Everyman 4,021/12 November

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All the usual fun of the fair again with Everyman this week: the rhyming couplets, the initial letters clue, and the self-reference.

 

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 Check section of fire insurance
REIN
Hidden in fiRE INsurance.

3 Old fellow satisfied, calm, drinking beer in reflection
METHUSELAH
A charade of MET and ALE reversed in HUSH. The insertion indicator is ‘drinking’ and the reversal indicator is ‘in reflection’.

9 ‘As you’d say, the whole thing?’ ‘A few‘
SOME
Aural wordplay (‘as you’d say’) for SUM.

10 Questionably demand list separated into unconnected items
DISMANTLED
(DEMAND LIST)* with ‘questionably’ as the anagrind.

11 Boredom beaten: dessert’s announced in fancy part of hotel
BEDROOM SUITE
A charade of (BOREDOM)* and aural wordplay (‘announced’) for SWEET. The anagrind is ‘beaten’.

15 Pickles plays the fiddle
SCRAPES
A dd.

16 German, let down in the end, scowls and scowls
GLOWERS
A charade of G, LOWER and S for the last letter of the first ‘scowls’.

17 Former lover takes care of spreads
EXTENDS
A charade of EX and TENDS.

19 Foolish – as in, inefficient (in earliest stages)
ASININE
A charade of AS, IN and INE for the ‘earliest stages’ of INEfficient.

20 Germ attendee disseminated in public function
MEET-AND-GREET
(GERM ATTENDEE)* with ‘disseminated’ as the anagrind.

23 Thrash musicians getting rich pastries
CREAM HORNS
A charade of CREAM and HORNS. The first element is usually seen referring to a sporting contest (‘Sunderland creamed Newcastle in the North-East derby’) and the second is referring to members of the brass section of the orchestra.

24 Relish with which duck and root vegetable knocked back
MAYO
A reversal of O and YAM.

25 Inadequacy shown by nephew wearing suit in untidy state
MEAGRENESS
An insertion of N for ‘nephew’ in AGREE, all inserted into MESS. The two insertion indicators are ‘wearing’ and ‘in’. Two weeks running we’ve had N for ‘nephew’, I think. No-one raised major objections last week, although it’s not in all the dictionaries. Best get used to it.

26 In announcement, apprehend – in the main?
SEAS
Aural wordplay (‘in announcement’) for SEIZE.

Down

1 Revolted by former First Family: they’re in the White House Garden
ROSE BUSHES
A charade of ROSE and BUSHES for a choice of two previous American First Families (George or George W). There is indeed a Rose Garden in the White House.

2 Everyman’s to act as chair? That’s unreasonable
IMMODERATE
A charade of I’M and MODERATE.

4 Puzzles, games in play
ENIGMAS
(GAMES IN)* with ‘play’ as the anagrind.

5 Amateur served up food somewhere in N Germany
HAMBURG
A charade of HAM and GRUB reversed (‘served up’, since it’s a down clue).

6 Authorizing, penalizing
SANCTIONING
A dd, and one of those odd words – like ‘cleave’ or ‘overlook’ – which can have reverse meanings, depending on the context. Some folk call them contronyms.

7 Loud, ultimately; lady ululating, primarily?
LULU
The initial letters of the first four words of the clue and a cad. The singer Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, stage name Lulu: loud and ululating since the 1960s and still in the public eye.

8 Mask and whip
HIDE
A dd.

12 Phone Empire about blockbuster
OPPENHEIMER
(PHONE EMPIRE)* with ‘about’ as the anagrind. Referring to the film, released earlier this year, about the American scientist’s role in the development of the atomic bomb.

13 Cautious ponder
DELIBERATE
Another dd.

14 Claims señoras sit around
ASSERTIONS
(SEÑORAS SIT)* with ‘around’ as the anagrind.

18 Brood, feeling blue: you need a rest
SIT-DOWN
A charade of SIT and DOWN. The first element is referring to birds and eggs.

19 Not initially gaping, small canopies
AWNINGS
A charade of [Y]AWING and S.

21 Second piece of recording equipment making racket
SCAM
A charade of S and CAM.

22 Welsh actress taking part: Greek character
ZETA
A bit of film knowledge required: the clue is referring to Catherine Zeta-Jones, part of whose name is the answer.

Many thanks to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.

50 comments on “Everyman 4,021/12 November”

  1. Was thinking Zeta-Jones, is that the lady in the castle with the all-white garden, but no, that’s Sackville-West. Hey ho. Fun puzzle, ta both. Now for a latte and today’s.

  2. In 19a doesn’t “earliest stages” refer to the continuous letters ASININE at the start of the wordplay, rather than just to INE in “inefficient”? So the solution is a hidden word rather than a charade.

  3. Didn’t understand why brood = sit. Sort of see it now.

    Agree with Willbar @2 re ASININE

    Liked: METHUSELAH, ROSE BUSHES, SANCTIONING

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

  4. Thank you Pierre. And the rhyming pair is DELIBERATE and IMMODERATE, although I would have paid METHUSELAH and OPPENHEIMER, both 4 syllables, depending how you pronounce them, with a schwa at the end.
    ‘
    Agree Willbar@2. ASININE hidden. Pierre’s reading could also be valid, but I imagine that Everyman wouldn’t want to include a large part of the clue in the answer as a charade.

    I really liked several of the clues for their surfaces, particularly the humorous ones. Strange images were evoked by thrash musicians getting rich ….. pastries in CREAM HORNS, and Pickles playing the fiddle in SCRAPES.
    Only reservations were HIDE, mask and whip, where the non cryptic surface and synonyms came more to the fore for me, and SANCTIONING. I take Pierre’s point about the contranyms, but the surface would have worked better in the cryptic sense without the comma. Authorising penalizing..

  5. Thanks for the blog , good overall and I thought it was the right standard.
    The rhyming pair(s) not as crisp as usual.
    Nephew=N again and it is not in Chambers93, I presume it is used in a family tree but what about neice ?

  6. I did think about marking ASININE as just a hidden answer – I guess both interpretations work, so you can take your pick.

  10. Is it me or are these getting harder? Nice to know there’s another Sunderland supporter in here!

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  12. I read ASININE as per Willbar@2. I don’t call this ‘hidden’ in the true sense though, as it is ‘open’ at one end. I thought the rhyming pair were good in that SUITE and GREET are different word endings, whereas more often than not the rhyme is achieved with identical word endings.
    Agree with Roz@5 about the reappearance of Nephew. It’s only support (as far as I can see) is in Collins online as American English, quoted from Webster’s.
    Good fun, thanks to E and P.

  15. Lin@14 – think og giving someone a hiding, and giving them a whipping (that’s how I took it, anyway)

    Can someone enlighten me on how suit = agree in MEAGRENESS? That’s the only one I couldn’t parse last week.

  16. Agree , hide as a verb to flog or whip.
    In the past children would be threatened with a good hiding, fortunately things have imroved .

  18. Thanks Roz – as often happens, these things seem so obvious once you see them!

    And I forgot my manners earlier – thanks to Everyman and Pierre for a very enjoyable puzzle and blog.

  19. TanTrumPet & Roz – yes, I’ve been threatened with “I’ll give you a good hiding” but I’ve never heard “I will hide you” so the clue didn’t quite work for me.

  20. I agree with Lin that hide doesn’t work as a verb, but it does work as an attributive noun to mean a whip made out of an animal’s hide (skin).

    “Agree” strictly needs the preposition with to mean suit.

    Anyway, fun puzzle as usual. I liked ROSE BUSHES in particular. Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.

  21. I sometimes get misled by Everyman because the clues can contain unecessary words. For example, “Relish with which duck and root vegetable knocked back” had me puzzling over why the clue contained the awkward phrase, “with which” when just “with” would work.

  22. I agree with the sentiment that Alan Connor’s edition of Everyman is getting a bit chewier, though I don’t remember this one as being particularly hard. (I think it’s not a spoiler to state that I found today’s to be an uphill climb relative to the usual standard, and I think that was also true two weeks ago.)

    Being a fan of musicals, I best remember Catherine Zeta-Jones in her Oscar-winning role as Velma Kelly in Chicago. I believe she pronounces her Zeta differently from how the word zeta is pronounced on either side of the Atlantic, though. Speaking of pronunciation, it’s nice to have multiple homophone clues that aren’t dialect-dependent. Thanks to Everyman for that.

    The Rose Garden is a popular choice for ceremonies that the president wishes to hold outdoors. It may have made the news in Britain because there was one signing ceremony at the Rose Garden in the spring of 2020, with no one wearing a mask (because Trump did not take Covid seriously) that everyone was sure was going to be a superspreader. This was before it was well understood that outdoor transmission was negligible. Several of those present did indeed contract Covid, though it was probably from indoor interactions before or after.

  23. 26ac, SEAS: small typo: “in” is a link word, not post of the def.

    19ac, ASININE: I agree with Jay@12. It’s not a true hidden and isn’t indicated as such, but as the contiguous first letters (“early stages”) of a string.

    8dn, HIDE: whips are made of hide (animal skin), aren’t they? Nevertheless, never heard HIDE used to mean ‘a whip’ or ‘to whip’, notwithstanding old-fashioned threats of ‘a good hiding’.

  25. Blimey @22 mrpenney I’m blogging today’s and I found it difficult. At least I’ve now convinced myself my blog will be right. Just.

  28. Chambers93 has hide = to flog or whip (colloq) . It is the definitive guide for all crosswords.

    I try not to criticise Everyman , it is not aimed at me anymore but I do it out of nostalgia.
    The puzzle today is simply not suitable for the intended audience, I would not have enjoyed it at all when I was learning to do cryptics.

  29. I wrote last week I felt these are becoming are harder.. I eventually finished this one at 3rd attempt totalling about an hour. Today’s (4022) I’ve generally got through quicker but notice I am just chucking in words which fit where I used to build them up from the clue. Seems like the synonyms are becoming increasingly obscure and I have to work at parsing what was usually obvious in the past.

    With this one – I wondered about BUSHES with an E ? If you pluralise the Bush family don’t they become Bushs. I can see it correct for the plant.

  31. Tony C @23 – yes, I admit I was mistaken earlier – plenty of evidence in the OED to support hide meaning whip as a verb. But also evidence to support it as a noun, so it works either way. All good. 🙂

  32. David@21, it’s “with which” for a better surface meaning, while at the same time, the addition of “which” doesn’t change the cryptic meaning.

  33. Widdersbel@31, I don’t think HIDE is used like that these days, which is why it threw people. Perhaps because there’s less whipping in general goes on in our modern society?

    I don’t think one should have to resort to the OED for an Everyman, btw, so I’m happy to see it’s in Collins as well as the bowdlerised Chambers, as mentioned by Roz.

  34. Thanks for the puzzle and blog. I did this after reading last week’s blog, and it reminded me of the rhyming couplets. I was stuck on DELIBERATE, but got it when I realised it had a rhyming sibling. That’s the first time that’s happened to me.

  35. 24a: Kicking myself because I couldn’t for the life of me think a three-letter root veg! Then I took out my frustration on Everyman, decrying “mayo isn’t a relish, it’s an emulsion!”

    I much prefer anagrams to DDs.

    Surfaces of 12d and 18d (phone Empire… and senoras sit…) made me smile.

  36. I’m struggling with the explanation of 23a as surely ‘Sunderland creamed Newcastle’ is FANCIFUL which I can’t seem to make fit

  37. @30 paulb re: keeping up with the Joneses …

    Jones ends with S, so adding -ES makes sense. I can see it applied to the TRUSSES therefore but I don’t see it for the JOHNSONES, SUNAKES or pretty much any other family name.

  38. Like others, I’d never seen “hide” as a verb meaning “whip”, but I did know “hiding”, so I thought that that meaning probably existed (if only archaically). I came here before bothering to look it up, and you all saved me the effort. Thanks!

    I found this toward the harder end for an Everyman, but there’s nothing unfair here. I thought I was perhaps just having a slow day, but it looks like some others agree with me.

  39. Tony@33 perhaps if you got yourself a proper dictionary you could look up the meaning of bowdlerize . The first edition Chambers93 is anything but delicate.

  40. HG@37, Bush ends with SH, so adding -ES makes sense. (That’s why the plural of the common noun end in -es, not just -s. It’s not really possible to pronounce an S immediately after an SH, without an intervening vowel sound.)

  41. [Roz@39, iirc, they cut out a large number of vocabulary items and introduced special insert panels, advising on certain vocab being non-pc. Is that right?]

  42. [ Tony @41 that was much later , 93 has all the offensive terms and many not even noted as offensive. It is the first edition of The Chambers Dictionary , an update on Chambers 20th Century (or English) Dictionary with 25000 new entries . The peak accomplishment , all later editions are inferior. ]

  43. 23A: Was I the only one to arrive at ‘Cream’ (the 60s super-group) via thrash musicians? Having used up the musicians I was stumped to come up with horns!. Not the easiest Everyman . . .

  44. Pleasant stroll in the park although I’ve never heard of a cream horn

    Alan and Cath, 24A is made for you

    HNY all

  45. We got this in one sitting! There’s a cafe in the central North Island renowned for its Ceeam Horns, queue was too long last time I was there. V enjoyable crossword, great to know brain is still functioning after far too much if everything this Christmas. Happy New Year fellow Fifteensquareders!!

  46. Barrie, you should get out more, as Pip says, Vivs cafe just south of Bulls has cream horns to die for!
    There’s always their sign written Morris Minor Van out the front.
    Worth a trip down under for you Northern folk!
    BTW, thanks Pierre and Everyman for an enjoyable solve this morning.

  47. Well, definitely noteworthy that our surname was included as an answer. Not sure that mayo is a relish, but relish that someone thinks that Mayo is to be relished.

    Have not been to Bulls for quite a while so missed the cream horns. Threw a hospital of cream coins (getting rich) so must take a fail this week.

    Merry Xmas and have a good new year

  48. After last week’s nightmare (only because for me it was so hard) I wondered if I would ever be able to return to cryptics. But this was much better – still tricky enough.
    I’m not sure I totally understand 1d Rose and was is the reason for revolted. Very proud my first one in was Methuselah. I have never heard of scraping a fiddle or violin but hope it sounds better than one might think. Happy new year all those of us still in 2023

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