Everyman 3,939

40 comments on “Everyman 3,939”

1. Yep, agree flashling. Thank you for the blog. Not one of his best. Fortunately today’s is a lot better.
   And the pair is SALUTATION/GENERATION.

   A good find with Sacha Distel in the fodder for Bastille Day, but way too obvious a def, as were many in this crossword.
   I can’t agree with the homophone in LOURDES, whether the pronunciation is Franglais or Frenglish, rhotic, or non rhotic.

2. Sailed through this getting all but 24Ac in the first sitting. Much easier than recent weeks, and too many obvious defs (bastille day). cheers to Everyman

3. Like Neil H, I think it was, said recently, being groanworthy is part of what homophones are about 🙂 . The French singer went by me, but apt for 14 Juillet. [Alliance Francaise, whose exams some of us did, used to make a bit of a thing of BD]. So, yep, thanks both, bit of a doddle, will have to dip into The Rev’s archive to get my fix.

4. I thought EARTHENWARE was well hidden

   Liked SCAM, SALUTATION, TERRAIN, GENERATION

   Thanks Everyman and flashling

5. Thanks for the blog , PDM@1 has the rhyming pair, we also have LIGHT SLEEPER and HEAVY LIFTING.
   I never comment on the difficulty, it is not aimed at me anymore, I do think I would have loved it when I was learning cryptics which is the main issue.
   grant@3 you could always try Azed on a Sunday, it was very friendly last week.

6. Ah yes Roz. Much more subtle your pair. Everyman’s just gone up a notch.

7. We’ve seen Everyman’s use antonym pairings before, each time in symmetrical grid positions. I believe the last one was START/STOP and before that MAN/LADY, so no doubt this is by design.
   Thanks to Everyman and flashling

8. grantinfreo@3. I think I’m going to have to get used to Christmas cracker groanworthy puns and discard the word ‘homophone’. Not that I don’t chuckle at Christmas crackers. It’s not surprising really that written-word based setters don’t necessarily have an ear for oral/aural language, or care about it. Maybe they’re cleverer than that and have a good sense of humour. ( Too many double negatives, but brain’s addled by chocolate. You know what I mean.)

   Thank you Jay@7. I’m going to be on the lookout for antonym symmetry in future.

9. I seem to remember this was fairly straightforward but, as I am doing these with my crossie neophyte wife, that was all to the good. Thanks, Everyman and flashling

10. A few questionable clue parts here and there for us, but on the whole it’s the lack of sparkle that disappoints.

11. Like Roz @5 I thought this would have been great for those learning how to do cryptics, and TT @9 confirms that. In fact Everyman often performs that function better than the Guardian Quiptic.

    A few trickier clues as well, such as GENERATION. The surface made me smile, with the ‘low-down English’ needing some encouragement not to hog everything for themselves.

    I guessed LOURDES/lured would cause some controversy! It did 2 years ago when Anto used almost exactly the same clue in reverse – “Enticed by reports of miraculous site” (5).

    [It’s a mammoth blog – see here – 131 comments! But that was during the first Covid lockdown, when the Guardian blogs often topped the 100 mark. (My impression is that things have settled down a little since then.) And to be fair, they weren’t all about Lourdes.]

    Anto is Irish of course, from Dublin, which suggests that the homophone does work in at least some rhotic accents. I’d be interested to know if it works for Fiona Anne and Valentine in Scotland/USA.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

12. [ MrEssexboy @11 your Azed clue this week. 1D the most useful in the whole puzzle, gives you 9 first letters ]

13. And there was I congratulating myself on completing Everyman! Finally cracked the code – and everyone thought it was too easy.

14. It is not too easy Marie @13 , it is just right for newer solvers, exactly what Everyman was always meant to be. I learnt ( slowly ) to do cryptics using the old Everyman , was always nice to finish sometimes so well done.

15. Indeed I didn’t mean to imply any belittling of newer solvers – indeed the whole point of the site is to help getting to grips with our little hobby.

16. LIST took me a while too, in what was a good steady solve. And because, after a long break from a regular crossword habit I am back to solving both the daily cryptic and the weekly prize crosswords, my conclusion was I needed to start looking at the Azed as a new challenge as I suspect I am no longer a target of the Everyman.

17. Congratulations MarieB! I came to cryptics and 15sq when I was off work for months with an injury. No prior experience.
    Still gives me enormous pleasure.

18. I did not parse 15ac (I was trying to make it work as E + IL in MAD – but could not justify the second E.

    Liked LIGHT SLEEPER.

    Thanks, both.

19. essexboy @ 11

    might be a bit late to respond – been out paddling – glorious day for it

    I have no problem with LOURDES / LURED although it is possible my pronunciation of LOURDES is not what it should be.

20. Another country heard from — LOURDES/LURED works fine in at least my US pronunciation.

    Thanks, Everyman, for a pleasant diversion and Pierre for the accompaniment. Nice that you had a bird to share with us.

    [Our public radio station plays a short piece called “Bird Note” every day, and today’s bird was the whooping crane. I knew they were endangered but had no idea they migrated so far, 2400 miles from Wood Buffalo National Park (did you know there were wood as well as prairie buffalo?) in the far Northwest Territories of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The park hosts the largest freshwater delta in North America, who knew?]

21. Valentine @ 20

    [On BBC radio 4 we have the same. It’s called tweet of the day and is aired just before 6:00 am. It’s just about 2-3 min long but I really like listening to it.]

22. [Roz @12: cheers!]

    Fiona Anne @19 / Valentine @20 – many thanks for taking the trouble to respond. That tends to support my hunch that LOURDES/lured works better as a homophone in rhotic accents.

    For us non-rhoticists it’s a mixed picture. It works for me, but clearly not for pdm @1 in Oz, and for ginf @3 it’s groan-worthy, which suggests that he’s happy to excuse it but it’s a bit of a stretch. One accent where it definitely doesn’t work is ‘old-fashioned RP’, in which words like ‘lure’ and ‘suit’ are pronounced with a ‘yod’ (a ‘y’ sound) immediately following the initial consonant, as in ‘cute’.

    [Valentine – I didn’t know about wood buffalo, but I had heard that Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.]

23. My accent, fwiw, uses a yod in LURE but not in SUIT.

24. Valentine and Fiona Anne, we have the same here, called Tweet of the Week. [As for the buffalos, eb @22, that beats John had had had while Jim had had had had had had had had the teacher’s approval]

25. In PURSUIT however, it does! Such fun.

26. [EB@22 , I did not solve it until I had done nearly all the Across clues, the blog for the puzzle will be Tuesday week. ]

27. This may have been my fastest solve ever, but no complaints. If there’s such a thing s a perfect homophone, could it make an enjoyable clue? Thanks flashling & Everyman.

28. Well I feel like a dill. Both my kids went to Our Lady of Lourdes primary school for seven years each and I always pronounced the S at the end (pretty sure everyone else did too).

29. Whoever thinks that this incarnation of Everyman in any way resembles the finely-crafted, gently amusing puzzlers of old is surely deceived. I’m in agreement with those who have found the puzzles to have been less mistake-ridden — as if edited — in the most recent weeks, but having fewer or no grammatical errors, while really a prerequisite here and elsewhere, still leaves plenty of room for that also elusive quality, namely wit. Oh please for a puzzle that does not feel awkward.

30. [GreginSyd.@28. True. ‘Our lady of lords’ ? But it wasn’t the ‘s’ at the end that was the problem. I knew the French but I figured the European Guardian setters and solvers would also know that. It was the bit in the middle. But, eh? Easter is over and I can look forward to Christmas cracker groanworthy homophones as gratinfreo, who did the Alliance Française exams, says. (I bet the Alliance Française would go me for my grammar, but at l did take the trouble to import the cedilla 🙂 ) ]

31. But Grantinfreo@24, what about ‘John where Jim had had had had had had had had had had had the examiner’s approval’?

32. NE corner gave me the most trouble. Had a sleep, then cleared the answers I hadn’t clearly parsed.

    DUMP really bothered me, until I looked at the verb form.
    I have come to love beauty of the desert.

33. Stumbled on LIST (I had hint). Otherwise GENERATION was the only thing that wasn’t a write-in.

34. Thanks Paddymelon @30. I just googled french pron of Lourdes and it doesn’t voice the S at the end, in which case lured works fine for me. pity though, I always viewed our Lady of Lords as the patron saint of English cricket (and couldn’t they use one now).

35. Fine but easy and a bit blah today. I agree with the last plantagenet @29 mostly, but the improvement since the new Everman started has been steady so let’s hope the puzzles will become more witty in the future.

36. Perfect for those of us recuperating from Covid! Thank you

37. I thought the funniest thing about this blog is ‘ marrying off a daughter ‘
    Hilarious !! like it is a task to be done (sorry no feminist criticism due, just funny )
    My fave clue was spider and I think moans about homophones are pointless. Theworld over we all think the way ‘ we speak England’ is the right one or how we pronounce French for that matter -I thought the clue fabulous

38. 15ac – now one word. Everyman would then say hopefully 26 ac.

39. Not too easy for me. Enjoyed this one. I am sure that those who complain could find a more difficult one somewhere else.

40. Straightforward. Finished in a single sitting. Can’t complain

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