Everyman 3,936

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3936.

The rhyming pair, the ‘primarily’ clue (not the most sparkling), the adventurous anagrinds, and my pick of the clues at 18D CABARET.

ACROSS
1 MORTADELLA
Sausage — small amount — more’s consumed — entirety knocked back (10)
A charade of MORTADE, an envelope (‘consumed’) of TAD (‘small amount’) in ‘more’; plus LLA, a reversal (‘knocked back’) of ALL (‘entirely’).
6 ICED
Put a little design on one cake’s exterior? (4)
A charade of I (‘one’) plus CE (‘CakE‘s exterior’) plus D (‘a little Design’) with an &lit definition.
9 SACROSANCT
Respected Costa Ricans abandoning island for resort (10)
An anagram (‘for resort’) of ‘Costa R[i]cans’ minus the I (‘abandoning island’).
10 FETA
In retirement, dined on fine cheese (4)
A charade of F (‘fine’) plus (‘on’ to give the order of the particles) ETA, a reversal (‘in retirement’) of ATE (‘dined’).
11 APPLE FRITTER
Dessert platter, ripe piece of fruit prepared (5,7)
An anagram (‘prepared’) of ‘platter ripe’ plus F (‘piece of Fruit’).
15 EXCUSES
Indulgences lapsed Catholic applies? (7)
A charade of EX (‘lapsed’) plus C (‘Catholic’) plus USES (‘applies’).
16 RWANDAN
Scampered round pale Dutch national (7)
An envelope (’round’) of WAN (‘pale’) plus D (‘Dutch’) in RAN (‘scampered’).
17 COMEDIC
Welcome dictionaries’ inclusion of ‘LOLsome’? (7)
A hidden answer (‘inclusion’) in ‘welCOME DICtionaries’.
19 DECLINE
Lapse in rule after year’s end (7)
A charade of DEC (December, ‘year’s end’) plus LINE (‘rule’).
20 PINT OF BITTER
In France, having tucked into bean tart, you’ll get something to drink (4,2,6)
An envelope (‘having tucked into’) of F (‘France’) in PINTO (‘bean’) plus BITTER (‘tart’; the tastes are sometimes distinguished). ‘In’ is along for the ride.
23 ARCH
Knowing what’s between heel and toes (4)
Double definition.
24 BRASS TACKS
Practical information announced, underwear in piles (5,5)
If pronounced carelessly, sounds like (‘announced’) BRA STACKS (‘underwear in piles’).
25 NILE
Infielder regularly gets a flower (4)
Alternate letters (‘regularly’) of ‘iNfIeLdEr’.
26 AT A TANGENT
Losing train of thought visiting Australian bronzed fella (2,1,7)
A charade of AT (‘visiting’) plus A (‘Australian’) plus TAN (‘bronzed’) plus GENT (‘fella’).
DOWN
1 MASH
Semi-solid extract? (4)
Double definition.

The official answer is MISO, as a hidden answer (‘extract’) in ‘seMI-SOlid’, with an &lit definition. Since I still think my original version is an acceptable – if inferior – answer to the clue, I will leave it at that.
2 RACE
Meet people (4)
Double definition, the first being an athletic event.
3 AS OPPOSED TO
Rather than pose, Pa stood awkwardly (2,7,2)
An anagram (‘awkwardly’) of ‘pose Pa stood’.
4 ENABLES
Gives power to Lebanese, endlessly in revolution (7)
An anagram (‘in revolution’) of ‘Lebanes[e]’ minus the last letter (‘endlessly’).
5 LUCIFER
Fallen angel’s striking if cruel (7)
An anagram (‘striking’) of ‘if cruel’.
7 CRESTED TIT
Singer‘s credit test declined (7,3)
An anagram (‘declined’) of ‘credit test’.
8 DEAD RINGER
I look just like someone: Quasimodo, famously (4,6)
Definition and literal interpretation, with reference to Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
12 ISAAC NEWTON
Physicist contains awe in congregation (5,6)
An anagram (‘in congregation’) of ‘contains awe’.
13 SEA CAPTAIN
Mariner‘s heading to Egypt, a piece of headgear covered in blotchy marking (3,7)
An envelope (‘covered in’) of E (‘heading to Egypt’) plus ‘a’ plus CAP (‘piece of headgear’) in STAIN (‘blotchy marking’).
14 ECUMENICAL
Interdenominational material welcoming trendy (essentially smug) church offered up (10)
A reversal (‘offered up’ in a down light) of LACINE, an envelope (‘welcoming’) of IN (‘trendy’) in LACE (‘material’); plus MU (‘essentially sMUg’) plus CE (‘church’ of England).
18 CABARET
’70s film Taxi Driver abrasive, ultimately capturing a time (7)
A charade of CABARE, an envelope (‘capturing’) of ‘a’ in CAB (‘taxi’) plus RE (‘driveR abrasivE‘ ultimately); plus T (‘time’). The surface encapsulates a quite different film.
19 DATA SET
Spooner’s chosen a time for collection of information (4,3)
Stretching the definition of a Spoonerism: SET A DATE (‘chosen a time’).
21 OCHE
Here you see outsized competitors hover excitingly, primarily? (4)
Not one of the better ‘primarily’ clues.
22 PSST
Surreptitious announcement: ‘May I also say: good man’ (4)
A charade of PS (postscript, ‘may I also say’) plus ST (saint, ‘good man’).

picture of the completed grid

64 comments on “Everyman 3,936”

  1. Started off slowly on this one – and then not helped by spelling ISAAC with 2 ss’s instead of 2 aa’s which meant I couldn’t parse it, doubted the crossing clues and couldn’t get RWANDEN.

    Finally spotted my error when I wondered if it might be an anagram and realised I had an extra s and needed an a

    Favourites were: MORTADELLA (love the word tad), COMEDIC, ECUMENICAL and of course DEAD RINGER

    Thanks to Everyman and PeterO

  3. A bit foody, this one, washed down by a PINT OF BITTER. I’m with you, PeterO, in questioning DATA SET – a horrible Spoonerism and non-homophone mashed into one (‘data’ and ‘date’ being pronounced distinctly differently). Apart from that, quite nice. I liked the bronzed Aussie and Quasimodo particularly. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.

  5. David @4 – absolutely right. That’s what I had, but I didn’t notice the blog was different (it was a week ago!).

  7. Enjoyed this puzzle, apart from one quibble. Doesn’t an athletics meet (as an abbreviation of ‘meeting’) consist of a range of events, not just a race?

  9. Thanks for the blog , agree with Joe @2 and others for MISO , I thought it was cleverly hidden. I was also glad that COMEDIC was hidden or I would never have got it. Fiona Anne @1 has a good list of favourites.
    I thought the anagrams were very good for this one.

    Commercial break – just want to plug a site called MyCrossword , someone may do a link ?? Blah , Widdersbel and MrPostMark who are regulars here, have all produced puzzles of their own. Highly recommended and enjoyable.

  10. Thanks PeterO and Everyman. I thought this was rather heavy on the anagrams – including a run of 5 out of 6 down clues, all of which crossed the two long across anagrams, which made it very noticeable.

    Just as well I like anagrams!

    MISO is what I put for 1d, and is the official correct answer according to the Guardian website. But MASH seems like a sound answer as well.

  11. Another one with MISO for 1D, something I cook with regularly. Otherwise enjoyed this one, no major quibbles.

    Thanks to PeterO and Everyman.

  12. I enjoyed PINT OF BITTER and thought OCHE was one of the better ‘primarily’ clues, though i’ve only ever come across the term in crosswords so still have no idea how its pronounced.
    Thanks PeterO & Everyman.

  14. We’ve had the DATA problem before – there are at least three different pronunciations in English, depending on where you are in the world. Especially confusing for Aussies and Kiwis, who (I understand) rhyme the first A with the LA in Shangri-La.

    On the wider point about Spoonerisms however, I rather like the ‘stretching’ alluded to by PeterO, as it makes for less predictability and requires a bit more lateral thinking. After all, the only Spoonerism regarded as ‘authentic’ (i.e. having been uttered by the Rev himself) is the ‘Kinkering Kongs’ one – which doesn’t fit the usual Crosswordland formula of switching initial consonants or consonant clusters.

    At 24a we have another Torquay/talkie problem (albeit without the added rhoticity factor) in BRASS TACKS/bra stacks, but I do like the clue.

    Paul @12 – OCHE rhymes with Jocky, as in Wilson 😉

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  16. Cheers essexboy. Looks like Jocky suited the OCHE clue. Kiwis are divided on data. I for one had no problem with the word swap.

  17. Another MISO for 1D seMI-SOlid

    Took me a while to parse a few after guessing the answers.

    New: OCHE.

    Thanks, both.

  18. Yes, the official (and better) answer to 1D is MISO, a neat hidden answer &lit. I will amend the blog, but I doubt that it is worth the trouble to re-do the grid.

  19. I too had MISO for 1D which, according to the now enabled check button on the Guardian site, is correct.

    Thanks to PeterO and Everyman.

  22. Paul@16 , Jocky Wilson was placing when I was much younger – It is Jocky on the oche , as Sid Waddell would say. It is how I learnt the word and how to say it.
    BRASS TACKS , I know I will regret commenting on this. Do you need to be very posh to get the homophone ?

  23. TILTs: MORTADELLA and PINTO as a bean (I knew it as a horse).

    I take EB’s point @14, but I don’t think DATA SET and set a date are what people would normally regard as a spoonerism. I didn’t like ‘declined’ as an anagrind in 7. Apart from these quibbles, I enjoyed it with DEAD RINGER being my favourite.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  24. Nuh, DATA SET, if a Spoonerism is a homophone I still don’t get it.
    Roz @22. BRASS TACKS. No regrets. I hope you will enlighten me about the posh homophone.

  25. PS I was once playing Scrabble with some friends when I put down OCHE, and they queried it. Their rather ancient old dictionary didn’t confirm it and I had therefore to withdraw it. For the next game, I presented them with a new dictionary!

  26. paddymelon @24, some people like me pronounce data as date-a if that helps, although I agree it’s not really a spoonerism.

  27. PDM@24 it depends how you say brass , I say it with a very short a , nothing like bra . You and MrEssexboy know the technical terms and symbols but I do not. I do not really mind homophones as long as somebody says it the required way.

  28. Can anyone find the Top of the Pops with Dexy’s MR singing Jackie Wilson Said ? A large picture of Jocky Wilson behind them. They claimed it was deliberate and not a producer’s mistake.

  29. Not the worst, although we had some ‘get out of jail’ single-letter indicators (Catholic for just the C, Dutch for D, Australian for A), some rather questionable anagrinds (7’s declined and 12’s in congregation), and the last three clues for me were dreadful, including the confused and confusing Spoonerism. Nonetheless, I was delighted at 6 across to see that first it is a valiant attempted &lit, and second that the infinitive used in the cryptic generates a past tense in the surface. I’m not quite sure that to ‘put a little design on one’s cake’ really means to ice, but encouraging signs there.

  34. Looking at others comments on 1d, at first I entered “must” thinking of wine-making where the must is (I think) a mushy extract of grapes. Then I had an aha moment and spotted the hidden MISO

  35. Roz @22/27: Moi, posh? Me in my tine hice? 😉

    Seriously, you don’t have to be posh to have a bra-type A in BRASS, you just have to come from an area with the TRAP-BATH split – broadly speaking, Southern England, NZ, South Africa, to some extent Wales and Australia, parts of New England (now old-fashioned, I gather?), and India.

    (Actually, especially India – I know several Indians who use a long AH sound in ‘mass’.)

    I know you don’t click on links as a rule, but the Wikipedia article on the TRAP-BATH split is very helpful. I’ll just quote a short extract, which explains that it didn’t start out ‘posh’ at all: ‘The sound change originally occurred in Southern England… The lengthening of the bath vowel began in the 17th century but was “stigmatised as a Cockneyism until well into the 19th century”. However, since the late 19th century, it has been embraced as a feature of upper-class Received Pronunciation.’

    [One writer notes that ‘Many of the northerners were noticeably hostile (to the long A) describing it as “comical”, “snobbish”, “pompous” or even “for morons”‘ (!) ]

  36. Thank you MrEssexboy @35 , I can click on links as long as someone else is home to help me to escape again. Sometimes I have been stuck in an endless series of adverts and videos. I seem to have been quoted at the end of your post.

    Azed clue for you today, 6 Down.

  37. The Dexy’s thing was characterised at the time almost universally as snooty BBC ignorance. The band was its victim, and it should have been spotted and all that. But you can’t help wondering if some sort of a double-whammy was intended — Auntie looks ridiculous, until, much later, omnipotent and witty band front-man reveals all.

    I hated that band, and I still hate the BBC.

  38. I disagree with “tart” = “bitter.” Tart is sour, though I have often heard people say that a sour thing is bitter. It’s a common confusion, but sour and bitter are two different tastes.

    I tried to work “striking” into the definition of LUCIFER, which is a kind of match. I couldn’t quite.

    Peter, you’re missing an A in the parsing of SEA CAPTAIN. It’s STAIN containing E A CAP. The parsing also doesn’t account for the second A in CABARET. And for that clue, the official answer is CABIRON crossing with ON (not AT) A TANGENT. Your answer is much more satisfying, though ON is more common than AT, I think, with tangents.

    I couldn’t get MISO either. I thought of “musk” and “mash” as in “sour mash” for whiskey.

    OCHE was new to me in this puzzle and then reappeared somewhere in the following week.

    Where is “decline” an anagrind?

    Pleasant puzzle, thanks Everyman. And thanks for the blog on a Sunday morning, PeterO.

  39. Valentine @38 – the As are both noted in Peter’s parsings, albeit written in lower case:
    13 … plus ‘a’ plus CAP …
    18 … of ‘a’ in CAB …

    I don’t understand what “official answer” you’re referring to for cabiron – the check button confirms cabaret.

  40. I quite liked “declined” as an anagram indicator – it kind of works in the grammatical sense of decline (ok, I’m being generous).

    Anagram indicators seem to be one aspect of clueing where even Azed can be quite libertarian – he had “excavated” not so long ago, which struck me as very questionable at the time – and if he can get away with it, so can Everyman.

  41. Odd puzzle, with some dubious anagrinds and some lumpy surfaces, but not without charm.

    Valentine @38: I agree that equating tart with bitter is annoying. So, to me pedantically, is ‘pale’ = WAN. The proper meaning of ‘wan’ is ‘without a predominant hue’ – dark grey is as ‘wan’ as off white. Hence the common expression ‘pale and wan’ is not, in fact, tautological.

    Thanks to S&B

  42. I had MASH at first for 1d but changed it to MISO because I thought that was a better answer – so I seem to be at odd with PeterO on that one, but I fully agree that there are some very “liberal” or “adventurous” anagrinds.

    I’m from the Midlands so to me both “A” s in “BRASS TACKS” are pronounced the same – a short A as in Cat rather than a long A as in FATHER. Though I have heard that in some parts of the Midlands, a GLASS (short A) is what you drink from, but GLAHSS (long A) is the material it is made from. Grateful if some Midlanders could confirm!

    But I’m with Roz@27 – I don’t really mind “dodgy” homophones as long as SOMEONE says it like that SOMEWHERE

    Thanks to Everyman, PeterO and fellow commentators.

    As for DATA, I tend to follow the Captain Picard pronunciation. But thanks to essexboy@14 for the enlightenment.

  43. DT @ 42

    I agree that both As in BRASS TACKS are short, but I’ve never met a lady who wears a short-A bra. Hence the query, I believe.

  44. I put RWANDAN as the solution for 16A but struggled to explain it to myself: I had WAND for ‘pale’ – in the sense of stick or pole – and got really confused trying to justify a Rwandan as a Dutch national. Ah well – you live and learn.

  45. I’m firmly in the Southern “braass” camp, except when attempting a fake accent for “where there’s muck there’s brass” and similar gems of Northern wisdom.

    The Torquay/talkie problem ( for me anyway) was never about pronunciation, but about stress. The homophone required Torquay to be heavily stressed on its first syllable, which at the time I thought nobody did. Now I know there are people who do, it’s not a problem, just a way of saying the word that I don’t share. Those who are fussier about differentiating R from L in the middle of words will have had different objections.

  47. gladys @45 – I’m in the braass camp too, so my slight quibble with BRASS TACKS was about stress. Just as talkie is stressed heavily on the first syllable, and Torquay on the second (for most of us anyway, and even MarkN said it was 50/50-ish), the main stress in ‘bra stacks’ would definitely fall on the bra, while in BRASS TACKS it’s on the tacks.

    (But I still like the clue!)

    [Roz @36: thanks, I enjoyed the Azed clue, won’t say any more for fear of spoilers.]

    [DeepThought @42: Thanks for the further DATA input. I guess Picard must be acknowledged as the authority (but how do you say Omicron Theta?) A propos, who could forget Ol’ Yellow Eyes is Back? Take That, Dexys.]

  48. I enjoyed the puzzle, but also had MASH rather than MISO.

    I am quite happy with near-rhymes, which are often used in poetry and in jokes.

  49. Robi@23 and others, re “not what people would normally regard as a spoonerism”. That, I think, is exactly essexboy@12’s point. Spoonerisms, if you regard the Reverend as the “onlie begetter”, can involve all kinds of juxtapositions, not just first letters, and it is simply wrong to limit them to first letters. I thought this one (DATA SET) was excellent, as long as you accept “date-a” as an acceptable pronunciation of “data”.

    Valentine@38, I too thought of matches when reading the 5d LUCIFER clue. It made the clue more elegant, as a very apropos anagrind.

    Simon S@43, good one. I know a (slim) woman who wears a short-A bra – she understands that it is an abbreviated brassiere, which has a short A, at least in this part of the world.

    Thanks Everyman for the fun and PeterO for help with a few parsings.

  50. Must admit I’m now feeling rather cheated regarding this one. I had a rough ride in solving it, and now the ‘ruses’, if that’s what they can legitimately be called, have been revealed, I’m not surprised I had a hard time. Really, crossword compiling ought to be easier than this, Mr, Mrs or Ms Everyman.

  52. Hello Tom , the Nile is a river , a river can flow so it is a flower. Watch out for this and the other one used is BANKER, a river has banks.
    Cellomaniac@49 only posh people say brassiere so it is still braaa .

  53. Roz@52 thanks! I’m a bit slow on this kind of thing – took me ages to understand “detail” used to mean “de-tail”, for instance.

  54. My pleasure , always ask questions , It took me two years to learn all the tricks. Everyone has been in your position to start with. You will be helping other people one day.

  56. Late back here. Thanks Roz and Robi and essexboy and cellomaniac et al.

    eb if you’re still around, South Australian Australian has dance , long a, but the rest of us plebs say the short one. We think they sound a bit posh, but it’s probably because they were not initially a penal colony.

  57. [Thanks for that pdm @56. We in the UK tend to lump all Australian accents together and forget there are regional variations, just as there are in the States. I did notice from wiki that there was a reference to ‘posher’ South Australian (which does actually fit in with what I’ve seen of Adelaide – on TV, that is, mainly views of the old Adelaide Oval with the cathedral in the background).

    On the other hand, there is the suggestion that at least some South Australians
    pronounce ‘milk’ as [mɪʊk] which round these parts counts as Cockney.]

  58. As soon as I saw it I *knew* that the “set a date/data set” Spoonerism would set off a cacophany of complaint. Personaly, I liked it.
    Found this puzzle tough and needed to use wildcard dictionaries to get a lot of the answers.
    Could not parse several of the answers, particularly “pint of bitter”.
    I had the impression that it was standard amongst the Poms to use “bitter” to mean “sour” or “tart”; e.g. “bitter orange marmelade”.
    I thought that “miso” was obviously right for 1 down.
    I find nothing wrong with the “brass tacks/bar stacks” homophone. Homophones in crosswords needn’t be all that exact.

    Thanks to Everyman, and to PeterO for explaining those parsings that I couldn’t get.

  60. Data in NZ is generally pronounced like Garter rather then Matter but I’m in the ‘dodgy’ camp for that one dressed up as a Roonerspism.

    Never heard of the sausage, and I’d say ‘he went off on a tangent’ rather than ‘at’ which held up the movie.

    So, the UK has a Kiwi cricket coach as well as the skipper, and our PM now has Covid. Funny old world.

  61. Thought dead ringer was clever.
    If it were on a tangent then what is a cabiron?
    I did not like the roonerspism.

  62. I thought ‘at a tangent’ was fine as it implies a relative path of travel, just as ‘at right angles’ does. Thanks Everyman for reminding me of this rather excellent Father Ted excerpt with 14d.

  63. Loved Dead Ringer! Sea captain also a goodie. Having lived in the UK for 20 years we got used to dayta vs dartah as said here in NZ. V good crossword overall, thank you.

  64. Finished this this morning. Really enjoyed it. Dead ringer was great. At a tangent is stretching it.

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