Everyman 3,919

43 comments on “Everyman 3,919”

1. A quick solve but I could not parse 2d DATA which I guessed.
   I suspected that the parsing of 10AC BEEB is due to it being a palindrome…

   Favourites: CODSWALLOP, OMINOUS, THE TEMPEST.

   New for me: BLOCKBUSTER = a huge aerial bomb capable of destroying a whole block of streets; CHUM salmon.

   Thanks, both.

   5d to SUB IN can mean to replace, mainly in sports

2. Thanks for explaining DATA: like Michelle @1 I was baffled by it.

   I know what you mean about the unsatisfactory nature of some of these clues, but nevertheless I got a lot of fun out of the witty surfaces on display: the lost axes in 15ac making it hard to get wood, creepy Oscar in 17ac – and I can almost forgive the loss of precision in 12d when it gives us such a vivid picture of smooth Sinatra.

   Perhaps this might be stretching things a little, but the Eucharistic discussion (19ac) reminds me of this debate:

3. Sorry – the link to the Wikipedia page on Transubstantiation that I included in the last post doesn’t seem to work!

4. I’m another baffled by DATA: the ‘A’s sound completely different to me in ‘date a’. OMNIBUS was an unparsed bung – what else? Two ‘BUSTERS’ was also a bit disappointing. On the other hand, I thought BABY SITTER was quite inventive and amusing as were ELM TREE (a la Mike @2) and OMNIPOTENT. Overall, this was more entertaining than annoying. Thanks, Sil and Everyman.

5. Thanks, Everyman and Sil!

   BEEB: If there is a BE TV, then it can be explained differently. BE one way and then the other way. +Auntie.
   Otherwise, the way the blogger has parsed it seems ok.

6. Sil, I thought this was a typical and therefore enjoyable Everyman crossword, until I read your blog. You told me to ignore you but I can’t, because I agree with most of your criticisms. Often the blog reveals additional nuances, increasing the pleasure of the puzzle. This time it had the opposite effect.

   I did, however, like 8d BABY-SITTER, 12d SAND MARTINS (nice surface , and the plural didn’t bother me), and 16a SANDPIT (to me the ‘and’ could go between any two of the letters of “spit’, but I agree the definition is iffy at best).

   Thanks Everyman for the puzzle, and Sil for making me think.

7. I was puzzled by 1ac for the reason given in your blog. I always thought an across clue *A on B* meant the solution would be *B then A* so I spent ages trying to find a solution like that even though I had most of the crosses.

   Also didn’t parse DATA, but someplace in the recesses of my memory I found CHUM for salmon.

   Liked ELM TREE, SQUARES, REDOUBLING

   Thanks Everyman and Sil

8. Interesting that DATA has three different pronunciations in English. No wonder our Aussie friends were confused (and in 6 weeks’ time no doubt the Kiwis will be too!)

   Sil: I’m not sure what your objection is to BABY-SITTER as a ‘cad’/&lit. ‘By brat I set to work’ can be understood as ‘In the vicinity of a child I make a start on my job’, which surely works fine?

   (To ‘set to work’ can be either intransitive or transitive: either ‘to begin working’, or ‘to cause someone else to begin working’.)

   On BLOCKBUSTER, wiki says ‘The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production intended for “blockbuster” status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it’ – although I agree that’s not the dictionary definition.

   michelle @1: I thought of the sports usage of SUB IN too, but wouldn’t a player who is replaced be ‘subbed out’ rather than ‘subbed in’?

   Thanks Everyman and Sil

9. essexboy @8
   You are very likely to be right – I had googled the phrase “sub in” after I read Sil’s comment. It is not a phrase I would ever use myself. I don’t even know what sort of sports use this phrase.

10. I’m with Sil on this one, after finishing I was left with a general feeling of meh, that was alright but not brilliant.

    I rarely comment on homophones, as I don’t usually have a problem with them myself, but to use data which as EB points out has multiple pronunciations (I remember thinking at the time this will annoy EB) seemed daft to me. I’ve even heard ‘day-ta’ and ‘dah-ta’ in the same sentence.

    The rhyming pair was also disappointing!

    On the plus side I did enjoy SAND-PIT and BABY SITTER.

    Thanks Sil and Everyman.

11. Thanks for the blog . Michelle and MrEssexboy I frequently say SUB IN when I replace variables in equations by others from simultaneous equations.
    OMINOUS clearly hat the letter U twice from the word play but I put it in anyway.
    SQUARES ? Does it mean ONE is a square number ? If so it is very loose, every single number is a square number, positive or negative, real, imaginary or complex, they all have a square root.
    I do say DATE A exactly the same as DATA.

12. Roz @11: ONE has an integral square root, which is what most people would think of as a square number. The square root just happens to be itself (ignoring -1 for the moment), unlike in the case of all other integral square numbers.

13. michelle/Roz: I found this…

    Mauricio Pochettino waited until the final 66th minute to unleash the legendary Argentine, who subbed in for Neymar.

    …mind you, that’s from a report on an American website about a French football game. Maybe ‘subbing in’ (in sports) is more common in US usage?

    It also illustrates that ‘sub in’ (just like ‘set to work’) can be used both intransitively and transitively – I can ‘sub in’ for someone, or I can be ‘subbed in’ by the manager. Which in turn suggests that either SUB IN FOR or SUB OUT could be clued by ‘replace’, but not SUB IN by itself.

14. EB @ 13 I think you are right about using the FOR, I would say SUB IN FOR X meaning to REPLACE X.
    If you are ever tempted by the Azed just look at 1AC today.

15. Thanks Sil, I found the blog more entertaining than the puzzle, which was a bit of a grind. But thanks anyway Everyman, if you’re reading – I know these things take a lot effort to produce, and it is appreciated.

16. Oh yes – only other observation I had was that the app still shows the original clue for 17a. Glad it’s not just me who couldn’t make sense of it.

17. [Thanks Roz @14. You and Azed inhabit higher realms than I am accustomed to, but I’ll give it a go.]

18. I think that CODS can only be the plural of COD in the same context as when fishes is the plural of fish, but maybe I’m talking CODSWALLOP. Earlier this week some felt that Brummie had slipped up with two LAMPS, while, for Everyman, repetition is a kind of trademark. The two BUSTERS look deliberate, but I am less sure about the two SANDS.

19. Petert – ‘that’ll be two cods, one plaice, all with chips, salt, vinegar, and mushy peas’? (I didn’t mind Brummie’s surfeit of lamps, and I agree about the BUSTER rhymes.)

20. essexboy Good example I concede. Who was it who died of a surfeit of lampreys?

21. This was very disappointing. It also took me longer than usual, with lots of, “well I suppose” moments and very few “aha” ones.
    I thought both 11a and 7d had very vague definitions, which is not unacceptable, but with the rest of the puzzle didn’t help.
    I had the same reservations about 10a 2d 3D 8d and 12d as Sil.
    I strongly question the definition of 15a: an elm tree contains wood, but isn’t wood. It’s a bit like saying “man” and “skeleton” are synonymous.
    I also raised an eyebrow over the definition of 14d; if you are “very strong” then you may not be strong enough to be “omnipotent”, but it works the other way round; omnipotent people are a subset.

    This puzzle has re-ignited my feeling that Everyman might not be a single setter ?

    Thanks to Sil for the blog.

22. [Petert @20 – Henry I, or if you prefer the Sellar and Yeatman version – ‘Henry tried to console himself for his loss by eating a surfeit of palfreys. This was a Bad Thing since he died of it and never smiled again.’]

23. Phil @21: I would assume Everyman was a conglomerate, as it could then include ‘every man (and woman)’ of the setters on the books.

24. Phil @ 21

    If an elm tree isn’t wood, what is it?

25. SimonS @24, an elm tree is leaves, flowers, fruits, roots and -oh yes – wood too.

    To re-pose your question using my example, you effectively asked “If a man isn’t a skeleton, what is it?”

26. Well I enjoyed this, with the exception of the faulty clue for 17a OMINOUS which I now see has been replaced. I thought 8d BABY-SITTER was great, and like essexboy @8 I can’t see what the objection to it is.

    Phil @21 and WhiteDevil @23: the current Everyman has made it clear several times that he/she is an individual, not a collective (see eg the blog for 3,785 @1, and 3,832 @9, 12 and 13).

    Many thanks Everyman and Sil.

27. MISLEADINGLY has both ISLE and LEAD which could both mean KEY
    I was fine with BLOCKBUSTERS which Chambers describes as expensively produced …

28. Lord Jim – the first Everyman comment on 3832 includes the line “one of my setters is a card-carrying Ximenean” (my emphasis)

29. Hi widdersbel: if you look at comments 12 (me) and 13 (Everyman) on 3,832, you’ll see that “setters” was a typo. Everyman specifically says that the setter is single and the testers plural.

30. Largely OK, with some rather strange surfaces.

    I managed to find ‘sub in’ in Wiktionary, which says: 1.To replace something or take someone’s place, especially in sports, so I guess that’s OK. I wouldn’t normally equate bling with opulence. Bling jewelry is often trashy. Hatch can be used as a given name or surname, apparently. I quite liked the S AND P IT, although as Sil says, it could be other combinations.

    Thanks Everyman and Sil.

31. Had quite a few of the same eyebrow raising moments as Sil and other contributors. This is one of those cases where you might think that the puzle itself was “a bit meh” but the blog and discussion have both made up for that!

    One thing I might add… Like cellomaniac @6 the plural in 12d didn’t bother me. After all, if you want to know the name of the soloist at a choral recital, you might ask “Who sings?”; but if you want the names of all the choir members you don’t ask “Who sing?” Perhaps someone can explain why you don’t and why you should, though!

    I had a vague recollection of parsing 5d (to my satisfaction, anyway) a week ago, but coming here and reading the comments, I’m not sure if I remember my rationale except that I don’t recall it involving “subbing in” as a verb…. ho, hum!

    Had the similar qualms about 15ac as others. “What is this chair made of?” “It’s made of elm tree”….. errrrr no.

    But I am one for whom “Data” and “Date a” sound the same. First “a” as in “mate”, 2nd “a” as a schwa sound. Of course I was forgetting the alternative pronunciations of “data” such as “datta”, which strike me as horribly colonial, but I will no longer be able to complain when your pronunciations have finally replaced those of British English 🙂

32. LJ @29 – ah! Sorry, I should have read the rest of the comments. Silly me!

33. My objection to BLING IN 13fd is not whether it’s trashy or not but that bling is physical stuff and opulence is an attribute.

    DeepThought@31 If you said “Who was at the party?” you would probably be looking for all the names.

    Thanks to Everyman and Sil.

34. Valentine@30 Precisely. You do not ask “Who were at the party?”

35. I totally understand this “Who etc” discussion.
    But to me “Who sings?”, as the definition for ‘sand martins’, still feels not really adequate (enough).
    Most solvers seem to be happy with it, so there is no real reason to blow this ‘issue’ up to something disproportionate.
    Valentine, my solving partner (although not for this particular Everyman crossword) raised the same objection re BLING/OPULENCE when I spoke to her about this clue later in the week.

36. Phil@21 and others: There is a kind of wood called elm, which is obtained from an elm tree. There is no wood called ELM TREE.
    Never heard of sub in=replace, but it obviously exists.
    Sand martins twitter rather than sing, but since they are officially songbirds, they will pass – and I do like the clue.

37. Valentine @ 33 You can also/say “That stuff’s a bit bling”, so it works as an adjective too.

38. Sil@35 who you gonna call? 11!
    First Everyman in years I haven’t finished Made a shaky start then got busy for the rest of the week. Looking back over the blog I’m not sure I’d have completed it even if I’d had the time. It’s either taken a step up or I’ve taken a step back. Thanks Sil & Everyman.

39. Thanks for the blog Sil. I had many of the same questions you did but I have come to expect a looser clueing from Everyman. It appears to be one of his trademarks, like the “initial” clue and the connected ones. I am starting to think another of those attributes is the use of a foreign term. That was 25a here and, without giving anything away, there is one in the latest crossword as well.
    Incidentally I always consider the term SUB IN to be American usage.
    Thanks for the thinking excuse Everyman. I had to a couple of times today.

40. I rather liked 15A but sadly there were a bunch of others that I didn’t for reasons already vented, including the order of fodder separated by ‘on’ in an Across clue and the dodgy homophones. I too had ‘Lead’ for 22D, I still can’t see why key means isle, is there one?

    I like the device used for ‘Sandpit’ even if the definition was a bit marginal.

    Unfortunately this appeared in our papers a week late so we are now even further behind.

41. Barrie@4 key has been used before for isles or islands, and when I questioned it, I was reminded of the Florida Keys.
    Having said that, I thought that this was a most unenjoyable and difficult crossword.
    And yes,Essex boy @8, we in NZ pronounce data as darta.

42. We enjoyed this puzzle this.morning.
    I agree that some of the ‘not quite fitting’ glues takes a bit of the gloss of what was a fine crossword.

43. We struggled with this one but once we saw the answers it made sense. Favourites were Codswallop, Isle. Ready for the next one!

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