Everyman 3,983

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3983.

The grid fits with Everyman’s frequent long alliterative answers, and the clues have the other usual Everyman trademarks – but, unusually, in 17A and 19A, two adjacent clues which I cannot quite make work satisfactorily.

ACROSS
1 COOL AS A CUCUMBER
Dancing in club with some curaçao, very laid-back (4,2,1,8)
An anagram (‘dancing’) of ‘club’ plus ‘some curacao’.
9 DAY ROOM
Place to socialise in Scottish port gripped by terrible fate (3,4)
An envelope (‘gripped by’) of AYR (‘Scottish port’) in DOOM (‘terrible fate’).
10 ALIBI
What may keep you from prison in Bali, bizarrely (5)
A hidden answer in ‘BALI BIzarrely’.
11 TRAVEL
After end of gust, wind to go somewhere else (6)
A charade of T (‘end of gusT‘) plus RAVEL (‘wind’ to rhyme with mind).
13 UNSETTLE
Lunettes designed to upset (8)
An anagram (‘designed’) of ‘lunettes’.
14 EYED
Everyman had announced what The Observer did (4)
Sounds like (‘announced’) I’D (‘Everyman did’); the capitals for ‘The Observer’ are for obfuscation.
15 GRITTINESS
King George with sense of humour after wife leaves showing bravery (10)
A charade of GR (Georgius Rex, ‘King George’) plus [w]ITTINESS (‘sense of humour’) minus the W (‘after wife leaves’).
17 LEMON THYME
Flavouring of fruit that’s old for you and me (5,5)
A charade of LEMON (‘fruit’) plus THY (‘old for you’ which just about works if one equates THY with ‘for you’) plus ‘me’.
19 NAPS
Flipping cross, wanting some shut-eye (4)
A reversal (‘flipping’) of SPAN (‘cross’). Is the intention for NAPS to be read as a verb or a plural noun? In the first case, ‘wanting’ hardy works as part of the definition, and in the latter case, it seems to me wayward as a link word (and the plural is only hinted at by ‘some’). Unless I am missing something, not the happiest of clues,.
21 DETAINEE
Detective, first class, originally called for one kept in custody (8)
A charade of DET (‘detective’) plus AI (A1, ‘first class’) plus NEE (‘originally called’).
23 ICEMAN
Title character in American theatre – and cinema, unusually (6)
An anagram (‘unusually’) of ‘cinema’; the definition is a reference to Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh.
24 TEETH
Power saw’s sharp parts (5)
Double definition.
25 THAW OUT
Warm lisper’s escorted to the door (4,3)
As a ‘lisper’ might say SAW OUT (‘escorted to the door’).
27 CREATURE COMFORT
True fact: rec room, when tidied up, gives you source of domestic well-being (8,7)
An anagram (‘when tidied up’) of ‘true fact rec room’.
DOWN
2 ORDERLY
Tidy hospital attendant (7)
Double definition.
3 LAY
Set down strange kind of line in report (3)
Sounds like (‘in report’) LEY (‘strange kind of line’; for ley lines see here).
4 SPOTLIGHT
Emphasise insulting comment about Kitty (9)
An envelope (‘about’) of POT (‘kitty’) in SLIGHT (‘insulting comment’).
5 COMMUNITY CENTRE
Performing my minuet, concert in civic venue (9,6)
An anagram (‘performing’) of ‘my minuet concert’.
6 CRAPS
About to argue, upset in dice game (5)
A charade of C (circa, ‘about’) plus RAPS, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light’) of SPAR (‘argue’).
7 MAINTENANCE
Continuation of financial support (11)
Double definition.
8 EDIBLES
Ultimately implausible claims about the French food (7)
An envelope (‘about’) of LE (‘the French’) in E (‘ultimately implausiblE‘) plus DIBS (‘claims’ generally “dibs on” for “claims to”).
12 VIDEO CAMERA
Rebooted ‘ace, rad’ movie – using this? (5,6)
An anagram (‘rebooted’) of ‘ace rad movie’, with an extended definition.
16 THE MIKADO
Those people fuss about central pair of oiks in operetta (3,6)
An envelope (‘about’) of IK (‘central pair of oIKs’) in them (‘those people’) plus ADO (‘fuss’).
18 EVENTER
Seven terms describing a racehorse (7)
A hidden answer (‘describing’) in ‘sEVEN TERms’.
20 PLATTER
Prattle about what might be seafood (7)
An anagram (‘about’) of ‘prattle’.
22 NEHRU
Primarily: nationalist extraordinaire historically, Raj’s usurper? (5)
First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Nationalist Extraordinaire Historically Raj’s Userper’, with an &lit definition.
26 OAF
Lout, left out, to mooch about (3)
A subtraction: [l]OAF (‘mooch about’) minus the L (‘left out’).

picture of the completed grid

40 comments on “Everyman 3,983”

  1. After only a few weeks, here it is again, my favourite grid.

    Thought the three long clues might be anagrams and looked for the letter that might be the starting letter – saw the “C”s in all three clues and got COOL AS A CUCUMBER straightaway.

    Solved quite steadily until my last three. What usually happens is that that the last two or three unsolved clues are linked which doesn’t help. This time they were all separate and I had all the crosses but just couldn’t see the answers. Then I realised that 23a was an anagram and got ICEMAN (a lovely surface). Then after trying to practice a lisp I got THAW OUT which I also liked.

    DETAINEE was my LOI I don’t think I’ve seen DET for detective before but I have seen A1 for first class so don’t know why it took me so long to get this.

    Liked: EYED, LEMON THYME, THE MIKADO, GRITTINESS

    Thanks Everyman (I look forward to Sunday’s crossword every week)
    and PeterO

  2. Thank you PeterO. I parsed 17A similarly, and 19A NAPS with the plural noun. Everyman has used ‘wanting’ as a link word before, but in this case I think it works in the surface reading as well. ##$% cross , in need of a sleep. I liked it.
    Also liked the self-referential EYED. Good homophone, and indication, and as Everyman is published in the Observer.
    TEETH was another goodie, once I worked out how to break it down.

  4. VicTim@3. I think PeterO is saying that ‘for you’ better indicates ‘thy’ which means ‘your’ , not ‘you’.

  5. [ Roz, you might be interested in a brief exchange I had with Pelham Barton @14-17 on the blog of Zamorca’s FT puzzle #17,341 on Friday (re lift and separate). ]

  6. A typical – and by that I mean a typically fine – crossword from Everyman. The signature clues were uniformly excellent (although the self-referential 14a EYED was not particularly self-deprecating this time). I marvel at the consistently smooth and meaningful surfaces of his “primarily” clues – 22d NEHRU here.

    I have a tiny musical quiblet re 16d THE MIKADO. Arthur Sullivan did not like his comic operas to be called operettas – he argued that his work had more to do with the opera buffo style than the lighter, more risqué french operetta. His compositional style was closer to Mendelssohn than to Offenbach.

    Thanks, Everyman for the fun and PeterO for the nice blog.

  7. Some pedant has to mention that there is not a character in The Iceman Cometh who is actually an iceman–the title is a metaphor of sorts. May as well be me. (The play is very powerful. And very long. See it if you get the chance, but be sure to visit the facilities first. I saw the Goodman production a few years ago with Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehey in the lead roles–one of the best nights at the theater I ever had.)

    (Amazingly, the two plays usually regarded as O’Neill’s greatest–that one and Long Day’s Journey Into Night–were both written after his Nobel Prize. Not trying to diss the likes of Desire Under the Elms or Ah Wilderness–just saying.)

  8. I had a good time with this one until I got to my last two. Not being familiar with the term EVENTER, it took me an embarrassingly long time to see the hidden answer there—I only got it after I finally figured out which type of fruit came before THYME. I’m curious, is it common knowledge that lemon thyme is a thing? There are a lot of five-letter fruits, most of which you could probably convince me could be varieties of thyme: apple thyme, melon thyme, guava thyme…. It’s odd how I sometimes have zero problem pulling out something like AYR, which I feel like I shouldn’t know as an American, but then get stuck on a herb. And I agree that it’s not the smoothest clue.

    On a personal note, I’m headed to Bristol in a couple weeks for a work trip. I haven’t been to England in many years, so I’m very excited! Maybe I’ll do the Everyman in print that week.

  10. Thanks for the blog, another excellent puzzle and a favourite for Fiona Anne with a C for Jay’s list plus UNSETTLE and PLATTER .
    I agree with Cellomaniac that the primarily clue is particularly good this week.
    Nick@8 LEMON THYME is a “thing” being a plant and a herb we use, closely related to thyme, both varieties of mint really . We also have lemongrass , lemonbalm …..
    Minor query , I think an EVENTER is a horse used for three day events, show-jumping etc not a racehorse. They are both thoroughbreds of course.

  13. Enjoyed this. Thought EYED was clever. ?For ALIBI I spent far too long trying to make an anagram from the letters of Bali. “Ibiza“ is also hidden in those two words which, once you’ve seen it, is hard to un-see it.

    ?PRATTLE in the clue for 20d follows on from the previous week’s PRITTLE PRATTLE solution.

    Thanks to PeterO and Everyman

  15. I found this very straightforward with the standard Everyman fare.

    I didn’t have a problem with THY meaning for you, I read it as “thy” = old for “you”, but I also don’t have a problem with thy = for you, as where thee and thou are still used, thy is more often heard than thine as the possessive.

    Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.

  16. Usual pleasant and gentle Sunday challenge, but I share PeterO’s reservations about LEMON THYME and NAPS, and after reading others’ comments above, the clues still don’t work for me.
    Roz@10, I had the same thought about EVENTER – I wouldn’t have thought one would be referred to as a racehorse, but on the other hand, I believe (based on almost zero knowledge) that there is a timing element in a 3-day event, so in a sense it’s a race and the equine participants could be called racehorses.
    Thanks PeterO and Everyman.

  17. I think CRAPS and NAPS should count as a rhyme on the “saved” lists, even though short words. My first encounter with CRAPS in the UK was, on teleprinter output (!) on a simulation of that dice game on a PDP8 computer in 1969. Can still remember that 7 and 11 were key winning numbers. Second encounter was during wandering round the Las Vegas casinos.

    Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

  18. Liked SPOTLIGHT, THAW OUT (loi).

    I could not parse 24ac.

    Thanks, both.

    I think that the clue for 17ac works fine as THY = old (way of saying) for you in the same way as VicTim @3 writes PAIN is French for bread

  19. Shanne @15, I was thinking that ‘thine’ would actually be a better fit as an archaic ‘for you’, as it’s the possessive pronoun (like mine, hers, yours) rather than the possessive adjective ‘thy’. As in “Behold, all this treasure is thine” = “All this treasure is for you”.

    However, I then thought of John 19:25 – 27 “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”

    In that context, “Behold thy son” can be read as “Here is a son for you, to love and cherish as you would your own son”.

    Jay @13, that was my thought too for the follow-on. In 3982, ‘tipsy tippler tattler’ gives you PRITTLE-PRATTLE, in 3983 ‘prattle about’ gives you PLATTER. As Roz says, lots of EDIBLES too. Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  20. Good Sunday solve that I found was relatively straightforward.

    I liked the simple EYED with the nod to The Observer, the good anagram for COMMUNITY CENTRE, and the wordplay to give THE MIKADO. I did query dibs=claims, where as PeterO says it’s claims on, but that is a fairly trivial quibble.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  21. Beaulieu@10 you are correct, there is a time element for the show-jumping and cross-country but it is a time LIMIT , if you are inside it there are no penalty points so not really racing. I think of racehorses as racing against each other and the time is essentially irrelevant.

  22. Thanks Jay@13 , I never think to look at clues and answers. I have got the follow-on today so a public holiday should be decared.

    Azed is rather friendly again, try 11D a wonderful word.
    MrEssexboy has 18Ac and Cellomaniac has 27Ac .

  23. Roz@21 – thanks, in that case that’s a third clue that doesn’t quite work fo me, along with NAPS and LEMON THYME.
    essexboy@19 – I see your point about THY, but I’m not really convinced – but it’s a crossword, not something serious, and as is very apparent from this website, different folk have different views on what works for them.
    All my quibbles are minor and it’s a rare crossword where all the clues are faultless.

  25. Roz@22, thanks, I’m making good progress with this week’s Azed, perhaps I’m more in tune with the clueing style now, 11d is indeed a great word

  26. Jay it is just practice like all crosswords, maybe Azed needs a bit more practice but in one sense it gets easier because once you get some answers the grid gives you lots of letters which always helps.

  27. Re 21,25,36 Roz/Jay discussion : Just like the Thérèse Coffey woman says, supermarket shelves sparse, we should GO LIST swede alone for our veg.

  28. Everyman is notoriously difficult and solving it seen as a pinnacle of achievement, right?
    Right?
    I ask because this is the FIRST CRYPTIC I HAVE EVER COMPLETELY SOLVED!

    I just wanted to tell someone.

  31. Yeay ragged!! You can change your moniker now. Ragged no more 🙂 We all probably started off ‘ragged’ with cryptics (and some days still feel that way.)

  35. Liked video camera and creature comfort but don’t think I’ve heard it in the singular before.
    Thee, thy and thine confuse a lot of people .

  36. Had a ragged moment myself —must be all the un forecasted sunshine in Auckland this Easter.
    Loved thaw out, platter and even day room and like contributor 1 my LOI was detainee
    Happy Easter all
    But thought eventer certainly no racehorse tho I know nothing about either. Am sure they’re v different

  37. Second week in a row I’ve completed in one sitting – something must be seriously wrong !

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