The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3892.
There’s no doubt that this is an Everyman, but this one has the odd more intricate wordplay, and a scattering of religious references.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PELICANS |
Pile up tins for fish-eaters (8)
|
| A charade of PELI, an anagram (‘up’) of ‘pile’ plus CANS (‘tins’). | ||
| 5 | ESTHER |
Biblical figure suppressed by vilest Herod (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘suppressed by’) in ‘vilEST HERod’. | ||
| 10 | GRIFFIN |
Grotesque raptor in fantasy; fierce: I’m nervous, primarily! (7)
|
| Everyman’s usual ‘primarily’ &lit clue to provide an easy entry for beginners. | ||
| 11 | REFUTES |
Denies time for the good in shelters (7)
|
| A substitution: REFUGES (‘shelters’) with the G changed to T (‘time for the good’). | ||
| 12 | TRUST |
Faith‘s tied up, we’re told (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘we’re told’) TRUSSED (‘tied up’). | ||
| 13 | TETE-A-TETE |
Four notes describing a meeting (4-1-4)
|
| TE may be a variant of TI or SI, a ‘note’ of the sol-fa, or a flattened TI; either way, there are four of them around (‘describing’) ‘a’. Like 3D, diacritics may be desirable – circumflexes on the first and third E, and a grave accent on the A – but as the letters go into the lights as capitals, even the French may then omit them, despite the disapproval of the Académie française. | ||
| 14 | ECCLES CAKES |
21st book of O.T.: timeless casket displayed food containing fruit (6,5)
|
| A charade of ECCLES (a standard abbreviation for Ecclesiastes, which in the Protestant Bible is the ’21st book of O.T.’) plus CAKES, an anagram (‘displayed’) of ‘caske[t]’ minus the T (‘timeless’). | ||
| 18 | WESTERN WALL |
Herod’s legacy depicted in film with a couple of lines (7,4)
|
| A charade of WESTERN (‘film’) plus W (‘with’) plus ‘a’ plus LL (‘couple of lines’). The Western Wall, sometimes known as the Wailing Wall, in Jerusalem is a visible section of a longer retaining wall built for the Second Jewish Temple, in an expansion begun by Herod the Great. | ||
| 21 | IMBROGLIO |
Everyman’s run into lav: behold, Everyman’s in a muddle (9)
|
| A charade of I’M (‘Everyman’s’) plus BROG, an envelope (‘into’) of R (‘run’) in BOG (‘lav’, slang for a toilet) plus LIO, another envelope (‘in’) of I (‘Everyman’) in LO (and ‘behold’). | ||
| 23 | RETRO |
Trainspotter ultimately missing mass transport system with old-school charm (5)
|
| A charade of R (‘trainspotteR ultimately’) plus [m]ETRO (eg Parisian ‘transport system’) minus the M (‘missing mass’). | ||
| 24 | HONKING |
Smelling what goose produces (7)
|
| Double definition; the smell is unpleasant. | ||
| 25 | OEDIPUS |
Dictionary, American, minimal cash invested – a tragedy (7)
|
| An envelope (‘invested’) of IP (1 P, ‘minimal cash’) in OED (Oxford English ‘Dictionary’) plus US (‘American’). | ||
| 26 | YES-MAN |
Voyeur, dismal fiancé – essentially, a creep (3-3)
|
| Middle letters (‘essentially’) of ‘voYEur diSMal fiANce’. | ||
| 27 | BY GEORGE |
Where Charlotte’s often seen to be fancy (2,6)
|
| Double definition, the first probably a reference to Prince William’s first two children (‘…’s often seen’ might be more appropriate for them rather than, say, King George III and his Queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), the second a mild interjection. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PIGSTY |
Sanctimonious, good and holy man with yen for filthy place (6)
|
| A charade of PI (‘sanctimonious’) plus G (‘good’) plus ST (saint, ‘holy man’) plus Y (‘yen’, as Japanese currency) | ||
| 2 | LAID UP |
In France, the dessert one threw up, being sick (4,2)
|
| A charade of LA (‘in France, the’, feminine) plus IDUP, a reversal (‘threw up’ in a down light) of PUD (‘dessert’) plus I (‘one’). | ||
| 3 | CAFETIERE |
Press relayed eerie fact (9)
|
| An anagram (‘relayed’) of ‘eerie fact’, for the coffee-making device, which for a really French French press should have a grave accent on the second E. | ||
| 4 | NANOTECHNOLOGY |
He can’t go on only ordering creation of tiny things (14)
|
| An anagram (‘ordering’) of ‘he can’t go on only’. | ||
| 6 | SOFIA |
South of Iowa’s capital city (5)
|
| A charade of S (‘south’) plus ‘of’ plus IA (‘Iowa’), for the ‘capital city’ of Bulgaria. | ||
| 7 | HOT DESKS |
£1,000 sheds to become modern way of working (3,5)
|
| An anagram (‘become’) of ‘sheds to’ plus K (‘£1,000’). New to me, a HOT DESK is a workstation used by different workers at different times. | ||
| 8 | REST EASY |
Research Yeats. Puzzling? Don’t worry! (4,4)
|
| A charade of RES (‘research’) plus TEASY, an anagram (‘puzzling’) of ‘Yeats’. | ||
| 9 | WRITTEN APOLOGY |
Grew ponytail to supply admission of error (7,7)
|
| An anagram (‘supply’, adverb from supple) of ‘grew ponytail to’. | ||
| 15 | COLERIDGE |
Poet going north: ‘Say, frightful water in Scotland, mostly’ (9)
|
| A reversal (‘going north’ in a down light) of EG (‘say’) plus DIRE (‘frightful’) plus LOC[h] (‘water in Scotland’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’). | ||
| 16 | OWLISHLY |
In manner of a member of parliament? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition, depending on the collective ‘parliament’ of owls. | ||
| 17 | AS A BONUS |
New Saab assigned to Observer staff, recognizing good work? (2,1,5)
|
| A charade of ASAB, an anagram (‘new’) of ‘Saab’ plus ON US (‘assigned to Observer staff’). | ||
| 19 | STUPOR |
Mist up oriel, a little haze (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘a little’) in ‘miST UP ORiel’. | ||
| 20 | MOUSSE |
‘Dessert‘, Canadian native’s announced (6)
|
| Sounds like (‘announced’) MOOSE (‘Canadian native’ – the animal, that is, which is not confined to Canada). | ||
| 22 | OUIJA |
Advisory board where some participants are late? (5)
|
| Cryptic definition – and I think definitely one of the better ones. |
I am sitting here writing this just before the answers are blogged/revealed, still puzzling over 14a. R_C_E_ CAKES – is it RACHEL (she at least appears in the Old Testament) or ROCKET (I know all about ‘rock cakes’ with fruit in them)? No idea. Nothing else seems to be possible. A pity – the rest was quite entertaining.
Edit: So my problem was with the crosser, which I had as CAFETERIE. How would I know? – I never drink the foul stuff! 🙂 Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
I got called out last week for suggesting this puzzle was on the grim side, largely agreeing with the then-blogger. Sorry if I offended one or two. So let me try and redeem myself by encouraging folks with the personal opinion that today’s Everyman is fun from start to end. I suspect you’ll enjoy it.
I’ve never come across that meaning of PI before. A good one to know! I stared at the Charlotte clue for ages!
Me too Tassie Tim with CAFETERIE. I should have checked. And while I’d heard of ECCLES CAKES my knowledge of the Bible was even less than British fruit cakes.
Never seen the abbreviation for Ecclesiastes, and couldn’t find a list on the web I was confident of.
Quite a lot of Biblical knowledge needed today, eg WESTERN WALL. Got the WALL but same number of letters for WAILING. Couldn’t get the film.
Failed on RETRO and MOUSSE. Everyman got me with the ‘native’, which usually I’m a wake-up to. Interestingly Paul clued MOUSSE in yesterday’s Prize.
RETRO, totally flummoxed me as ‘trainspotter’ is British and ‘metro’ isn’t used down here either. Don’t really agree with the definition, so don’t feel too bad about that one.
Forgot to mention, thanks Ben for prompting me, that BY GEORGE was my favourite, although it took a while. The ‘fancy’ was a great misdirection and totally fitting to the surface.
And yes, Rodshaw, today’s Everyman is fun.
Isn’t there a policy here of not discussing the latest (i.e. today’s) Everyman puzzle? I don’t want to be told that it’s ‘easy’ or ‘fun’ or anything else before I’ve even had a chance to look at it.
jackkt@6: Indeed; to which you can add the stone-cold spoiler thoughtfully provided @4 for an answer in yesterday’s prize, a puzzle that remains ‘live’ until Saturday. A few weeks ago, the infamous ‘spoilergate’ was occasioned merely by a couple of knowing, wink-wink hints.
Thanks for a great blog. Herod in twice and also in last weeks AZED.
Much neater Everyman without the slightly annoying use of excessive punctuation.
Anyone flummoxed by Eccles cakes should try the lesser known but far superior Chorley cakes.
Good to see IMBROGLIO , a fantastic word.
Ben@3. PI is the sort of thing you only ever see used in crosswords in that way. Look out for CONSTANT as well to give PI from the mathematical sense.
Solid puzzle. 16 was quite good, I thought. I had IMPISHLY (1 MP = a member of parliament) for quite a while before finally working out Herod’s legacy at 18.
Oh, dear, sorry. Wish I could delete or report myself. Total lapse of mindfulness.
Found this a bit more difficult than last week’s but got there in the end. Didn’t parse COLERIDGE – looks obvious now.
Favourites were TETE-A-TETE, IMBROGLIO, AS A BONUS
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
I’m not sure if it’s just me but I didn’t like the use of ‘up’ as an anagrind in 1a or its use in both the clue and solution in 2d.
Thanks both.
[You are lucky not to have encountered HOT DESKS, now a staple of the modern soulless office]
[Shirl @14: pre-Covid HOT DESKS were, indeed, anonymous and bland ‘work stations’ over which staff would fight in a sort of office musical chairs. Given the change in workstyles, I suspect the desks are now competing with each other to attract one of the rare workers who actually enter the office. ]
Thanks E & P
Doug@#10 I had impishly too for a while. Good puzzle, thanks Everyman. As for spoilers, now that the Prize is in name only, isn’t it time to abandon this convention? Thanks PeterO
Favourite was PIGSTY, very good. I too for a while had IMPISHLY for 16d (though it did have the disadvantage of not seeming to have a definition, as well as making it impossible to get 18a).
BodsnVimto @13: “up” as an anagram indicator is a bit controversial, but it does have two potential justifications. Firstly it can mean “wrong” in expressions like “What’s up with you?”. Secondly there is a slightly dated usage of it to mean “in a state of revolt”.
(I haven’t looked at today’s Everyman yet, and I don’t think that people saying that it is fun has in any way given me a spoiler.)
Many thanks Everyman and PeterO.
Is it pedantic to point out that refutes is not a synonym for denies?
Oh dear. I’m beginning to think it’s time I gave up on the Everyman, which saddens me as I have been doing it since the 1970’s. But I’m simply not enjoying it any more. Obviously things will have to change over time, and I did think I’d started to get used to the new compiler. But most of this was a real struggle, and for the second week running I failed to complete it – which used to be a rare occurrence.
Quite enjoyable Everyman.
I liked HOT DESKS, OWLISHLY and OUIJA. I thought the definition of a CAFETIERE as a press was rather loose.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
After our recent spate of limericks 1 across immediately brought this one to mind.
A wonderful bird is the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week!
But I’ll be darned if I know how the hellican?”
John Foster Dixon @ 18 , I also assume that refute means to disprove but Chambers does give to deny as the second definition.
I thought OUIJA was terrific and worth the metaphorical entrance fee alone.
Arib @16 – “As for spoilers, now that the Prize is in name only, isn’t it time to abandon this convention?”
During the phase of Spoilergate on May 1/2 when it had moved to ‘General Discussion’, SPanza raised this issue. PeeDee, who had blogged the Saturday puzzle during commentary on which the kerfuffle had kicked off, responded as below. (I don’t imagine that PeeDee is present here this morning, so on his behalf I am pasting in his argument.)
“Giving spoilers away to readers on fifteensquared is not the only reason for the “no comments on prize puzzles”, possibly not even the most important one.
Fifteensquared generally does not have official permission to reproduce the content of the newspaper websites. To survive as we are we need to maintain a good relationship with the content owners. Our intention is to support their efforts, not to undermine them. If the Guardian does not provide a way to comment on their own site then neither do we. Fifteensquared is not a place to post a comment because “you can’t post it on The Guardian yet”. First go to the Guardian and persuade them to allow comments on Prize puzzles there. Then it is up for debate if and how we should allow them here.”
As I said last week to those who indicated unhappiness, I really enjoyed this, and it went in very steadily except for OWLISHLY which I had to have help for. On spoilers, I support not having them on here, and understand why, but it is generally the case that by 8 am UK time if you google the clue you will find the answer in the crossword solver sites.
Oh and many thanks to PeterO and to Everyman.
Lord Jim @17. Thanks for that food for thought. I can’t remember ever seeing it used thus before but will now be on the lookout (pun not intended) for it in that sense – amongst its myriad of other possible cryptic uses…finished, reversed in a down clue, ready for, above, completely, informed, etc. etc.
Did this as 4 corners with the SW corner solved last.
Did not parse HOT DESKS – anagram? Forgot that K = 1000 pounds.
Favourites: COLERIDGE, IMBROGLIO, OUIJA (loi).
Thanks P+E.
[I was taught not to put accents on capital letters in French, so I was surprised to read PeterO’s comment that the Académie Française insists on them. Having Googled it, I have now learnt that leaving accents off capitals was only allowed for handwriting, and that old-style typewriters didn’t allow them to be added. Now that computer keyboards are available, accents on capital letters are possible and, indeed, required. I’d probably never have checked that, if I hadn’t read it here, so thanks, PeterO, for teaching this old dog a new trick – there were no personal computers & no word-processing when I was in school, as you can probably guess from my alias!]
[I assumed for years that the cafetiere people use in British fiction was just a fancy name for a coffee pot, but when I finally looked it up I find that it’s what we over here call a French press. (Robi @20, that being so, I think “press” is a perfectly good definition.) A friend of mine had one years ago and I thought it was just the coolest thing, I finally got one as a premium for a public radio donation, used it once and found the coffee was just the same and the cleanup was a lot messier. It’s still on my pantry shelf.]
[It’s true moose aren’t limited to Canada. They’re fairly common in northern New England, and I have a photo of one in my brother’s front yard in Alaska. I showed that to somebody in El Salvador — I was on a friendship trip and we were supposed to take photos of our own surroundings, which my brother’s house in Alaska wasn’t exactly, but it was fun to show), and the person asked “Can you eat it?” Yes you can. Visiting a friend in the Yukon, I had both a mooseburger and porcupine stew. The burger was overcooked and could have been an overcooked hamburger as far as I could tell.]
Thanks Everyman and PeterO, and Granny J with the latter for the info on accents. Makes my life harder — now I have to go to the symbols department and import the damn things.
[GrannyJ @29 and Valentine @30: don’t feel too bad about missing accents off capitals in French; Le Monde is with you, even if tout le monde doesn’t agree. Here’s their home page (or should it be homepage?) which currently features ‘A Dijon’, ‘l’Eglise’ and (bien sûr) ‘A l’Eurovision’.
If you do feel the need to accentuate, here’s a very useful link which Eileen posted a while back – it tells you how to do all of them with the ALT key.
For what it’s worth I don’t use them, except É sometimes as it makes a difference to the pronunciation and can help to ‘disambiguate’. (But then what do I know? – I can’t even spell my own county.) A bientôt.]
RE spoilers:
1. Commenting on the degree of difficulty or the fun factor of a puzzle is not really a spoiler – a spoiler gives away or gives a hint about a clue or clues.
2. Arib@16, in addition to the Everyman and Prize puzzle issue, some people do not do the puzzles in sequence, so a comment on a previous puzzle that reveals a solution can be a spoiler. Van Winkle has made this point on several occasions, and it is still valid.
3. When someone inadvertently or carelessly gives a spoiler, and subsequently apologises (e.g., paddymelon@11), all should be forgiven. This is recreation, and we shouldn’t take it (or ourselves) too seriously.
[Petert@21, that’s one of my favourite limericks, too (and a rare example of a good clean one).]
Thanks Everyman and PeterO for the fun crossword and helpful blog.
[ Oh no there is an ALT key as well, I have only just mastered the SHIFT key so I can use capitals, and as for the ANY key, I am always being instructed to press that and have no idea where it is. ]
Tricky one for me. Failed to complete SW. No problem with native to describe moose in Canada. The objections appear to be confusing native with endemic. Enjoyed the clever use of supply as anagram indicator in 9D. Will have to remember that one. Thanks PeterO & Everyman.
Found this one to be basically impossible, even with the help of wildcard dictionaries. Would never have got “owlishly” in a million years; never heard of “parliament of owls”. WTF? “Honking” for “smelling” was likewise unknown to me. Had no idea who “Charlotte” and “George” were. Could not parse a number of the answers that I did work out, e.g. “Western Wall” and “Coleridge”,
both incredibly convoluted and obscure. Not appropriate for an Everyman.
Didn’t get “ouija” but smiled when I saw the answer.
I also thought this was really hard and did not get Retro, Mousse Written Apology or Honking. Like a few others the SW corner had me stumped. Have no idea of the Honking explanation it means nothing to me, and s surprised only one other kiwi mentioned it.
The Coleridge clue was nonsense which was a same cos there were lots of great clues this week.
Partic liked Pelicans, Trust, Refutes, By George, Hot Desks and Owlishly.
I didn’t think there was much easy with this one.
It must be a Kiwi thing, I found this week’s crossword much harder than previous ones. Not that this is a bad thing, exercising the mind keeps us young and having to admit defeat occasionally must be good for the soul.
Peter O, I also drive school buses and enjoy it immensely!
Some clever answers in here I thought. Particularly enjoyed ‘ouija’, that also bought a smile to my face. Thought there might have been an NZ reference with ‘smelling what goose produces’ as I had ‘Hosking’ as the answer for some time (Hosking being a well known radio broadcaster here) but alas no…..
Thanks to all.
Too hard for us. But most.of the clues held up, so no complaints