Everyman 3,835

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The Observer Crossword from April 12, 2020
This was a very speedy solve for me but will surely fit the bill for those who are learning the game.


There is a lot going on in this crossword.
It was issued on Easter Sunday and Everyman included some references to the festival (3ac, 11ac and 22ac, to name three).
And we have quite a few flowers and plants spread around the grid (3ac, 10ac, 25ac, 1d, 4d, 7d, 14d).
Some repetition too: three of the answers contain HOT, and even three clue surfaces (11ac, 8d, 21d) made their contribution.
Plus another kind of ‘repetition’ in 24d ….
Who knows, perhaps there is more.

ACROSS
1 ETNA Volcano in Vietnam (4)
Hidden answer #1 [in]: VIETNAM
3 EASTER LILY Wind around heart of wild flower (6,4)
EASTERLY (wind) around the middle letters of WILD
It’s Easter Sunday, after all.
9 DIDO Singer performed before ball (4)
DID (performed) + O (ball)
Not Aeneas’ lover this time but this British songstress.
Very popular in the early 2000s and making a comeback last year with only her 5th album Still On My Mind.
10 PARIS DAISY Perennial turbulence of rapids, I say (5,5)
Anagram [turbulence] of: RAPIDS I SAY
11 RESURRECTION Cure in resort – in resort – offering new life (12)
Anagram [in resort] of: CURE IN RESORT
It’s Easter, isn’t it?
15 ENCODES Makes unreadable poem, Eunuchs, Oddly, Coming Round (7)
ODE (poem) with the odd letters of EUNUCHS going around it
For me, clues like this only make real sense if the italic bits mean something.
Alas. (Today’s 13d is another example)
16 REC Playground’s destruction reported (3)
Homophone [reported] of: WRECK (destruction)
17 ALI Tabloid regularly ignored sporting champ (3)
Leaving out the odd letters [regularly ignored], just taking the even ones: TABLOID
Muhammad Ali, of course.
18 RUM Primarily, refreshment using molasses? (3)
Starting letters [primarily] of: Refreshment Using Molasses
I don’t think I would drink rum when I need some refreshment.
That said, clearly one of Everyman’s favourite clue types, known in particularly this place as CAD – (whole) clue as definition – (or &lit).
19 SOB Conscientious objector suppresses cry of remorse (3)
Hidden answer #2 [… suppresses …]: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
21 SPANISH José’s pan is heated, accommodating this kind of omelette? (7)
Hidden answer #3 [… accomodating this]: JOSE’S PAN IS HEATED
There are probably a lot of people named José living in Spain, so that should have taken you on the right track then: a delicious tortilla (Spanish omelette).
22 HOT CROSS BUNS Fashionable short hairdos, they’re seen around now (3,5,4)
HOT (fashionable) + CROSS (short) + BUNS (hairdos)
A favourite on Good Friday, hence the definition.
25 ORANGE-LILY Regionally variegated flower (6-4)
Anagram [variegated] of: REGIONALLY
Another lily (after 3ac), and more flowery things to come below.
26 LIMA Reports of Madagascan somewhere in Peru (4)
Homophone [reports of]: LEMUR (Madagascan)
A lemur is a primate, a mainly nocturnal mammal, very common in Madagascar, characterised by Conservation International as ‘Madagascar’s flagship mammal species’.
27 SPRINGTIDE Leap over moving water at this time of year (10)
SPRING (leap over) + TIDE (moving water)
The only clue today that I am not fully happy about (yet, but now I am).
Unless I miss something, I don’t see why Everyman uses ‘over’ here – it wouldn’t be a problem in a Down clue, though.
Yes, I missed something.  Bodycheetah @13 tells me that ‘to leap over’ for SPRING is in Chambers. 
By the way, ‘springtide’ can be another word for ‘springtime’ which explains the definition.
28 STYE Hasty exam reveals eye problem (4)
Hidden answer #4 [reveals]: haSTY Exam
DOWN
1 ELDERBERRY Senior rock ‘n’ roller finds source of wine (10)
ELDER (Senior) + BERRY (rock ‘n’ roller, Chuck Berry)
Here he is.
2 NUDIST CAMP Where holidaymakers are barely seen? (6,4)
Cryptic definition
4 AZALEAS Plaza leaseholder hides showy bloomers (7)
Hidden answer #5 [hides]: PLAZA LEASEHOLDER
5 TWITTER Laugh about start of written communication for a lark, perhaps (7)
TITTER (laugh) around the first letter of WRITTEN
With a definition that’s slightly cryptic.
6 RED-HOT COALS They’re hard. Coolest? Not exactly! (3-3,5)
Anagram [not exactly] of: HARD COOLEST
Nothing underlined here and, so, we may call this one more CAD.
7 IRIS Bit of colour in the Eye identifying Murdoch perhaps (4)
Double definition
And one more flowery thing, too!
8 YO-YO American version of ‘Allo ‘Allo! perhaps provides distraction for children (2-2)
YO, YO (Allo Allo,  a (perhaps chiefly) American way of greeting someone)
12 RIDE SHOTGUN Travel, but don’t drive in a car, offsetting most of droughtiness (4,7)
Anagram [offsetting] of; DROUGHTINESS minus the S at the end (i.e. most of it)
I wasn’t familiar with this expression meaning ‘to be in a car but in the passenger seat’.
13 MANICURIST Expert in digital enhancement? (10)
Cryptic definition
14 NIGHTSHADE Plant‘s dark colour (10)
NIGHT (dark) + SHADE (colour)
20 BACK-LIT According to Spooner, want something boring to be illuminated from behind (4-3)
Spoonerism of: LACK (want) BIT (something ‘boring’)
21 SPOILED Rotten, rotten old pies (7)
Anagram [rotten] of: OLD PIES
23 ROES Treated sore deer (4)
Anagram [treated] of: SORE
24 LAIR Prime minister, not bold, in retreat (4)
BLAIR (prime minister) minus the B (bold)
Now here’s a surprise.
Two weeks ago we had exactly the same clue! (well, more or less – true, Lord Jim)
Perhaps, Everyman wanted us to have another discussion on whether B for ‘bold’ is right or not.
And so it happened …… (see below)!

 

35 comments on “Everyman 3,835”

  1. From the Guardian crosswords website (Everyman section): ‘We regret that prizes for our puzzles are temporarily suspended.’  This appears to have taken effect after Everyman 3833.  Is there a valid reason for delaying the Everyman blog for a week while this suspension remains in effect?

  2. Thanks Sil and Everyman

    As well as the (B)LAIR repetition, we had a similar clue for TWITTER in the Guardian the previous week, and IRIS MURDOCH also featured in a Guardian clue.

    The second syllable of LEMUR isn’t remotely like the second syllable of LIMA!

  3. Thanks both. I don’t want to get into another “rhotic” tussle with muffin but, in my neck ov the wuds, guvner, LIMA sands pretty clows to LEMUR.
    John E @1 – in these uncertain times, I take comfort from the Everyman and Prize blog appearing when they have always done.

  4. John E @1 Regarding the blog: we still have to wait (about) a week for the ‘check’ buttons to appear. Far be it from me to disparage the bloggers, but surely they’d want to be sure that they had got the official answers before posting?

  5. LIMA and LEMUR are homophones for me too, and I venture that my neck of the woods is a long way from Shirl’s. It’s a long time since SPRINGTIDE where I am.

  6. A very pleasant puzzle.  I enjoyed the Easter-related clues, particularly 22a HOT CROSS BUNS.  I also liked 1d with the senior rock ‘n’ roller.

    I’m another for whom “lemur” sounds exactly like LIMA, and this is the pronunciation given by Collins.  (A lemur being a resident of Madagascar had featured in the Guardian Weekend quiz the day before, which helped with this!)

    Although I did the crossword two weeks earlier, I didn’t notice the repetition of the LAIR clue at 24d, but now you point it out, Sil, it is a bit odd.  (It’s not exactly the same wording.)

    Many thanks Everyman and Sil.

  7. Pleasant enough Sunday diversion, especially at Easter.

    I had to think twice about short = cross; I guess it’s as in I was short/cross with him. I thought SPANISH was nicely hidden. I, too, was unfamiliar with RIDE SHOTGUN as referencing the passenger seat, rather than the usual meaning in cowboy films.

    Thanks Everyman and Sil.

  8. [Everyman missed a chance of linking two clues. George W. Bush once famously greeted our PM “Yo, Blair!”]

  9. Generally, fairly straightforward as this Everyman goes. I thought the repetition of 24d was a bit naughty/lazy? Or am I being too hard? I’ll settle for disappointing as it did not exercise any of my crossword muscles,.
    Regarding comments about suspending The blog: no, please don’t. Despite a few shortcomings, I do enjoy completing/attempting Everyman and I do need the blog for those weeks when it is infuriatingly unsolvable! (Like Woking last week….)

  11. I’m with muffin@2 on LIMA/LEMUR, and not just because of the non-rhotic pronunciation. MU and MA also have different sounds for many of us, meaning that these two words are simply not homophones (I’ve taken to calling such things ‘nonaphones’ though perhaps the Greek scholars could come up with a better word).

    Pronunciation does certainly vary from region to region, but it’s my impression that setters always go for the non-rhotic version. I can’t recall any examples going the other way (counterexamples would be welcome).

  12. 5 runners, at least 3 with simple patterns of letters, 2 “LILY”s, a Paris daisy that isn’t in Chambers, LIMA that doesn’t sound like “lemur” (I’m with Shirl on this), “but don’t drive a car” is supposed to define RIDE SHOTGUN, “not exactly” as an anagrind…

  13. Chambers offers “leap over”  as a definition for SPRING (TIDE). Overall a gentle workout and a welcome relief from the Maskarade!

  14. And I’m personally fine with B for bold as it appears in a lot of software on the buttons that make things … bold

  15. bodycheetah @14, it does indeed, but there’s no dictionary support for it. Do we accept I for italic and U for underline? From other software, Y for Yes and N for No? Etc.

  16. W D L appear reasonably frequently for Won Drawn Lost, but last time I looked there was no dictionary support for them either. But they are unarguably comprehensible usage.

  19. b = barn is legitimate. The barn is a unit of measure in physics, and b is the standard abbreviation.

     

  20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_(unit) (Nick, I know you’ll know that, but in case anyone thinks it’s a misprint for born!)

    There are quite a few obscure initialisms in dictionaries, and I would understand any crossword editor who vetoed them accordingly. I personally don’t have a strong objection to b = bold – it makes more sense than a lot of others that are in the dictionary. But, as I said, do we extend that to Italic and Underline? R for Royal (from eg RSPCA)?

  22. ^  Ha! Just realised Royal was a bad example, as it’s in Collins (although not elsewhere). Let’s say A for animals instead 😀

  23. Nila, the RSPCA is what I call a compound abbreviation – not all are individually indicated in any dictionary. Take HMS (as in warships).

    I guess it’s the setters poetic licence to decide if it is fair and well known.

  25. What causes the most argument on Fifteensquared – homophones or abbreviations?  (Or is it Spoonerisms?)

    On abbreviations, my view is that an abbreviation is OK if it’s in a reputable dictionary, or if it’s a recognisable abbreviation in general use that hasn’t, for some reason, made it into the dictionaries yet.  I would put B for bold in the latter category.  I think S for small and L for large are not in Chambers (at least not in my edition) but they are very well known to anyone who has ever bought a t-shirt and are surely acceptable.  Nila – I entirely agree with you that it’s not reasonable to take one letter out of a longer abbreviation unless it has some justification on its own.  G for girl is an example of this.  (Though I know Cookie has different ideas on that one!  Cookie, are you reading this by any chance?)

  26. A good example of an unreasonable abbreviation from a longer acronym would be B – broadcasting, as that’s the second B in BBC.

    I’m happy with B for bold, though – there it is at the top of this box!

  27. Lord Jim @25, yes, the absence of Large and Small in Chambers is odd, especially as M for Medium is there. I’m pretty sure Azed uses both, so they can’t be all that contentious.

  28. This was too straightforward for an Everyman, I think.  I was surprised by the large number of hidden words (5), and they were all clearly signposted.  I did like the MANICURIST cd.

    Abbreviations that are justified by usage, if not by dictionaries, are OK with me.  B for bold is common used nowadays and, as muffin says, it’s right at the top of the comments box here.

    Thanks, Sil and Everyman.

  30. Thank you Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle and Sil for a super blog.

    Lord Jim, yes, I am reading the comments (internet connection down since yesterday evening, just got it back). Probably less use is made of b for boy and g for girl these days, in fact labelling children is probably discouraged…

  31. While proofreading typeset matter in times past, if a word had to be in bold but the typeset matter did not show it thus, we would underline it and in the wide margin of the galley proof we would write b and circle it. This was the instruction that the word should be in bold. (The circle meant it was an instruction and the letter b is not to be keyed in and inserted.) During Linotype days putting a word in bold or italics was an elaborate affair and early proofs may miss it.

    For whatever it’s worth, I defend the use of b  for bold.

  32. This was at the gentler end of the scale. If anyone’s keeping score I think B U and I have been around in Word Processing Fontland to be acceptable in 2020.

    Lima and Lemur sound the same to my Wimbledon-cum-Kiwi ear – ‘Lee-Mer’ as in ‘leader’

    But the repeated Lilies was a little bit lazy

    The only one I erred on was Red Hot Coals. I missed the anagram, but the def (to the extent there is one) seems awfully vague.

    Otherwise all good. Thanks Sil and EM.

  33. I have to say I liked this one. Favourites were Twitter, Easter Lily, nightshade, Springtide among others.

  34. We get these crosswords 4 weeks later in New Zealand, so references to the current time are trickier to spot.

  35. I’m fascinated by the amount of dialogue generated. I guess we kiwis are less worried about the minutiae of grammar —I think we do quite well down here not knowing too many English botanical species and references to holidays or seasons dont help us since we’re a month later
    Lots of hidden answers maybe too many…. but I most loved
    Elderberry -Lima and don’t mind the varied pronunciation, springtide, nudist camp and twitter all made me smile

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