Our normal blogger, Flashling, finds himself on his travels without a “real” computer so I’ve stepped in for him.
I think I’ve only done one Everyman puzzle before, so forgive me if I’ve missed any nuances etc.
| Across |
||
| Clue |
Entry |
Wordplay |
| 1 They provide – and are provided with – leads? (6,4) | POLICE DOGS | Double cryptic def. Canines provide leads to crimes and their handlers use leads to control them. |
| 6 High speed in section of film (4) | CLIP | Double def. |
| 9 In steadfast manner, underlying reforms (10) | ENDURINGLY | UNDERLYING (anag: reforms) |
| 10 Making comeback, survive wickedness (4) | EVIL | LIVE (survive; rev: making comeback) |
| 11 In which nameless prince cavorts during dip, robe abandoned? (6-6) | BODICE RIPPER | Is it &lit.? I never really know. PRI[n]CE (minus N; nameless)+DIP ROBE (anag: abandoned) |
| 15 Second in Treasury dismissed before reshuffle, one with a big mouth (7) | ESTUARY | T[r]EASURY (minus second letter: R) anag: reshuffle |
| 16 Land around a Pacific port (7) | SEATTLE | SETTLE (land) around A |
| 17 Packaging manufacturer, one’s penetrating, more astute (7) | CANNIER | CANNER (package manager) containing I (one) |
| 19 Aid a gullible person, we’re told (7) | SUCCOUR | Sounds like SUCKER (gullible person) |
| 20 One who may be barely crawling? (6-6) | SKINNY-DIPPER | CRAWL is a swimming stroke, BARELY means unclothed; SKINNY-DIPPERs swim without clothes |
| 23 Thought Everyman and deejay regularly falling out (4) | IDEA | I (Everyman)+D[e]E[j]A[y] (alternate letters) |
| 24 Chatshow guests, perhaps doddery actor and nurse (10) | RACONTEURS | ACTOR NURSE (anag: doddery) |
| 25 Quality of a wine that may be inappropriately picked (4) | NOSE | Some people, I’m told, pick their noses. And this is deemed inappropriate by those that claim that they don’t. |
| 26 Losing energy, De Niro jeers, barking pointed responses (10) | REJOINDERS | D[e] NIRO JEERS (minus Energy) anag: barking |
| Down | ||
| 1 Suffer from sunburn in exercise the French offered up (4) | PEEL | PE (exercise)+LE (the in French; rev: offered up) I know a few people who suffer sunburn but never peel. And in my case, I’ve never suffered sunburn but I did used to peel |
| 2 German denied sportsmen’s house is source of valuable deposits (4) | LODE | LOD[g]E a house in the wilds for sporstmen minus German |
| 3 Firm belly (11) | CORPORATION | double def |
| 4 Compactness in cavity when half’s given up for animals’ lairs (7) | DENSITY | DENS (animals’ lairs)+[cav]ITY (minus first half) |
| 5 Who may wear pairs of spiked shoes, hoping to get a hole in one? (7) | GOLFERS | I’ve played golf twice and I believe that it’s every golfer’s dream to hit a hole-in-one |
| 7 Liquid preparation possessing traces of very erogenous powers, ostensibly? (4,6) | LOVE POTION | Is this another &lit.? LOTION (liquid) around first letters (traces) of Very Erogenous Powers Ostensibly |
| 8 Boar with pearls: preposterous, they’re savage beasts (5,5) | POLAR BEARS | BOAR PEARLS (anag: preposterous) |
| 12 Intellectual studying anatomy, audaciously clutching needle, experimenting with the optic nerve, primarily? (5,6) | ISAAC NEWTON | First letters of all words except the last: Intellectual Studying Anatomy Audaciously Clutching Needle Experimenting With The Optic Nerve |
| 13 For every swearword, I initially overlay noisy drum sounds? (10) | PERCUSSION | PER (for every)+CUSS (swearword)+I+O[verlay]+N[oisily) |
| 14 ’80s pop star’s characteristic? Extreme frugality (10) | STINGINESS | STING (’80s pop star) His characteristic could be described as STING–I–NESS |
| 18 Ordered tap: espionage involves paperwork (3,4) | RED TAPE | ordeRED TAP Espionage (hidden: involves) |
| 19 Imbecile parking Ford in the middle o’ Japanese city (7) | SAPPORO | SAP (imbecile)+Parking+[f]OR[d] (in the middle)+O |
| 21 In the auditorium, spoils string instrument (4) | LUTE | Sounds like LOOT (the spoils of a robbery) |
| 22 Avails oneself of some porterhouse steak (4) | USES | poerthoUSE Steak (hidden: some) |
Thanks kenmac for the guest blog. I had a lot of fun with this one! The symmetry of BODICE-RIPPER and SKINNY-DIPPER was a delight, although I mistakenly had the latter filled in for the former initially; there are also two seven-letter Pacific Rim cities beginning with S. RACONTEURS and LOOT were my last in. The &lit clues were out in force today!
Whoops, I meant LUTE, not its homophone. Cheers to Everyman for another fun, beginner-accessible offering.
Thank you kenmac for stepping in and your detailed blog. We’ve had some discussion here about &lits so I’ll leave the comments to solvers more savvy than me. I would agree with LOVE POTION.
And the rhyming pair is BODICE-RIPPER and SKINNY-DIPPER which I really enjoyed for their connection with ”dip, robe abandoned” as part of the wordplay in BODICE-RIPPER.
My science education being somewhat lacking I had to look up ISAAC NEWTON to get the full meaning of the ‘primarily’ clue. Learnt something about his optics theory.
I second (third?) Nick and paddymelon’s praise of the rhyming pair at 11 and 20. Each was excellent on its own, and together they were brilliant.
I also liked 1a POLICE DOGS for its ingenious surface, and 18d RED TAPE for its cleverly hidden solution in a misleading surface.
Thanks, Everyman for this perfectly pitched Sunday puzzle, and kenmac for filling in so effectively – I loved your explanation of “inappropriately” in 25a NOSE.
Thanks for a great blog, really enjoyed this , the rhyming pair both brilliant, thanks for the extra bit with the cities Nick@1 .
ISAAC NEWTON did actually experiment on his own eyes by sticking in needles, if you found that PDM@3 probably best not to read it.
I thought ESTUARY was very good but SKINNY DIPPER has to be my favourite.
Very minor typo, surely just to show you are merely mortal, STING has become STIG in your given answer.
A personal view on &Lit, first categorised by Ximenes although he credits Afrit with the invention and is not sure if Torquemada used them.
The clue read as a WHOLE gives the definition, the WHOLE of the clue gives the word play.
BODICE RIPPER, not quite, IN WHICH is not part of the word play.
LOVE POTION , definitely &Lit.
Agree with what’s been said already. Favourites were the rhyming couple. I also noted STING and POLICE are to be found. Two more locations for the list which is fairly expensive, both in length and geographic coverage, at his point.
Thanks to E and kenmac for stepping in.
Great spot Jay, I missed that . We have had LAIR in DENSITY and DENT clues but very weak for a follow on idea.
Found this a bit more difficult than recent weeks but enjoyed it.
Liked POLICE DOGS, LODE, ESTUARY, PERCUSSION and once more found the rhyming pair helpful to get BODICE RIPPER
Thanks to Everyman and kenmac
Thanks for stepping in Kenmac. For future reference, though, I found it difficult to read on an android phone – the blog’s a lot wider than the screen.
Crispy @10
Point taken. I’m used to blogging The Inquisitor where it’s helpful to have columns.
On my iPhone, if I pinch the screen, it snaps to make the text fit the screen.
Roz @5
Fixed – thanks
Thanks Kenmac. That works on my phone too – I’ll try to remember that for the future.
This took a while for me to get going and ended up being a few sittings. I put it down to the number of CADs and cryptic definitions which required wavelength alignment. Some good clues (especially the big-mouthed ESTUARY), but I was disappointed with the one for GOLFERS which just read as two literal definitions. Can’t see any throwbacks this week.
Thanks Kenmac and Everyman.
I enjoyed this too – thanks Everyman, and kenmac for stepping in.
My idea for a follow-on element (lair = DEN in DENT last time, lairs = DENS in DENSITY today) has already been categorised as weak, so perhaps I won’t mention it after all 😉
[btw I would echo Roz’s bravo to Paul in Tutukaka last week for spotting the pear-shaped connection – I completely missed that.]
My one quibble is with ENDURINGLY. “Enduring” can mean “remaining steadfast” (through/despite adversity), or it can just mean “long-lasting”. But, as far as I’m aware, the adverb ENDURINGLY is only used in the “long-lastingly” sense.
You could talk about a book’s enduring popularity, or you could say that it had proved enduringly popular, but I don’t think you would talk about someone running a marathon enduringly, or that they fought enduringly for the causes they believed in. Can anyone find an example of ‘enduringly’ being used to mean ‘in steadfast manner’?
I enjoyed this, although it took an irritatingly long time for the penny to drop on the barely in SKINNY DIPPER, and, like Paul @13, I was unconvinced by GOLFERS.
Cheers essexboy and Roz. I expected my late comment last week to be read only by my fellow Kiwis in a couple of months.
essexboy@14 The only example I can find on sentencestack is “She hates dried shiitake mushrooms, but because she believes they are good for anaemia, she enduringly eats them every day”, but the vast majority of examples are, as you say, the long-lasting sense.
Thanks Petert @17 – and for introducing me to sentencestack. The shiitake example has a strange feel, to my ears (if my ears can feel), perhaps because it appears to be translated from Japanese?
Is Everyman getting a little more difficult each week or are my faculties declining?
I did not fully parse 20ac SKINNY DIPPER
Thanks, both.
I liked the ‘one with a big mouth’ for ESTUARY. I thought the clue for SKINNY DIPPER was outstanding with the nice play on ‘barely’. Like Paul @13, I thought the clue for GOLFERS was rather weak, was it supposed to be a cd?
Thanks Everyman and kenmac.
nicbach@19 – over the past couple of months, I too have felt Everyman has ratcheted up things a notch or two. I like his puzzles because I rarely think “that’s not fair” with his clueing despite some of the quibbles people mention. He may not be following some theoretical solver-imposed rules but he’s clear enough and, for me, entertaining.
Pretty straightforward, although I agree GOLFERS was pretty weak.
MrEssexboy@14, I did mean my own idea was pretty weak, I am not good at finding these and I suspect Everyman did not mean this one.
Paul@16 I often have a quick look in the week while I am waiting for the light so I can swim , so your eagle eyes were duly noted.
Nicbach@19 I do feel it has got a bit trickier the last few weeks, I wonder what the newer solvers think ? I do agree with Pdp@22 , it is pretty good on the whole and definitely entertaining.
GOLFERS I just took to be a double definition, the clue trying to make us think that the person is hoping for a hole in one of the pair of spiked shoes, but it does not really mislead.
Many a time I’ve struggled through a crossword, grimly determined not to let the blighter defeat me – then come here to find large numbers of folk cooing with delight about the thing, how brilliant the clues were, and what a jolly wheeze it had all been. So I hope nicbach, pdm11 and Roz won’t be narked at my saying that I found this particular Everyman oeuvre considerably easier than of late.
A host of delightful clues: the rhyming pair was pleasing – SKINNY DIPPER especially so, I loved the big mouth, NOSE made me grin, and how refreshing to have a clue about Newton that didn’t mention apples nor gravity. Plus – oh joy – no excruciatingly lame, teeth-grindingly tortuous, quasi-Spooner.
I know folk keep insisting that Everyman is just the one person – but the crosswords really can feel different, from one week to another. There are weeks when I’m definitely on the same wavelength, then others when vast screeds might as well have been in Sanscrit.
Whoever the creator is, he or she must have a wondrous intellect to be able to carry that off.
Many thanks to Everyman, and to kenmac for a fine blog at short notice
Not bad this one, ‘in which’ I agree with Roz @ 6 regarding the &lit-ness of certain clues. For me however, LOVE POTION, while accurate enough, was perhaps not the neatest one I’ve ever seen.
Regarding difficulty, which some here perceive as having gone up a notch, with better clues the solving ought to be easier, if anything.
My times suggest the last few weeks have been trickier
I was not complaining, just asking other people their opinion. look forward to Everyman and Monday as a change from the rigours of the week. A chance to prove to myself that at least I can feel smug two days a week. nearly always finish the midweek ones as well, but they often take more than one visit.
t’s always nce when someone comments on your comment so thanks everybody
[Roz@5. You made me do it. Looked up Isaac Newton’s experiments on his eyes. eeeyeeooowwww!
He joins a number of scientists who’ve experimented on themselves, including our Aussie Barry Marshall who discovered Helicobacter pylori bacteria. When I stress about solving cryptics I know what I can do to get my stomach ulcer fixed.]
What kind of clue is 5d GOLFERS? A double (barely) cryptic definition?
13d PERCUSSION’s surface makes no sense. Some of the other surfaces, though, were super. I especially like the one for BODICE RIPPER, which read as if it ought to be for SKINNY DIPPER and made a hilarious picture.
Thanks, Everyman and kenmac.
[About scientists experimenting on themselves — I think I recall that during the building of the Panama Canal, when yellow fever was a serious threat, a researcher who was trying to convince the establishment that mosquitos carried it allowed himself to be bitten, caught the disease and died. I can’t find anything about it on the web, though.]
[PDM@30 I did warn you not to read it, pretty gruesome. The ulcer thing is hard to believe , all those years blaming it on stress/alcohol/diet etc when all the time there was a simple cure for most cases. ]
Wellbeck@26 and Nicbach@29, I can remember when Everyman would take me all week, cut it out and carry it around with me , the grid would get really scruffy.
I thought that this Everyman had more than the usual number of excellent clues, including BODICE-RIPPER, SKINNY-DIPPER, LOVE POTION, and RED TAPE.
I thought that the definition of ISAAC NEWTON made no sense because I didn’t know about his experiments on his own eyes (despite my being a physicist). Now that I know about that, I’ll add it to the list of good clues (although I’m not generally a fan of the “primarily” clues).
For me, like others, 5dn (GOLFERS) had the problem that arises regularly with cryptic definitions: although I see the misleading surface that Everyman was trying to use to lure me in, the supposedly hidden interpretation was much more obvious than the surface one. Also, I wish Everyman had come up with a better device to clue the final O in SAPPORO.
Thanks Ken for standing in for me. Doing a blog on a phone is sub optimal to put it mildly.
This isnot today’s Everyman whoch is 3064
John the Everyman is blogged a week in arrears because a prize is offered and we don’t give the answers until after the closing date.
Not John the blogger at 36, someone else. I should have chosen a more distinctive name as a blogger.
I know that during Covid they stopped giving prizes (and I could never understand why we waited until the following Sunday to publish the blog). Have they reinstated them? When I get all my puzzles from a website I miss announcements which may be relevant.
The golfers clue did seem pretty feeble. Because very occasionally a cryptic definition is quite fun, setters feel that they need two or three of them in their crosswords, and usually fail to reach the heights. As here.
Will@38 , the prizes were re-instated a while ago, possibly January this year. I think a week is a good time anyway, for newer solvers they may spend all week trying to do the puzzle.
For GOLFERS I think the “hole in one” is so well known that the misleading idea was never going to work.
Another good puzzle with some fun clues. For the first time I spotted the rhyming pair (11ac and 20ac) during the solve. However I wasn’t the only one to mix up the solutions temporarily!
LOIs were 2dn – LODgE didn’t occur to me but put in LODE anyway; and 5dn fooled me because as a non-golfer I’d no idea they wore spiked shoes.
What no kiwis?
Enjoyed this one.
Just finished this in one sitting, thanks Everyman! No quibbles from us.
Hey Audrey
Paul from Tutukaka is obviously doing them when they appear (or maybe he’s in the UK,). Some of us are just slower. With this one I got stuck then got one that broke the logjam until the next sticking point. Sometimes it’s best to leave it sit.
Bodice Ripper – what millennium is our setter from? Corporation is a belly – same comment.
Otherwise good fun.
I’m another NZ punter. I found this one easier than usual. It came in the Saturday paper this morning Nov 19) and I’ve finished it in two or three sittings over the day, which Is unusual for me: I think I’m doing pretty well if I work them out before the end of the weekend. So interested to hear others think it was more difficult. Probably an interesting research project in there somewhere. Thanks for the blog. I like seeing the reasoning I *should* have followed to get the answer!