Everyman 4,007

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The crossword may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4007.

That went down quite smoothly, with the usual rhyming pair, the ‘primarily’ clue, the self reference, two one-word to one-word anagrams, and a geographical location.

ACROSS
1 ROSE
Stood up for wine (4)
Or rosé. Double definition.
3 REPARATION
Praetorian rank to make amends (10)
An anagram (‘rank’ in the sense of foul, spoiled) of ‘praetorian’.
9 TART
Pungent patisserie item (4)
Double definition.
10 ACCENTUATE
Account having minimal money: university worried, leading to stress (10)
A charade of A/C (‘account’) plus CENT (‘minimal money’) plus U (‘university’) plus ATE (‘worried’ – a fairly frequent crossword definition).
11 OUTWARD-BOUND
Starting a trip but now our Dad is lost (7-5)
An anagram (‘is lost’) of ‘but now our Dad’.
15 ALGIERS
Mediterranean city is large resort (7)
An anagram (‘re-sort’) of ‘is large’.
16 GRAVLAX
Not entirely dignified, sloppy serving of salmon (7)
A charade of GRAV[e] (‘dignified’) minus its last letter (‘not quite’) plus LAX (‘sloppy’). The salmon is dry-cured and not necessarily smoked.
17 ENSUING
Earl against knight with legal action coming next (7)
A charade of E (‘earl’) plus N (‘knight’, chess notation) plus SUING (gerund, ‘legal action’).
19 VACANCY
State of being dumb as a post? (7)
Double definition.
20 SAFE AND SOUND
How Peter Firth may be shown to be secure, uninjured (4,3,5)
A charade of PETER (‘safe’, strongbox) plus SOUND (‘Firth’ as the Firth of Forth). Peter Firth is an actor.
23 SANDCASTLE
Stagehands and cast learned to accommodate this ephemeral structure (10)
A hidden answer (‘to accommodate’) in ‘stagehandS AND CAST LEarned’.
24 SIRI
Digital assistant displaying flower in retreat (4)
A reversal (‘in retreat’) of IRIS (‘flower’), for Apple’s early entry into the blossoming AI field.
25 ANTIPODEAN
Averse to humourless university official from Down Under (10)
A charade of ANTI (‘averse to’) plus PO (‘humourless’ – as in po-faced) plus DEAN (‘university official’).
26 UGLY
Unpleasant characters regularly seen in Burghley (4)
Alternate letters (‘characters regularly seen in’) of ‘BUrGhLeY‘.
DOWN
1 RATIONALES
Unhinged senatorial explanations (10)
An anagram (‘unhinged’) of ‘senatorial’.
2 STRATEGIST
Scheming type gets artist involved (10)
An anagram (‘involved’) of ‘gets artist’.
4 ENCODES
Disguises sample of flamenco Despacito (7)
A hidden answer (‘sample of’) ‘flamENCO DESpatico’
5 AGE-LONG
Persistent American set on seceding in the end (3-4)
A charade of A (‘American’) plus GEL (‘set’) plus ‘on’ plus G (‘seceedinG in the end’).
6 ATTENDANCES
Numbers present at nine balls and a cèilidh? (11)
AT TEN DANCES (‘at nine balls’ plus one -‘a cèilidh’).
7 IRAN
Leader of Indonesia governed country (4)
A charade of I (‘leader of Indonesia’) plus RAN (‘governed’).
8 NEED
Require massage, you say? (4)
Sounds like (‘you say’) KNEAD (‘massage’).
12 AMERICA’S CUP
Campus race: I arranged for an old trophy (8,3)
An anagram (‘arranged’) of ‘campus race I’; ‘old’ because it is the oldest international competition still being held. The last contest was won by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in March 2021.
13 ALAN TURING
Mathematician reconsidered granulation with nothing to lose (4,6)
An anagram (‘reconsidered’) of ‘granulati[o]n’ minus the O (‘with nothing to lose’).
14 OX-EYE DAISY
After hug and kiss, gaze at Tom’s wife, presenting a flower (2-3,5)
A charade of OX (‘hug and kiss’ – more often in the form XOXO at the end of a love letter) plus EYE (‘gaze at’) plus DAISY (‘Tom’s wife’ – Tom and Daisy Buchanan, characters in The Great Gatsby). And the flower really is a flower.
18 GUESSED
Fancied a visitor, by the sound of it (7)
An audible pun (‘by the sound of it’) of GUEST (‘visitor’).
19 VANILLA
Unexciting vehicle Everyman will start to aggrandize (7)
A charade of VAN (‘vehicle’) plus I’LL (‘Everyman will’) plus A (‘start to Aggrandize’). A change from the VILLA parsing which has been popular recently, but it gives a strange surface, without the often deprecating air to the self-reference.
21 ASEA
Addled, somewhat erratic; adrift, primarily! (4)
The ‘primarily’ clue: first letters of ‘Addled Somewhat Erratic Adrift’. Asea or a-sea is not in Chambers, but the OED gives “on sea, at sea, to the sea”; it is in Collins online, and Wictionary gives the specific meaning suggested by the &lit clue.
22 GNAT
Insect‘s pungency brought up (4)
A reversal (‘brought up’ in a down light) of TANG (‘pungency’).

picture of the completed grid;.

27 comments on “Everyman 4,007”

  1. Thanks, PeterO for the detailed and neat blog!
    Liked SAFE AND SOUND, OX-EYE DAISY and ASEA.

    REPARATION
    Def: I think just ‘amends’ should be better.

    ALGIERS
    An extended def?

    SAFE AND SOUND
    Peter Firth Death Hoax Dismissed Since Actor Is ‘Alive And Well’ -Everyman refers to this probably (In the surface).

  2. Good fun as always–the present Everyman (Alan Connor) has become one of my favorite setters. I loved the image of the unhinged senator (though most of our real wingnut legislators are in the lower house–think Marjorie Taylor Greene and her space lasers–the statewide votes for the Senate don’t necessarily raise the quality all that much). I spent some time last weekend looking up the history of both the America’s Cup and the ceilidh–always good when there are rabbit holes to dive down. GRAVLAX was new to me, and it took some Google-cheating to get there.

    Was surprised to see Daisy Buchanan–I assumed that couldn’t be the reference, since American literature doesn’t often figure in these puzzles, so I entered it assuming that the blog would enlighten me about a different Tom and Daisy. But apparently that one’s entered the global heritage to the point where it’s fair game over there too.

  3. Didn’t recall the Gatsby characters, so the daisy went in with a shrug. [Otoh, loved Peter Firth as Sir Harry … recently re-binged the lot]. And always nice to see Alan Turing, he well deserves homage. Fun puzzle, ta PnE.

  4. Good puzzle – took me ages to get my LOI – AGE LONG

    Favourites were: ANTIPODEAN, SANDCASTLE, OX-EYE DAISY, GNAT, SAFE AND SOUND

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO

  5. I thought SANDCASTLE was impressively hidden with a plausible surface and an anagram indicator in the mix. Thanks PeterO and Everyman and well done Matildas and Roses.

  6. Thanks for the blog, I thought that this was very good and just the right standard. SANDCASTLE my favourite clue for the reasons given by Paul@5.
    OX-EYE DAISY pretty obvious once I looked at the grid with the X and the enumeration, but I would say that Tom and Daisy fairly obscure and O=hug is completely new to me.

  9. Haven’t met ASEA before – an unusual word is a good candidate for the Primarily clue. Likewise have not met the OX convention for “hugs and kisses” and didn’t remember who Tom and Daisy were, so OX-EYE DAISY was a bung-and-shrug. Favourites OUTWARD BOUND and the nicely hidden SANDCASTLE.

  10. Enjoyable puzzle. My favourites were ATTENDANCES, SAFE AND SOUND.

    I liked the reference to Tom and Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby (14d).

    Thanks, both.

  11. We had to study Great Gatsby at school, but that was a goodly number of years back – and “Tom’s wife” was way too vague a reference for me, I’m afraid. Tom is such a very, very common name and, this being crosswordland, I considered cats, bells, tomfoolery, thieving & peeping before listing spouses of as many real and fictional Toms as I could think of. I got the answer from the rest of the clue – so thank you Pierre for the explanation: having read it I did vaguely recall the name of the woman, but I would never have remembered her husband. I guess this is one aimed more at American solvers, which makes a pleasant change!
    An otherwise satisfying solve – thanks to Everyman & Pierre.

  13. Good start (or end) to the week.

    Thanks KVa @1 for the extra information about Peter Firth; I liked that clue. I also enjoyed the well-hidden SANDCASTLE and the ‘ten balls’ of ATTENDANCES. I tried Googling: ‘Tom’s wife crossword clue’ and among the many answers, none was Daisy, so I’ll take that as somewhat obscure, although I appreciate that The Great Gatsby is pretty well-known.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  14. I know Americans put OXOXOX instead of XXXXX, but I never knew the Os stood for hugs, but I have been asked by Americans “Why do Brits put an X at the end od texts, what does it stand for?” So I wonder.
    Thanks Everyman and PeterO for puzzle and blog.

  16. I was also surprised by the reference to The Great Gatsby. Tom is such a common name that this indicator leaves an awfully wide scope, and I didn’t know if the novel was well-known in the UK.

    [Many decades ago, my mother, an American, was studying at an English university. She overheard the following conversation between two English students:

    -What are you studying?
    -American literature.
    -And what do you do in the afternoon?
    ]

  17. I’ve never come across Peter for safe before, which made Firth for sound a miss too, though I got it from crossers.

  18. Ben@17 , Peter to mean a safe turns up fairly often , file it away . A peterman is a safe-cracker. You got the answer anyway and in the end it does not matter how you got it.

  19. 15 minutes, so on the quick side for me, although I didn’t parse SAFE AND SOUND, and I had no idea that O meant a hug. ANTIPODEAN and ATTENDANCES were my favourites.

  20. I agree with Wellbeck@11 that “Tom’s wife” was way too vague a reference.

    The word “asea” is unbelieveably obscure.

    Had to do a web search on “age-long” (LOI). The phrase had no resonance for me.

  21. Did this in one sitting! Am kicking myself for missing The Great Gatsby reference – have read that book so many times! SANDCASTLE and Peter Firth – great clues.
    UP THE WAHS!!!

  22. Peter = safe is a new one on me too and I have been crosswording for decades.

    Agree with the critics of Tom’s wife.

  24. Antipodean – it is so nice to get a mention.
    Peter can mean many things but not a safe in the antipodes.
    Glad the Daisy had a husband, but did not parse that one.
    But finished.
    Overall a grand puzzle.

  26. Am surprised no one ( I think) mentioned the larger than usual count of anagrams. Made it a bit easier for me though, like others, never heard of peter=safe, or age-long, and the Daisy ref totally over my head. But lots to like, my favourites all the short ones, Need, Iran, Gnat, Rose
    A little easier than the past few weeks

  27. Found this mostly easier than recent puzzles. Didn’t get all the references but the solutions were clear enough. I’d heard of peter = safe, quite a few whodunnits refer to the safe-breaker as the ‘peter man’ but only just found the rhyming slang explanation: Peter Pan = Can = safe.

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