Everyman 3,811

The Observer crossword from Oct 27, 2019

Another Everyman crossword that will please some and, in places, annoy others.


This puzzle was generally OK but I had a few grumbles, notably in 29ac which shouldn’t have gone past the non-existent editor.
Despite what some people think, I am pretty tolerant when solving a puzzle.
However, for me, Everyman is still balancing on the thin line between love and hate (to paraphrase Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders).
It’s all just a bit too inconsistent. Not bad, just inconsistent.

Across
1 THREE BLIND MICE Account in which a trio of figures are detailed? (5,5,4)
Cryptic definition
I don’t think there’s more to it.
10 WELBY Not a byelaw broken by archbishop (5)
Anagram [broken] of:  BYELAW minus A
Justin Welby is the Archbishop of Canterbury (since 2013).
Clues often contain link words, ‘with’, ‘of’ and ‘in’ being the most popular.
Here we have ‘by’ of which I am not a great fan.
It might work when the setter uses “definition by wordplay” – however Everyman does it the other way round here.
On top of that, it is a bit unfortunate that ‘by’ is also part of the solution.
11 RING A BELL To evoke old memory, emulate town crier (4,1,4)
Double definition
12 SLEPT IN Son taking protein didn’t get up (5,2)
S (son) + LEPTIN (protein)
I am not a chemist and so I’ll have to rely on the dictionaries.
Collins gives for ‘leptin’:   A protein, produced by fat cells in the body, that acts on the brain to regulate the amount of additional fat laid down in the body.
13 TODDLES Unprofessional hairdresser half-smiles, makes uncertain movements (7)
TODD (unprofessional hairdresser, Sweeney Todd) + [smi]LES
More about Sweeney Todd .
14 SWIFT Bird who wrote satire (5)
Double definition
Must be a really clever bird …!
Everyman wants us to think of Jonathan Swift .
16 SUITCASES Petitions with legal process stowed in large containers (9)
CASE (legal process) inside SUITS (petitions)
19 ELABORATE The Spanish are heartlessly appropriating legendary Kazakh: it’s complicated (9)
EL (the, in Spanish), followed by A[r]E going around BORAT (legendary Kazakh)
Borat was all the rage in 2006 but that was then.
20 STAIR Part of flight in fastest Airbus (5)
Hidden answer [in]:   fastest Airbus
22 DEPOSIT Place that attracts interest (7)
Double definition
25 OMITTED Excluded slang for ‘paw’ in large lexicographic work (7)
MITT (slang for ‘paw’) inside OED (large lexicographic work, Oxford English Dictionary)
Strictly speaking we don’t need ‘large’ here but it’s OK.
27 GALWAY BAY Almost always taking bass in lively song (6,3)
ALWAY[s] + B (bass), together inside GAY (lively)
A song written in 1947 by Arthur Colahan and made popular by Bing Crosby.
Here it is.
28 KYLIE Singer with some frisky Lieder (5)
Hidden answer [some]:   frisky Lieder
Somewhere above I mentioned ‘with’ as a link word.
It’s fine here yet, for me, it irks a bit.
I would probably have gone for “She sings … etc”.
29 NAUGHTY BUT NICE Nice bun that guy bolts as a guilty pleasure (7,3,4)
Anagram [bolts] of NICE BUN THAT GUY
Now this is outrageous!
The word ‘nice’ appearing in both clue and answer – I couldn’t believe my eyes.
In the ‘best’ Everyman tradition, this is the companion clue to 1ac : they rhyme.
Remember Les Dawson ?
And many years before I was born there was even Naughty but Mice !!
Down
2 HELVETICA Evil cheat desecrated font (9)
Anagram [desecrated] of EVIL CHEAT
Sometimes I just wonder why Everyman so frequently uses unusual indicators.
Perhaps, (s)he tries them out here for a book called Everyman’s Guide to Cryptic Crossword Devices …..
For me, this one is not a good example of a proper anagram indicator.
For others, it might be all right. Nowadays, almost anything goes (said the cynic).

On second thoughts, I think it is indeed fine.
3 EGYPT Like youngster’s first pint in place by the Med (5)
EG (like, abbreviation meaning ‘for example’) + Y[oungster] + PT (pint)
4 BERING SEA Direction and date announced to arrive at vast body of water (6,3)
Homophone [announced] of:   BEARING (direction) + SEE (date)
5 IF NOT Dodgy info; Trump’s dropping behind otherwise (2,3)
Anagram [dodgy] of:   INFO + {TRUMP minus RUMP (behind)}
6 DEAD DUCKS Insensitive, possibly, Donald’s offering things that won’t work (4,5)
DEAD (insensitive) + DUCK’S (Donald’s, possibly)
7 IDEAL I will be given a large quantity: perfect (5)
I + DEAL (a large quantity)
8 ENLISTS Alarmingly silent son becomes soldier (7)
Anagram [alarmingly] of SILENT, followed by S (son)
This is the second time Everyman uses ‘son’ for S. 
I had to check that ‘to enlist’ can be an intransitive verb.
9 TWISTS Oliver’s family dances (6)
TWISTS (Oliver’s family)
Oliver’s family might be called ‘the Twists’ which justifies the wordplay. See also comment #9.
However, just ‘Oliver’s’ (being ‘Twist’s’) would do the trick in itself.
15 TAOISEACH Chinese way of thinking is superior to every single European PM (9)
TAO (Chinese way of thinking) + IS going above EACH (every single)
The Irish PM was so many times in the news recently that, at last, I know how to spell ‘taoiseach’.
These days I even know how to pronounce it!
17 I BEG OF YOU Buy goofier backless pants please (1,3,2,3)
Anagram [pants] of:   BUY GOOFIER minus its last letter R
This must be a very old-fashioned expression as I never heard anyone say this.
Even the dictionaries seem to have ditched it.
18 SMART ALEC Conceited fellow’s keen to get a Guinness (5,4)
SMART (keen) + ALEC (Guinness, to name one)
Everyman uses ‘smart’ = ‘keen’ in the sense of to feel pain or distress.
Some may think ‘a’ only suits the surface but I think there is ‘a’ in front of Guinness to indicate that this is a particular example of it.
19 ERDOGAN Turkey’s head,’ butcher groaned (7)
Anagram [butcher] of GROANED
Let’s not talk Erdogan.
21 REDDEN Well-mannered denizen muffling flush (6)
Hidden answer [muffling]:   Well-manne red denizen
My last one in but, I admit, not the hardest of clues.
23 PILAU Laid up, poorly, missing date with a dish (5)
Anagram [poorly] of:   LAID UP minus D (date)
24 TABBY Bat, seen as it sleeps, by cat (5)
Reversal (as it sleeps, a bat, upside down) of BAT, followed by BY
I quite liked the reversal indicator in this clue.
26 INK IN To be understood, with seconds to spare, finish drawing (3,2)
SINK IN (to be understood) minus S (seconds)
The definition should be seen as: to use ink to go over pencil lines in (a drawing)  [Collins]

*anagram

20 comments on “Everyman 3,811”

  1. Thanks Sil. I agreed with most of your likes and grumbles. I was also happy to see GAY clued as “lively” at 27ac.  I can’t remember the last time I saw gay used with its original meaning.

    Re 17dn, I BEG OF YOU, I cannot see or hear it without thinking of the Elvis Presley version from 1958.  But I suppose that is a long time ago now.

  2. Everyman here; good morning all and thank you as ever to Sil. Reddened face for that not-so-nice reduplication we see in 29: in the words of the song, https://youtu.be/JoC6fXUecGE . Agreed that the harder clues are not necessarily the last ones in, and you are spot-on in all senses when sizing up the Guinness. Cheers!

  3. I’m happy with indicators such as ‘desecrated’ which seem a genuinely cryptic hint at how to solve the clue. They’re much more satisfying to solve than having to rely on a list of rote-learned conventions and abbreviations.

  4. Absolutely agree with Sil, especially 29a. I, too, spent a while thinking it just could not be. Surely the first rule of cryptic s being broken in a rather unimaginative way? What is the point? On second thoughts, going down that road would get none of us anywhere…… but I expect a little more imagination. Agree too that inconsistency is the hallmark, not clever, just irritating. I did this one in almost record time but without the satisfaction of solving clever clueing. I will not be surprised if I get stuck hopelessly on this week’s offering. Fun? I’m not sure.

  5. Thank you Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle and Sil for an interesting blog.

    I agree with Anovice @3 as regards anagram indicators, 2d was one of my favourite clues.

    Like Sil, 21d was my last in – but today the answer in the grid online is given as RIDDEN, it must be an error…

  6. Thanks for the blog Sil and the crossword Everyman. Good to have you join the discussion.

    Solving can be quite dependant on your mood but the mood can be set by the crossword ? I got stuck with 7 answers in, complained about it here, came back to the puzzle, word searched before another little flurry, another break then Google and word search to the finish. Not very satisfying. The SW did raise a smile though.

    One of the problems is that I’ll look at the clue, get an answer but think “no that can’t really be it can it?”, pencil the letters in and if you end up with a few like that you lose faith and give up. Once the cheating starts I don’t tend to stop so the pleasure of the puzzle is over.

    There are some good clues, both 19s for instance, but it can’t be easy getting a puzzle out every week.

     

  7. In defence of Everyman, as a relatively new and inexperienced solver I’m perhaps less wedded to the accepted conventions of cryptics. I find Everyman’s creative definitions and anagram indicators very enjoyable. I often find I get stuck on maybe four or five clues, then on returning after a few days they go straight in. Always fun, for me at least, and I look forward to Sundays.

  8. I enjoyed this.  Favourites were 27a GALWAY BAY, 3d EGYPT and 24d TABBY.

    I’ve had a moan about odd anagram indicators before, but like Anovice and Cookie I was fine with “desecrated”.  Chambers has, for “desecrate”, “to profane, damage”.

    Thanks for dropping in, Everyman.  It’s always nice (that word again) to hear from the setter.  Don’t apologise too much about 29a – it’s unconventional but it does work, and could perhaps be seen as a clever way to throw us off our guard!

  9. I also think of myself as fairly strict about anagram indicators, but “desecrated” worked fine for me.

    Oliver Twist is the rare example of an individual for whom it doesn’t make sense to refer his family by his surname in the plural: the poor orphan was given the name, more or less at random, by Mr. Bumble, so there are no other Twists. I suppose you could imagine that he later married and found a family of Twists, but I don’t think that works: surely he took the name Brownlow when he was adopted by the man who turned out to be his grandfather. (Spoiler! But the book is almost 200 years old, so I don’t feel too bad about it.)

    (I don’t actually think that’s a flaw in the clue, by the way.)

    Although I undertstand the quibbles, I thoroughly enjoyed this Everyman. Thanks to Everyman and Sil!

     

  10. As to ‘desecrated’ in 2d, I changed my mind.
    While this is something that is not always allowed in the UK, I just did!
    The indicator also gets a mention in Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary (to make an even stronger case for it).

    In my blog I did not delete the lines about Everyman being a setter with, at times, unusual indicators.
    Because I think that still stands.
    But to be clear, I said “unusual”, not “wrong”.

  11. 1ac is subtle but I thought beautiful.  The mice are indeed de-tailed (with a butcher’s knife).

    I am a big fan of unusual anagram indicators so I thought desecrated in 2d was great.

  12. My first attempt at an Everyman.  Got stumped by 6d “Dead Ducks”, of which I have never heard, and was barking up the wrong tree with “Deaf” for insensitive.  (Falling on deaf ears, etc). Overall, great. Many thanks to Everyman and Sif.

  13. I don’t think ‘by’ in 10a is a link word at all, it’s just part of the answer. There is no link work. The clue is fine. As was the whole crossword other than the ‘nice’ issue.

    Thanks for dropping by Everyman. Out of interest, do you have checkers?

  14. This one was about my level unlike some of the recent ones, especially last week’s and I enjoyed it. I liked lots of the clues, but I agree with the comments of Ted @9 about the Twist family. I thought the same thing.

    Thank you Everyman. You are improving. Thank you Sil for your great comments, as usual.

  15. We did this in only two sittings! All good apart from 17D, why “pants”? We can’t see the point. Otherwise a good crossword overall.

  16. I am sorry, Barrie, but there is a ‘by’ in the clue that is a link word.

    The ‘by’-part of the answer comes from byelaw.

  17. Certainly had never heard of Taoiseach and peeked on that one-That term willprobably stick now however it is pronounced
    Thought the bat clue genius tho I did not get it quickly
    The indicators are puzzling sometimes but keeps us on our toes
    Liked this only once I had a few in -I found it really hard to start

  18. Thanks@Across The Pond. I got three blind mice but completely missed the relevance of detailed.

  19. As with #7 Chips n Gravy, although reasonably experienced now, I too enjoy the creative definitions and anagram indicators. For me this was another cracking crossword. Many thanks to Sil, and Everyman – not least for popping by and saying hi!

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