A fairly typical Everyman, with clues ranging from pretty easy to quite tricky.
A good clue at 20a was spoiled by the omission of a couple of words in the online version, though the PDF version is correct (and it wasn’t too hard to work out what was missing).
As usual we have a few examples of extended definition or clue-as-definition (with varying degrees of success, in my opinion), a somewhat questionable homophone, the standard “primarily” write-in, and a bit of French. Rather than a pair of related answers, there’s a set of three phrases sharing the same initial letters: the R-R phrases at 1a, 25a and 4d.
Some of the surfaces are rather clunky, but there are some very good clues too – particularly the remarkable anagrams at 1a and 4d, and the concise 24a. Thanks Everyman as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RABBLE ROUSING | ‘Horribly boring Belarus’: that’ll get the citizenry worked up (6,7) |
| Anagram (horribly) of BORING BELARUS. I’d expect to see this as a hyphenated phrase rather than two words, but the answer is clear enough. |
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| 8 | ASTI | Knocked back, it’s a wine from Piedmont (4) |
| Reversal (knocked back) of IT’S A. Sometimes known as Asti Spumante: sparkling wine from Piedmont in Italy, often found in crosswords. |
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| 9 | POST-MODERN | Instagram entry displaying demon: about right to get ‘like’ (Jeff Koons’ work) (4-6) |
| POST (an entry on a web platform such as Instagram), then an anagram (displaying = arranging perhaps?) of DEMON, containing (about) R (right). The definition (as often in crosswords) requires you to ignore the punctuation in the clue. Jeff Koons is an artist known for (among other things) stainless steel sculptures of balloon animals; contemporary art isn’t really my thing but I suppose “post-modern” is a fair description. |
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| 10 | STIGMA | Mark a git’s been given, being contrary – disgrace (6) |
| 11 | INSANITY | Senselessness involving stupidity, to start with! (8) |
| INANITY (senselessness), containing the starting letter of S[tupidity]. Clue-as-definition: the informal use of “insanity” in the sense of “you’d have to be mad to do that”, rather than the “debilitating mental illness” sense. |
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| 12 | DOBERMANN | Dutch award initially rejected by German author, being big beast (9) |
| D (the dictionaries say this is an abbreviation for Dutch, though I’m not sure I’ve seen it used) + OBE (Order of the British Empire = award) + initial letter of R[ejected] + MANN (German author Thomas Mann). A large breed of dog. |
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| 14 | PSIS | Letters from Greece – audible expressions of yearning (4) |
| Homophone (audible) of SIGHS. Or at least I think that’s the intention, but homophones don’t always work for everyone. When I was learning Greek, the initial P in the letter psi (of which this is the plural) was pronounced and not silent, so to me it doesn’t sound like “sigh” – but your pronunciation may be different. | ||
| 15 | FACT | Part of actualité? (4) |
| Hidden answer (part) in [o]F ACT[ualite]. Clue-as-definition: actualité is French for news / current affairs / documentary. Everyman seems to assume that solvers are au fait with a certain amount of French. |
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| 16 | GO BANANAS | Game hand makes you freak out (2,7) |
| GO (Chinese strategy game) + BANANAS (hand = a bunch of bananas). | ||
| 20 | HABITUAL | Traditional halibut prepared with aïoli for starter (8) |
| This was harder than it should have been because the last two words of the clue are missing in the online version; the PDF version is correct. Anagram (prepared) of HALIBUT with the starting letter of A[ïoli] (garlic sauce, though you don’t need to know that to solve the clue). Traditional = habitual as in “the traditional complaint about misprints in the Guardian“. |
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| 21 | IAMBIC | What Everyman’s pen creates: like some Shakespearean verses (6) |
| I AM (Everyman is = Everyman’s) + BIC (brand name of ballpoint pens). Iambic = in poetry, repeated patterns of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Some of Shakespeare’s blank verse is in iambic pentameter, where each line consists of five of these unstressed-stressed pairs: for example “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!” from The Merchant of Venice. |
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| 23 | NOVA SCOTIA | In review: small bit of land where O Canada‘s sung, principally, alongside river! (4,6) |
| AIT (a small island = small bit of land) + first letters (principally) of O C[anada’s] S[ung] + AVON (one of many rivers of that name in the UK; the name is from the Celtic word for river), all reversed (in review). Clue-as-definition: Nova Scotia is a peninsula in Canada (where O Canada is the national anthem). |
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| 24 | YETI | Even so, the writer’s a beast (4) |
| YET (even so) + I (the writer). Creature of Himalayan folklore. |
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| 25 | READY RECKONER | Interpret corner key, incorrectly, as aid in calculation (5,8) |
| READ (interpret) + anagram (incorrectly) of CORNER KEY. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RISOTTO | Oddly rejected Fruit Shoots; took rice dish (7) |
| [f]R[u]I[t] S[h]O[o]T[s] T[o]O[k], with all the odd-numbered letters removed (oddly rejected). | ||
| 2 | BLING | Half-cut, putting together tacky jewellery (5) |
| [assem]BLING (putting together), with the first half cut away. | ||
| 3 | LIP BALM | Bishop’s left one part of hand covered in salve (3,4) |
| L (left) + I (one in Roman numerals) + PALM (part of hand), containing (. . . covered) B (bishop, in chess notation). The word order makes the grammar somewhat tortured, and the ‘s doesn’t help, but I think I’ve understood what Everyman intended. | ||
| 4 | RUSSIAN ROULETTE | Aristotle unsure about act of stupid bravado (7,8) |
| Anagram (about = scattered) of ARISTOTLE UNSURE. | ||
| 5 | UTMOST | 2nd of August: Farah’s entered racing event, making maximum effort (6) |
| Second letter of [a]U[gust], then MO’S (Mo Farah, long-distance athlete) contained in (entered) TT (time trial = racing event). | ||
| 6 | INDONESIA | Here, one’s surrounded by Asian land … or water!? (9) |
| ONE’S surrounded by INDIA (Asian land), with an extended definition: Indonesia (SE Asia) consists of a large number of islands. Not quite a clue-as-definition because “or water” isn’t part of the wordplay. | ||
| 7 | GYRATES | Vacuous gadfly speeds, goes for a spin (7) |
| G[adfl]Y (vacuous = empty = middle letters removed) + RATES (speeds, as a noun). | ||
| 13 | ENCHILADA | Each lad in resort gets Mexican food (9) |
| Anagram (re-sort) of EACH LAD IN. | ||
| 15 | FLAVOUR | Prefer to include tip of liquorice, for taste (7) |
| FAVOUR (prefer) including the first letter (tip) of L[iquorice]. | ||
| 17 | A BIG ASK | Leaders from Antigua & Barbuda irritate king with trapped wind; this will be tricky (1,3,3) |
| First letters (leaders) of A[ntigua] B[arbuda] I[rritate] K[ing], containing (with trapped) GAS (wind, in the intestinal sense). A big ask = a request to do something that will be hard to achieve. |
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| 18 | AVIATOR | Heading off, navigator defying gravity? (7) |
| [n]AVI[g]ATOR, removing the first letter (heading) and the G (g = symbol for acceleration due to gravity). Clue-as-definition. |
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| 19 | OUTCRY | Hoo-hah about cryogenic extract (6) |
| Hidden answer (extract) in [ab]OUT CRY[ogenic]. Hoo-hah = outcry = public expression of disapproval. |
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| 22 | MAYAN | Primarily, Mesoamerican / ancient Yucatan, architecturally notable? (5) |
| Everyman’s usual trick: first letters of each word after “primarily”, and clue-as-definition for an ancient civilization. | ||
Thanks for the detailed blog. I was initially scuppered with the 20A words omission but it didn’t throw me off for too long. Favourites were AVIATOR, A BIG ASK, and NOVA SCOTIA, although I was less fond of BLING and LIP BALM.
I found this quite hard though now I wonder why Got there in the end though: I am improving! Some really amazing anagrams. Thank you yo Everyman and Qirisrer.
A good challenge, with some clues that needed trying different approaches before they yielded. I liked the ‘echoes’ in the three longer RR clues, and knew I was looking for that pattern by the time I got to 4d. Is Jeff Koons post-modern? I just think of him as kitsch and overrated. INDONESIA was well constructed. Thanks, Everyman and Quirister.
20a: After spotting the near-anagram, and already having some crossers, this was a shrug-and-write-in. I may have seen aioli abbreviated to “A” on my food order, but that’s hardly standard. Glad I didn’t spend any longer thinking about it.
Greek letters and ASTI are favourites for building up longer words, so it’s only fair that they get their own entries every now and then.
For me, a less enjoyable Everyman experience.
* 6d the ‘or water’ bit : INDIA = Indian Ocean? or Indian tonic water? which I think is a weak clue, as nobody refers to tonic water as ‘India’. Or did they in the past?
** 20a anagram of halibut + A from aioli? Oh, I see the online clue was faulty.
Did not parse BLING.
Failed to solve PSIS
Thanks, Q&E
Thanks for the explanation re the missing ‘for starter’ in 20 across. I thought I was very clever, for solving what I thought was a very devious clue.
As aïoli was in Italics I guessed I had to translate it and came up with the Spanish alioli. I then figured I had to delete the li , as in zero li, which left me with ‘a’.
No? It did occur to me there may be some missing indicators. 🙂
I only know AIT from Guardian cryptics. Chuffed to get that, NOVA SCOTIA one of my picks Also liked AVIATOR with the double deletion, and the clue as definition. RUSSIAN ROULETTE – what a find! Loved the fodder and the definition.
Michelle @ 5. INDONESIA. Surrounded by (Asian) land … or water? The ‘or water ?’ part, to me, was a bit of a nudge and a joke. No, not surrounded by land, but water. (Sorry, ruining the joke in the telling. A bit like explaining Christmas cracker puns.)
Like paddymelon @5, I took the ‘or water’ to be referring to INDONESIA, not India – a nation of islands.
There is a difference between tonic water and Indian tonic water: something to do with the sweetener used
I wasn’t sure about D being an abbreviation for Dutch, but I still enjoyed 12A as it reminded me of Private Duane Doberman, always falling for Bilko’s scams.
I took the definition of 6D to be a genuine CAD. Indonesia is indeed an island group but three of the islands are shared land. Timor (Timor Leste) Borneo (Brunei and part of Malaysia) and New Guinea (Papua New Guinea)…although PNG is in Oceania. When “Here, one’s surrounded by Asian land … or water!”
askpete @10 even better!
Good Everyman fare.
As pointed out, the clue for 3D was garbled and didn’t really work but I got it anyway.
I thought the navigator to AVIATOR was cleverly done.
Thanks Everyman and Quirister.
I spent a while trying to parse “asks” as a solution to 14a, reasoning that they’re expressions of yearning, but I couldn’t shoehorn a satisfactory Greek aspect into the parsing.
And the overlap with 17d felt too clunky. Like Quirister, I’ve always pronounced the P in PSIS, but at least there was a pukka hellenic connection, so I went with that and crossed my fingers…
I liked the neatness of AVIATOR and YETI, thought NOVA SCOTIA was convoluted but endearing – and my fave was IAMBIC: how nice to have “pen” not referring to a particular writer for a change, but to a humble biro.
Thanks Quirister and Everyman.
Like others I really liked 18d AVIATOR – very clever and neat.
Quirister, your comment on 6d INDONESIA raises an interesting point about the meaning of “clue as definition”. I agree with askpete @10 that this clue is indeed a genuine CAD in that the entire clue provides the definition. However it is not a full &lit (like 18d) because, as you say, the words “or water” are not part of the wordplay. As I see it, the term CAD does not distinguish between a full &lit and a semi &lit – whether this is an advantage or disadvantage of the term is, I suppose, a matter of opinion.
Many thanks Everyman and Quirister.
A bit uneven as ever from Everyman, but you have to say that NOVA SCOTIA is a pretty smart bit of cluing. I also liked DOBERMANN and IAMBIC.
As an online solver I was wondering when aioli started equalling ‘a’, so thanks to Quirister for clearing that up.
I do fancy a bit of aioli now, made with as much garlic as humanly possible in true greek island style.
For INDONESIA, I thought the idea was to mentally rephrase the clue as “[Here, one’s surrounded by Asian land], or [here, one’s surrounded by water],” making it “[wordplay] or [definition]”–an unusual and clever construction.
Managed to finish it, but there were a few more than usual that I wasn’t able to parse including 20a (though thanks for letting me know that wasn’t my fault), 11a (I wouldn’t have connected inanity and senselessness), 23a (a lot going on in there, and I’ve never heard of an ait), and 2d. I’d also never heard of a ready reckoner before, though I have apparently encountered many in my time.
Thanks blogger and setter.
All rather fun but …
… some see 23ac as extremely clever, while I don’t see where ‘where’ comes in.
It is (perhaps) a juxtaposition indicator that splits the fodder (which as a whole should be reversed)?
I don’t know – there must be someone there who can convince me.
Like Sil, puzzled by “where”.
Saw 10a as reversal rather than anagram.
In 3d, found the grammar fine, taking ‘s as part of wordplay instructions… i.e. “(b) is (lipalm) covered”.
Overall, a light and pleasant solve. TA to setter/blogger/commenters!
Thanks to Everyman and Quirister
I know I’m late to the party but hopefully someone will read this.
I thought I was coming to grips with what defined as an &lit and a CAD. However Quirister says 18d AVIATOR is a CAD while Lord Jim @14 implies that it is an &lit. My (possibly) limited understanding means I lean towards Lord Jim’s view. Can someone please clarify?
kevin @20; I think Lord Jim @14 puts it well. My understanding is that a CAD could be a semi-&lit (where all the clue is the definition but only part gives the wordplay) or a full &lit (where all the clue is both definition and wordplay). Thus, 18d would seem to be an &lit. The term ‘extended definition’ is also used sometimes to indicate a semi-&lit.
I think here Quirister is using CAD as a synonym for &lit (see explanation for 6D).
OddOtter @19: yes, you’re right, 10a is a reversal not an anagram. I’ve corrected the blog. (Though a pedant might point out that a reversal is just a special case of an anagram – I’m sure someone has said that here before.)
Kevin @20, Robi @21: yes, I think we’re using different terms for the same thing. The term &lit has sometimes puzzled new readers here, and semi-&lit even more so. One of my fellow bloggers (I can’t remember who but I’m happy to give credit if they want to claim it!) started using the term clue-as-definition (cad) instead of &lit, and some of us decided we preferred it. I generally use “extended definition” instead of semi-&lit, for a clue where at least part of the wordplay contributes to the definition but there are elements of the clue not used in the wordplay. So for 6d, “one’s surrounded” is used in both definition and wordplay; “by Asian land” is used in the wordplay, and perhaps also in the definition as askpete @10 says; “here . . . or water” is used in the definition (a place surrounded by water, therefore we’re looking for islands) but not in the wordplay.
Having said all that: the point is that the clue works, and we understand what it means and how it produces the answer. For me, that’s enough to enjoy it, without getting into debates over precise classification.
Quirister @22: I believe it was your esteemed colleague Pierre who came up with “clue as definition” – see the blog on Everyman 3,830, especially comments 10, 18 and 19. I think he intended it to include (as the term suggests) any clue where the entire clue is the definition, whether it is (in old money) a full &lit or a semi &lit.
(I do appreciate what you say in your final para, but some people get very worked up about these things! – particularly people who seem to look down on a semi &lit as a failed &lit.)
A rather unrelated question. Is Everyman a single setter every week, or there are many Everyman? And if there is only one Everyman, do we know who they are?
I am new to cryptics and not from UK, so this is perhaps a newbie question.
Adriana, welcome to Fifteensquared! The current Everyman setter has been in the role since early 2019, though the Everyman crossword goes back decades. We knew who some of the previous Everyman setters were, but the current one hasn’t yet chosen to identify himself/herself publicly so I don’t know a name. However, he/she does occasionally comment on these blogs, and the comments suggest a single setter rather than a team. Everyman, if you’re reading this and would like to identify yourself, we’d love to know!
Thanks, Quirister @19. Yup, I considered reversal as a subset of anagram… just thought “contrary” read more clearly as reversal, so worth a comment :^)
Re CAD/&lit, some also use “all-in-one” (e.g. Big Dave’s site). All are (to me) part of a larger concept: overlap of defn/wplay. Can be total (thus each spans entire clue… the classic CAD/&lit/all-in-one), or partial. If partial, forms include: 1 – “clue=defn, semi-clue=wplay”; 2 -“semi-clue=defn, clue=wplay”; 3 – “semi-clue=defn, semi-clue=wplay, with partial overlap”. Have seen all at some point, though styles/norms do change and some are less common. CAD applies to #1 as well as the classic case. Semi-&lit is #1 (seems like it could apply to others, but I’ve only seen it more strictly defined). Quirister’s extended-defn is #1 and (I think) #3. I’ve not seen a specific term for #3, nor a term specific to or encompassing #2, but others may be able to offer them?
Like the term “species,” these are somewhat artificial constructs and reality is more fluid. Per Quirister’s comment… whatever one might think to call them, they all can be great fun!
Thanks, Quirister.
It was indeed me who suggested the use of clue as definition (cad) as a way of describing clues where there is an overlap between wordplay and definition. It was really to avoid long, unnecessarily angry and ultimately not very helpful arguments about what constituted an &lit. Even Ximenes in his 1966 publication offered the opinion that the definition of an &lit was often open to debate. OddOtter’s explanation is helpful if you are really interested in that level of detail, but your average solver (particularly a newer solver) is not really going to be that concerned, so I’m with Quirister’s last para in comment 22.
I did, in a slightly tongue-on-cheek way, try to introduce the term caddish as a replacement for &littish, but that doesn’t seem to have caught on …
Thanks Pierre – I thought it was you who introduced this term, but couldn’t remember. I will continue to use
it.
FAQ has CAD = &lit. This crossword hasn’t any.
We liked this one – nice flow to it and the double use of defying gravity in 18d was fun.
Not sure that I’ve ever seen a ready recliner!
Is a ready recliner a chair of easy virtue?
Couple of quibbles: (1) I think it is fair to say that Go is primarily a Japanese, r.t. Chinese game. (2) Nova Scotia is a Canadian *province*, not just a “peninsula”.
Got this all out and thought it good; challenging but not impossible.
Could not completely parse several answers (including “Nova Scotia” — never heard of the word “ait”) but did not worry since I was comfortable with the answers anyway.
Thanks to Everyman and to Quirister.