Everyman 3,813

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Everyman as we’ve come to expect: occasionally a bit untidy but generally fun.

As we’ve often seen recently, there are some rather loose definitions and slightly vague indicators in wordplay. However, there are some very neat clues, and some cleverly apposite surfaces – I particularly liked 12a, 13a and 6d. And there’s Everyman’s trademark rhyming pair of long entries in 5d and 10d (though perhaps 5d and 10a make a more naturally related pair).

We’re still (or at least I’m still) no nearer knowing the identity of Everyman, and this puzzle seems to be deliberately ambiguous. 15a has Everyman’s = I’m, and recent blog comments from Everyman suggest an individual; but 14d has Everyman’s = Our, suggesting a team (or perhaps a “royal we”?). I’d love to know. But thanks Everyman, whoever you are.

(I’ll be out all morning when this blog is published, so apologies in advance for not responding to comments until later in the day.)

Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 NOT BAD No date including ‘to be announced’ is acceptable (3,3)
NO + D (date), including TBA (to be announced).
4 BBC MICRO Auntie with tiny antiquated computer (3,5)
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation, nicknamed “Auntie”) + MICRO (tiny).
The BBC Micro was an early home computer built by Acorn in the 1980s.
9 SATAN Figure in Christianity, Father Xmas, heading to North at the end (5)
SANTA (Father Xmas), with the N (UPDATE: heading to North = its first letter) moved to the end. – at least I think that’s the intention of the wordplay, though it’s somewhat clumsy and doesn’t really say that.
A somewhat clumsy definition, too – the figure also appears in Judaism, Islam and indeed Satanism. Overall, not my favourite clue.
10 ROALD DAHL Learner pulled into street, kept turning left, source of children’s amusement (5,4)
L (learner driver) in ROAD (street), then HAD (kept) reversed (turning), then L (left).
Roald Dahl, author of children’s books including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
11 JUNO Say, are you familiar with goddess of marriage? (4)
Homophone (say) of “d’you know?”.
Juno, Roman goddess of marriage.
12 GDPR Privacy regulation initially gets department panicking royally (4)
Initial letters of Gets Department Panicking Royally.
The EU law known as General Data Protection Regulation. As discussed here before, it should really be (1,1,1,1) not (4), but that would make it too easy. Good surface – it’s a fair description of what happened in many places when the GDPR legislation came in.
13 LOUTS United overwhelmed by many hooligans (5)
U (abbreviation for United, especially in football team names) inserted into (overwhelmed by) LOTS (many).
15 BRUMMIE Strange: Everyman’s turning into extremely blasé urbanite (7)
RUM (strange = odd), then I’M (Everyman is) reversed (turning), all inserted into the end letters (extremely) of B[las]E.
Brummie = slang for someone from the city of Birmingham (in the UK, rather than any of the US or Canadian places with the same name).
16 X-RAY Cross-beam, just what doctor ordered (1-3)
X (cross) + RAY (beam of light).
19 FLAT Head of lettuce in oil lacking spice (4)
L[ettuce] in FAT (oil).
20 OVER-EGG Slippery Gove circumventing Regina to add embellishment (4-3)
Anagram (slippery) of GOVE, around REG (abbreviation for Regina = Queen, used on coins).
Over-egg, or in full “over-egg the pudding” = to spoil something by adding too much detail or trying too hard. The surface appears to refer to the politician Michael Gove, but in election season I couldn’t possibly comment on the adjective “slippery” in this context.
23 OOMPH Old Opel needing starter given speed: va-va-voom! (5)
O (old) + starting letter of O[pel] + MPH (miles per hour = speed). “Needing starter” is an odd way to say “just the first letter”, isn’t it?
24 OTTO German hiding among grottoes (4)
Hidden answer in [gr]OTTO[es].
It’s a German name, so I suppose in Crosswordland that’s equivalent to German, in the same way that Ivan = Russian and Dai = Welshman.
25 ANTE Smoker about to open bidding (4)
ETNA (an active volcano, which does indeed smoke), reversed (about).
Ante = initial stake when betting on card games.
27 AIR GUITAR Instrument you imagine is involved in heavy metal? (3,6)
Cryptic definition: miming the playing of an imaginary instrument while listening to rock guitar solos. Not necessarily just heavy metal, and the last five words don’t really add much to the definition. Allegedly there are now international contests for playing air guitar; some people clearly have too much time on their hands.
28 BURNS Poet is on fire (5)
A simple but rather neat double definition (referring to Robert Burns).
29 COLD SORE What might make you frigid and testy? (4,4)
COLD (frigid) and TESTY (sore = annoyed).
Extended definition: a cold sore is a painful and annoying viral infection, which might make the sufferer somewhat irritable.
30 ATHENS City seeing wild Thebans losing capital in Boeotia (6)
Anagram (wild) of THE[b]ANS, without the first letter (capital) from Boeotia.
Extended definition: Thebes was the ancient capital of the Greek region of Boeotia, and a long-term rival of Athens.
DOWN
1 NOSE JOBS Is familiar with, they say, patient figures coming to surgery (4,4)
Homophone (they say) of KNOWS (is familiar with), then the plural of JOB (patient figure: Biblical character known for patience in suffering). Proverbially “a Job” is someone who is patient in the same way, so it works in the plural.
Cosmetic surgery more formally known as rhinoplasty.
2 TITANIUM Volatile bituminate shedding casing to reveal element useful for aeronautics (8)
Anagram (volatile) of [b]ITUMINAT[e] (shedding the casing = outer letters).
Metallic element, useful for many things, including alloys for aircraft parts because it’s very lightweight.
3 A-ONE Source of French river is outstanding, outstanding (1-3)
[s]AONE – the French river Saône, with the first letter (source) outstanding (missing).
A1 = very good = outstanding.
5 BEATRIX POTTER Victorian figure, stimulating a Brexit, to do very little work (7,6)
Anagram (stimulating) of A BREXIT, then POTTER (to give the appearance of activity without really achieving much).
Beatrix Potter, Victorian author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and similar children’s books.
6 MIDDLE-AGED ‘Gilded Mead’ brewed for 40-60 years? (6-4)
Anagram (brewed) of GILDED MEAD.
“Middle-aged” refers to someone in their 40s, 50s, or probably 60s now we’re mostly living that much longer.
7 CHAT UP Try to impress bowler, perhaps, in prize competition (4,2)
HAT (perhaps a bowler hat) in CUP (competition to win a cup or trophy).
Chat up = engage someone in conversation with romantic (or less noble) intentions.
8 OWLISH Wise, capable of most points of view? (6)
Double definition: owls are proverbially wise, and have very flexible necks so they can turn their heads in almost any direction.
10 RODNEY TROTTER Dry tone affected by rogue comic character (6,7)
Anagram (affected) of DRY TONE, then ROTTER (rogue = disreputable person).
Character in the TV comedy Only Fools and Horses.
14 SMALL HOURS Hot, Everyman’s wearing lingerie in period after midnight (5,5)
H (hot) and OUR (Everyman’s), inserted into (wearing) SMALLS (lingerie).
Small hours = after midnight but before a reasonable time to get out of bed.
17 WET NURSE Childcare specialist went berserk, sure to be replaced (3,5)
Anagram (berserk) of WENT, then another anagram (to be replaced) of SURE.
18 OGRESSES Man-eaters go back to get topless clothing (8)
GO reversed (back), then [d]RESSES (clothing) topless (first letter removed in a down clue).
21 MOSAIC Work of art describing Jewish lawgiver (6)
Double definition: artwork made by arranging small pieces, or relating to Moses and Jewish law.
22 AMORAL Unprincipled city’s backing withdrawn from mayoral motion (6)
Anagram (motion) of MA[y]ORAL, with the back letter of [cit]Y removed.
26 A BIT Kicking heroin habit for short while (1,3)
HABIT, with the H (slang for heroin) removed.
A bit = short time, as in “I’ll be there in a bit”.

 

21 comments on “Everyman 3,813”

  1. Enjoyed this much more than in recent weeks. Was initially afraid it had gone too far the other way when I got 7 of the first 8 clues at the first pass but it slowed down without getting bogged down until I had to word search the last 7. Smiles along the way eg LOI 25. Thanks Everyman and to Quirister for the enjoyably chatty blog.

  2. Difficult but also enjoyable. I learnt some new GK (with help from google) and vocabulary: BBC MICRO, RODNEY TROTTER, GDPR, OVER-EGG.

    My favourites were SMALL HOURS, OOMPH, ANTE (loi).

    Thanks Everyman and Quirister.

     

  3. Like Michelle: difficult but enjoyable. Your decoding of 9A matched mine and I too find this a rather poor construction. “Everyman” being used to mean “I’m” and “Our” in a single puzzle also seems inconsistent.

     

  4. Agree with Quinster about “needing starter” in 23a. Very odd, as so many clues are now nice and tight.

    In 6d I would say “40-60 years” doesn’t clue “middle-aged” as exactly as “40-60 years old”, but that wouldn’t read as well.

    My feeling is there is now more than one setter – but maybe it’s one person in different moods!

  6. A bit too much GK for my liking but largely enjoyable. I would have thought that odor or Oder would have been preferable to GDPR.

    I was somewhat puzzled by the ‘our’ in 14D. It would be OK for Observer but not for one (I assume) setter. ‘Old Opel’s starter…’ would have been an improvement. I thought the ‘heading to North’ for N was OK.

    i liked the COLD SORE.

  7. I found this much easier than the previous week’s and didn’t mind the clue for SATAN : maybe it’s my dark side coming out. My last clue in was COLD SORE which I thought was vague although I suppose ‘frigid’ is the key word. I liked ROALD DAHL, BRUMMIE, SMALL HOURS and OGRESSES. A very enjoyable puzzle. Many thanks to Quirister and E.

  8. A couple of quibbles.  In 5d, thankfully the wordplay was very clear, but I’m a bit dubious about the definition, “Victorian figure”.  A quick look on Wikipedia shows that BEATRIX POTTER did indeed live the first 35 years of her life in Queen Victoria’s reign, so in that sense she was a Victorian figure, ie person.  But all her books were published after that time, so she was not a well-known person in Victorian times.  Also I thought one or two other definitions were a bit vague, particularly for 10a ROALD DAHL – “source of children’s amusement” – could be a toy, a game, a TV show?

    But there were as usual some really good clues with lovely surfaces.  13a LOUTS and 28a BURNS were beautiful in their simplicity. And 30a ATHENS was very clever in its reference to ancient history.

    Quirister – I seem to remember that when the current Everyman first commented on this site a few months ago, he/she made it fairly clear that he/she is an individual.  So I think the “our” in 14d is probably a “royal we”.  Or could it possibly refer to “Everyman” in the sense of all of us?

    Many thanks Everyman (it would be nice to learn your identity one day) and Quirister.

  10. DK @5: there seems to be a convention in crosswords now that initialisms like GDPR are shown as though they were one word, rather than individual letters. I too find it odd, but I suppose representing it as “1,1,1,1” would make it too obvious and therefore too easy.

    Robi @6: looking at it again, you’re right. “Heading to North” is a fair clue for the N at the start of the word, then the clue tells you to move it to the end; I’ve fallen for the obvious trap of seeing “heading” in the sense of direction. I’ll temper my criticism a bit!

  12. Ach, I thought I’d completed this for the second week in a row, but it turns out a couple tripped me up (although there was also one I got without really understanding, so fair’s fair). I actually got BBC MICRO – but it’s perhaps a little obscure for the younger among us!

    Thanks Everyman and Quirister.

  13. Thanks to Everyman for an enjoyable solve, and to Quirister, both for the blog and the explanation of rhinoplasty, which reminded me of this.

  15. I can’t believe I didn’t get BBC MICRO. I remember them from high school. I was guessing mac, something something from the crossers. A few local knowledge clues in this, Aunty for BBC for example made it a bit tricky for an Antipodean, and what’s a GDPR when it’s at home?

  16. Floored by GDPR and had Cold Snap which I realise was wrong when I got 10D but failed to revisit and correct, so technically DNF with one error.

    No real grumbles though, and some nice clues. Thanks all.

  17. Found this one nearly impossible.  Got stopped by the 4 across and 8 down duo.  I’d never heard of “BBC Micro” computers, and put in “IBM Micra” (thinking there might be such; there aren’t) and “ablest” for 8 down.

    The latter doesn’t parse, but then I couldn’t parse many of the answers.

    Found a lot of the puzzle obscure and the answers very loosely connected to the clues!  I particularly disliked 25 across.  Bidding is *not* the same as betting, and Etna for smoker is too tenuous to contemplate.

    Never heard of Rodney  Trotter (got him from Google, but).

    Thanks to Quirister for the explanations.

  18. After doing these crosswords for years and years, I am getting tired of the current ones with their obscure clues. I know they are aimed at UK solvers but in the past, setters have made them more user friendly for we antipodeans too. I finished about half of this but couldn’t be bothered finishing. The enjoyment has gone.

  19. I agree Audrey, the mysterious Everyman needs to think globally for we patient solvers down under. His/her predecessor did and even threw in some Antipodean clues from time to time.

  20. Totally agree with comments from the kiwis. particularly Audrey’s comment about the reduced enjoyment.  That’s the only reason we do these puzzles and it is not enjoyable with clues that are either just tenuous (etna – smoker) or obscure.  With people commenting  that clues must grammatically it amuses me to see how it is ok to consider a consonant-only acronym to be a  four letter word.  I would have thought that only words that are so often uttered that they become part of the language could be considered words – examples are laser, radar, AWOL, AIDS –  that sort of thing. Never the example in the puzzle.  Should have been 1,1,1,1   Wouldn’t have helped this  kiwi puzzler but  that is not the point.

    big shame ..I used to  love these

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