The Observer crossword from Aug 1, 2021
Accessible Sunday morning fare from a setter who in the last few weeks seems to have upped his game (in a positive way).
There are two rhyming couples today, on the perimeter (1ac/27ac and 7dn/8dn) – highlighted in the blog below.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PILLOW FIGHT |
Lift pig and howl playfully in mock combat (6,5)
|
| Anagram [playfully] of: LIFT PIG + HOWL | ||
| 9 | APRICOT |
Fruit loop runs, dividing with America First (7)
|
| R (runs) going inside PICOT (loop, an ornamental edging e.g. in lace) , but first A (America) | ||
| 10 | RONALDO |
Real’s once; now a Liga division owner, primarily? (7)
|
| The customary Primarily clue. Just take all the starting letters from REAL’S to OWNER, and you’ll get one of the world’s most famous footballers (but not that one!) This kind of clue is usually an &lit (or cad) but I’m afraid I don’t get the relevance of the second part. Is Everyman perhaps mixing up Cristiano Ronaldo with the other Ronaldo, a former Brazilian superstar? No, he isn’t (see comment @33). The latter is since a few years (part) owner of Real Valladolid, a Spanish La Liga side. However, he never played for Real as far as I know – he went from PSV Eindhoven to Barcelona. Well, he actually did (2002-2007). A couple of comments (@12 and @31) singled out this clue as being really good. However, I still have my doubts. Not anymore. [even if I find the term “a Liga division owner” a bit odd] |
||
| 11 | ALIEN |
Non-native regularly seen in Dáil Éireann (5)
|
| Regular selection, the even letters, from: DAIL EIREANN ‘Non-native’ according to what we, earthlings, see as ‘non-native’, that is. |
||
| 12 | TIRAMISU |
One sheep is eaten by you, French dish that’s spongy (8)
|
| I (one) + RAM (sheep) + IS, together going inside TU (you, French) | ||
| 14 | MILLSTREAM |
A little malingerer, Everyman will watch online channel (10)
|
| M (a little (bit of) MALINGERER), followed by: I’LL STREAM (Everyman will watch online) | ||
| 15 | UNDO |
Remove ties from hunting hound repeatedly, not good (4)
|
| One should remove G (good) repeatedly (i.e. twice) from: GUNDOG (hunting hound) | ||
| 17 | GIST |
Matter concealed by magistrate (4)
|
| Hidden solution [concealed by]: magistrate | ||
| 19 | ACHIEVABLE |
A vile beach resort within reach (10)
|
| Anagram [resort] of: A VILE BEACH | ||
| 21 | NO-FRILLS |
Economy supply, 50 florins (2-6)
|
| Anagram [supply] of: L (50) + FLORINS Before anyone starts to say something about indirect anagrams, this is an example of a perfectly acceptable one (in my opinion). |
||
| 23 | RIOJA |
Big city German’s agreeable expression offering wine (5)
|
| RIO (big city) + JA (yes, in German, or, as Everyman – a bit long-windedly – puts it “German’s agreeable expression”) | ||
| 25 | HARISSA |
Recalled a small gentleman with a hot spicy paste (7)
|
| A + S (small) + SIR (gentleman) + A + H (hot), and then the whole lot reversed [recalled] As someone who loves cooking, I have plenty of recipes with harissa. Funny enough, I never made one – never came any further than ras-el-hanout. |
||
| 26 | DRILLED |
What dentist will have done – trained? (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | SEE THE LIGHT |
Moderate rage first – get it? (3,3,5)
|
| LIGHT (moderate) preceded by SEETHE (rage) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PARTIAL |
Some clip-art I allow not all (7)
|
| Hidden solution [some]: clip-art I allow As a blogger I italicised some because it is an indicator. For Everyman, however, there is no need to do so. He (or the typographer) really did their best by also adding some double spacing before the definition (where just a comma would have been much better). |
||
| 2 | LOCH NESS |
Drifting, leaderless, anchorless right away in lake (4,4)
|
| First, take the A (its ‘leader’) away from ANCHORLESS, and also the R (right), then make an anagram [drifting] of what you’re left with, which is NCHOLESS | ||
| 3 | OATS |
Seeds explorer’s broadcast (4)
|
| Homophone [broadcast] of: OATES (explorer) Lawrence Oates (1880-1912), Antarctic explorer. |
||
| 4 | FORMIC ACID |
Corrosive liquid police found on kitchen surface (6,4)
|
| FORMICA (kitchen surface, which can indeed be made of formica ) + CID (police) Some may not be too happy with the use of on here. Usually, in a Down clue “A on B” means “A+B” – not here, though. |
||
| 5 | GENOA |
Home of St Catherine, they say: d’you know her? (5)
|
| Amusing homophone [they say] of: D’YOU KNOW HER More information here. |
||
| 6 | TOLKIEN |
Did he make up Tolman, Kíli and Ents? Not half! (7)
|
| Half of each of the three ‘beings’: TOLMAN, KILI, ENTS Tolman Gardner is a hobbit, Kili a dwarf and Ents are Middle-earth creatures who resemble trees. Of course, all of them come from the wonderous world of J.R.R. Tolkien. |
||
| 7 | MAHATMA GANDHI |
Mama had a thing about spiritual adviser (7,6)
|
| Anagram [about] of: MAMA HAD A THING Somehow I wrote in Mahamad Gandhi – can you believe it? The main reason that 14ac became my last-one-in. |
||
| 8 | MODUS OPERANDI |
Crushed, and imposed our way of working (5,8)
|
| Anagram [crushed] of: AND IMPOSED OUR | ||
| 13 | PRICKLY ASH |
Bad-tempered hives beekeeper finally leaves in tree (7,3)
|
| PRICKLY (bad-tempered), followed by RASH (hives, skin condition) in which the R (the last letter of BEEKEEPER) should be removed | ||
| 16 | AVERTING |
Preventing giving tip-off, victory for Luxembourg (8)
|
| ALERTING (giving tip-off) in which the L (Luxembourg) must be replaced by V (victory) | ||
| 18 | SAFARIS |
Loud Australian wearing dresses for expeditions (7)
|
| F (loud, forte) + A (Australian), together inside SARIS (dresses, Indian garments) | ||
| 20 | BOOKLET |
Reserve Grant a little reading (7)
|
| BOOK (reserve) + LET (grant) | ||
| 22 | ISSUE |
Children, go out (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | IDOL |
Perhaps pop star Dido cold at heart (4)
|
| The middle letters [at heart] of both DIDO and COLD Not the Queen of Carthage, let alone Baroness Harding, but Dido Armstrong, say, 20 years ago one of Britain’s best-loved pop singers. I particularly have a soft spot for her third album, 2008’s Safe Trip Home. By the way, her real name isn’t actually Dido but … Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong – poor girl. This Christmas she will turn 50 – how time flies! |
7ac: (typo) it’s The Mahatma
Another good puzzle though I did not get PRICKLY ASH or GENOA until I relented and used google (am trying to avoid any help).
Really liked MILLSTREAM and UNDO (one of my last ones in) and FORMIC ACID
LOCH NESS took me ages because I do not consider a loch to be a lake – and yes I am sure Chambers and others say it is – but it isn’t.
Thanks Everyman and Sil van den hoek
And also liked SEE THE LIGHT for using one word for the first two words very cleverly I thought
The Mahadma error was so glaring I assumed it was an alternative I hadn’t come across before, but there doesn’t seem to be any source for it.
Anyone remember Mahatma Kane Jeeves as a writing credit pseudonym for a certain comedian?
Fiona Anne @2, if it’s a freshwater loch (such as Loch Nrss), a lake is exactly what it is.
^ And I’ve just seen that I had Mahatma in my original. Apologies I must be confusing it with another puzzle’s boo-boo after I read the blog.
Mahatma, indeed – and so, I was doubly wrong.
It’s a really poor error, really poor.
But when there is no editor you’ll might get things like this.
By the way, a really poor error by me, actually.
Forget the third line @7.
Now tweaked.
New for me: explorer Lawrence Oates.
Liked SEE THE LIGHT, TIRAMISU, BOOKLET, AVERTING.
Thanks, both.
Thanks for a gentle afternoon stroll Everyman.
I think “picot” is also a fish of some sort, but not here.
Oates was the one on Scott’s expedition who stepped outside and said “I might be gone for some time”, consigning himself to historic quotes.
Thanks for the blog Sil.
I’ve seen past contributers use a curry scale which I don’t fully understand, but I’ll have a go and call this Butter Chicken – the curry for people who don’t like curry. Still enjoyable, but here’s hoping recent feedback hasn’t prompted Everyman to throw out his/her spice collection. Thanks Sil & Everyman.
I concur with everything Sil said in his excellent blog. Re 10a RONALDO, the second part of the clue refers to the fact that, in addition to being one of the world’s wealthiest athletes, he is also the majority owner of a football club in the Spanish Liga. That, by the way, was my favourite clue, despite my not being a football fan.
Thanks Everyman and Sil for the fun and a couple of parsings.
This was a really nice Everyman. Much more enjoyable than today’s, I find.
Oh, thank you for picot, Sil. A crochet stitch, I see.
Yet again, my zero knowledge of botany is my downfall. Otherwise, good puzzle.
Thanks for the blog and a very apt summary, I have the same favourites as Fiona Anne, UNDO was rather clever.
In the paper there was a strange symbol in 1D after allow ? I do not know how to show it here.
ALIEN and “non-native” are both commonly used to describe species of plant or animal living introduced to an area by human activity.
Thanks to Sil and Everyman
Í started off well but then got stuck in the south east corner and I found this trickier than some recent Everymans. I finished it but without being sure about some of my answers. Thank you for the explanations. 12 down’s Prickly was okay but I never parsed “ash”. Picot was new to me in Apricot but I did get it. And I could not parse “undo”. Living in Shropshire a hunting hound is a very different dog from a gun dog but I can see how they could be seen as the same thing in other settings.
Good fun, but was Mahatma a spiritual adviser?
[p&t @11 I think we’re heading inexorably towards coronation chicken]
No. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a lawyer and activist. He received the honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit word meaning great-souled, venerable etc) in South Africa in 1914.
Very entertaining. The “vile beach resort within reach” raised a smile at 19a. And the Formica CID split at 4d was very good.
“Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is widely recognized as one of the twentieth century’s greatest political and spiritual leaders” (Youth for Human Rights website). A leader obviously advises people. I don’t see any problem.
Many thanks Everyman and Sil.
I must object to defining Loch Ness as a lake?
I agree with Sil that this was a much improved effort over some of the previous crosswords. I found it largely enjoyable.
Some GK needed for Oates and St Catherine. I particularly liked SEE THE LIGHT, PRICKLY ASH and AVERTING.
We’ve had the discussion of ‘on’ in a Down clue before. Someone gave the example of ‘a spider on the ceiling’ to justify it meaning below. However, I don’t really buy that as I think in that context it means attached, not underneath. I think it is generally recognised that ‘on’ in a Down clue means on top of, so to me, 4D is incorrect.
Thanks Everyman and Sil.
I agree with the ‘political and spiritual leader’ bit, to which I would only add ‘social reformer’.
Perhaps Mohandas had a sideline, but people like Paula White and Eileen Drewery are spiritual advisers.
Robi, I think it might have been me who gave the “spider on the ceiling” example recently (as well as “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”). One meaning of “on” is of course “on top of”, but it’s not the only one. The SOED says:
2. Expressing contact with any surface, whatever its position
Fingal @23. Why must you? When a Scottish loch is a sea inlet, such as Loch Long, Loch Linnhe, Loch Leven, Loch Moidart etc, it is clearly not a ‘lake’, but when it is (Chambers) “a large area of still fresh or salt water, surrounded by land and lying in a depression in the Earth’s surface,” like Loch Ness, Loch Lomond or Loch Inchmahome (more commonly known as the LAKE of Menteith), it clearly conforms to the definition of a lake.
LJ @26: indeed. And there’s a verruca on a foot, an apple on a branch, a picture on a rail, a coat on a hook, tassels on mortarboards, on curtains, or on a hem (which is on a dress) … or perhaps an Aussie sitting on Bondi beach?
I loved the idea that MAMA HAD A THING about MAHATMA GANDHI – Eddie in Ab Fab comes to mind (with access to a time machine, obviously).
Thanks Everyman and Sil.
Anyone care to admit to spelling Ghandi (sic) incorrectly ?. It looked right to me and I never thought to check. Because of that error, I was unable to get NO FRILLS or HARISSA. What a plonker !. Thanks to Sil and E.
The ‘on’ thing is not an argument about general usage (you can study a dictionary to find out what ‘on’ can mean): it’s a discussion about compilers either being ignorant of, or wilfully ignoring, crosswording convention.
Discussions of that ilk seem to be appearing frequently enough in Everyman threads, as prior to some recent time, as a general rule such conventions were observed in the Observer Sunday puzzle. I suppose, or maybe I’m just getting that feeling, that some people feel that sticking to convention is an infringement of their personal freedoms, or some other populist nonsense, but I can’t see that it makes much difference, except that having some kind of conformity makes things easier for solvers. And that was always the intention of people like much-maligned Ximenes, was it not: let solvers know what to expect.
Thanks Sil & Everyman. This was all pretty straightforward but enjoyably so. Special mention for 10ac – I always enjoy the “primarily” clues and this is a particularly fine example.
Davy @29 – I can never remember where the H goes in Gandhi, but luckily I already had HARISSA in place before I got to 7d.
Gandhi is awful to spell, I know the g , h , i are in order but can never remember where to put the and.
I think 10a only refers to the Brazilian Ronaldo (R9) and not Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7). The former also played very successfully for Real Madrid.
Thanks, Logray@33 for the clarification re 10a. You confirm that the clue was fine. Not being a football fan, I had heard of Ronaldo but did not know that there were two of them. And from Wiki I see that, as you said, the Brazilian Ronaldo (R9) played for Real Madrid for six years and owns the Real Valladolid football club.
You’re totally right, Logray @33, it’s indeed just Ronaldo-the-Elder, and not Cristiano.
After some confusion (on my behalf), the issue isn’t one anymore.
I will the tweak the blog correctly.
Very enjoyable this week. I got but couldn’t parse Apricot (insufficiently familiar with picot), had to google St Catherine to confirm there was one from Genoa as well as St. Catherine of Alexandria (she of the eponymous wheel). Worked out it had to be Prickly Ash although I’d never heard of the tree. And although I was aware of Lawrence “Titus” Oates I took 3d to be a pun on the literal and metaphorical sowing of oats in which explorers might indulge. (Perhaps inappropriate pre-watershed..)
Many thanks to Everyman and to Sil, especially for Dido’s back story.
Fingal @ 23
You and me both – they just don’t understand
And who, exactly are ‘they’, Fiona Anne?
Those who say a loch is a lake – I refer you back to me @ 2 – not going to change my mind no matter what definitions you quote. And I hope you are pronouncing it correctly.
Lordy, Fiona Anne, You hope that I am pronouncing it correctly? How patronising and insulting! I was born in St Andrews, spent the next 21 years between Fife and (mostly) Glasgow, had two Scottish parents, four Scottish grandparents, eight Scottish great-grandparents, and you question if I can pronouce ‘loch’ correctly? How dare you? I await an apology.
Fiona Anne@39 What exactly do you think is the difference between a loch and a lake ?.
‘Loch’ can be defined as ‘a Scots word for lake’, but is Loch Ness a lake? It jumps through some aquatic hoops for sure, but is it not ultimately connected to the North Sea?
Isn’t 15 an indirect charade? First I have to come up with gundog (a new word to me, I think) and then lop off its first and last letters.
Nevertheless, a pleasant puzzle. Thank you, Everyman and Sil.
paul b @42, Loch Ness is connected to the North Sea by Loch Dochfour and about 6 miles of the River Ness (and also, to be pedantic, a canal section of the Caledonian Canal).
@4 I believe it was W.C. Fields
Monkey @44: indeed so, if anyone is still visiting. And, apropos what paul b ventured, I believe that Lake Ontario is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence river, but had never heard it proposed that this compromised its identity as a lake. In fact, via the St Lawrence Seaway, all of the other Great Lakes are also ultimately connected to the Atlantic.
I tend to approve of what Paul B says (specifically at 30, in which he refers to the ‘much-maligned Ximenes’, and also to ‘some other populist nonsense’). It seems that there are too many people in crosswordland who wouldn’t agree with Trask’s view on language: ‘… standard English is valuable because it is standardised. We cannot stop standard English from changing, but we should be in no hurry to help that change along: in maintaining a standard a little inertia is a good thing. After all, you would not be amused if manufacturers changed the size of electrical plugs every few years, … ‘
paul b @30 and Wil Ransome @47: with respect, I think you are totally misrepresenting the current Everyman setter as a dangerous revolutionary who stretches language beyond what is reasonable. Nothing could be further from the case. Here is Ximenes from his 1966 book:
Everyman puzzles are intended to be solvable by a person of average education on a park bench, in bed, on a train journey, and so on, without the use of a dictionary… we must try to make sure that solvers can trust us, in small details as well as in large.
Here is our setter, commenting on this site (3,785, 5 May 2019):
My brief requires clues which are solid in structure and which are solvable by beginners and by occasional or lapsed solvers… I interpret this in the form of a mixture of straightforward clues and some which may introduce devices and abbreviations which the casual solver may later encounter if he or she should move on to other puzzles.
The ideals expressed by both are I think pretty similar. And on the whole I think our setter has been fairly successful in living up to them.
As regards the “on” rule, a convention is only worth preserving if it actually makes sense rather than being just an arbitrary rule that somebody once made up. As I’ve said above, this “rule” does not actually have any basis in perfectly correct English.
And as far as I know, nobody on here has “maligned” Ximenes. My personal view is that he was very much an influence for good in cryptic crosswords, in trying to promote soundness and fairness in clues. The problem arises when people insist on taking every statement of his as Holy Writ.
I think we’re all in agreement. It may seem that we have been misrepresenting the current setter, but our remarks are perhaps more directed at the anarchists. the ‘anything goes’ brigade. You read on some sites (but not this one maybe, at least not in Everyman comments) remarks which tend to treat Ximenes as an old fool whose dictums are out of date.
SP @ 40
You’ll wait a long time
I said I hoped you were pronouncing it properly – glad to hear you do
The stance is often taken, and tiresomely so, by some Guardianistas that people they see as boring traditionalists regard X as some kind of a god. However, as I think I said earlier, he was in fact merely someone who saw that solvers were having an unnecessarily tricky experience: that is to say, some of the difficulty in solving was created via unfair or ungrammatical structures in clues. It is therefore most exasperating that this exact problem persists in some puzzles published today.
And as I’ve also said, the discussion about crosswording conventions is nothing to do with usage (yes Jim, we all know what ‘on’ can mean because we too have a dictionary) but whether or not the consistency they offer is of value to solvers. Guess what I think.
And I think a problem that poor old X has is that the one (?) photograph of him that we always see puts one (me, at any rate) in mind of Crocker-Harris as portrayed by Michael Redgrave in The Browning Version. Both of them apparently rather crusty classics masters.
paul b: I honestly don’t see this discussion in as confrontational a way as you clearly do, and I don’t think most other contributors here do either. Maybe there are other sites, as suggested by Wil @49, where things get more heated and people like yourself are referred to as boring traditionalists, but on 15² there is (generally) a more gentle level of debate about what people see as fair and reasonable in crosswords.
To be clear, personally I am definitely not a crossword anarchist or member of the “anything goes” brigade, and I don’t think the current Everyman is either. I’m very much of the view that a good clue should work properly and should be fair to the solver. But this to me depends quite simply on whether it makes sense in terms of logic, grammar and common sense rather than whether it complies with specific “rules” that different people have invented from time to time.
Re ‘on’, I wonder if he flipped it again?
Nice crossword, on the gentler side I thought. A number of meaningless surfaces though.
We couldn’t work out Prickly Ash but got the rest after a walk on the gorgeous Spring sunshine here in Auckland. Hopefully the last weekend of our strict lockdown! Thank you for a great puzzle to get us going here in the morning.
I liked this one. Some very good clues. My favourite was Genoa.
Glad to see we kiwis are far more superficial when it comes to analysing the clues and their veracity and / or suitability .. got lost a bit in the blogging ping pong
It’s just a crossword
Did enjoy harissa, Formic acid and Genoa
Do not get what millstream means …
Millstream must be a TV channel they get over there Vanessa, I struggled today, probably lockdown blues! We will have to ask Mr E not to use words we down here in Paradise, can’t possibly know. But thanks anyway to both.
Finished correctly but couldn’t parse everything.
We think millstream is just a channel. So
Who’s heard of Oates these days? He is out in the cold so to speak.
Cruised it. Well, enjoyed it. Some glues took a while we are in lockdown…
Millstream a TV channel? Don’t think so!
Millstream is the water that runs through a millrace to power a mill.
And a millrace is, according to Chambers, ‘the current of water that turns a millwheel, or the channel in which it runs’.
So, strictly speaking, despite of what I said in the blog a millstream is not really this channel.