Sunday afternoon after an exhausting visit by grandsons and a relaxing pint or 3 and the Everyman
Didn’t find too much to trouble me with the exception I note below, all the usual suspects are present, thanks Everyman (&Pierre). Over to you for comments/observations/corrections.
Double definition, younger solvers might well wonder why
Hidden in fabulouS PEC IF I Clench
Sounds like SINKS although my wife insists it’s not a sink in the bathroom but a basin
ANDERSEN* criminally
Sounds like a dropped aitch in (h)ALLOW – venerate
Double definition – to lift can mean to steal as can to knock off
An arranged [COZ OF MONSTER]*
Double cryptic-ish definitions. Crazy Paving was quite the, erm, craze a few years back
A fancy [GOSH COR ILL]*
I for Everyman in DV for drive & A. I’ll admit I “phoned a friend” Pierre as I’d not seen and couldn’t find DV for drive, DR yes but apparently it’s in Chambers but not the one my phone uses.
[IT SANK IN]* regrettably
Double definition
Double definitions
Some snorinG OVERNight
ANCIENTS* originally. For instance – as an illustration,
CON – old lag – prisoner & the WWI battlefield The SOMME
Delta, echo, foxtrot…
A clowning about [PRINCE AMONG]* Did spend a while looking for a prince inserted in a synonym for clowns
IN – fashionable inserted in CONTENT – happy & S(outhern)
All reversed: TO & G(olf) & R(ight) & O(ld) & F(ellow)
COD – a fish & a half-hearted IF(f)Y – dubious
K(iss) removed – screened off – from (k)NOTTING – lashing – a naval punishment & HILL – down. Yes hills have ups too but we have things like the “South Downs” in the UK.
A re-presented [SCAN A PHOTO]*
IN & IT – (sex) appeal in FINE – penalty
Two ASSes – idiots & IN – elected
Well you always get one of these primary letter clues with Everyman
SN – tin with HAKE inserted
Definition extends a bit – reversed O(ld) & RUE – French street
Thanks flashling. Fortunately I did know that hills have both ups and downs. I had to go looking for Dv for ”Drive” too, before I settled on DIVA. It’s a shame that word has morphed into meaning “a needy type”. I’m sure all divas aren’t divas.
”Originally” is an ”original” and misdirecting anagrind in INSTANCE. Chuckled at HONESTLY. Took a while to solve INFINITE. Favourite was PANIC-MONGER. The Clown Prince?
Thanks for the blog Flashling. 1 minor quibble, the A inthe DIVA cllue is part of the wordplaym not the solution.
Good fun, Thanks Everyman.
I also had to hunt for DV=DRIVE
Thanks, Everyman and flashling!
Liked INCHES, KNOCK IT OFF, PAVING STONES and HONESTLY.
DIVA
A DIVA is de-pedestaled if she acts like one!!!
A minor correction: Only the ‘needy type’ needs to be underlined (not the ‘a’ before it).
NOTTING HILL
I parsed ‘down=HILL’ half-heartedly. Learnt the following while searching for any non-routine meanings of DOWN:
DOWNs: low hills covered in grass, especially used in the names of two such areas in southeast England.
(flashling has given an example of such an area name).
If downs are hills, a down must be a hill, I guess (is ‘down’ used in this sense in singular?)
pdm@1
Seen ‘original’ before as an anagrind. I don’t recall who the setter was.
The Clown Prince? 😀
Did not get SYNCHS – didn’t know that word. Also did not know DV for drive but it had to be DIVA.
Good puzzle. Favourites included. CODIFY, CONSOMME, INCHES, HONESTLY
Thanks Everyman and flashling
KVa@3 : like Watership Down Cheers
Thanks for the blog, a good puzzle, perhaps slightly trickier in parts. I thought INCHES was very neat , PANIC-MONGER a very clever anagram, (K)NOTTING a good trick but an unfortunate reminder of the ghastly film.
For Jay we have INSTANCE and ENSNARED , Everyman is very good at these longish , single anagrams .
KNOCK IT OFF a dodgy follow-on clue from Del-Boy last week.
Thanks, Camilla@5.
KVa@3 I was about to respond but I see that Camilla@5 has given a great example. The Downs , like The Moors are often given individual names , even if just locally.
I suspect that Down means hill, we need MrEssexboy, this has been discussed before. Pendle Hill means hill hill hill .
For some reason, I struggled with this, and only half finished it. Hopefully it was just a bad day, and we’ll see how it goes today.
Thanks to Everyman and Flashling
We often used to go to Farthing Downs, where the ‘countryside started’ when we were children. We would have great fun saying we were going ‘up the downs’.
I wonder if Farthing Downs are still there? Built on now?
Roz@8 In Welsh Pen means top, e.g. Pen y Bry= The top of the hill, so wouldn’t Pendle hill be the top of the hill hill?
I found this one slightly tougher than the week before.
Lashing down, per my ex-naval father, means tying or knotting down something, such as dinghies under covers and to the ground before equinoctial gales are due, or anything to the deck of a boat. I didn’t think of punishments for NOTTING HILL.
Thank you to flashling and Everyman.
Good fun I thought. I had also noted it curious that the dictionary definition of “downland” is “an upland”.
?I wondered if the reference to “criminal Andersen” could be this chap, a career criminal nicknamed “The Yellow Cheese” and who later befriended the King of Norway.
Looking forward to the 4000th Everyman next week!
Thanks to E and F
Nic @ 11
As I’m sure you know, pen can also mean ‘head’ and ‘end’ (as in the end of the street). When I lived in Wales, people would say things like ‘o’r top ym mhen’ to mean ‘off the top of my head’ or ‘ma fo o’i ben wir yr’ ‘he’s really off his head’. (Not very correct grammatically, but it is how people speak).
(Interestingly enough, the word ‘pää’ works in the same way here in Finland. There is a town not far from me, called Järvenpää, literally Pen y llyn, end of the lake, and quite a common surname is Sillanpää, Pen y bont, end of the bridge).
Sorry, I won’t bore you any more, I’ve been told off before for inflicting linguistic stuff on you 🙂
Anna@14. You don’t have to apologise. Aren’t linguistics part of the reason PDM and essexboy frequent this blog. I am always interested. Just don’t get me started on people calling their daughters Bronwyn. It’s painful. Iechyd da pob cymro… You’ll know the rest,
,
Another fun Everyman. Roz@6 I picked 17 with the asses as the follow-on clue. Thanks flashling & Everyman.
Anna@14, I really enjoy your contributions. Keep em comin.
Nic @15 and paddy @ 17
Diolch yn fawr and many thanks to you both. And kiitos, even.
The Boy from Essex often says more or less what I would have said, so I tend to leave the field to him. And I think he knows more about Indo-European stuff than I do now. I have become more interested in other language groups.
Just trying to remember stuff from lectures in the 1970s, I am wondering if ‘down’ is related in some way with German Zaun (fence), Dutch tuin (enclosed area, garden), English town. It may have got confused with another ‘down’ .. ? I am not saying this is correct, just speculating. Where’s Master Essex?
Anna@18 et al.: (Looks up ‘down’ in online Etymological dictionary):
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=down
Briefly, ‘dun’ (from Old German etc.) means a small rounded hill, thus our ‘dune’. The adverbial sense of descent is derived from that.
Wasn’t keen on DV as there is an alternative meaning which is in my Chambers (deo volante – God willing) and could have been used.
Favourite: CODIFY, KNOCK IT OFF
New for me: crazy paving stones.
Thanks, both.
poc @ 19
Ah, interesting. Thanks.
Nicbach @11 I think Pen is also Lancashire dialect for hill.
Paul@16 you have sharper eyes then me, I cannot see ass in the puzzle before this one.
Anna and others, please continue with the language lessons, this site makes up for my behaviour at school.
Anna @10; I walk up the (Epsom) Downs every day, very pleasant.
I liked INCHES for the unexpected feet, the well-hidden SPECIFIC, the crazy PAVING STONES, and the ‘original’ INSTANCE. My LOI was DIVA, with the rather strange dv.=drive.
Thanks Everyman and flashling.
Isn’t PICA a possible for 22ac? I in PC, a. Pica (small cap) is an unnatural craving for food and Pica is a size of type, so it looks as if Everyman is having a sort of joke with the definition. The only rather doubtful thing is PC = drive, but they’re both storage devices, which is one of the definitions in Collins. I’d have thought this was no worse than dv. = drive.
First time commenter and Cryptic newbie here. The lack of answers for a whole week meant instead of giving up after an hour I looked at it over multiple days, and I actually managed to fill in all but two clues to my delight, when previously I had only managed half an entire crossword before. I didn’t get INFINITE or DIVA, didn’t think of “it” for appeal, but I’m guessing that’s fairly standard. I also got a few by simply looking at the letters given, like NOTTING HILL, whilst having no clue how to get it cryptically. It was very satisfying to see me actually fill in alot of the grid without any help, I will certainly be doing these Everyman’s weekly.
My favourites were ASSASSIN, SHAKEN and INCHES.
Any recommendation for similarly easier crosswords like these and the quiptics? It’s abit of a waste of time me trying the regular guardians, as my vocabulary really isn’t good enough for them.
Eddie@25. The Monday Guardian cryptic might be worth a try. They’re often gentler than the rest of the week.
“Prince among clowns” is a genius bit of wordplay. Much else to like here too. Thanks, Everyman and flashling.
Eddie @25 – well done! “It” in crossword clues often means sex, or it can mean charisma/sex appeal, which is often abbreviated to SA. It’s a bit old-fashioned but persists in crosswordland much like U meaning upper class or posh. Keep plugging away at them and you’ll gradually learn these and all the other tropes. I hear the Times quick cryptic is good for newbies too.
Eddie @ 25 well done for persevering, I used to carry the Everyman around with me all week and get a few every day. Does not matter how you get them , using letters or just definition , they all count. With practice and experience you will solve more clues using wordplay.
Good suggestions above , the Guardian also has a Quiptic on a Monday aimed at newer solvers. My advice would be to do just a few puzzles and keep at them for a week and then check the blogs.
An addition to the list of possibly familiar downs: fans of the Lord of the Rings may remember that the hobbits got into great difficulty when there was Fog on the Barrow Downs.
(To be specific, fans of the books may remember this; this incident was omitted from the films.)
I didn’t know about knotting, nor about DV for drive, but since the anointed Chambers lists the latter, I have no objection.
To those of you who have linguistic knowledge that throws light on or gives extra insight into a clue or solution: please continue to share it, but can I also make aplea for translations if you quote Welsh, Finnish, Middle English, etc. examples. It saves me having to look them up.
Thanks E and f.
Sorry to be late, everyone. Anna @14/18, always a pleasure to read your linguistic stuff 🙂 As you probably know, the French name Le Pen is derived from the Breton word for head/chief. And I agree about down/town (I’ll refrain from posting a Petula Clark link).
Roz @22, like Paul in Tutukaka I had ASS ASS ass the follow-on, after ASSES = dunces in ASSESSMENT last week.
I have to say I found this tricky for an Everyman, with a couple of clues I thought were unfair at this level.
Firstly, DIVA. Not only is there the very unusual DV = drive, but the definition is off-centre. I can’t find a reference to neediness in any dictionary definition. Demanding and temperamental, yes, but ‘needy’ is a value judgement about what may underlie such behaviour. And as Merriam-Webster points out, the word DIVA now appears to be on a journey towards more positive connotations.
Added to which, the crossing INFINITE has a far from obvious definition and some very tricky wordplay.
Wil Ransome @24, I think PICA is just as good. If Ely = Ely cathedral = example of cathedral, why can’t PC (hard) drive = example of drive?
I was also thrown by SYNCHS. Firstly because, as Mrs Flashling correctly insists, sinks are for the kitchen, not the bathroom, and secondly by the unusual spelling. I only ever come across SYNCS these days. I certainly wouldn’t lip sync any other way (and now I can’t resist a link 😉 ).
I value being able to recommend Everyman to beginners. I wouldn’t want that to change. Thanks to him and flashling.
To end on a positive note, I liked NOTTING HILL (notwithstanding Roz’s disapprobation of the film). I think the ‘lashing down’ surface may be a nod to this scene in another romcom.
I did like the Notting Hill clue , just not the reminder. I suppose the only good thing about the film is that we did not get an all-white carnival. In some ways we should be grateful , Curtis/Grant is like an indicator species, a severe warnig saying – Do not watch this film.
Re drive:
It’s in Chambers app under “Dv.”
I’m another who didn’t get SYNCHS 🙁
Thanks Anna from NZ for your linguistics additions [Linguistics is uncountable!]
Also 5d – thought too of Camilla
The only DIVA is met was certainly not needy
Rob.
Lots to agree with above. Assassin was a favourite. I got stuck on 11a. I grew up in NZ pronouncing the ‘e’ in aloe as if it were a double e, so Hallow and Aloe are not homonyms for me.
Didn’t get diva as I opted for pica. None of the divas I could think of seemed particularly needy
@Duane. I’m a kiwi too and have never heard aloe pronounced the way you describe. Always aloe like hello with the aitch dropped.
Sinks go in kitchens and laundries so yes, the bathroom equivalent is a basin washbasin or handbasin.
I queried the cockney clue def thinking it was ‘Ello or ‘allo in the wp. Didn’t think of the longer version which I’ve only encountered as the past participle hallowed (be thy name etc). I suppose it must come from a present tense root.
Inches was good.
“Inches” is a very poor synonym for “tiptoes”. To “inch” is to move slowly; to tiptoe is to move quietly. Not at all the same thing.
“Diva” meaning “needy” type completely mystified me, and “dv” meaning “drive” is unbelieveably obscure. Two ultra obscurities in one clue is too much.
Favourite was “Prince among clowns” — wickedly tricky, but fair.
LOI was “codify”.