I haven’t been very efficient this time, since there are two clues that leave me bewildered. However, I’m sure that some of the many people who read this blog will help. Otherwise it’s quite a satisfactory Everyman with the usuals (self-reference, first letters, rhyming answers (PACIFIC OCEAN, LAWS OF MOTION), and no doubt other things that I’ve missed). In only one or two cases I’m a bit unhappy with the clues.
Definitions underlined, in crimson. Indicators (anagram, homophone, hidden, first letters, etc) in italics. Anagram indicators indicated like *(this) or (this)*. Link-words in green.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIRECTIONS |
Brief, displaying discretion (10)
|
| *(discretion) — brief as a noun, one’s instructions — not very happy with ‘displaying’ as an anagram indicator | ||
| 6 | TSAR |
At the outset, ‘Terrible’ sort; aristocratic Russian! (4)
|
| The first letters clue. A slightly more imaginative indicator than ‘primarily’. | ||
| 9 | TRAMPOLINE |
Heavily stomp over boundary where sportsperson may jump (10)
|
| tramp o line — tramp = heavily stomp, o = over, line = boundary | ||
| 10 | DIAL |
Laid back? Don’t touch that… ! (4)
|
| (Laid)rev. — what ‘Don’t touch that …’ means is a mystery to me I’m afraid, which perhaps someone can throw light on — perhaps it’s just that once one has got the dial set to the right value one doesn’t want people to interfere with it — if that’s what it is it seems a bit weak as a definition [yes evidently that’s it; apparently an expression in the US] | ||
| 11 | PACIFIC OCEAN |
Following calm, canoe lost in vast watery expanse (7,5)
|
| pacific (canoe)* — pacific = calm (both adjectives) | ||
| 15 | ADRENAL |
A doctor, way back, that’s describing a gland (7)
|
| a Dr (lane)rev. — a = a, dr = doctor, lane = way — ‘that’ a demonstrative pronoun (otherwise ‘that’s’ is a link-word, probably not what the setter intended) | ||
| 16 | STENCIL |
$10,149 for Banksy piece? (7)
|
| s ten CIL — s = $ (?? but as several have pointed out it’s in Chambers), ten = 10, CIL = 149 in Roman numerals — and apparently Banksy is thought to use stencils for his work, something I didn’t know | ||
| 17 | CASHEWS |
Perhaps change revolted expression on initially seeing nibbles (7)
|
| cash ew s[eeing] — cash = perhaps change, ew is the revolted expression | ||
| 19 | RELOADS |
At sea, Sea Lord primes weaponry again (7)
|
| *(Sea Lord) | ||
| 20 | LAWS OF MOTION |
Two moons fail to display Newtonian principles (4,2,6)
|
| (Two moons fail)* — the second time Everyman uses ‘display’ as an anagram indicator — once is dodgy enough, but twice? | ||
| 23 | TERN |
Heard, in short walk, an aquatic bird (4)
|
| “turn” — a turn is a short walk — Jane Austen is full of people saying ‘shall we take a turn round the garden’ and that sort of thing | ||
| 24 | ASPIDISTRA |
Eccentric star is paid with indoor plant (10)
|
| *(star is paid) — one of my pet hates, ‘with’ as a link-word | ||
| 25 | DASH |
Retired horse unhappy to race (4)
|
| (h sad)rev. — h = horse, sad = unhappy, dash = race in the sense of moving quickly | ||
| 26 | ENDANGERED |
Compromised? Stop seething (10)
|
| end angered — end = stop, angered = seething — if you are compromised, or in a compromising situation, you might be endangered | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DATE |
See what you can get from a palm tree (4)
|
| 2 defs — to date someone is to see them. and you get dates from a palm tree | ||
| 2 | RIAL |
Money in imperialism (4)
|
| Hidden in impeRIALism — the currency of several countries: Iran, Oman, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco | ||
| 3 | CAPTAIN NEMO |
Better nominate extraordinary explorer (7,4)
|
| cap (nominate)* — cap = better — Captain Nemo was the hero of Jules Verne’s ‘20000 Leagues Under the Sea’ (and also, according to Wikipedia, one or two other works, although this is the one for which he will be remembered) | ||
| 4 | ILL WILL |
Everyman shall pass on acrimony (3,4)
|
| I’ll will — I’ll = Everyman shall, pass on = will (as in leaving a will) | ||
| 5 | NINNIES |
Fools childminders (independent, not amateur) (7)
|
| nannies with a replaced by i — nannies = childminders, i = independent, a = amateur | ||
| 7 | SPIDER CRAB |
It has white and brown meat, bird cooked with capers (6,4)
|
| (bird capers)* [answer corrected now, thanks PeterO] | ||
| 8 | RELENTLESS |
Stern seller sent bananas (10)
|
| (seller sent)* — relentless = stern (just: it’s in the Collins list of synonyms, but it does seem to me to be a bit tenuous) | ||
| 12 | OVERLOOKING |
Watching from above … or not noticing at all? (11)
|
| Two different senses of ‘overlooking’ | ||
| 13 | CALCULATED |
Was divisive, perhaps premeditated (10)
|
| 2 defs: if one is calculating one perhaps divides, or is divisive, and calculated = premeditated | ||
| 14 | CROSSWORDS |
This is one of those tirades (10)
|
| cross words, which tirades are | ||
| 18 | SIMPSON |
Ultimately, Marge’s troublemaker lad? (7)
|
| [Marge’]s imp son — imp = troublemaker, son = lad, &lit. reference to the cartoon show ‘The Simpsons’ | ||
| 19 | RETSINA |
Drink some clarets inappropriately (7)
|
| Hidden in claRETS INAppropriately | ||
| 21 | STAR |
Lead actor that’s over 8 on board? (4)
|
| A star is certainly a leading actor, |
||
| 22 | LARD |
The French rehashed gutted calorific ingredient (4)
|
| la r[ehashe]d — la = ‘the’ in French |
Bit tougher than last week.
LOI was ENDANGERED
STENCIL made me smile. As soon as I saw 49 in the clue I remembered that 99 in a previous crossword was IC (one below one hundred in roman numerals) so decided 49 must be IL (one below fifty). Always happy when I remember a device from previous crosswords.
Others I liked were: TRAMPOLINE, CAPTAIN NEMO, CROSSWORDS, CASHEWS
Also didn’t really get DIAL and STAR
Thanks Everyman and John
To parse 21, have a look at a computer keyboard.
re 21 d
Did wonder if 8 on board might refer to the stern (definition in 8d) on a boat and tar to a sailor but it didn’t really make sense
Monkey @ 2
of course…..
“Don’t touch that dial” is a radio announcer telling you not to tune away from the station.
“Don’t touch that dial!” is (at least over here in the US) a stereotypical phrase in TV ads for more TV. (As in, stay tuned–you don’t want to miss what’s after this commercial!) (Dating from back when TV’s had dials, so you don’t hear it as much anymore.)
I agree with PeterO @5 – it was a very common catch phrase back in the day.
PeterO @5 I associate it with TV, but of course it must have come from radio first.
The S in STENCIL is from the dollar sign.
I’m also wondering what 8 on board means. All I could think of is that 8 is on the left of a clock, but starboard is on the right of a ship.
I had never heard of RETSINA or ASPIDISTRA before, so those were my last in, after much puzzlement. The rest of the puzzle flowed pretty well for me, though I didn’t love it quite the way I did its predecessor. Lots of good anagrams.
Ah, thank you Monkey @2 for the STAR clarification. The comments are coming so fast, I overlooked yours before.
7D: right idea, wrong answer. The anagram of ‘bird capers’ would be SPIDER CRAB.
Thank you PeterO.
and thanks Monkey for STAR on the keyboard.
No hope of getting SPICED CRAB from the definition, then finally saw the anagram fodder.
I like crabs plain and simple, to enjoy the natural flavour. Would never associate the colour ‘brown’ with crab meat, spiced or not, and couldn’t find an image of one.
Ticks for DASH and CALCULATED for the surfaces.
Sorry, that was thanks to John, and to Peter O.
Did get SPIDER CRAB last week. Still not convinced about the colour of the meat.
Paddy melon@8 (or is that one under star?), a dreeed crab comes in the shell with white meat on the outside and a line of dark meat in the middle.
Couldn’t parse STAR or understand the definition of DIAL. but I find myself far from alone.
Thanks Everyman, John, PeterO and Monkey
nicbach@13. lol. Yes, know the terms white and dark meat for poultry and for seafood. But brown?? Yuk!
PM@14 It is brown, but isn’t all dark meat brown, unless it’s red?
Regarding STAR, ?I was reminded that Vulcan had clued ASTERIX in the same way in 28,316…
25a Mark that may be one over the 8? (8)
…not on my iPad though!
Thanks to E and J
Surely it’s SPIDER CRAB? I think the asterisk (star) is shift(8) on a typewriter keyboard, which a lot of us these days are probably not using.
PS: hooray, hooray, the weird numberless layout has gone away. Thanks, kenmac.
Thanks for the blog , I thought this was pretty good overall.
I did think “don’t touch that dial” must be radio but Mr Penney @8 reminds me that the old TV sets had a dial for tuning different stations before buttons came in.
For STAR I did look at the keyboard on my Chrome book , always do it now when we get something like this.
PDM@11 I think it is common in the UK to refer to white/brown for chicken, crab etc although I agree that dark would be much better.
DIRECTIONS is another long, complete anagram for Jay.
I second Gladys@18 , I did not like the layout at all yesterday. Thank you KenMac.
I’ve always said dark meat for chicken, brown meat for crab. Still not sure about S for $.
“Don’t touch that dial” was such a common phrase on the station I listened to as a youngster, I can still hear the intonation when I mentally say the phrase.
Today’s earworm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuRG2OWv5mg
Don’t go there. It’s Englebert Humperdink and it’s terrible. Didn’t know he did this.
Managed to complete this, which is the first one for a few weeks.
Like others, I could not parse STAR properly, but now I’ve seen it, I’m hoping I can add that to my crossword solving armoury.
Thanks Everyman and John.
S for dollar is in Chambers, I noticed when I was looking to see if singular was listed earlier this week.
I enjoyed this and sped through it. Thank you to John and Everyman.
I took STAR to come from an anagram of TSAR that sits on the grid (board) above (over) 8 down?
21A The STAR symbol is above the 8 on your keyboard
STENCIL: But 149 is CXLIX not IL. I parsed the clue like it was obviously intended but it is not correct to say CIL is the Roman numeral and at the level of pedanticism sometimes demanded in this blog it seems to me iffy.
The star symbol is not above the 8 on my keyboard here in Finland.
And talking of 8s and pieces thereof, that’s what the dollar sign really is, not an S.
Yes, this has been mentioned before, 99 is not IC and neither is 49 IL, as cosmic @47 points out.
I didn’t get the ‘over 8 on board’ although it’s staring me in the face as I type. I liked the anagram for LAWS OF MOTION, although display is a bit weird for an anagrind. I also liked CAPTAIN NEMO for the use of better, and CROSSWORDS for the lift-and-separate double definition.
Thanks Everyman and John.
CROSSWORDS is actually the rarer Gossard, not Playtex. For tirades we need to push the two words together.
Thanks Everyman & John. Typically enjoyable fare.
Having grown up by the seaside, I’ve always known that the brown meat (which is definitely brown) is the best bit of the crab. It’s the grey bits you want to avoid.
Last week wee WILLie, this week ill WILL. Last week an apostrophe-double-L in the clue, this week “shall” in the clue gives apostrophe-double-L in the parsing.
(Perhaps of limited interest to some, but it pleases those of us looking for follow-on clues / continuity elements 🙂 )
[The following is probably going to irritate, so if you continue reading… you have been warned!
I can’t see any logical reason why 23ac should be TERN, not TURN, apart from the ‘convention’ that the definition is either at the beginning or end of a clue. The object of the homophone indicator ‘heard’ could easily be the bird, not the walk – just as it is in the surface reading. There’s nothing in the rules of English to say that a passive past participle has to apply to the word immediately adjacent. Think of:
Wanted – within the next couple of weeks if poss – a Chambers ’93 in good condition
The ‘wanted’ clearly applies to the dictionary, not the intervening phrase.
So the ‘heard’ could apply to the bird, meaning ‘short walk’ would be the definition that the clue is pointing us towards (introduced, as definitions so often are, by the word ‘in’), and the solution would be TURN.
Not a criticism of Everyman – who can hardly be blamed for making use of a convention that setters and solvers alike have grown used to over the decades – just a little musing on how crossword clues work, and a questioning of the logical foundations upon which we conventionally interpret them.]
Thanks Everyman and John, and apologies for the digression everyone.
Robi @ 29
I know that IL is not 49 in roman numerals but I remember previously seeing 99 used to indicate IC in a crossword – comparing it to IV for 4 – as a crossword device – so, in crossword language, 49 could be IL – well I liked it.
I also like crab and have always referred to the white and the brown meat – which does look brown albeit a little reddish in tone – and is better than the white meat I think.
[eb @32 I see your point and you illustrate it nicely but, doesn’t that require you to attach significance to the punctuation? In my experience that’s best avoided in the Guardian/Observer. See also capitals, italics bold text ect.]
There’s the option of writing a clue (like 23ac) without ambiguity, of course, though we would either be spared or unable ever to enjoy the musings of eb on such matters, so I’m glad that the commas were there, and that the clue was submitted without changes 😀
Homophone clues can often be ambiguous if the indicator is in the middle but MrEssexboy has found a new case, although I would say it is hard to argue against TERN.
The definition at one end is not really a convention , it is just hard to write a clue with it in the middle but I have seen some.
My “new” Chambers 93 will arrive for the Solstice, my original is now losing pages from each end but not the actual entries yet.
DIAL and CAPTAIN NEMO got ticks from me. Like most folk, I didn’t parse STAR.
[Thanks bc, lady g, and Roz @34-36 for responding.
bc: it probably was the fact that “in short walk” is cordoned off by commas that set me thinking along those lines – but then if we’re allowed to ignore punctuation, or imagine it if it’s not there, doesn’t that mean we can freely choose whichever interpretation(s) sound(s) possible in our own heads? The only constraints are the enumeration and the crossers, and in this case, both allow both solutions.
lady g: I’m going to take that as a compliment 🙂
Roz: if it’s not too forward, allow me to wish you much post-solstitial pleasure with your new fully clothed Chambers ’93 (or if you prefer, your new Chambers ’93, fully clothed).]
Managed to complete this ok, but like others failed to parse STAR so thanks for dropping my penny. Likewise I didn’t recognise 10ac ‘Don’t touch that …’ but i sort of made sense.
Apparently Banksy routinely used stencils since about year 2000, probably for speed to avoid detection. Took me a while to suss the Roman numeral, and it didn’t cross my mind that it’s strictly inaccurate anyway. I think I’d rather not have known that!
“don’t touch that set, don’t touch that dial!” is regularly heard from Aus highest rating radio presenter., when he was mostly a rugby league commentator. He still says it, and his replacements often use it mockingly.
I linked “don’t touch that dial” to the Grand Ole Opry and Garrison Keillor and that style of imitations (I’ve heard and seen it referenced in plays). Apparently a two volume edition on the history of world radio has the phrase as its title, so it suggests it’s well known.
Essexboy, there have been some fairly recent Guardian Crossword blogs about ambiguities and confusions.
I did not parse 21d STAR.
Thanks, both.
“Don’t touch that dial!”
Listen to I’m the Slime by Frank Zappa.
(I am vile and pernicious, have you guessed me yet? I’m the Slime oozing out of your TeeVee set)
Regarding the nonstandard Roman numeral in 16ac, Wikipedia does cite instances of forms like this being used:
“There is, however, some historic use of subtractive notation other than that described in the above “standard”: in particular IIIXX for 17,[26] IIXX for 18,[27] IIIC for 97,[28] IIC for 98,[29][30] and IC for 99.[31]”
They don’t cite an instance of IL for 49, I’ll grant you, but IC for 99 illustrates the principle.
I thought that 18dn was just an uninspired cryptic definition, but now that I see the &lit I think it’s a very fine clue.
I found this more difficult than the usual Everyman, but looking back over it I can’t say why, so I was probably just having a bad day.
One of my Everyman’s for a while. 🙂
It was gratifying to read that the blogger (John) was stumped by the parsing of “star” as was I. (And many others apparently.)
Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Everyman and to John.
Never really got on to the wavelength this week so a number of bunged unparsed and an error as a consequence (Sampson).
Agree with some of the quibbles above, especially the repetitious and weak anagrind.
I’m over complaining about dodgy Roman numerals though, that horse bolted years ago.
Not wholly convinced that because the gerund ‘seeing’ can mean the same as ‘dating’ the same synonym follows for the infinitive or present tense. “I’m going to date her tomorrow.” Really? Have you asked her yet?
Perhaps I’m grumpy as on home detention with Covid. Happy new year, Kiwis.
I’m surprised no one queried ‘end angered’ for stop seething
surely that makes no sense at all ? End anger makes sense but..
funny how so many stumbled over 21d – too academic!! helps to be less of an expert as I got it easily tho it sounded too easy to b true. The 8 was over my head but now obvious now I’ve read why .
Loved overlooking, capt nemo and think tern was perfect
Happy n year everyone !
Van @48 end angered doesn’t have to make sense as an expression, or as two words read together: think of them as just two discrete words that in the solution are run together to make one word.
In the wp you treat them separately as synonyms of ‘stop’ and ‘seething’ respectively.
Please end that / please stop that.
I am angered / I am seething.
It’s not the most elegant clue (and seething is a little OTT for angered) but reasonably sound.
Happy New Year everyone.
Did this on New Year’s day to start the year. Got it all, so things look good from here on in.
Liked crossword and star. Can not really see us dialing a date, so those two were a bit optimistic by the setter.