Everyman 4,006

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Another Sunday, another Everyman to solve over a beer in the pub.

Usual suspects present and correct, thanks Everyman

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Endure basil once chopped (it’s not wanted) (11)
UNDESIRABLE

A chopped up [ENDURE BASIL]*

9. A little goblin’s tantrum lasting little time (7)
INSTANT

Hidden in goblINS TANTrum

10. Like a moderate left-winger, that’s not exactly rare (7)
PINKISH

Two crypticish definitions

11. Thou seemst somewhat firm (5)
HOUSE

Another hidden in tHOU SEemst

12. Refuse to communicate, as one may with banking app (8)
WITHDRAW

Double def

14. One seen on the wing in Real Madrid ground (3,7)
RED ADMIRAL

A ground [REAL MADRID]*

15. It is hairy, having regularly made sacrifices for monarch (4)
TSAR

Alternate letters of iT iS hAiRy

17. Smooth connoisseur (4)
BUFF

Double definition

19. All but howl ‘Darn eye, out!’: infuriated expression (3,4,3)
HOW DARE YOU

[HOW(l) DAR(n) EY(e)]* out

21. Criticizes and itemizes (4,4)
RUNS DOWN

Double definition

23. Sand wasps regularly spotted: time to make some changes (5)
ADAPT

Alternate letters of sAnD wAsPs & T(ime)

25. Often ceramic, awfully rudimentary instrument needing airholes, primarily! (7)
OCARINA

Primary letter clue

26. Singing repetitively, Everyman’s imbibed drop of Italian red (7)
CHIANTI

I – Everyman inside CHANT & I(talian)

27. Creature that eats canine warning: flipping unbelievable! (6,2,3)
MOTHER OF GOD

MOTH – creature that eats clothes & a flipped DOG & FORE – warning

DOWN
1. In France, one’s to emit a noise that’s not healthy (7)
UNSOUND

UN – French for one & SOUND – make a noise.

2. Blunt detective sergeant finding blind alleys (4-4)
DEAD – ENDS

DEADEN – to blunt & D(etective) S(ergeant)

3. Gratify when probable arrival time’s posted up (4)
SATE

Estimated Time of Arrival – ETA’S reversed, up in a down clue

4. Lectures when English, disapproving, invested in S African finances (10)
REPRIMANDS

E(nglish) & PRIM – disapproving – all in RANDS – South African currency

5. Pew in Scots mountain church (5)
BENCH

BEN – Scottish mountain & CH(urch)

6. What corrupt régimes may yield? (7)
EMIGRES

A yielding REGIMES*

7. Actor, wealthy brat, round … round the bend! (7,6)
RICHARD BURTON

RICH – wealthy & a round the bend [BRAT ROUND]* First of the rhyming pair.

8. Shield from water, as two hurricanes swirling (6,7)
SHOWER CURTAIN

A swirling [TWO HURRICANES]* Other half of the rhymes. Cute anagram that.

13. Earliest programme with healthy mammal (5,5)
PILOT WHALE

PILOT the first TV programme of a series or sometimes not if it bombs & W(ith) & HALE – healthy

16. Walking on gradient, regrettably (8)
TREADING

GRADIENT* regrettably

18. Spooner’s to criticise location for growing type of tree (in hot places) (3,4)
FAN PALM

Spoonerism of PAN FARM

20. Longed to drop an E during 31 Dec (7)
YEARNED

Second E lowered in YEAR END = Dec 31

22. Accumulation in Dutch crevice (5)
DRIFT

D(utch) & RIFT – crevice

24. Spurned nymph next to delta (4)
ECHO

Delta ECHO foxtrot…

 

41 comments on “Everyman 4,006”

  2. UNDESIRABLE
    ‘Chop’ has this meaning: move quickly or violently (but it’s intransitive). Can ‘chopped’ in this sense suit our purposes?
    Also the ‘once’ in the clue: Does it mean ‘once chopped (when moved/shuffled)’, it’s (it becomes) ‘ not wanted’?

  3. Thank you flashling.
    KVa@2 UNDESIRABLE: I agree, a different meaning of ”chopped” is needed here, eg edited out/culled from the cast of a of a TV series say, and the related ”given the chop”, sacked from a job. Both have the sense of being unwanted once chopped. It’s the punctuation of the clue that I find strange and the Endure basil part. Similar issue with the punctuation in 27. For the surface reading that is. But life’s too short to trouble over such things. Not the best of clues. I like EMIGRES (with or without accents).

  4. UNDESIRABLE
    I considered ‘not wanted’ as the def but it’s not wanted (as underlined in the blog) is a better def
    for it uses up more words in the clue.

    paddymelon@3
    I agree with you that some punctuation jugglery has to be done in the two clues you have talked about (so as to make sense of the surfaces).

  5. KVa & paddymelon, I just work on the assumption that punctuation is there to deceive. Isn’t that usually the case? Thanks flashling and Everyman for another fun puzzle.

  6. Was held up for ages by 12a. Then realised I had misspelled REPRIMAND (had a second e instead of i) and finally got WITHDRAW.

    Loved seeing MOTHER OF GOD but isn’t “creature that eats” a bit wide

    Good puzzle.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling

  7. My first reading of endure basil was that it was a kind of basil. Nearly looked it up! Maybe the surface reading is that basil needs to be chopped more than once. I don’t have a problem with the it’s in the middle, pointing to the answer.
    An alternative: It’s undesirable. Faulty Basil. Endure! 🙂

  8. Agree Paul T@5. But I think KVa and I were saying that the punctuation doesn’t work in the surface.

  10. Apologies PM I mis-read. The surface worked for me as I dislike fresh basil but endure it (chopped up) in pesto.

  11. Thanks for the blog, I thought this was really good overall and the right level of difficulty.
    Like PDM@3 I had EMIGRES as a favourite, also YEARNED .
    I agree with Fiona @6 for MOTHER OF GOD , great phrase and part of the word play is good but not sure about MOTH . I suppose we do say MOTH-eaten but even then it is the larvae that eat our clothes and carpets, not to worry, I did like it.
    RED ADMIRAL was a neat anagram , also TREADING which makes it on to Jay’s list.

  12. I’m with PaulT @5 on punctuation. I commented recently that with some clues you have to insert your own to make the clue work and was firmly (but fairly) put in my place. On that basis, I feel that any included punctuation should be taken with a pinch of salt.

  13. I did not parse the MOTH bit of 27ac or 19ac which I still do not really understand – does ‘all but’ mean to drop the final letter?

    I agree with Fiona@6 that “creature that eats” is a bit wide.

    Thanks, both.

  14. michelle@13
    all but (Collins and many other dictionaries)
    almost; nearly
    ‘He has been all but forgotten’.

  15. In defence of “creature that eats” for MOTH which I found amusing: sure all creatures eat, but how many use that fact to form a common phrase like “moth-eaten”? Ok “wolf down” comes close.

  16. [ For anyone fancying a change the Azed puzzle is very friendly today , if you can do Everyman you can have a good go at this one ]

  17. There was almost an insect theme, with the RED ADMIRAL, monarch, moth, sand wasp, BUFF-tailed bumble bee. SHOWER CURTAIN was my favourite today.

  18. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Everyman and flashing. Re 12A, in what way can you withdraw money from a banking app? Do you not transfer money rather than withdraw. Or is an ATM considered a banking app ?

  19. Re 26a, I had ‘drop of Italian’ doing double duty being part of the clues well as giving the second i.

  20. Good Everyman start to Sunday.

    I liked REPRIMANDS for the rands, the Spoonerism, despite it not being an accepted phrase, and YEARNED for the dropped E.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  22. I found this a bit easier than recent Everymans. I had to come here for the parsing of PILOT WHALE – I keep forgetting that with can provide a W, and I will now also try to remember hale for healthy (and similar).

    Not for the first time the rhyming pair helped me – with SHOWER CURTAIN in place (lovely anagram), and a few crossers in, it was fairly easy to get RICHARD BURTON, which I then parsed retrospectively. These things help a newcomer like me 🙂

    Favourite was YEARNED, for the dropping E.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  25. Paul,T@10 LOL. I love fresh basil and will eat anything, including brains, liver, tripe, but not a couple of Italian herbs.

  26. [Roz@16. Thank you. The Azed is so hard to read. Got 7a from previous crossies and UKGK. How long have I got? ]

  27. [ PDM@26 I used to spend 2 weeks on it , the answers were on a 2 week cycle. My current target is 30 minutes , has been for 5 years, never made it , close today. I cannot say much obviously but 1Ac and 1D are pretty easy if you forget it is Azed, and very useful giving lots of first letters. ]

  29. flashling, thanks for parsing MOTHER OF GOD — I had no hope.

    I don’t think a crevice is a RIFT. One’s very narrow, one’s a yawhing gap.

    I take issue with “creature that eats.” That’s to distinguish it from creatures that don’t eat? What planet are they on

  31. I somehow hit “Post” without meaning to, so the other post has no period.

    Thanks to Everyman and flashiling and a ??? to paul b.

  33. Just been for a walk with the dog in woods near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Saw lots of butterflies including a rare white admiral.

  34. [Continuing the Azed conversation, when I first started Azed (encouraged, it has to be said, by Roz on this thread) I was pleased to finish sometime on Monday. Soon after I was finishing same day. Today, early afternoon with several breaks, which is a record. Roz is correct that 1a and 1d are a great way in]

  35. I came here expecting to see more grumbling: this struck me as a dodgier-than-usual Everyman. But looking back over it, most of the things that irritated me are minor or are idiosyncratic to me, so I’m probably just in a bad mood.

    This is probably partly explained by the fact that I confidently put in “reddish” for 10ac and “puts down” for 21ac. I think both of these answers work as well as the actual answers. I confess that in general, I’m in the camp that there’s nothing wrong with a clue having multiple possible answers (as long as the crossers resolve the ambiguity, of course), so if I’m to be consistent I shouldn’t blame Everyman for these.

    In another bit of inconsistency, I’m irritated by the spoonerism, because “farm” and “palm” aren’t even close to rhyming for me, although in principle I believe in giving setters wide latitude for homophones (including spoonerisms). Even for non-rhotic speakers, I’d have thought that the vowel sounds were noticeably different in these two words, but maybe I’m wrong.

    I will stand by this complaint, though: “Singing repetitively” isn’t equivalent to “chant” in any way I can think of. (“Chanting”, sure, but not “chant”.) And I did find “creature that eats” very strange for the reasons others have mentioned, although Paul, Tutukaka’s justification mollifies me somewhat.

    I will say that I like the anagram for RED ADMIRAL. It’s nice enough that it seems like it must have been discovered and used many times before, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.

  36. Ted @35. Depends whether you pronounce the “L” in PALM. For those like me who don’t, farm and palm rhyme perfectly.

  37. [ Jay@34 I started doing Azed far too early , before I could even do the Everyman properly . No blogs, no help , just the solutions in 2 weeks with very brief Azed notes. It was 2 years before I could finish the easier Plain puzzles. I think that anyone who can do normal cryptics can have a good go at Azed and improve a lot with practice quickly as you have done. ]

  39. “Farm” rhymes with “palm” only for those Brits and quasi-Brits who do not pronounce the letter “r”.

  41. Go Fiji!! Up the Wahs!! Oh and this crossword- loed MOTHER OF GOD; struggled with a few but overall v enjoyable. Huzzah!

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