The Observer crossword from 27 Sept, 2020
A generally typical Everyman puzzle for which, however, I needed a (short) second sitting to finish the SE corner.
It looks like Everyman said goodbye to his ‘primarily’ clue type (see 25ac).
Also, it took me ages to find the two related clues (3dn and 11dn).
Looking back at SUN and RAIN, it’s so obvious now.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WALL STREET | Source of ice cream – indulgence, they say – somewhere in NYC (4,6) |
| WALL’S (source of ice cream, a well-known ice cream brand) + TREET (which, they say, sounds like TREAT (indulgence)) | ||
| 6 | ELMS | Trees where key limes regularly plucked (4) |
| Regular choice of letters, in this case the even ones, from: kEy LiMeS | ||
| 9 | INCENTIVES | Everyman’s invested in … in smallest amounts of money to get carrots (10) |
| I’VE (Everyman’s, Everyman has, I have) going inside {IN + CENTS (smallest amounts of money – not in the UK, though)} | ||
| 10 | DOES | Deer will suffice (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | A PIG IN A POKE | A Greek character with liquor and a nudge: careful what you’re getting into here (1,3,2,1,4) |
| A + PI (Greek character) + GIN (liquor) + A POKE (a nudge) | ||
| 15 | ICICLES | Eaves’ droppers? (7) |
| (Not very) Cryptic definition | ||
| 16 | GENESIS | Eugene’s Israelite carrying part of Torah (7) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by carrying: Eugene’s Israelite | ||
| 17 | NON-STOP | Pontoons needing love, once renovated constantly (3-4) |
| Anagram, indicated by renovated, of PONTO[O]NS needing (being in need of or missing) only one of the letters O (love) | ||
| 19 | PRO BONO | In favour of U2’s singer not getting any money (3,4) |
| PRO (in favour of) + BONO (U2’s singer) | ||
| 20 | PATRON SAINT | Religious symbol, where dancing or pants are not common (6,5) |
| Anagram, indicated by dancing, of OR PANTS, followed by AIN’T (are not, in common speech) | ||
| 23 | NONE | Sister’s outspoken; not at all! (4) |
| Homophone, indicated by outspoken, of: NUN (sister) | ||
| 24 | AUCTIONEER | One who sells essence of rum, mixed with ice or neat (10) |
| Anagram, indicated by mixed, of U ICE OR NEAT, in which U is the middle letter (or essence) of RUM | ||
| 25 | AGRA | Where you can see Asia’s grandest royal abode, primarily? (4) |
| Indicated by primarily, the starting letters of: Asia’s Grandest Royal Abode Another “primarily” clue but one that’s clearly different this time. That said, it’s still the whole clue that serves as the definition. |
||
| 26 | SENSATIONS | Numbers overwhelm these whizzes (10) |
| Double definition, the first being cryptic Numbers as in anaesthetics (or, more generally, things that make you numb). |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WAIT | Hesitate to bring food to table (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | LACE | Delicate fabric is ‘slightly irreplaceable’ (4) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by slightly: irrepLACEable | ||
| 3 | SUNTAN LOTION | Incredibly, last union not offering protection (6,6) |
| Anagram, indicated by incredibly, of: LAST UNION NOT | ||
| 4 | RAISINS | Oddly straying, priapic with lust and greed for sweet things (7) |
| The even letters (the odd ones are ‘straying‘) of: pRiApIc, followed by SINS (lust and greed) | ||
| 5 | EVENING | Ironing, perhaps at end of day (7) |
| Making things EVEN or ‘smooth’; flatten things by ironing, perhaps | ||
| 7 | LEO TOLSTOY | Novelist‘s novel, O, To Sell Trifle (3,7) |
| Anagram, indicated by novel, of O TO SELL, followed by TOY (trifle) Didn’t know that book …. |
||
| 8 | SUSPENSION | Type of bridge in South America given means of support (10) |
| S (South) + US (America) + PENSION (means of support) | ||
| 11 | RAINBOW TROUT | Prepared a burrito; won’t give you fish (7,5) |
| Anagram, indicated by prepared, of: A BURRITO WON’T | ||
| 13 | GIANT PANDA | And a pig ferociously eats tiny creature to become enormous beast (5,5) |
| Anagram, indicated by ferociously, of AND A PIG, which then goes around (or eats) ANT (tiny creature) | ||
| 14 | PIANO TUNER | Technician: ‘A spot of sepia? Not unerasable’ (5,5) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by a spot of: sePIA? NOT UNERasable Normally, ‘a spot of’ means just a little bit of (something). Not here – it’s more than half of the fodder! Also, why is the un-bit of the final word in the clue italicised? |
||
| 18 | PASTURE | Ace succeeding, old stance, getting to green area (7) |
| POSTURE (stance) with A (ace) succeeding i.e. replacing O (old) My last one in, and, in my opinion, a clumsily formulated clue. I don’t think I have ever seen ‘succeeding’ for this kind of construction. And I am not sure I like it very much because – for me – there’s (also) an element of ‘time’ to it. It’s in Chambers, though, as ‘taking the place of’. |
||
| 19 | PLINTHS | Uplifting quiet time with love, quietly offering support (7) |
| SH (quiet) + T (time) + NIL (love, nothing) + P (quietly, piano), then the whole lot reversed, indicated by uplifting | ||
| 21 | VETO | Confused vote delivering presidential power (4) |
| Anagram, indicated by confused, of: VOTE | ||
| 22 | EROS | Regularly in bedrooms, making love (4) |
| Regular choice of letters, once more the even ones, from: bEdRoOmS | ||
Surely, Sil, 25a is a “primarily” clue? Though not as directly so as Everyman’s usual.
Ah: I see you have addressed this matter in your comment. Sorry. I withdraw mine above! 🙂
Everything went reasonably smoothly until I was left with the 18d, 19d 26a triplet, when I ground to a halt (though, much later, I did enter PASTURE without seeing the parsing, I had to resort to aids just before coming here for the others). ICICLES went in before any crossers, with me thinking I’d probably have to revise that later – but it proved to be sound. I had PRO BONO in before I even finished reading the clue. I was also a bit slow on parsing PATRON SAINT – I had entered it and then realised that the (supposed) anagram fodder (pants are not)* lacked the necessary ‘i’ – but the penny dropped after staring at it for a while. No matching pair! (oh – now I see what you mean by highlighting SUN and RAIN, Sil). A change in the ‘primarily’ clue! (Mind you, the Taj Mahal wasn’t an abode – unless you were dead already). Thanks, Everyman and Sil.
Ref 19dn I’m not not entirely convinced that ‘support’ singular = ‘plinths’ plural, though I sort of see it.
got stuck on 26a which im still confused about. whizzes seems an odd definition to me
Ray @#5 If it helps, SOED has this definition and example: whizz – a very remarkable thing. E20. New Scientist: The latest technological whizz is the so-called ‘expert system’.
Enjoyable puzzle (as usual), though for we Australian solvers (particularly we migrants from the UK) 1A was pleasingly intriguing. Our equivalent to “Walls” is “Streets”. Both owned by Unilever. So “Wall Street” was a particularly apposite Antipodean answer.
Jandra @7 – being an Aussie who has lived in Old Blighty (and married a Pom), I had a similar experience – though I couldn’t remember whether Walls was a Pommy brand or Aussie, and had to check. Mind you, there is much better ice cream available than either of these two.
A bit of a mixed bag for me, with fewer ticks and more “hmm”s than usual. I wasn’t very keen on the definition in 20a – I suppose in a sense a PATRON SAINT is a symbol, but it’s not very obvious. Re 7d LEO TOLSTOY, as Sil has commented before, this sort of clue is much more satisfying when it’s the actual title of a real work of art – just making one up gives the setter endless scope to use any odd collection of words.
I did like 19a PRO BONO which was quite amusing.
Sil, I was ok with “succeeding” in 18d, thinking of it as along the lines of “supplanting”.
(Any Guardian solvers in particular: if you haven’t already seen it, could I suggest you look at the thread on “The increase in comments” – under Categories > Announcements.)
Thanks Everyman and Sil.
Overall, good Everyman puzzle. I seem to remember that Everyman said in the early days that he/she would reveal themselves (or have I missed something?)
A couple of quibbles; despite Sil’s attempt at justification, I don’t buy ‘needing’ in 17 as a removal indicator. It would have been easy to substitute with ‘wanting’, which would have been unequivocal, I think. I agree with Sil’s query concerning the clue for PASTURE. To me, it gives the answer poasture. Perhaps, ‘Ace replacing old stance …’ or some such would have been better.
I thought the PIANO TUNER was skilfully hidden.
Thanks Everyman and Sil.
I too was stuck on the SE corner. I had plinths but didn’t enter it as I couldn’t work it out. I still think it’s a tad weak, ditto 26a, which I had but no clue why and still none, despite Sil’s explanation. Sorry, Sil, it’s definitely me, not you! Otherwise, pretty straightforward, some goodies and some slightly dodgy. I think this is how it is, though. Mostly enjoyable with a little frustration thrown in now and then.
Chambers gives “to take the place of” as a def for SUCCEED so for me it’s fine and quite a nice bit of misdirection
Sara @11
Numbers=things that make you numb overwhelm=cause to lose feeling these=sensations “whizzes” is the clue definition.
You might say Sara is a whizz on the computer, she’s a sensation.
It’s still a poor clue though.
Thanks Everyman and Sil
jackkt @ 4: I saw the definition in 19D as ‘offering support’, which eliminates the singular/plural difficulty.
In what sense, Simon?
Support is offered by plinths, Sil.
I do understand that, Simon, but I do not really see how ‘offering support’ is a proper definition for ‘plinths’ (part of speech etc).
Unless you mean that this is one of those ‘half-definitions’ that, to be honest, I do not really like.
The solution is a thing that is) [or, here: things that are] “offering support”.
That’s probably it then, and it solves indeed the singular/plural issue.
Sorry, Sil, been otherwise engaged.
Yes, that’s what I was driving at. Woolly definition > concrete solution.
I found this difficult. I failed 19D (I thought it might be PLINTHS but could not parse it) and 26A. Thanks jackt@6 for explaining about whizzes, and Davy@13 for numbers/sensations.
I did not parse pasture.
Thanks, B+S
ICICLES was actually one of my last in – these CDs are either blindingly obvious or frustratingly unguessable, with no wordplay to bridge the gap.
The “UN”, of course, is just italicized to sow a bit of extra confusion. Everyman seems to likw doing it: There’s a particularly egregious bit of unnecessary punctuation in one of this week’s clues.
It’s usually a good idea to ignore all capitals and punctuation in the clue – except when it isn’t, because the solution turns out to be something like SEMICOLON or QUESTION MARK…
Stupidly failed to parse 26A, thought it had to be something inside say Tens or Sevens. Doh.
So glad to see it wasn’t just me with 19d and 26ac. It took as long to complete the SE corner as it took for the other three combined. More positives than negatives but a lingering dissatisfaction nevertheless. Thanks Sil and Everyman.
26a was a horrible clue – not up to the high standard of the rest of the puzzle. Otherwise another fun morning doing the crossword.
I needed to use a wildcard dictionary to get 19 down and 26 across. Liked 26 across a *lot* when I finally did get it.
Good puzzle. Thanks to Everyman, and to Sil.