Everyman 3,958/21 August

62 comments on “Everyman 3,958/21 August”

1. Like Pierre, I really liked the unevenly-shaved moustache; and I got very tangled up by 21. In the end, I decided that the clue was telling us to remove LIFT (‘take off lift’), but it had already been jumbled up (‘off’).

2. No, I wasn’t wild about auditorium either. It doesn’t help when you consider how many makes of car there are.

3. Tougher than the usual Everyman I thought. Unlike Pierre and Gliddofglood@2 I thought showroom was an excellent cryptic definition for AUDITORIUM; enough to stand alone as a clue. Also enjoyed OHMS LAW for its cryptic definition. I’m not sure how SHEEPDOG works either, but hopefully will be revealed soon.
   Thanks Pierre and Everyman.

4. Thank you for the blog and the birdies Pierre.

   SHEEPDOG I thought I parsed satisfactorily when I did it and now can’t remember.
   There are two interpretations, both unsatisfactory, either one anagrind and 2 removal indicators as in Pierre’s example, and Mike’s : 2 anagrinds, ‘breaking’ and the final ‘off’, with ‘take off …. lift’ as the deletion. I also read ‘take off lift’ as Mike did.

   Alternatively, ‘breaking’ could just be a link word, there for the surface, ‘take off …. lift’ as the deletion, and the final ‘off’ is the anagrind. Maybe Everyman got a bit carried away.

   I think AUDITORIUM is okay with the question mark, a place where you might see/hear a ‘show’.
   Liked KEYBOARD, although I had to check to confirm the B chord.

   The surface of SEA SLUG made me smile and brought back memories of a big bowl of escargots swimming in soup. I’m partial to gastropods, particularly marine ones, but I know a lot of people who could only bear them with difficulty, seasoned or not.

5. paddymelon@4, you just reminded me KEYBOARD was my favorite, though I had to recall Father Christmas Got Dad an Electric Blanket to be sure of it.

6. On 13d, I tried AUTO-TORIUM for awhile, as maybe a car sales room. When it wouldn’t parse, I was trying to figure out where AUDI came from, then head-slap moment! But no problem with def = a room where you watch a show. (We don’t require question marks for bloomer/flower or flower/river.)

   RETHINKS was a novel construction for me. (anagram insertion)

   Struggled with 7d because I was trying to make a rhyming pair with 8d.
   and 21a totally defeated me.

   Looking back — a lot of words ending in the letter I — RABBI, BAMBI, ASTI

7. [Oh, that’s an amusing mnemonic Paul@5. I wonder what it was before the days of electric blankets?
   My music never got past primary school. Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit and FACE.]

8. Perhaps the convoluted instruction in 21A tells us to remove (lift off) the letters of a word meaning “take off” (i.e. FLIT).

9. Ah John E@8. That’s plausible.
   You’ve just reminded me of how I parsed it last week.
   ‘take off lift off’ = delete an anagram of lift

10. I recall OHMS LAW had made an appearance in a cryptic during the preceding week so was fresh in the mind.

    KEYBOARD – I wasn’t sure if the ‘perhaps’ was there to indicate piano as an example of a KEYBOARD, or that those notes relate only to B Major (B Minor would be equally valid as “B chord”, but would require a D natural), so in this case the notes are the examples requiring qualification. Perhaps it’s both, I didn’t really mind.

    SHEEPDOG – I read ‘Take off lift’ as the instruction, and the final ‘off’ to indicate that the letters to be subtracted are not in order in the original fodder, so a secondary indicator.

    Perhaps NASTURTIUM and AUDITORIUM are connected by their endings. I couldn’t see any other connected pairs.

    I’ve added SWALLOW to the list of birds we’ve seen in Everyman this year and NAMIBIA to the geographies list.

    Now back to Maskarade.

    Thanks to P and E

11. Did up to Grade 6 theory, but now only vaguely remember B major having a handful of sharps [and yes, FACE, pdm@7, and for me it was EGBD Favour]. Agree re auditorium Paul T and pdm @3 and 4… a room where you see a show. Don’t really get the wp for storm windows, but maybe it’ll click. Many tas PnE.

12. Grant @11 using the sequence FCGDAEB (from the mnemonic @5), the sharps for a given major key will be all the letters to its left, except the one beside it (thus C Major has no sharps).

13. Jay@8. I think you’ve might have the pair, even if the IUM endings are pronounced differently.
    And Calgal@6 has spotted the words ending in the letter “I”.
    There are several words starting with S or Sh. SEA SLUG and SHEEP DOG have also got a ring to them.

    GiF@11. It took me ages to get STORM WINDOW, as I went down a rabbit hole thinking that charge = slate, as in to thrash, or to criticize.
    WP as I see it. Charge is storm in the sense of an incursion, for example; one that may have a tab is window in IT.
    Had never seen a STORM WINDOW and had to look at pictures and descriptions for the def, a window over the top of another window? extra glass.

    [Why are mnemonics male-oriented? Nice ones though. Father Christmas and good boys. Ah, those were the days.
    I don’t know any female mnemonics. The quick brown vixen and the lazy bitch wouldn’t work for the pangram.
    Couldn’t help myself. Did a google search and some of them in the field of medicine, for example, are really ‘rude’, obviously invented by men. 🙂 ]

14. Thanks for the blog, I thought this was trickier than usual, especially SHEEPDOG , a bit much for Everyman. I agree with above that the LIFT being removed is also “off”. That does make it accurate but going too far for this puzzle.
    Jay@10 has the pair but it is weak, could not find any follow on connections , two more for the bird and geography lists. Calgal@6 has 3 I endings, I will add RAVIOLI.
    OHM’S LAW and MOUSTACHE my favourites.

15. I forgot my mnemonic for PDM – Oh Be A Fine Girl , Kiss Me .
    No clues and do not go searching.

16. Girl could be guy …

17. Yes Grant@16 , I gave the original. The students these days use “guys” to include everyone.

18. Thanks Paul T @12, that’s neat. I was probly taught it but it’s over half a century ago.
    Ta pdm @13, still feels like the clue should actually have the “in it” in it, but I’m probly being thickly literal.

19. Roz@15. Stellar! I found that one in my previous search! And I thought, spectrum? They’re not the colours of the rainbow. Fascinating for this non scientist.

    As a linguist I’ve been interested as to how other cultures use words for colours, a bit like how many words for snow or white are there in Inuit. The colours assigned to emotions vary across languages, eg the words for sad, or drunk, or jealous etc. But what I found interesting when talking about a coloured object is that different language speakers draw an imaginary line on the spectrum at different points. eg blue/green, brown/black.

20. I too struggled in the SW – took me ages and needed help to get SHELVES and PROMO. And then I guessed SHEEPDOG from the crossers but could not parse.

    Like others KEYBOARD was my favourite which I got despite not knowing the B chord.

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

21. The pair is short and sweet

22. Well done PDM @19 they are stellar classes across the bottom of something called the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram . O B A F G K M.
    O stars are the hottest, very bright and blue . M stars very cool and red. Our sun is a G star .

23. Of course, well spotted Dunc@21.

24. gif@18. Ok, I don’t feel the need for the ‘in it’. I loved STORM WINDOW for its economy and surface and misdirection. I couldn’t get past ”slate” thinking of charge and tab as putting your drinks bill for your extra glass on credit/tick.

25. Well done DuncT @21, completely missed those two

26. Any follow ons? I can see CONFIGURES from the week before and FIGURES OUT in this one.

    Another one who took ages to get SHELVES – put the crossword down, went off and did other things, came back and it was obvious. Also never fully disentangled what was going on with SHEEPDOG – I could see the anagram fodder and that LIFT had to be removed – after I had solved shelves – but all the offs confused this bear of little brain.

    I did know what a STORM WINDOW was, I’ve read about them being put up in blustery environments, but had to look them up, too.

    Talking of mnemonics, I find I have to remember the actual thing to work back to the mnemonic.

27. Isn’t “take off” and “lift off” something to do with how a sheepdog actually works with the sheep? Terminology used in One Man and His Dog.

28. OUST was, as Pierre says, really excellent. I failed on SHEEPDOG (had SHEEP), STORM (I had WINDOW but NHO that sort) and AUDITORIUM. So I agree this was harder than the usual. Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.

29. Difficult puzzle in that I failed to parse some of my answers: 27ac apart from STORM = charge; 21ac; 15ac; 16d.

    Liked NAMIBIA, SWEET NOTHINGS. BAMBI

    Thanks, both.

30. Well done Shanne @26 – I’ll add CONFIGURES and FIGURES OUT to the follow-on list. Last week the shapes were wobbling about; this week the shape, having got portly, has gone on a crash diet.

    Thanks Everyman for the puzzle, Everyone for the mnemonics, DuncT for the pair, and Pierre for the words and the birds.

31. Thanks Shanne@26 I totally missed that. Cannot see any follow on this week, just MrEssexboy’s favourite friend.

32. Having waited all week to understand SHEEPDOG I am little the wiser. Thanks to all for revealing its not just me. The puzzle over all was very good but that clue seemed approprriate to more deeply cryptic crosswords than Everyman.

33. I did like SWEET NOTHINGS, both for the surface of the clue, and for the ‘treacle’, which is Cockney rhyming slang for sweetheart (treacle tart).

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

34. Here goes Cosmic – it is what has been said but I will try and break it down more.

    breaking SPEEDOFLIGHT gives us an anagram = SHEEPDOG + FLIT not being used .

    We need to take off FLIT , this is a second anagram of LIFT .

    We remove ( take off ) LIFT (off) = FLIT

    As Marie @27 says, the setter is using terms from sheepdog trials.

35. [Sorry, in me@5 I should have given credit for the mnemonic to Justin Sandercoe who provides excellent free (and ad-free) guitar courses at ]

37. https://www.justinguitar.com/

38. Thanks, Pierre and Everyman.

    @5. I have come across, for the reverse order, Blanket Exploded And Dad Got Cold Feet.

39. The sheepdog clue reminded me of ill-fated Russian canines, but that’s me. We’d had numerate emus by then 😀

    We had to ‘take off’ (remove) ‘lift off’ (anagram of lift), but with compound anags, there’s the thought (often discussed in venues such as The Crossword Centre) that if the fodder is already anagrammed, there’s no real need for any second indicator. So where ‘breaking speed of light’ can be SHEEPDOGLIFT, LIFT can be ditched in a simpler way.

    I am sure nonetheless that E retained the complexity so as to be more NASA.

40. Found this way more challenging than last week and DNF. As I print the online version, I wondered if anyone else had the mistake at 3D (R_R_) so I’d NEVER have finished! …well that’s my excuse!

41. Thanks Robi@33 – didn’t know about treacle, like many others missed ‘short & sweet’ & the sheep dog instructions. So all in all, a very educational set of comments. Thanks.

42. So, in the SHEEPDOG trial, we find Everyman guilty of overcomplication? As far as mnemonics for the spectrum go did thelastplantagenet futilely fight for higher standards in Everyman crosswords???

43. I have never seen the movie “Bambi” and probably never will, as Pierre has just revealed the ending to it in his explanation of 23A!

    Just a joke, Pierre, but I have truly never seen the movie.

    We have venison meat here in Australia which we eat as burgers and refer to them as “Bambiburgers”. We also eat kangaroo meat in the same format and call them “Skippyburgers”. We are an irreverent nation!

44. I’m not usually a fan of Spoonerisms, but KEYBOARD was a touch of genius.

45. This was the crossword I have least liked for a long time. Despite all the helpful info, I still do not get 21a. It might as well have simply been”guess a farm animal” . I didn’t know enough music to parse 16d and 27a was no treat. Everyone has different views and perhaps some loved this one? I was left wondering if Everyman had got a stand-in for this. I’m with Cosmic, this was for a different audience than the usual Everyman. Hope this week reverts to something similar to normal. Thanks to all who tried their best to explain.

46. Sara @45 I have been doing Everyman for a very long time , I try not to criticise much because it is not aimed at me anymore. I like to see what the newer solvers think of it. When I did this I was thinking it is quite a step up, a few clues especially , and I would not have enjoyed it when I was learning.
    I do think the “normal” Everyman has been very good and consistent recently, maybe this was a one-off.

47. It was always an easy romp of a Sunday morning, coffee, toast and marmalade, a read of the news, a pleasant diversion. No longer, unfortunately, but yes, I do realise that is water under the bridge, the damage having been done long ago.

    As ever there are one or two nice thoughts (keyboard for example) but even there the execution is poor, for me, overly technical and fussy. One can tell from comments that people have struggled, with sheepdog being the star attraction there, and as this is something of a superfan site, goodness knows what the general public makes of this puzzle now. An institution of sorts it still is, if you take my meaning.

48. Could “showroom” mean “show room” ie the clue shows us a room, of which auditorium is one?

49. Given that FLIT means, as John E. says at 8, to take off, I don’t think you have to anagram Lift in 21. Having said that it was the only one I didn’t get. I got bogged down with sheep and c as the speed of light.

50. @48 I’d say not. It’s just a room in which a show takes place, which seems all right for a def to me.

    @49 that’s over-complicating it, if that’s possible. It works as written I think, just about, but compound anags aren’t really Sunday easy puzzles, are they.

51. Whichever Everyman intended, surely it’s unfortunate that LIFT and FLIT share their letters?

52. The mnemonic I learned as a boy was Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle. It works backwards as well: Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’s Father. (And when I was a good boy, I deserved fudge.)

53. Enjoyed this puzzle. Like others I struggled with the SW corner, particularly 21ac, 27ac and 18dn. It had to be SHEEPDOG from the crossers, and finally parsed it ok, although I couldn’t explain the second ‘off’. Of course, it’s an anagram indicator – clever clue!
    Missed the ‘tab = window’ connection – maybe because I’m a Mac user?
    18dn was a ‘doh’ moment – Bradfords doesn’t list ‘shelves’ as a synonym for either ‘furniture’ or ‘suspends’.
    Loved 16dn although non-musical solvers will have been baffled!

54. Namibia was, to me, a blooming disgrace. After last week I thought this bloke was getting better but 1 down does it for me. Until he goes Everyman is now Neverman, and I’ve doing them since 1955,

55. I don’t like the surface in 21 but the word play is fine. Remove an anagram of Lift from Speedoflight and solve for an anagram of what is left.

    Moustache and Keyboard were nice. Being a guitarist helped me know what’s in a B chord.

    I don’t much like letter-walkabout clues like 1A, but overall this was a pleasant solve.

56. Tony @54, funny how different we are. I thought Namibia was rather a good clue. One of those almost lift-and-separate type clues where ‘country pub’ has to be read as two separate things, Country (the def) and pub (the PH that is abandoned).

    I agree that the surface could have been improved with a better anagrind, perhaps ‘collection’ (from Chambers).

57. Has any of the other kiwis ever heard of storm windows?
    googled it and came up with a site in the us.
    what about the UK?

58. Never heard of Storm Windows before, definitely an American thing.
    Definitely tougher than usual but some goodies in here Oust; Ravioli; Ohms Law. Did not like or get Auditorium!

59. A game of two halves this one. It took a decent night’s sleep to finally get Sheepdog, Auditorium and Storm Windows (vaguely heard of them but didn’t know what they were). Funny how clues you’ve battled with one day can take 5 minutes to solve the next.

60. I’m flabbergasted by people not having heard of storm windows!!!
    Like NW@49 I took the speed of light to be “c”, and did not get 21 across until I gave up and used a wildcard dictionary.
    Needed the WCD for several other clues as well.
    I though that “ph” for pub was ridiculously obscure.

    So, a tough one for me.

61. Not impressed.
    Sheepdog felt like going through a sheepdip.
    Smells awful and leaves a horid sticky feeling.

62. 19ac why shed two ‘t’s?
    Dnf 19ac, 21ac, 27ac the storm part, 13d & 22d.
    Thanks Pierre.

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