The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3964.
A puzzle notable for a couple of unusual quirks of construction, surprising anagrams, and misleadingly hidden definitions. The rhyming pair highlighted in the grid has the bonus of the GOOD/BAD juxtaposition.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SAINT GEORGE |
English figurehead scrapped segregation (5,6)
|
| An anagram (‘scrapped’) of ‘segregation’. | ||
| 9 | OVERSEE |
Dozen or more deliveries before English finally secure run (7)
|
| A charade of OVERS (‘dozen or more deliveries’, cricket) plus E (‘English’) plus another E (‘finally securE‘). | ||
| 10 | DRACULA |
Aristocrat to avoid: awful cad with allure regularly lacking (7)
|
| In crosswordese, ‘regularly’ normally means “every other letter”, but that is not what the word actually says, and not what is required in this case: an anagram (‘awful’) of ‘cad’ plus ‘al[l]ur[e]’ minus every third letter (‘regularly lacking’); for the blood-drinking Count. | ||
| 11 | DOGMA |
Harry, graduate, assembled doctrine (5)
|
| A charade of DOG (‘harry’) plus MA (‘graduate’). | ||
| 12 | MNEMONIC |
Memory’s nudger, edifying, maybe one neatly inducing commemoration using initial letters? (8)
|
| The ‘primarily’ clue in disguise (‘using initial letters’) of ‘Memory’s Nudger Edifying Maybe One Neatly Inducing Commemoration’, with an &lit definition (if slightly stretched). | ||
| 14 | EAST OF EDEN |
U.S. novel in translation defeats one (4,2,4)
|
| An anagram (‘in translation’) of ‘defeats one’, for the novel by John Steinbeck. | ||
| 15 | OXEN |
Cattle and duck kiss, seen on-and-off (4)
|
A charade of O (‘duck’, cricket) plus X (‘kiss’) plus EN (‘seEN on-and off’ or ‘sEeN on-and off’; either way “off-and-on” might have been more descriptive). |
||
| 17 | ECHO |
What follows tango in hotel? (4)
|
| Cryptic definition: in the word ‘hotel’ the T (‘tango’, radio alphabet) is followed by E (ECHO, also radio alphabet). ‘Hotel’ also belongs to the radio alphabet, but that has nothing to do with the case. | ||
| 19 | LITERATURE |
True tale I adapted about rector for serious reading (10)
|
| An anagram (‘adapted’) of ‘true tale I’ plus R (‘rector’). | ||
| 21 | TELLS ALL |
After Stella, tipsy Lord Lieutenant spills the beans (5,3)
|
| A charade of TELLSA, an anagram (‘tipsy’) of ‘Stella’ plus LL (‘Lord Lieutenant’) | ||
| 23 | ONSET |
Where a film is made (Inception) (5)
|
| ON SET (‘where a film is made’ – many of them, anyway) | ||
| 25 | OBOISTS |
It’s boos, regrettably, for woodwind players (7)
|
| An anagram (‘regrettably’) of ‘its boos’. A change from viola jokes. | ||
| 26 | PALERMO |
Having lost bronze, Farah in Mediterranean city? (7)
|
| A charade of PALER (‘having lost bronze’) plus MO (‘Farah‘, long distance Olympic runner). | ||
| 27 | THIRD DEGREE |
Ruthless interrogation for Ph.D.? (5,6)
|
| Double definition, the second being more a literal interpretation, as well as questionable (as perhaps the question mark suggests). A Ph.D. would be geneally at least a second degree. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SLEIGHS |
Winter transport conveying butchers to the audience (7)
|
| Sounds like (‘to the audience’) SLAYS (‘butchers’ – not rhyming slang this time). | ||
| 2 | IN SEASON |
Rinse a songbird’s stuffing that’s fit to be eaten (2,6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘stuffing’) in ‘rINSE A SONgbird’. | ||
| 3 | TEEM |
Gather up rain, intensely (4)
|
| A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of MEET (‘gather’). | ||
| 4 | ENDANGERED |
Threatened over suppressing fury (10)
|
| An envelope (‘suppressing’) of ANGER (‘fury’) in ENDED (‘over’). | ||
| 5 | REALM |
Switching sides near the end, give new weapons to kingdom (5)
|
| REARM (‘give new weapons’) with the second R (‘near the end’) changed to L (right to left, ‘switching sides’). | ||
| 6 | EQUINOX |
In the end, Don Quixote wasting time, roaming when season ends (7)
|
| An anagram (‘roaming’) of N (‘in the end, doN‘) plus ‘Quixo[t]e’ minus the T (‘wasting time’). The equinoxes mark roughly the end of winter and summer. | ||
| 7 | GOOD RECEPTION |
Essential part of successful wedding: four bars, perhaps (4,9)
|
| Double definition, the second referring to, say, mobile phone reception. | ||
| 8 | BAD CONNECTION |
‘No, Bond: act nice’ wavering in faulty phone line (3,10)
|
| An anagram (‘wavering’) of ‘no Bond act nice’ | ||
| 13 | SERIALISED |
Appearing at regular intervals, unhinged idealisers (10)
|
| An anagram (‘unhinged’) of ‘idealisers’. | ||
| 16 | CAROLLER |
Festive entertainer, children’s author, runs off with hesitant expression (8)
|
| A charade of CAR[r]OLL (Lewis, ‘children’s author’) minus an R (‘runs off’ – in cricket notation, a single R can represent run or runs) plus ER (‘hesitant expression’). | ||
| 18 | HOLD OUT |
Last offer (4,3)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 20 | UPSURGE |
Prosperous periods, yen showing rise (7)
|
| A charade of UPS (‘prosperous periods’) plus URGE (‘yen’). ‘Showing’ just links wordplay and definition. | ||
| 22 | SUSHI |
S. American chain regularly offering rice-based dish (5)
|
| A charade of S (‘south’) plus US (‘American’) plus HI (‘cHaIn regularly’ – this time with the more usual meaning). | ||
| 24 | APSE |
Everyman’s beginning to go under: a quiet bit of snoozing in part of church (4)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus P (‘quiet’) plus S (‘bit of Snoozing’) plus E (‘Everyman’s beginning’), with ‘to go under’ indicating the order of the particles. |
What is questionable about “third degree” as a definition of Ph D? It is the third step in the standard academic progression from bachelor to master to doctor.
In 15 doesn’t “seen on-and-off”indicate the alternate letters in “seen”, giving EN, so OXEN?
Agree with JohnE and Willbar’s comments.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as usual. Even the primarily clue, as Peter O said, was ”slightly stretched”.
I wasn’t sure which way was up with TEEM until I got SAINT GEORGE. Serves me right for not attempting the clues in order as some of our eminent bloggers do.
Liked the rhyming pair for their ”connections”, and their opposites.
Also liked HOLD OUT for the meaningful double def. “last offer”.
Yep I did oxen like Willbar. Liked the unhinged idealisers (me after too many shirazes arguing with reactionaries). Ta both.
I parsed OXEN with the alternate letters from seen, too.
The paired clues were satisfying both rhyming and matching GOOD and BAD, but I found this on the tougher end of the Everyman scale, taking me longer than both the Maskerade Prize the day before and this week’s puzzle together.
Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.
Or, John E, here in Oz I think you can still go straight from a BA(Hons) or BSc(Hons) to a PhD. The Honours degrees require an extra year, but are still first degrees.
My PhD was my third degree, as JohnE @1 says. I didn’t have to do a viva, but that can be – I am told – a ruthless interrogation too. I quite liked this, especially the good/bad rhyming pair, and the aristocrat to be avoided. I am also in the sEeN camp. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
But gif @6 – you are awarded both the bachelors and the honours at different graduation ceremonies, so I think they count as two degrees. You get two degree certificates!
These days a common path for post-graduates is to enrol in a Masters degree and then convert to a PhD if their progress is satisfactory.
Ok, yes TT@8, that’s true. John E, I concede 🙂
[ PeterO, re 25@, you have of course invited a viola joke:
At La Scala one evening both the conductor and her assistant came down with food poisoning and couldn’t go on. The principal violist said he knew the score well, and volunteered to conduct. It went well. He was back in his usual chair the next night, whereupon his stand partner turned to him and said, “So where were you last night?”. ]
Needless to say, I liked that clue. I also liked the excellent anagram at 1a SAINT GEORGE and the nicely connected rhyming pair.
Thanks, Everyman and PeterO for the fun.
[Thank you cellomaniac for the chuckles. I’d never heard viola jokes. I like the instrument, as well as oboes, but cello is my favourite.]
Not sure why but found this more difficult than usual. Still had seven to go when I stopped on Sunday but when I returned over the next few days got six of them and couldn’t understand why I hadn’t seen them.
Just one left when I looked yesterday and got it straight away – IN SEASON and how I didn’t see it last Sunday I have no idea.
Favourites: ECHO, DOGMA, OVERSEE, UPSURGE, CAROLLER
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Thanks for the blog , I liked the sort of rhyming/opposite pair, also SAINT GEORGE and SERIALISED are complete anagrams from one word which is always neat. ECHO was also clever.
I do not understand the mobile phone reference for 7D?? I took the four bars as a pretty weak reference to serving alcohol.
Agree with the sEeN for OXEN. Peter, your version is very devious but actually gives OXON.
Cellomaniac@11 very droll. are violists always the butt of jokes?
THIRD DEGREE certainly can be PhD but not always , I suppose it depends on subject, country, system etc.
In my time I went straight from three year degree to D.Phil and I think that was the most common path, certainly for sciences.
My students now generally go from MPhys , a four year single degree, to Phd , so only two.
As Tassie Tim@7 says, the thesis should really involve a ruthless interrogation.
[Roz, for a space age scientist, your professed choices with some forms of technology is very amusing, and heartening to me. I’ve just been forced into early retirement for my cognitive processing speed being average (no less), but scoring very highly across all ages in other domains. It was deemed I’d struggle with using technology at speed, which I do, especially when they fire emails at me when I’m trying to think! Have been working from home since Covid started, but never had a smartphone before that. I think I’ve missed the boat.
I like your ”four bars” grading of wedding receptions. Where I live there is no alcohol-type bar, and I’m lucky to get one bar reception on my mobile phone. Funnily, I was reading an article in the Sydney Morning Herald just now about the last map shop in Sydney closing down. When I’m up the mountains or in the desert I’d rather have a map, especially where there is no mobile phone or GPS reception. I’ve got drawers full of maps, now rare it seems …. might pay for my retirement.]
Took me ages to get going with this. But got there in the end, although I didn’t get REALM, and simply had REARM instead. The clue makes much more sense now I’ve had it explained.
I went straight from my BSc (Hons) in mathematics (I only got one degree certificate) to a PhD in solar physics, so that ended up being my second degree, as it were. And yes – a rather long interrogation called a viva at the end. But I would agree that the PhD would be the third degree normally.
I parsed oxen similarly to others too.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
[ PDM@16 , my blissful ignorance of phones, computers etc is entirely deliberate. I realised a long time ago that it was all being set up just to annoy me and my only response was a refusal to engage. I still write letters, mainly to annoy the sprogs. My computer use is limited to three pictures set up for me on a Chrome book, this site, the BBC and JWST tracker.
I still really do not understand the FOUR BARS , it is not one of my attempts at humour]
I started this last Sunday and almost finished it (the two long sides were write-ins for me so I got a foothold for lots of other clues early on) then promptly forgot about it until this morning when the last half-dozen clicked into place nicely. Good to know that my subconscious crosswording brain had been working on it all week 🙂
A good solid Everyman, though looking back I didn’t consider many clues to be tickable. Maybe an exception for SERIALISED as I’m a fan of long whole-word anagrams.
Thanks both.
[Well, from this Luddite, I’ll give it a go. There’s a triangular-shaped (on my phone anyway) thingie that shows how many ‘bars’ of reception you’ve got, like a bar graph. It might be more of a thing in Australia where mobile phone reception is very patchy outside the metropolitan area, given our vast distances.]]
[Sorry, me@20 was a reply to Roz@18.]
Roz @18 and pdm @20 – the ‘bar’ icon for mobile phone signal strength is pretty much universal. For a few years Apple tried to popularise ‘dots’ but reverted to bars as that’s what everyone calls them anyway.
I thought the parsing of Dracula was a bit rough on what I believe is the intended audience for Everyman. Fortunately, if you’d got the down answers it couldn’t have been anything else. Agree with all the oxen comments. Thanks PeterO.
[ Thanks PDM@20 , I think I see what you mean, it is a sort of signal-strength graph , and four bars would be a good signal. Actually I now think it is a much better clue. ]
And thanks Rob@22 , I missed your post while typing , I now see you use signal strength as well which makes it clear.
Long (i.e. 7+ letters) whole-word anagrams have appeared in the last three Everyman’s (I’m counting to this one, not today’s). I think I’ll start a list 🙂
Brilliant Jay, I will now look out for this, it is one of the things I usually notice .
Has anyone got a follow-on idea for this puzzle and the previous. As usual I found nothing.
Jay@26. And the last 2 Everymen have had semantically-connected rhyming pairs. It seems that Everyman gets on a riff, or has a number of clues stored, and keeps it going for however long s/he feels like it. It’s an interesting way to set, and keeps us entertained.
Liked the good/bad pair at 7 and 8d, as well as PALERMO, THIRD DEGREE; ECHO
I did not parse the U in 10ac DRACULA – only got as far as *cad a l r + U
Thanks, both.
Has Christmas come early? A CAROLLER and OXEN, SLEIGH (bells) and a (Star in the) EAST. Very SEASONal.
I couldn’t see a follow-on this time, but we’re back on track for next week. Also, I think I’m going to start a Jay’s lists list 😉
Thanks both, I liked SAINT GEORGE and PALERMO among others, but I didn’t expect 27a.
I did not even notice the unusual interpretation of ‘regular’ for the DRACULA clue. Perhaps Everyman made the same mistake as me. The hardest Everyman for some time, I’d say.
A lesson in the impenetrability of how we make nouns from phrasal verbs. You can have an UPSURGE but we rarely SURGE UP; an ONSET doesn’t really result from setting on, and you can be a HOLD-OUT but not an OUTHOLD. essexboy@30 Nobody expects any kind of ruthless interrogation.
I think it’s pretty standard in science to go from B.Sc to Ph.D – that’s the route I took anyway – and only three years for each with a viva at the end.
I thought the SAINT GEORGE anagram was very neat. I wondered where the U had got to in DRACULA, as has been said above, a difficult trick for a supposedly straightforward puzzle. I wondered why I couldn’t parse SLEDGES for 1D, doh! I spent far too long on my LOI, ECHO, having got stuck with H for hotel in my brain – another good clue.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
Robi @33 the 3 year BsC is dying out these days. Most students do MPhys , MEng, MMath etc. A four year first degree, It was introduced mainly as a money-making exercise I am sorry to say.
MrEssexboy@30 does the list of all lists that do not contain themselves, contain itself?
Thanks to your theme I have actually spotted the follow-on clue for once.
[Roz @35, glad you found a GOOD CONNECTION. Worthy of four bars. (I’d say five, but nobody expects five bars.)
Looking forward to next week. I can barely contain myself.]
Willbar @2 etc etc
I do not know how I came to perpetrate 15A. Now corrected.
[Roz @35, reminds me of CS Peirce’s question: What property must any two entities a and b share? Can’t remember the argument, but it’s something like ‘non-ab-lessness’]
The SAINT GEORGE/segregation anagram is magnificent! Others less so, Serialisers/
Both parts of PALERMO defeated me. I tried taking AES out of something, no go. And the only Farah I could think of was Farah Fawcett-Major, the Charlie’s Angel of the monumental hair.
Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Sorry, hit Post too soon. I meant to say that the SERIALISED/realisers anagram is the least impressive.
[ Grant@38 I actually lifted it directly from Frege’s paradox discovered by Bertrand Russell, concerning sets that do not contain themselves. It destroyed the axiomatic foundations of set theory. ]
paddymelon@12 and Roz@14, yes, violists are often the butt of jokes – kind of a musician’s equivalent of an ethnic joke. PeterO’s comment on 25a alludes to this.
I quite enjoyed this puzzle, but I enjoyed the repartee in the comments even more. What a delightful site this is. Thanks everyone for the fun.
Valentine @39, I also thought of Farrah Fawcett (subsequently divorced from the Six Million Dollar Man), but she’s got two R’s. The other Farah that came to mind was the last Shah-ess of Iran, née Farah Diba.
[If anyone is worried by Roz@41, only the axiomatisation of set theory at the time was destroyed. The Zermelo-Frankel axiomatisation, which remains the most widely used, got round it by not allowing sets to be constructed in this way, while not discarding anything useful.]
[It was claimed that one of my nuclear physics lecturers had said “you haven’t read this thesis, have you?” at his viva to his Nobel prize winner external examiner.]
[Tim@44 nobody seriously believed in Zermelo-Frankel and after Godel it was pointless anyway. ]
[Roz@45 – that’s an interesting assertion. I assume you are referring to the incompleteness result. Just because no (sufficiently powerful) axiomatisation can be complete doesn’t mean that no axiomatisation is useful – and a lot of people are wasting their time if ZF in particular is not. But we are getting well away from Everyman here.]
Had REARM for REALM. Enjoyed the SAINT GEORGE anagram a lot and GOOD RECEPTION as well.
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO
{ Quite right Tim, I will just say one more thing, you can only prove the axioms of ZFC are consistent if they are inconsistent, we have simply moved the paradox. Mathematicians like to pretend the subject is based on axioms and logic, I never know whether to indulge them or enlighten them . Sorry Kenmac, I promise I will say no more on this ]
Jay @36 – we had a lot of riffing on the SEGREGATION/SAINT GEORGE anagram in the Prize on 23 April from Brendan – link to the puzzle, fifteen squared link here – and that one stuck.
I agree this Everyman often finds interesting long anagrams.
Shame @49, many thanks for the links. Should have remembered that one as it wasn’t all that long ago. I was also trying think of a puzzle where many of the grid entries in symmetrical positions were all anagrams of each other. I think it may also have been Brendan. Does anyone recall that puzzle?
@Shanne… apologies for the typo!
Jay @50, I wonder if you’re thinking of this one? Seven pairs of across solutions, same clue works for both ‘partners’ in the pair each time. Only two anagram pairs, though – KYOTO/TOKYO and ALGORITHMS/LOGARITHMS.
EB@52 many thanks for the link, it could very well be what I had in mind (though I thought it was from several years back!). Even so, thanks for digging this out, I may well work through it again tomorrow
Late to the party for this one. I found it considerably tougher than usual, though part of the difficulty may have lay in the fact that I was entering answers between hands at the poker table. Loved the symmetry between GOOD RECEPTION and BAD CONNECTION. TEEM was my last in—I was unaware it could mean rain. Had a hard time parsing the clues for APSE and DRACULA as well; thanks PeterO for the elucidations. I’m starting to really look forward to these puzzles every weekend! Better and more consistent than the Quiptic, to my taste at least.
[Roz@48 – so this is why you don’t trust IT!]
Not sure anyone will notice, but Jay and/or essexboy @52, that Brendan with the reflected clues was mentioned in a the Guardian crossword blog from 3 October, discussing the need for crossers to solve clues, so I redid it yesterday.
Not a stroll in the park, but not insurmountable. PALERMO made me chuckle, and for a long time I was racking my brains if there was another DEGREE in 1a from the last three crossers. The rhyming long answers were fun, too.
The SE corner baffled me for a bit but pennies dropped eventually. Another good puzzle I feel. Inevitably there will be bits of GK which have passed some of us by, but for me there weren’t many this time.
Yes, violists are frequent butts of unkind jokes in classical circles, as are banjo players in the folk world. I’ve heard choral singers (of which I’m one) categorised as non-musicians, and there may be a degree of truth in that! Orchestral musicians play from a single part, whereas singers start to panic when denied a printed accompaniment. Of course, many of us have had no formal training.
I enjoyed this, although I think I hit the post with Good Selection for 7D.
Before you ask Audrey, we were away last weekend.
We really enjoyed this one! 17ac Echo was a goodie, 27ac Third Degree totally made sense; loved Dracula; and 7dn & 8dn both goodies. Thanks all!!
What’s happened- We/I have never been to comment from NZ.
I liked Dracula and the rhyming pair. My first (+only) degree was a B.Sc Hons (UCL 1966) but it was not that hard to figure the bachelor-master-doctor sequence.
No wonder I often find these difficult. I don’t have a degree. Only a teachers certificate.
Hope you had a good break Barrie.
Funny isn’t it to read the list of learned contributors I have a degree but only the one so I feel very lowly but glad to be able to finish this puzzle which I loved and found tons of challenge
Liked Oversee, third degree onset and echo for their quirky navigation -partic Echo.
I’ve never heard harry meaning dog?
‘To harry’ can be to annoy or harass an opponent, a bit like ‘to dog’ someone. Cath got that one – I’ve got the bigger degree, so I’m not sure it is that important.
Loved the puzzle – lots of good clues.