Everyman 3,856

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3856.

Another good Everyman crossword, with the usual ‘primarily’ clue, and the pair of 8D INVISIBLE INK and the far-from-invisible 9D SHOCKING PINK.

ACROSS
1 GEORGE ELIOT Old writer‘s confusing ‘ere’? Google it! (6,5)
An anagram (‘confusing’) of ‘ere google it’, for the pen name of Mary Ann Evans.
9 SPEEDOS Doss about, eating first piece of picnic in swimming trunks (7)
An envelope (‘eating’) of PEE ( the letter P, ‘first piece of Picnic’) in SDOS, an anagram (‘about’) of ‘doss’.
10 ALSO-RAN Meal’s orange, peeled twice: this one won’t amount to much (4-3)
A hidden answer in ‘meALS ORANge’, which Everyman pinpoints as having the outer two letters removed from either end (‘peeled twice’).
11 OFTEN Frequently in temper, losing head (5)
A subtraction: [s]OFTEN (‘temper’; the verb can mean soften or harden) minus its first letter (‘losing head’).
12 HELSINKI City‘s removing 50% of helipads: let that sink in (8)
An envelope (‘let that … in’) of ‘sink’ in HELI (‘50% of HELIpads’).
14 KINGS CROSS Sings and rocks out somewhere in London (5,5)
An anagram (‘out’) of ‘sings’ plus ‘rocks’.
15 DELI Where to get meat in Indian city, they say (4)
Sounds like (‘they say’) DELHI (‘Indian city’).
17 NUMB Stupefied, having taken umbrage a little (4)
A hidden answer (‘having … a little’) in ‘takeN UMBridge’.
19 ACCIDENTAL Random: a western where burro’s tail removed (10)
‘a’ plus [o]CCIDENTAL (‘western’) minus the O (‘where burrO‘s tail removed’).
21 POLLSTER He’ll ask your opinion about students’ placard (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of L L (learner drivers, ‘students’) in POSTER (‘placard’).
23 RABBI Religious leader‘s timeless talk (5)
RABBI[t] (‘talk’ inconsequently) minus the T (‘timeless’).
25 NEW MOON Was familiar with, reportedly, parameters of Mornington Crescent (3,4)
A charade of NEW, sounding like (‘reportedly’) KNEW (‘was familiar with’) plus MOON (‘parameters of’MOrningtON‘ the use of ‘parameters’ raised an eyebrow; the nearest I can see is that it can mean limits).
26 SHYLOCK Moneylender‘s yard covered with dodgy merchandise (7)
An envelope (‘covered by’) of Y (‘yard’) in SHLOCK (or schlock, from the Yiddish, ‘dodgy merchandise’), for the character in The Merchant of Venice.
27 INGRATITUDE Restoration of Titian urged, showing lack of appreciation (11)
An anagram (‘restoration’) of ‘Titian urged’.
DOWN
2 EVERTON Tennis champ on football team (7)
A charade of EVERT (Chris, ‘tennis champion’) plus ‘on’.
3 RUDENESS Impropriety when sundresses peeled off (8)
An anagram (‘off’) of ‘[s]undersse[s]’ minus first and last letters (‘peeled’).
4 EASE Move with gentleness and calm (4)
Double definition (but not far apart).
5 LEADERSHIP Management of car showroom swapping fronts of De Loreans (10)
DEALERSHIP (‘car showroom’) with the D and L exchanged (‘swapping fronts of De Loreans’).
6 OASIS Group of Aussies regularly falling out (5)
Alternate letters (‘regularly falling out’) of ‘Of AuSsIeS‘, for the rock band.
7 BRONTE Brother and another; alternately, one of three sisters (6)
A charade of BRO (‘brother’) plus NTE (‘aNoThEr alternately‘),
8 INVISIBLE INK ‘At home with Viscount, I close both eyes.’ Earl admitted: ‘it’s hard to read‘ (9,3)
An envelope (‘admitted’) of E (‘Earl’) in IN (‘at home’) plus VIS (‘Viscount’) plus I BLINK (‘I close both eyes’).
9 SHOCKING PINK Wine in gallons, rosé, under sun shade (8,4)
A charade of S (‘sun’) plus HOCK (‘wine’) plus ‘in’ plus G (‘gallons’) plus PINK (‘rosé’).
13 DRY CLEANER Dancer cavorting with lyre somewhere on high street (3,7)
An anagram (‘cavorting’) of ‘dancer’ plus ‘lyre’, with a rather vague definition.
16 PEER GYNT Drama when a republican expelled from Green Party organisation (4,4)
An anagram (‘organisation’) of ‘Green P[ar]ty’ minus AR (‘a republican expelled’), for Ibsen’s play.
18 MALAWI State of Massachusetts, north of Louisiana and West Indies (6)
A charade of MA (‘Massachusetts’) plus LA (‘Louisiana’, both USPS abbreviations) plus WI (‘West Indies’). ‘North’ just reinforces the order of the particles in the down light.
20 TABLOID Newspaper redesign ‘a bit old’ (7)
An anagram (‘redesign’) of ‘a bit old’.
22 SPOON Sip cocoa regularly with utensil; essentially … this? (5)
A charade of SPOO (‘SiP cOcOa regularly’) plus N (‘uteNsil essentially’), with an extended definition.
24 PSST Primarily: private, sibilant surreptitious tone? (4)
First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Private Sibilant Surreptitious Tone’ &lit.

 

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17 comments on “Everyman 3,856”

  1. Quite a straightforward solve, provided I got it all correct (and I did, I now see). I have been through and double checked the parsing this time, after last week’s Ray/Cat disaster. The LEADERSHIP L/D swap was very neat. I was a bit puzzled by OFTEN – surely meant to be ‘soften’ dropping the ‘s’. Yet, thought I, to temper steel is to harden it. Not so, some research revealed – tempering makes steel tougher, but also less hard (though there seems to be some differences of opinion on this). Who knew? Then, belatedly, I thought of “soften/temper your criticism”. I quite liked NEW MOON, and wasn’t fazed by ‘parameters’ (those things within which you work). BRONTE was my LOI – I was thinking classical – fates, gorgons etc – but the penny finally dropped through looking more closely as the construction. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.

  2. Enjoyed this one. Managed to complete it on the Sunday it was published. That’s a first. LOI PEER GYNT. Thanks Everyman and PeterO

  3. A very pleasant puzzle with some nice surfaces. I liked 1a GEORGE ELIOT and 14a KINGS CROSS, but my favourite was 8d INVISIBLE INK, very clever.

    Many thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  4. A rather prosaic Everyman after the head-scratcher the week before. Lots of bizarre verbose cluing in normal style. LEADERSHIP was clever.

    @Tim as a metallurgist I feel reasonably confident in answering this. ‘Tempering’ has a variety of metallurgical uses, which does blur the issue, but its main application is in reworking still to make it more homogeneous and more resistant to fracture (= ‘tougher’). Brittleness in steel is generally related to poor cooling in which a very hard phase called martensite is allowed to develop. So hardness is generally associated with brittleness (go and read about the Liberty Ships for a good example). Hence, increasing toughness is generally associated with increasing softness, but the concept of ‘softness’ is very rarely bandied around among steel manufacturers because – well – it’s not a property you want to associate with steel.

    I would normally interpret temper=soften in the terms of ‘this government grant will temper the financial impact that the recession has on our business’

  6. 9 across: In my world, the” first piece of picnic” is P. To get to PEE there should be a homophone indicator, no ? (After all, the first two pieces of picnic would never be PEEEYE, would they) It was my second to LOI, and I just biffed it in. So thanks to PeterO for the explanation, and Everyman for the puzzle.

  7. Fairly straightforward and entertaining Everyman.

    A few quibbles: I agree with Phil @6 that ‘first piece of picnic’ should be ‘p’, and I think Everyman could have used ‘limits’ instead of ‘parameters’ to make 25 clearer.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO for the ‘pee’ – I was wondering where the ‘ee’ had got to.

  8. I’m away from home at the moment so don’t have my usual dictionaries, but on dictionary.com the first definition for “pee” is “the letter p”.

  10. Much easier than last week’s and although I entered NEW MOON, I didn’t quite understand it Also, like Robi, I would have replaced the word ‘parameters’ but with ‘boundaries instead.

    I thought TABLOID was rather good. Many thanks to Peter and Everyman.

  11. No one else have “SPORTING PINK” for 8 down until they realised that 14 across had to be “KINGS CROSS”? It parsed beautifully with port instead of hock.

  13. Better and easier than last week. New Moon Oasis Rudeness Dealership all got ticks, parameters for limits raised no eyebrows here

    Failed to parse Accidental, hadn’t heard of George Eliot

    We’re off to the polls next weekend, may the best woman win. Has any other nation had two female leaders contesting an election?

     

  14. Very straightforward solve this morning. I was delighted by the ISIHAC reference in 25a, then sorely disappointed that the answer wasn’t a rule or variation of the game itself. How much more fun would it have been if we could have had: In Nidd, Tudor Court Rules or even M25.

  15. A lot easier this weekend. Can now relax and concentrate on having a good preparation for tomorrow’s rugby test again the Wallabies.

  17. Good puzzle; got it all out without any wildcard help.

    In 25 across “perimeters” would have made much more sense than “parameters”.  People often mix up/confuse/conflate the two concepts.

    Could not parse 5 down “leadership”; thanks to PeterO for the explanation.

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