fillet chum – and serve on this (4,5)
BONE (fillet, as a verb) + CHINA (chum, crosswords’ favourite pal)
One of these definitions that some will find a bit loose.
12 WORKMATES Team assembled in factory? (9)
Anagram [assembled] of TEAM, going inside WORKS (factory)
Nice clue, &lit.
13 ERATO Embodiment of love in opera (Tosca) (5)
Hidden answer [in]:   opera Tosca
Perhaps, the word most clued in Crosswordland.
She was the muse of lyric love poetry which is not exactly the same as  ’embodiment of love’. Or is it?
14 I FOR ONE Rhetorical expression that was taught in Roman kindergartens? (1,3,3)
In Roman numerals “I” represents “one”, as perhaps being taught in kindergartens in Rome
Did they have ‘kindergartens’ in ancient Rome?
Good clue, though.
16 ECHOING In England, choir endlessly making the same sounds (7)
CHOI[r] inside ENG (England)
Not very difficult and so, quickly found.
I began already shouting at Everyman that (s)he shouldn’t use ENG for England.
How wrong was I ….
18 PER CENT Being sorry, repent 100% (3,4)
Anagram [being sorry] of REPENT C (100)
20 SINKS IN Becomes absorbed by invigorating ski inns (5,2)
Another anagram [(by) invigorating], this time of SKI INNS
22 INBOX Emails appear here when genius removes underwear (5)
BRAINBOX (genius) minus BRA (underwear)
For those interested in crosswords and pop music [I know, a clear minority]:
Brainbox were a Dutch late 60s band that produced some superb records but never made it internationally.
That said, their guitar player went on to achieve greater things: Jan Akkerman, the heart of Focus.
A long time ago, Knut had a crossword based around the American band Mountain.
Every time I hear their excellent For Yasgur’s Farm, I hear Brainbox.
[Sorry – nothing to do with this clue/puzzle]
24 TEDDY BEAR Dry debate regurgitated for childhood companion (5,4)
Anagram [regurgitated] of DRY DEBATE
One of these anagram indicators that I’d never seen before but are clearly meant to be as such.
26 TECHNICAL Industrial demolition of ethnic state (9)
Anagram [demolition] of ETHNIC, followed by CAL (state, Alabama California)
27 OCTAL Old corsair that’s amassed Liberians’ first pieces of eight (5)
First letters [pieces] of : Old corsair that’s amassed Liberians’
Very precise definition but – unless I miss something – I do not see why Everyman chose to use ‘Liberians’ [but I don’t get the surface reading anyway].
28 MAYNARD KEYNES Rampantly keen, as my randy economist (7,6)
And why not one more anagram? Of: KEEN AS MY RANDY, indicated by ‘Rampantly‘
Maynard Keynes
Down
2 EMBARGO Everyman turned up: pub with green light to restrict sales (7)
Reversal [turned up] of ME (Everyman, how our setter sees him or herself) + BAR (pub) + GO (green light)
3 TOTEM POLE To admit love in place of worship is symbol of solidarity (5,4)
TO, followed by O (love) inside TEMPLE (place of worship)
The cryptic grammar here only works if you see ‘admit’ as an imperative.
4 ROBOT Cold fish: starters of roach or tail-end of turbot (5)
First letters [starters] of:   roach or , followed by the second part [tail-end] of TURBOT
5 BANISTERS Restyling stairs with Ben to get handy feature there (9)
Anagram [restyling] of STAIRS + BEN
6 NICHE Recess getting hot in French resort (5)
H (hot) inside NICE (French resort)
7 ORIGAMI Japanese tradition puts outfit on duck, essentially beaming (7)
O (duck, nothing) with RIG (outfit) attached to it, + [be]AMI[ng]
In a down clue, ‘on’ is usually applied the other way round.
See it as ‘attached to’ and it works.
8 BROWNIE POINTS Cake with sharp ends getting commendations (7,6)
BROWNIE (cake) + POINTS (sharp ends)
9 MAJOR-GENERALS Officials needing great blanket to be put on sons (5-8)
MAJOR (great) + GENERAL (blanket) + S (sons)
For those who think S = ‘son’, think twice: it can be ‘sons’ too.
15 ESTATE CAR Distinguished gallery investing in Wacky Races vehicle (6,3)
TATE (distinguished gallery) inside an angram [wacky] of RACES
Crosswordland’s favourite vehicle (together with Audi).
For me, this clue could have done without ‘distinguished’.
17 HUNKY-DORY Lovely strong swimmer (5-4)
HUNKY (strong) + DORY (swimmer, a fish)
David Bowie? Don’t get me starting.
19 REBECCA Woman concerning a certain Boris, we’re told (7)
RE (concerning) + a homophone [we’re told] of BECKER (a certain Boris, Boris Becker, former tennis player)
My pick of the bunch today, just wonderful.
21 SCEPTRE Fervid respect for symbol of monarchy (7)
(One last) Anagram [fervid] of RESPECT
Never encountered the word’ fervid’ (only ‘fervent’) but it is OK as an anagram indicator.
23 XENON Gas produced by kiss not at all uplifting (5)
Reversal [uplifting] of: NONE (not at all) + X (kiss)
25 DALEK ‘Doctor’ hates to see this beer in Denmark (5)
ALE (beer) inside DK (Denmark, on cars)
Clearly Doctor Who:  Dalek .
Just recently, the screen debut of the Daleks (in 1963) has been named “the greatest Sci-Fi television moment of all time”.

 

31 comments on “Everyman 3,799”

  3. This puzzle seemed easier than previous weeks.

    My favourites were DALEK, I FOR ONE, INBOX
    New for me: HEATH ROBINSON.

    I parsed 26ac the same way as Dave@1.
    I totally missed the theme of UK PMs.

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

  4. Re MAJOR-GENERALS, surely those who hold high military rank are referred to as ‘officers’ not as ‘officials’.

  5. 14a. Well I for one still don’t understand the “kindergartens” part of the clue. Why not just “as perhaps as taught in Rome”, or “…in Latin primers”?

  7. Entertaining crossword with some nice clues; my favourite was the one for WORKMATES.

    Despite Sil trying to be nice, the ‘on’ in a Down clue means ‘on top of’ and is wrong here in 7D, in my opinion.

    A couple of points in the blog: the ‘choir endlessly’ in 16A is CHOI(r) and as others have pointed out the state in 26A is CAL.

    Thanks Everyman and Sil.

  8. I enjoyed this.  Favourites were 18a PER CENT (very clever to have the per cent sign as the definition) and 25d DALEK (though I didn’t think the quote marks were necessary).  Also 19d REBECCA was great – how many people initially thought like me that the “Boris” was going to be Johnson?

    I failed to spot the PMs – thanks for that Sil.

    jackkt1 @4: I think Everyman might have been thinking of the rule of the Major-Generals under Cromwell.  They were political as well as military figures.

  9. I thoroughly enjoyed this, it seemed of a standard with the  Everyman of yesteryear, plus the nina, which, somehow, I missed despite looking for it. My only quibble was as jackt1 @ #4 points out: major generals are officers not officials, aren’t they? Only worked out how the roman numerals worked when I re-read it today.

    Sil, what’s the connection between the bands Focus and Mountain? As it happens I saw them both but I remember them having very different styles. Presumably Yasgur’s Farm refers to the Woodstock Festival.

    Thanks to both blogger and setter.

  10. It didn’t start well for me with the very first clue – having ‘no bins’ as an anagram for ‘binson’ was pretty weak. But it got better from there. Missed the parsing on workmates.

     

    Thanks to Sil and Everyman.

  11. An enjoyable puzzle from a setter who is defiantly libertarian in his/her approach and who sometimes takes liberties as in PER CENT which I always thought was one word.
    Lots to like here although I missed the PMs : Dalek was good and I liked the use of Wacky Races which amused me.
    Thanks to Sil and Everyman.

    Regarding Mountain,  I remember seeing Leslie West as part of the Night of the Guitars tour. He came on with a small electric guitar which had no tuning pegs, hit a chord and it was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. Nearly blew us all away.

  12. In response to Lord Jim @8, I don’t think we should be expected to go back that far! I can’t think of any reason for not having ‘officers’ as the definition in the first place.

  15. Thank you Everyman for  very enjoyable puzzle and Sil for a super blog.

    I agree with Lord Jim @8 as regards the Major Generals under Cromwell, especially after reading John E’s link @14.

  16. Re Sil’s final comment in his preamble, I don’t think it’s giving anything away to observe that Boris has commandeered the perimeter of today’s crossword.

  17. I didn’t like “lovely” for hunky-dory. “Fine” might have been better. Otherwise, no complaints. Always enjoy a theme even when an American like me doesn’t see it until the blog comes out – lol.

  18. Thanks all for the many, many comments. What have I done to deserve this?  🙂

    On two occasions (16ac, 26ac) I overlooked a C, now corrected (and thanks to Dave @1 and Lin @6 for putting me right).

    Robi, as to ‘on’ in a down clue, we’ve had this discussion several times. While I agree with you that ‘A on B’ should ideally be A+B, I don’t think B+A should be seen as ‘plain wrong’. There’s a spider on the ceiling ….

    On a non-crossword matter, what’s the connection between Focus and Mountain? (arib @9) Um, there isn’t. As one from the Low Countries and (musically) raised in the Sixties and Seventies, I had nearly all of the singles of Brainbox (whose guitarist in the beginning was Jan Akkerman who next joined Focus). When in those days I heard Mountain’s For Yasgur’s Farm (could it be that it was the B-side of Mississippi Queen?), it just completely sounded as a familiar Brainbox single – guitar & vocals.

  19. Oof, Sil! I like your spider-on-the-ceiling example, but I think ‘on’ in a down clue really has to mean what is says vertically.

    In an across clue, would you accept “A on the end of B” for AB? Because A certainly is on one end of B after all.

     

  20. Like others I still don’t get 14 ac – I got the answer putting in my best guess so “I for one” don’t see this as a good clue. Not the enjoyable experience Everyman used to be.

  21. Nina Palin @19, personally I would always go for B+A (across) and A+B (down) in case of “A on B”.  That’s the convention.

    However, certainly in an across clue, the opposite happens quite frequently – even heavyweights like Paul do it.

  22. This might be of interest, it is from an article titled Education in Ancient Rome

    The first schools in Rome arose by the middle of the 4th century BC, coinciding with the rise of the plebeian class to political power. These schools were called ludi (singular: ludus), the Latin word for “play,” and like modern “play schools” were concerned with basic socialization and rudimentary education for young children.

  23. Not that anyone’s noticed but I have not posted here in a while. I saw no point in posting how much I didn’t enjoy the puzzle. Credit where credit is due though. This was a good crossie with only a couple of iffy clues. I hope this trend continues.

  24. Thanks Everyman for a fun & very doable crossword with a got mix of clues, though perhaps a little heavy on the anagrams. It still took me a long while to get started & didn’t get 18ac but then discovered it was a great clue.

  25. DNF, got Honey something for 17D and missed Octal which I was a bit annoyed about given the rather obvious parsing.

    I too strongly dislike ‘on’ in a down clue being used as Everyman is doing. Everyman is -or was- an entry-level cryptic that should stick to the rules so new solvers can learn from them.

    But credit where it’s due, 12, 14 and 18A and 3D were all decent clues, with per cent employing a neat if tricky lift-and-separate device not often seen in an Everyman.

  26. Rats @23. I did notice that you’ve been missing lately and I guessed the reason. Turns out I was right. I am taking a while to get used to this setter too.
    I quite enjoyed today’s, though I agree with most of the comments above.
    Re 9d Can anyone explain why Generals = blankets?
    It also took me a while to remember that ‘China’ was Cockney rhyming slang. (plate). Don’t hear these expressions much in NZ.

  27. Who the heck is Maynard Keynes?  never heard of him….so got honey on 17d and got stuck there.  Otherwise a very enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  Thanks Everyman.

  28. Thanks Sil and Everyman. A step up from last week, but no less enjoyable for it. Any crossword that gets Daleks In is doing alright in my books. Thanks for the musical reference too Sil, will be looking it up.

  29. I liked this puzzle a lot.  I think that perhaps Everyman has now hit his/her straps.

    Could not parse “origami” or “inbox” completely, but they were “obviously” correct.

    Thanks to Everyman and to Sil.

    Apropos of nothing — I recently did a Guardian Weekly crytic (“Puck”).  Got it all out, with substantial help from wildcard dictionaries.  I looked at the FifteenSquared for the puzzle and Sil was one who had written in.  I was *very* impressed that he admitted that he hadn’t got an answer that I *had* got (“slew”, the clue being “Killed a large number”).  I think this was actually my first one in!

    The point is that I figure that if I can get an answer that the great Sil van den Hoek didn’t get, then I must be doing alright.

    Anne@27: If you haven’t heard of Maynard Keynes then you haven’t heard of economics.

  30. Found this to be the best of the new generation and judging from the copious comments above I am not alone. Particularly liked “hunky dory” (continuing on with the music theme instigated by Sil) and “workmates”. Enjoy the themes within the crosswords such as the PM’s although I never spot them without having them pointed out so thank you Sil.

  31. Audrey, General = Blanket as in ‘blanket exception’ or ‘blanket rules’ , i.e. something which applies generally. The S is son.

    It’s a bit of a random clue surface.

Comments are closed.