Everyman 3,967

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Sunday rolls around and it’s time to blog the Everyman

Although I didn’t get the time yesterday so this is being written up Monday, all the usual suspects here – rhyming lights, initial letter clue – Everyman self reference. I wonder who’ll be PM by the time I finish the blog.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Pares back, stingy – ‘until tomorrow‘? (5,5)
SLEEP TIGHT

PEELS – pares reversed & TIGHT – stingy. Night night, sleep tight.

6. In France, quietly left duck: it’s a disaster (4)
FLOP

L(eft) & O – zero, duck inside F(rance) & P – quietly

9. Fascinating song singer composed (10)
ENGROSSING

A composed [SONG SINGER]* Quite liked the surface to this one

10. Perhaps Pavlova going up and down? (4)
ANNA

Anna Pavlova – it’s a palindrome hence up and down, this is an across clue unfortunately

12. Finally scrawled argument on paper describing liberal fantasies (5-6)
DREAM WORLDS

finally (scrawle)D & REAM – paper & L(iberal) insde WORDS – argument. Perhaps me but the clue syntax is awkward, yes I can make a case for it being ok but…

15. ‘Everyman’s regressive, small, far from fresh’ … and hurt! (7)
MISUSED

I’M (Everyman is) reversed & S(mall) & USED – not fresh. Everyman’s usual self reference

16. Led Yank about wanting wardrobe? (7)
NAKEDLY

[LED YANK]* about

17. A little conundrum, our scandalous tittle-tattle (7)
RUMOURS

Hidden. A little conundRUM OUR Scandalous

19. Major African nationalist, democratically elected liberating administrator, primarily? (7)
MANDELA

Well if you do Everyman regularly you’ll be expecting one of these – the initial letters of the clue

20. Patience: second magical creature’s getting key (4-7)
SELF CONTROL

S(econd) & ELF & CONTROL – a key on keyboards, usually shortened to CTRL

23. Riot Act detains this Greek character (4)
IOTA

Hidden in rIOT Act

24. Europeans darn lapels in need of repair (10)
LAPLANDERS

A repaired [DARN LAPELS]*

25. Standard displayed at beginning/end of National Anthem? (4)
NORM

The beginning of N(ational) OR and end of (anthe)M  Seen this device and the equivalent  x “AND” y one quite a bit recently

26. Awfully tense shrews run out for bulletins (4-6)
NEWS SHEETS

Without R(un) [TENSE SH(r)EWS]* awfully

DOWN
1. Tournament player to give up, did you say? (4)
SEED

Sounds like CEDE – give up

2. A border or two in the East End? (4)
EDGE

Well in the East End HEDGE would have the H dropped so effectively 2 different borders Edge and Hedge

3. Round up chaps being tipsy and cocksure (5,2,5)
PROUD AS PUNCH

a tipsy [ROUND UP CHAPS]* Pt1 of the rhyming couplet

4. ‘Alternatively stained’ (messy) (7)
INSTEAD

A messy STAINED*

5. Executioner‘s game (7)
HANGMAN

Double def ish the two are rather close though

7. Publicans procure facilities (10)
LANDLADIES

LAND – procure & LADIES – toilets, facilities

8. Demonstrates musical skill; barely pays out (5,2,3)
PLAYS BY EAR

[BARELY PAYS]* out

11. Purposeful meal on foundation – but there’s no answer (7,5)
WORKING LUNCH

WORKING – “on” & L(a)UNCH – foundation without A(nswer). Pt2 of the rhyming couple

13. Monet painting might provide this depiction of Elvis? (10)
IMPRESSION

Monet was an impressionist & there’s a shedload of Elvis impersonators

14. A Winter Olympic athlete eating muesli regularly? Not right now (3,2,5)
ASK ME LATER

A & SKATER with alternate letters of MuEsLi inserted

18. Father Christmas following echo somewhere in New Mexico (5,2)
SANTA FE

SANTA & F(ollowing) & E(cho)

19. Irregularly stains, figuratively, one’s senses (7)
MARBLES

Double def, to marble is to create a rippled stain effect

21. Told of destiny in outdoor event (4)
FETE

Sounds like FATE

22. Divine figure sent up agreeable Spanish expression (4)
ISIS

SI SI – spanish yes repeatedly reversed – sent up

Well Sunak has won, who’ll be the PM by the time it’s published though.

58 comments on “Everyman 3,967”

  2. Agree about 9ac, neat. 12ac needs an “an” … they were having words/an argument. To me, marbling is to do with steaks rather than stains, but hey ho, all good fun, thanks EnF.

  3. Oh, is that all there is to 13D? (Cue earworm Peggy Lee.)
    I was looking for something like I’M PRES SON (spoken more like ‘shun’. He’s got that kind of pronunciation.)
    MARBLES favourite for the clever surface.
    Also liked the double-edged EDGE.

    Thankyou flashling.

  4. I liked MARBLES too, and marbled paper is produced by a staining technique, so I wasn’t bothered by that. That was my last in for what was a quick romp.

    This felt like the easier Everyman version, but so did today’s barring a howler of a mistake.

    Thank you to flashling and Everyman.

  5. Good fun. I couldn’t parse the clues for EDGE or WORKING LUNCH; thanks flashing for clearing those up. LANDLADIES made me chuckle when I finally got it. It took me a while to figure out the second word in NEWS SHEETS, but I got there in the end.

    Question for the regular solvers: is it worth buying the Chambers dictionary? I see people here refer to it all the time.

  7. IMPRESSION:
    Here is one more person who is missing the connection between ‘IMPRESSION’ and ‘this depiction of Elvis’.

    Thanks, E and f!

  8. Impression in the sense of ‘an amusing copy of the way a person acts or speaks’ is a mini-impersonation (loosely). flashling has mentioned it, but I didn’t get it.

  9. Thanks for the blog, I thought this one was just right.I liked MARBLES as well , also EDGE , NAKEDLY, DREAM WORLDS and ISIS, I used to swim in the Isis every day when I was a student. ANNA should be a down clue? I wonder if the grid has been flipped, I think this one can be inverted across a diagonal axis . For IMPRESSION I thought that Elvis is the most obvious choice for people impersonating.
    The rhyming pair was neat and we have INSTEAD for Jay’s list.

  10. Nick @5 Chambers is not really essential for crosswords unless you move on to Azed, but it is very useful and interesting. I suspect most people have an electronic version but I still have my 1993 edition. It will not last me much longer but our sprogs tell me they can get me a nearly mint 1993 for less than £5 .
    Apparently the second hand market is very cheap for perfect copies because many people have just left it on a shelf for years.

  11. I enjoyed this and found it easier than last weeks.

    My favourites were: DREAM WORLDS (it and LANDLADIES were my last ones in – quite a while after the rest) NORM (first time I think I have got a X or Y answer but I saw one recently which helped), SEED, ASK ME LATER, MARBLES.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling

  12. Nick @ 5 and Roz @ 10

    I decided to get Chambers when I started doing crosswords two years ago. The current (13th) edition (published 2014 with a revised version on 2016) was out of print so I got a 12th edition (p 2011) secondhand which clearly had never been used.

    As Roz said it is possible to get earlier decisions (including the 12th edition) for £5-6. When I got mine the prices were much higher because of it being out of print. Mine cost £20 but I saw some at over £50.

    I don’t use mine a lot as I don’t do Azed but I like to look up words and it is a lovely book and very informative – and heavy.

  14. I just checked emails from that time. I remember I contacted Chambers and they said a 14th edition was planned for 2022 but I don’t think it has been published.

  15. Fiona Anne @14 I do not think a new paper edition will ever be published, just electronically.
    My 93 is the first edition of The Chambers Dictionary, it went through various names before.
    Azed now uses 2016 but it is rare that a word is in there but not 93.
    I think the earlier editions are cheaper but as you say, hardly used. I will get a “new” 93.

  16. I also had a quiblin with ANNA being an across clue. The second outing for LAPLANDERS this year, it appeared in May, that time as an anagram of (all ran sped)*.

    I find the app version of Chambers extremely useful and it has the advantage that the dictionary and thesaurus are linked so you can click through from one the the other on the same word. However, I agree that the actual book is a nice thing to have. Like Fiona Anne, Chambers told me that the 14th edition was planned for this year. However, you can download a pdf of words not in the current edition from the Chambers website. These are already in the app.

  17. Cheers Roz @10, Fiona Anne @12 and Jay @17, I’ll see if I can convince my wife to get me a copy for Christmas. Might be easier with the electronic version since we’re in California, but if I can get hardcover P.G. Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett from your lovely shores, I don’t see why a dictionary should be too hard to manage. As a sidenote, I didn’t realize all the crazy obscure words in Azed could be found in a single volume! That’s wild.

  18. I already have a couple of Chambers editions (1999 and 2004, one mine, one my daughter’s for going to university) and had one out for the last Azed and Genius crosswords, but rarely bother use it for the dailies. I used it a lot back when I was solving twenty years ago, before Internet access was so ubiquitous.

  19. Found this a lot easier than last week’s Everyman. But I’m still not convinced by IMPRESSION. I thought the last four letters were KING until I solved 25a, because I just couldn’t see how Elvis fit into the clue otherwise. Unless there’s some word play on imPRESsion and PRESley??

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  20. The clue for IMPRESSION needs a pause.
    Monet painting might provide this = IMPRESSION
    depiction of Elvis? = IMPRESSION ( probably wise NOT to ask people for their Elvis impression ) .

  22. Re IMPRESSION: the issue I have is that there is a difference in degree between an impression (mimicking one aspect of someone else in isolation) and impersonation (attempting to wholly personify someone). Pretty much everyone can do an impression of Elvis, but not many of us are Elvis impersonators. Perhaps that’s pedantry, but it’s the source of my own dissatisfaction with that particular clue.

    On the other hand, ANNA being an across clue didn’t bother me one bit. The phrase ‘up and down’ is quite often used in a non-vertical sense eg running up and down the street.

  23. I don’t have – indeed, have never seen – a Chambers, Nick @5. You can solve crosswords without it.
    I liked this (again – Everyman is usually good value). Thanks, Everyman and flashling.

  24. If I go “up and down the street” I’m travelling in a horizontal plane so I think there is, at a gentle stretch, a defence for ANNA

    Cheers F&E

  25. Tough puzzle.

    I agree that 10ac works better as a down clue.

    Liked LANDLADIES – it was a nice change from the more commonly seen landlords; NORM; SLEEP TIGHT (loi).

    Thanks, both.

  26. I thought the ANNA clue was poor but expect it was originally intended as a down clue.
    The IMPRESSION clue is also very weak.

    Is LAPLANDER still OK in the UK? Here, in Finland, the people are usually referred to as SAAMELAISET and their language is Saame. They were here before the Finns and have, in the past, been subject to discrimination.

    Lappi is the Finnish name for the northernmost (and very large) maakunta (‘county’, ‘province’) of the country. When Finnish people use the word Lapland in English, they are usually referring to this maakunta, and not to Lapland as understood in Britain.

    If you live in Lappi, you are a LAPPILAINEN, in the same way as I am a helsinkiläinen because I live in Helsinki. You may not be a SAAMELAINEN, though.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  28. They do say that imitation is the sincerest from of flattery, so I am pleased (and surprised!) that there appears to be another commenter with my name.
    Is this allowed?
    Anna – the original, the real, the best, etc etc etc.

  29. Another fun puzzle.
    Re ANNA, I’m pretty sure the last time a palindrome appeared in an across clue, Everyman made one of her/his rare appearances on this blog to explain that the grid had been flipped (as Roz suggested @ 9).
    When I saw Elvis I thought I’d spotted a link to the previous week’s Everyman, but on checking I realised it was in Paul’s Prize.
    Thanks flashling & Everyman.

  34. For some unaccountable reason I found this one a bit trickier than usual.

    I liked the LANDLADIES who procure facilities and WORKING LUNCH, where the true meaning of ‘on’ was well disguised.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  35. Anna / Anna D @26, I did wonder about LAPLANDER and I see now that the Collins entry for Lapp has a note reading “The indigenous people of Lapland prefer to be called Sami, although Lapp and Lapland are still in widespread use”.

  36. For those all shook up by 13d:
    Professional Elvis impersonators, commonly known as Elvis tribute artists (ETAs), work all over the world as entertainers, and such tribute acts remain in great demand due to the unique iconic status of Elvis. There are even several radio stations that exclusively feature Elvis impersonator material.

    Rob T @22 makes an interesting distinction between impression and impersonation, but again I appeal to wiki:

    In very broad contexts, “impersonator” may be substituted for “impressionist” where the distinction between the two is less important than avoiding confusion with the use of “impressionist” in painting and music.

    It also includes Rory Bremner, who would generally be called an impressionist, in a list of ‘notable impersonators’.

    My guess would be that Everyman arrived at the clue via the double meaning of ‘impressionist’.

    Otherwise – I agree with those who found this more of a teddy bear than a hound dog. Thanks Everyman and flashling.

    [6a reminded me: What do you call a Frenchman wearing sandals on the beach? Philippe Philoppe.]

  37. Jay @ 35
    Thanks for that comment.
    Yes, it’s considered a bit derogatory to refer to the ‘indigenous’ people as lappilaiset.
    The whole Sami/Lapp/Finnish business has something of the Welsh/English about it. Their language is closely related to Finnish, though, so the parallels don’t quite hold up.

    Anna – the boring linguist one
    (Anna D sounds like she’s the intelligent one)

  39. I was glad when the D appeared, we had quantum entanglement for a while.
    I think in the UK most people associate Lapland with Father Christmas and reindeer only, good to learn more.
    For Australian solvers Azed has 1Down today.
    Not much for linguists, a weak 2Down .

  40. Roz @ 39
    Father Christmas is the Joulupukki in Finland.
    He does indeed live in Lappi, on a tunturi (a small mountain) called the Korvatunturi, which sits right on the Russian border.
    I’ll write some more about the joulupukki in December, in the General Discussion pages.

  41. For me, this was one of the better Everymans (Everymen??) – but then, any crossword without a lame or tortuous “quasi-spoonerism” is a welcome thing.
    I came here to clarify my half-parsing of DREAMWORLDS and to find out what on earth Elvis was doing in 13D. Thanks to the good denizens of FS, I’m now far more au fait with the fine distinction between Impressionists and Impersonators – and I’m also now aware of Finnish and Sami cultural sensitivities.
    Essexboy’s gag was brilliant too!
    Thank you to Everyman and to Flashling and to everyone else for brightening my morning.

  42. flashling — thanks for straightening out the order of the letters in FLOP. I had the word but couldn’t say why it worked.

    I’d say “rhyming pair” rather than “rhyming couplet.” A couplet is two consecutive lines of verse that rhyme, so the phrase is redundant and also inaccurate.

    I’ve only ever seen “pleased as punch.” (How pleased is punch, anyway?) Is PROUD AS PUNCH a thing?

    Thanks, Everyman and flashling.

  44. [Re entanglement, Roz @39, does it show that Kant was right, i.e. that space, time and cause aren’t dings an sich?]

  45. grantinfreo @ 43 and essexboy @ 38

    I had never heard of Polk Salad and didn’t understand the reference in essexboy’s comment.
    But, thanks to grantinfreo’s comment, I have now listened to the song and The King himself.
    It’s not exactly to my taste, (neither the music or the plant I shouldn’t think), but I can see why people do like it.

    (I don’t like being called Ann/Anne/Annie.)

    I like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rkZv1pyKqo

    The singers are Anna Puu (puu means wood) and Juha Tapio, both very popular here.

  47. Anna and Anna D

    I was surprised that a second Anna was allowed. When I first tired to post here as Fiona I was told there was already a Fiona so I added the Anne.

    But I do not think I have ever seen a Fiona

  48. Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. And rather tickled at the thought of causing us to stumble on a crossroads in the multiverse!

  49. [ Grant@44, Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable. I do not think he had much to say on entanglement, it concerns hidden variables, Bell’s inequality and local reality.
    For a while on here, Anna D was just Anna , each Anna knew which post was from which but the rest of us were unsure. The arrival of the D collapsed the wavefunction ]

  50. [Anna @45, thanks for Anna and Juha, that’s delightful. And apologies for (a) mangling your name, and (b) inflicting Elvis on you.]

    [Fiona Anne / Anna / Anna – at one time we had three Marks (not three quarks) on here concurrently, until one of them became Frank PostMark (sorry, that was sheffield hatter’s joke). Whereupon I think the other two disappeared!

    And for a while we had two Penfolds. When new Penfold (or Penfnew?) appeared, old Penfold greeted his arrival with “Oh, ‘eck, another Penfold. Twofold Penfold.” 🙂 ]

    [And thanks Roz @49 for Bell’s inequality and Kant’s instability. Nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya.]

  51. Slipping back to old ways in this one, for me, which increased the difficulty.

    9ac’s anagram is neat.

  52. Interesting you found this crossword difficult, the last plantagenet @51, because I completed this crossword in one of my fastest times.

  53. bodycheetah@46 Thanks for the info. There’s a song I can’t find on youtube that a British friend of mine used to sing, with the chorus, “That’s the way to do it, says Punchinello,” making clear what a violent story the puppet show tells. I hadn’t realized that was a quotation from the real show.

  56. Struggled a bit with NE corner.

    I don’t buy the up and down the street argument. To me 10 across is a flipping error.

    Seemed rather anagrammy and overall not his best.

  57. I have a Chambers’s ( that is what it says on the spine) that was thrown out of the school library before we left for NZ in 1973.
    Front couple of pages are missing so can’t give year or edition.
    Still good for some words that are not in electronics.

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