Everyman 3,879

by

The Observer crossword from Feb 14, 2021

Another Sunday, another Everyman.


I think this one fitted the bill, pleasing both newcomers and more experienced solvers alike.
The three long ones (1ac, 25ac and 4dn) had the same pattern: S…. S….
Everyman clearly liked his dot-dot-dot and his brackets today – its use I found on occasions unnecessary.

ACROSS
1 SECRET SERVICE
US government dept wanting redesign, receives crest (6,7)
Anagram, indicated by (wanting) redesign, of: RECEIVES CREST
8 ECHO
What’s seen next to delta? Sound (again) (4)
In international radio communication ‘echo’ stands for the letter E, which is next to D (represented by ‘delta’)
9 CHRONICLER
Historian, atrocious lecturer with hesitant expression (10)
CHRONIC (atrocious) + L (lecturer) + ER (hesitant expression)
10 MUESLI
Everyman eating starter of udon, followed by rieslings: essentially healthy meal (6)
ME (Everyman) around U (the first letter of UDON), followed by SLI (i.e. the three in the middle of RIESLINGS)
Some people might argue that ‘essentially’ only indicates the L in the middle and not the middle three.
11 NEWLY-WED
Like blushing bride … or wife in northern cathedral before midweek (5-3)
W (wife) going inside {N (northern) + ELY (cathedral)}, followed by WED (midweek, short for Wednesday)
Not so long ago we had a discussion whether ELY is ‘a cathedral’ or ‘a cathedral city’ …. No, not again!
12 BERING SEA
Water and transplant bergenias (6,3)
Anagram, indicated by the imperative transplant, of: BERGENIAS
Interesting to see this clue alongside 20dn in yesterday’s FT (which will be blogged early March).
14 MEET
Gather … and flow back (4)
Reversal, indicated by back, of : TEEM (flow)
15 SOHO
Naked co-host returning to red-light district (4)
[c]O-HOS[t] minus the outer letters (naked, unclothed), then reversed, indicated by returning
16 ISOMETRIC
Kind of graph line displaying eroticism (9)
Anagram, indicated by displaying, of: EROTICISM
Initially, I found the definition rather strange but according to both Chambers and Collins an isometric can be “a line on a graph showing variations of pressure with temperature at constant volume”.
I don’t think I have seen ‘displaying’ as an anagram indicator before. I can’t see how it tells me to mix things up.
Despite what those in favour of it said below, I am still not really convinced (that said, it doesn’t really bother me either).
20 CANBERRA
City accommodating national building’s elected representatives (representing Australia, primarily!) (8)
The customary Primarily device, with the clue as a whole being the definition: all the starting letters of City Accommodating National Building etc
21 RASHER
Bacon‘s getting increasingly hot-headed (6)
Double definition
23 CHATTERING
Milliner: not ‘dealer in candle-making’ – that’s silly talk! (10)
CHANDLERING (candle-making) with HANDLER (dealer) replaced by HATTER (milliner)
24 SEEN
Watched some of a play in the auditorium (4)
Homophone, indicated by in the auditorium, of: SCENE (some of a play)
25 SIDE-SPLITTING
Funny (cutting) to include ‘magic powers’ alongside Freudian concept (4-9)
SLITTING (cutting) around {ID (Freudian concept) + ESP (‘magic powers’)}
Psychologists will like this clue which was almost my last-one-to-parse.
DOWN
1 SECLUDE
Some vacuous blind at the end in clue for ‘cloister‘ (7)
S[om]E, followed by the last letter of BLIND inside CLUE
2 CO-OPS
They benefit the workers (getting pounds) (2-3)
Double definition
Sort of, because only the first one is hyphenated. 
3 ETCHING
Cutting alien, replacing lead character in Chinese book (7)
I CHING (Chinese book) with the I at the start replaced by ET (alien)
4 SPRINGER SPANIEL
Dog chewed slippers in anger (8,7)
Anagram, indicated by chewed, of: SLIPPERS IN ANGER
5 RENOWN
‘Literature’ now normally includes celebrity (6)
Hidden solution, indicated by includes: LiteratuRE NOW Normally
6 ITCHY FEET
Desire to move on, abandoning bold, malicious poetry (5,4)
[B]ITCHY (malicious) minus the B (bold, as in a word processor) at the start, followed by FEET (poetry)
‘Feet’ defined by just poetry is too loose for me, others may disagree.
7 EVEREST
Most dangerous, heading off to mountain (7)
[s]EVEREST (most dangerous) minus the letter at the start
13 INHIBITED
Shy, not going out, I hit bed, tossed and turned (9)
IN (not going out), followed by an anagram, indicated by tossed and turned, of: I HIT BED
15 SCATHES
Causes injury with farm implements: end of agony? No, the beginning (7)
SCYTHES (farm implements) with Y (the last letter of AGONY) replaced by A (the first letter of AGONY)
The verb ‘to scathe’ is nowadays only used in ‘scathed’ or ‘scathing’ but, purely technically, Everyman is correct because the verb still exists.
However, he could have gone for ‘smashes’, ‘slashes’ etc.
17 MR RIGHT
Husband material skipped a ceremony, they say (2,5)
Homophone, indicated by they say, of: MISSED (skipped) A RITE (ceremony)
18 ICEBERG
Lettuce, rice (and giblet, oddly enough) in salad (7)
Anagram, indicated by in salad, of: RICE + the odd letters of GIBLET
Another iceberg but this time not IC plus a reversal of GREBE – hurrah!
19 DRIERS
Demobbed soldier finally given firearms, regularly missing sources of heat? (6)
The last letters of both DEMOBBED and SOLDIER, followed by the (in this case) even letters of FIREARMS
22 SUSHI
Dish, South American, hot chili – at last! (5)
S (South) + US (American) + H (hot) + I (the last letter of CHILI)

34 comments on “Everyman 3,879”

  1. I found this quite hard to get started on, but I made a start by solving the three long ones and SE corner.
    New: SPRINGER SPANIEL.
    Favourite: SCATHES.
    I could not parse 23 ac CHATTERING except that it must have had someting to do with HATTER = milliner.

    Thanks, Everyman + Sil

  2. It was a week ago, but I don’t think I found it too difficult. I like the surface for SPRINGER SPANIEL. ETCHING was cute too. I toyed with FRIERS for 19d, unable to account for the F, until I twigged that the ‘finally’ applied to two words. I had no problem with SCATHES as a word. Thanks, Everyman and Sil.

  3. Kind of like the idea of ‘to scathe’ as verb, tho never saw it used. Meant to look up bergenias to see if they’re real, but forgot. Pleasant Sunday, ta Everyman and Sil. [Found today’s harder, still a couple to go]

  5. Worked my way steadily through this last Sunday but could not get the last two. Same as the previous Sunday – but unlike the previous Sunday still couldn’t get them (SCATHES and CHATTERING) when I returned to it yesterday.

    Also do not get that FEET can be defined by poetry. And yes good to see another clue for ICEBERG.

    Liked ETCHING, SIDE-SPLITTING, MUESLI, CHRONICLER

    Thanks to Everyman and Sil Van den Hoek

  6. Sil, re 16a I agree that displaying as an anagrind is a stretch; could it mean uncovering, unmasking, revealing what is hidden, as if the word was camouflaged by the reordering of its letters?

    All in all, a nice puzzle, so thanks Everyman and Sil. I especially liked 4d SPRINGER SPANIEL for the good anagram and for the very apt surface. Also 22d SUSHI for its multiple misdirections.

  7. Fourth ICEBERG of the year! And the third EVEREST in two months. So much for global warming! Mind you, it’s the first SCATHES which probably makes up for it. And the first, and I hope last, time I see poetry defined as feet 😀

    Several anagrams brought a smile – SPRINGER SPANIEL, of course, but also BERING SEA and SECRET SERVICE. SIDE SPLITTING, CHRONICLER and CHATTERING were my other big ticks: replacing a chandler with a hatter sounds like something from Lewis Carroll.

    Re the blog’s observation on ‘essentially’: I know we are often seeking precision and an avoidance of ambiguity but, to me, the essence can be several different options and I’m happy for it to be any of them. Different depending on whether there is an odd or even number of letters. So it can deliver 1,2,3, or even 4 letters in my book. I can’t recall encountering 5.

    Thanks Everyman and Sil

  8. I think ITCHY FEET works better somehow, if you think of “bitchy feet” as the malicious poetry, rather than bitchy=malicious and feet=poetry. I think the cold snap must have got to Everyman with ICEBERG, EVEREST and BERING SEA then having to resort to a DRIER as a source of heat..

  9. What is the definitive source of abbreviations? I keep seeing ones new to me in Everyman these days. Lecturer is not one of the 15 symbols or abbreviations in my Collins Dictionary nor in my Oxford concise.

  10. Good Sunday solve.

    Yes, I didn’t much like poetry = feet, and displaying as an anagrind. I ticked the nicely hidden RENOWN and the dog chewing the slippers.

    GrahamP @9 – Chambers tends to be the dictionary most used for crosswords, where you will find L = lecturer. You can get phone apps for the Chambers Dictionary (and also Thesaurus) for a relatively low price. The free online version of Chambers lacks some entries.

    Thanks Everyman and Sil.

  11. Cellomaniac@6: I’m sure I’ve seen ‘displaying’ as an anagrind before now. Think of it as ‘laying out’. Last week’s Prize had ‘planning’ which I find more obscure.

  12. Thank you Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle and Sil for a helpful blog – I failed to parse SIDE-SPLITTING and ITCHING.
    As regards ‘displaying’ as an anagram indicator, the COED gives “printing the arrangement and choice of type in order to attract attention”, not sure if this helps…
    SPRINGER SPANIEL made me smile, there was one on the farm where I lived as a girl, when I went blackberrying he would nip off fruit and drop it in my basket (my mother had to give him his own basket).

  13. Thanks for parsing these. I am an “old” Everyman supporter from the days when it was the “entry” cryptic crossword, one feature being “what you see is what you get” – namely the clues contain the information overtly not covertly. Everyman now has more “covert” clueing -e.g.23a and 25a where you first have to find a synonym of a word in the clue and then have to do further work on that covert word. That tendency, which seems to have developed in the last couple of years, has moved Everyman up the cryptic scale. There are still enough overt clues to enable one to find the answers through crossers and then to be delighted at the explanation from Sil and colleagues the next Sunday. Maybe its just me getting older and the butterfly mind being less flighty, but I would be interested to know what other Everyman enthusiasts from ancient history feel.

  15. Anybody know why ‘co-ops’ is pounds? And as for a Chinese book? I got it from ET but could not parse it except that ‘ching’ sounds Chinese, now I know why, I need to educate myself in Chinese literature to do Guardian crosswords as well as a working knowledge of most European languages 😉

  16. Sil – Yes, Everyman could have gone for SMASHES, but I think the use of the device probably came first, and the opportunity could not be resisted. SCATHES may be obscure but the clue is plain. Which is as it should be.

    I didn’t mind ‘poetry’ for FEET because once you’ve seen (b)ITCHY, FEET doesn’t need much of a clue to drop into place.

    ‘Displaying’ reminded me of how solvers set out the letters of an anagram as an aid to reforming the target word, so that works fine for me too.

    I seem to be in a very friendly, accepting, appreciative mood today – where’s my usual grouchy, quibbling self got to?

  17. Re 16 – I see ‘displaying’ in the peacock sense, a fanning out and revelation. An almost poetic anagrind really.

  18. Tony Smith @15. Think of CO-OPS without the hyphen, for animal enclosures or ‘pounds’)

    I first came across the I Ching when reading The Man in the High Castle many years ago. It’s too late to help you with this clue, but you should read it anyway. (TMITHC, I meant, but go ahead and read the IC if you want!)

  19. I’d struggled with CHATTERING, as well, but Sil’s explanation makes perfect sense (and I should have thought harder about what a c(h)andler might be).
    Don’t have any problem at all with feet = poetry. In what other context do you ever encounter that sort of foot?
    While I’m not a huge fan of Everyman, I thought 25A was very neat.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  22. BodsnVimto@21: I generally assume the italics are typos. This is the Grauniad after all (yes, I know it’s the Observer, but still).

  23. Thanks to Everyman and Sil for a pleasant morning.

    Do people still say “something chronic,” which I’ve only ever seen in books of an earlier decade (I forget which one)?

  24. I’m with you cosmic with all your points. Though perhaps unfortunately including having the “less flighty mind”.

  26. Getting Scathes & parsing chattering probably the hardest bits for me.
    Spent some time trying to get asymptote into 16A before the iceberg hit me !

  27. Valentine @23: yes! Plenty of occasions in my life where I do or feel something chronic.

    [hatter @16: I resisted the temptation to ask Gaufrid to check that someone hadn’t assumed your pseudonym this morning. 😀 ]

  29. I liked a lot of these posts as well the crossword and blog, did not like 24 across, left it unfinished until today. I would like to see an uptick feature in the comments as in the Guardian comments as some I likw more than others.

  30. Definitely a grinch when it comes to Displaying and Poetry in their respective contexts here. Also agree with the covert/overt criticism.

    I did like Mr Right though.

  31. Enjoyed this after a slow start. Ticks beside 25a & 17d. Thanks again Everyman. Looks like you could’ve avoided a lot of flak with displaying kinky eroticism.

  32. I totally agree with Cosmic and Milesc. I started doing Everyman in 1956 and it was a delightful – and often too easy – challenge. But some of this bloke’s clues drive me bonkers. “Everyman eating starter of udon, followed by rieslings: essentially healthy meal” surely takes the cake when it comes to downright ugliness. And yes, I am a grumpy old man!

  33. Agree with Tony on 10a Muesli, surely would be a better clue if there was some indicator that the ‘essential’ is one two or three letters otherwise it is guesswork. Shame as there are always some excellent clues; best ones for me today were Mr Right, Sushi with its clever misdirection, Rasher, Chronicler, Echo, Everest, Meet… all great clues that more than make up for the many cringey ones. Shame tho

  34. Got the lot – great x-word.
    Drank the last of a bottle of Glovers 2003 pinot (ranks up there with the top burgundies) during the process and was a great evening.
    Liked mr right and newly wed was timely as neighbours just got married and the music is keeping us up now.

Comments are closed.