Everyman 3,981/5 February

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Another pleasing puzzle from Everyman for our Sunday entertainment, with a good variety of eminently gettable GK required for the solve and the usual trademark solutions on display.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Commitment that may be shown by author at the start
DEDICATION
A dd.

6 Newts somewhat bereft, sadly
EFTS
Hidden in berEFT Sadly. A dialect word for a newt – or some dictionaries mark it as ‘archaic’.

9 Tradespersons related fables about hair?
LOCKSMITHS
A homophone of LOCKS MYTHS – which would be ‘fables about hair’.

10 Blessed ecclesiast, divine educator primarily?
BEDE
The initial letters of the first four words of the clue, and a cad. The Jarrow-based monk and teacher best known for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

12 Author‘s representation of corrupt males
MARCEL PROUST
(CORRUPT MALES)* The anagrind is ‘representation of’. À la Recherche du Temps Perdu would probably be the work that comes to most people’s minds if you mention the name.

15 Run, with good reason, heading off forcefully
ROUNDLY
A charade of R and [S]OUNDLY.

16 Somewhere on the Rhône, American wanting six starters of grits and nachos receiving disagreeable response
AVIGNON
A charade of A, VI and NO inserted into G and N for the initial letters of ‘grits’ and ‘nachos’. The insertion indicator is ‘receiving’.

17 Honey, perhaps, that one may give to boxer
PET NAME
A whimsical dd, with the ‘boxer’ being of the canine variety.

19 Crow, lazy sort, leaving island: one’s slow to move
DAWDLER
A charade of DAW and [I]DLER. DAW is an alternative name for the jackdaw, a corvid. For newer readers, I can’t, because to qualify the answer has to be the bird, the whole bird and nothing but the bird.

20 Bizarrely, our tree sloth is to be in control
RULE THE ROOST
(OUR TREE SLOTH)* with ‘bizarrely’ as the anagrind.

23 Where to drink in Nova Scotia
INNS
A charade of IN and NS.

24 Flower arrangement of lupin with heads of marguerite daisy, English iris and hollyhock
DELPHINIUM
(LUPIN MDEIH)* The five last letters of the anagrist are the initial letters of the flowers; the anagrind is ‘arrangement of’.

25 Shop regularly; shop in the centre where Carnaby St.’s found
SOHO
A charade of SO for the odd letters of ‘shop’ ad HO for the central letters of ‘shop’. Extremely odd use of the full stop after St in the surface reading.

26 Bachelor with fair feature to smarten up – because he’s this
BRIDEGROOM
A charade of B, RIDE and GROOM, with an extended definition.

Down

1 I ordered up hams, cheeses etc
DELI
A reversal (‘up’, since it’s a down clue) of I LED.

2 Lay out 52 cards
DECK
A dd.

3 Darts star cut out pastries
CUSTARD TARTS
(DARTS STAR CUT)* with ‘out’ as the anagrind.

4 Easy to spook with tail of newt, cackling and casting spells?
TWITCHY
A bit newt-heavy, this puzzle. A charade of T for the last letter of said word and WITCHY.

5 Catastrophe. Liaison. She’s part of both?
OPHELIA
Hidden in CatastrOPHE LIAison and given the storyline of Hamlet, a cad. There is a willow grows aslant the brook and all that.

7 Haunt deserted library many a time
FREQUENTLY
A charade of FREQUENT and LY for the outside letters of ‘library’.

8 We see rent’s adjusted, suggesting bribery
SWEETENERS
(WE SEE RENTS)* with ‘adjusted’ as the anagrind.

11 Means of making people believe lingerie not ready to wear?
BRAINWASHING
If a BRA [is] IN [the] WASHING, then it’s not going to be ready to wear, is it?

13 Characteristics? They’re sometimes detached
PROPERTIES
A dd.

14 Having stopped work to eat bananas
OUT TO LUNCH
A dd.

18 In the auditorium, Everyman becomes tedious, displaying spectacles etc
EYEWEAR
A homophone of I WEAR, with only the first element requiring I (‘Everyman’) to be rendered as EYE.

19 Doctor’s operation on pedestrian that’s fallen
DROPPED
A charade of DR, OP and PED.

21 Flooring – as nothing, twice, is recalled
LINO
A reversal of O and NIL, both of which are synonyms for ‘nothing’.

22 This person is seen around opening of mosque?
IMAM
An insertion of M for the initial letter of ‘mosque’ in I AM, and another cad.

Many thanks to Everyman for this Sunday’s puzzle.

37 comments on “Everyman 3,981/5 February”

  1. Got held up in the SE for a while by putting crawler and cropper for 19ac and 19 d

    Liked TWITCHY, LOCKSMITH, EYEWEAR, PET NAME

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

  2. A nicely constructed and fun Everyman. My favourite was PET NAME ; it also links with all the hun/honey analysis that ensued after Feb 1’s Tramp offering. 2nd one : OUT TO LUNCH.

    The puzzle very much reminded me of life decades and decades ago when LINO was on the floor, I took SWEETENERS in my tea and coffee and I was a BRIDEGROOM. Earlier still, the Carnabetian Army was everywhere, SOHO had not been cleaned up and CUSTARD TART/MANCHESTER TART was constantly served at school dinners. In this era, this recording was served up

    https://youtu.be/Gmp3TF1DFZ8

    and it seems pertinent to post this on a Sunday. I was reminded of it when I thought of 2 dn DECK ( of cards ) in conjunction with wink glasses within 18dn’s EYEWEAR.

    Didn’t see any follow-on / alliteration material to be analysed. No rhymes, no inventors/ scientists and the sole geographic location seemed to me to be SOHO ( perhaps we can think of this as the NY one ).

    Thank you Everyman and Pierre.

  5. The first Everyman I finished on the day it was published! I didn’t know “out to lunch” as an idiom = bananas, so I’ve learnt something.

  6. Thanks Pierre and Everyman.

    I did not get your comments in 19a. I agreed with the parsing but what were you getting at with ‘for newer readers….’?

  7. Fun puzzle as always. Favourites already mentioned.
    CanberraGirl @6 Pierre adds a relevant bird link whenever a bird appears in a solution, subject to the conditions stated in his comment. It stuck me that while the comment was ostensibly for newer readers, they would likely have no idea what it meant.
    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  10. Thanks for the blog , very good puzzle , with three of the regular features.
    The Rhone and Nova Scotia for Jay’s list.
    OUT TO LUNCH a follow-on from magic mushrooms and various takeaways.
    BRAINWASHING is a common idea but it is well done, BRIDEGROOM was neat.

  11. Roz@10, perhaps I’ll adopt “Pierre’s Law” for future list inclusion, i.e. the word must be the answer, the whole answer and nothing but the answer.

  14. EYEWEAR is a homophone of I wear, (indicated by ‘in the auditorium’) so I as Everyman = I, wear = becomes tedious.

    Not one of my quicker solves for Everyman, but fun.

    Thank you to Pierre and Everyman.

  15. CanberraGirl@4 : Oh Dear, how did I miss ROOST and PROUST ? I think my mind was fixed on Prost as we have lots of celebrations in February ; it’s my Russell Harty today. Will have do things more ROUNDLY in the future !? ?
    Ta again E and P.

  16. Enjoyable puzzle as usual. Re 19a, people in the Middle Ages gave PET NAMES to birds, so that what were originally the daw, the redbreast and the pie became Jack Daw, Robin Redbreast and Mag Pie.

    Many thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  17. Another pleasant Sunday solve.

    I liked my LOI, PET NAME, where at the start I imagined the first word was going to be dog. I also appreciated BRIDEGROOM for the ‘fair feature’. BRA IN WASHING is a bit of a chestnut, but as Roz@10 said it was well done. I thought the ‘wanting’ in 16A was a bit misleading, ‘with’ would have sufficed.

    Thanks Everyman and bird-less Pierre.

  18. Liked FREQUENTLY, BRAINWASHING.

    New for me: OUT TO LUNCH = temporarily not in command of one’s mental faculties; PED = pedestrian (19d); DAW = jackdaw/crow (19ac).

    Thanks, both.

  19. A wise move, Jay@11 , keep the list a reasonable size.
    Thanks Lord Jim@16 , I never knew the pet name bit came later. Jenny Wren seems to have stuck at wren.
    Robi@17 the most famous is – Bust down reason (9) .
    We have also had for the Essex theme – BRA IN TREE – a famous prison.

  20. For anyone feeling brave , the Azed is reasonably friendly today, 1Ac a quite wonderful word but takes a bit of getting.
    When I had got reasonably good at Everyman I started trying Azed and failed miserably for over a year but it gets easier with practice.

  22. Some witty surfaces again this week. I especially liked the dieting darts player (imagine!) at 3D; and the clever literary references to Proust’s dodgy male characters and the murky plot lines of Hamlet. That 5D clue also contained another superbly well-disguised ‘hidden’ solution.

  23. Roz@20, following your suggestion I took on Azed and as you rightly say, 1a is a wonderful word and perfectly describes how I now feel!

  26. Lin @24: In the US we have road signs that say PED XING to indicate that one is approaching a crosswalk. They’ve mostly been replaced with the ones that are pictorial renditions of the same concept, but that’s the main place I’ve seen PED.

    Roz @20: I once managed to finish an Azed, but the experience was about as much fun as a trip to the dentist; what with all that Googling to see if an obscure word was really a word, by the end of it, Merriam-Webster started telling me I needed to subscribe to their unabridged dictionary. As someone here once put it, it’s the wrong kind of clever for me. But on your recommendation I’ll give it a look today.

    I have nothing to add re today’s puzzle.

  27. Jay@23 well done and it gives you lors of first letters to get into the puzzle.

    MrPenney@ 26 you do really need Chambers for Azed but I never use it during the solve , just for checking after. The clues are so good that you can put in the obscure words from the word play. A good example is 14Ac today, I have never heard of the word but had to be right.

  28. 5d OPHELIA was my clue of the day, one of the best CADs that I have seen.

    I also liked 11a BRAINWASH, which I don’t recall seeing before. Chestnuts can be tasty when you have them for the first time.

    Two “homophones” – I prefer the phrase “aural wordplay” – and nary a complaint. Hurrah!

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre for the fun.

  30. It’s all been said, but pet name was fun and the recycled bra clue a decent variation on its theme. Only 22D was a bit lame.

  34. Rob @ 33. It appears that ‘out to lunch’ means that you’re (as we would say), ‘not all there ‘ or ‘daydreaming’. I haven’t heard that expression in NZ.

    Good puzzle. Liked locksmiths.
    Nobody has mentioned that there were a few references to Shakespeare in this puzzle. Ophelia, tail of newt etc.

  35. Wasn’t it eye of newt Audrey? I don’t think the Bard mentioned their tails, although I can see a bit of hubble bubble.

    I’ve heard of out to lunch along with not the full quid, one sandwich short of a picnic, lights on but nobody home, the lifts don’t reach the top floor, only one oar in the water etc. All probably horribly non PC today.

  36. Another out to lunch phrase he/she is a space cadet
    Ie floating around space directionless I suppose
    Agree all v offensive to the easily offended
    Loved this puzzle and managed it all..nearly… for a change
    Liked dawdler, dropped and bridegroom
    My error -Wrote pet hate for pet name ..don’t know why it seemed the only fit but not really

  37. Late to the party this week due to weekend commitments, have just found out Roost & Proust rhyme!

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