The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4023.
All present and correct: the one word to one word anagram 1A INTOXICATES, the self reference 5D TUTEE, the rhyming pair 7D GRANDDAUGHTER and 8D DRINKING WATER, the geographical reference 13D MICRONESIA and the ‘primarily’ clue 24D CHAD. Perhaps gentler than some recent Everymans.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INTOXICATES |
Wild excitations and thrills (11)
|
| An anagram (‘wild’) of ‘excitations’. Everyman often comes up with one word to one word anagrams. | ||
| 9 | RICOTTA |
Slice of Kashmiri cottage cheese (7)
|
| A hidden answer (‘slice of’) in ‘KashmiRI COTTAge’. | ||
| 10 | NUTTIER |
After November, say, one’s eaten more crackers (7)
|
| A charade of N (‘November’, NATO alphabet) plus UTTIER, an envelope (‘eaten’) of I (‘one’) in UTTER (‘say’). | ||
| 11 | NOTCH |
Nick wanting direction, disheartened, embracing Conservatives’ leader (5)
|
| An envelope (’embracing’) of C (‘Conservatives’ leader’) in NO[r]TH (‘direction’) minus the middle letter (‘disheartened’). | ||
| 12 | PIPE DOWN |
Make music, sad and quiet (4,4)
|
| A charade of PIPE (‘make music’) plus DOWN (‘sad’). | ||
| 14 | DISCLAIMER |
Record me in retreat: ‘One denies responsibility‘ (10)
|
| A charade of DISC (‘record’) plus LAIMER, an envelope (‘in’) of ‘me’ in LAIR (‘retreat’). | ||
| 15 | ASTI |
It’s a flipping sparkling wine (4)
|
| A reversal (‘flipping’) of ‘its a’. Not all Asti wines are sparkling, but the best known are. | ||
| 17 | URGE |
Compulsion to cleanse failing to start (4)
|
| [p]URGE (‘cleanse’) minus the first letter (‘failing to start’). | ||
| 19 | PRECOOKING |
In advance, rustling up salad of rock pigeon (10)
|
| An anagram (‘salad’) of ‘rock pigeon’. | ||
| 21 | HAUNTING |
Poignant, timeless article describing female relative (8)
|
| An envelope (‘describing’) of AUNT (‘female relative’) in [t]HING (‘article’) minus the T (‘timeless’). | ||
| 23 | KRONA |
King and queen on a Swedish coin (5)
|
| A charade of K (‘king’) plus R (regina, ‘queen’) plus ‘on a’. | ||
| 25 | ERASMUS |
Opera’s musicians including Dutch thinker (7)
|
| A hidden answer (‘including’) in ‘opERA’S MUSicians’. | ||
| 26 | HOT DATE |
Boiling fruit for exciting social engagement (3,4)
|
| A charade of HOT (‘boiling’) plus DATE (‘fruit’). | ||
| 27 | HUSBAND-TO-BE |
Fiancé and messy bo’sun bathed (7-2-2)
|
| An anagram (‘messy’) of ‘bosun bathed’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INCITES |
Prompts marksmen to find targets here, did you say? (7)
|
| Sounds like (‘did you say?’) IN SIGHTS (‘marksmen to find targets here’). | ||
| 2 | TETCHILY |
Vietnamese festival that starts year offspring mostly accepted in irritable fashion (8)
|
| An envelope (‘accepted’) of CHHIL[d] (‘offspring’) minus the last letter (‘mostly’) in TET (‘Vietnamese festival’ – it is their New Year, but, for the wordplay: ) plus Y (‘that starts Year’). | ||
| 3 | X-RAY |
Medical procedure that follows whiskey? (1-3)
|
| Double definition; note the spelling of ‘whiskey,’ for W in the NATO alphabet. | ||
| 4 | CONFIDENCE |
Secret kind of trick (10)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 5 | TUTEE |
Sound of disapproval twice at the outset, Everyman’s one to be taught a lesson (5)
|
| A charade of TUT (‘sound of disapproval’) plus E (‘at the outset, Everyman’) plus another E (‘twice’). | ||
| 6 | SUITORS |
Old rakes initially wearing smart clothes: they’re after wives (7)
|
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of OR (‘Old Rakes initially’) in SUITS (‘smart clothes’). | ||
| 7 | GRANDDAUGHTER |
Female relative, imperious, departs; merriment stifled at first (13)
|
| A charade of GRAND (‘imperious’) plus D (‘departs’) plus [l]AUGHTER (‘merriment’) minus the first letter (‘stifled at first’). | ||
| 8 | DRINKING WATER |
Source of refreshment befuddled king and writer (8,5)
|
| An anagram (‘befuddled’`) of ‘king and writer’. | ||
| 13 | MICRONESIA |
In a Nissan, the writer’s on island somewhere in S Pacific (10)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ONE’S (‘the writer’s’) plus I (‘island’) in MICRA (‘a Nissan’ car model). | ||
| 16 | COCKATOO |
Time for quiet: pet dog becomes talking animal (8)
|
| COCKAPOO (‘pet dog’ – a cross of Cocker spaniel and poodle) with the P replaced by T (‘time for quiet’). | ||
| 18 | GOULASH |
Grand old university buffet offering Hungarian stew (7)
|
| A charade of G (‘grand’) plus O (‘old’) plus U (‘university’) plus LASH (hit, ‘buffet’). | ||
| 20 | ISOLATE |
Pick out one very good behind (7)
|
| A charade of I (‘one’) plus SO (‘very good’ – as an interjection) plus LATE (‘behind’). | ||
| 22 | TIMES |
Newspaper X (5)
|
| Double definition. Elon Musk has not gone that far. Yet. | ||
| 24 | CHAD |
Country. Habitable …? African desert, primarily! (4)
|
| The ‘primarily’ clue: first letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Country Habitable African Desert’, with an &lit definition. |
Yes, I thought it was back to the more common Everyman difficulty. Very nice – thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Struggled an awful lot with the envelopes and the relatively tricky definitions (Laimer, Tet and Micra).
Did enjoy the Times and Notch clues, mind.
Didn’t complete for the second week in a row… Maybe I’m getting slower in the cold weather.
Do SUITORS, HOT DATE, ASTI INTOXICATES, HUSBAND TO BE, and GRANDDAUGHTER indicate a little theme?
gregfromoz @3
You are thinking on the lines of:
Candy
is dandy,
but liquor
is quicker.
(Ogden Nash)
… but GRANDDAUGHTER would seem to be warp speed.
T?t is the Vietnamese word for FESTIVAL. There are two big ones: T?t Nguyên ?án (the festival of the first day,the one you know) and T?t Trung Thu (the festival of mid autumn)
OK, I used a Vietnamese keyboard. So Tet Nguyen Dan and Yet Trung Thu. The site doesn’t like dialects.
nicbach @5,6: the only reason that I knew Tet is from the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War (known in Vietnam as the American War, for good reasons) – but it came to me instantly.
Thank you Peter O. I did like INTOXICATES for wild excitations. How does he find these?
Tassie Tim@7. TETCHILY. I think TET, as in the Tet Offensive, as you say, may be more well known here, due to Australia being involved in the Vietnam war, whereas Britain wasn’t.
TETCHILY occurred to me without wordplay, maybe a crosser, I can’t remember. It’s kind of a quaint word to me, but may be still well in use in Britain.
Paul T@2. I agree, I think Everyman is getting harder. I think he’s setting puzzles which he enjoys (not a criticism in itself), but is moving away from his remit.
I found TUTEE difficult, because it’s not a familiar word to me, and because of the grammar.
gif@3. I wondered about a mini theme too along those lines.
HUSBAND-TO-BE and URGE were amusing. ISOLATE funny, verging on ”naughty”. CONFIDENCE a good double def. INCITES a good homophone with great surface.
Unlike last week’s puzzle which I thought was harder than I would expect an Everyman to be, like TassieTim @ 1, I thought this one was just right and I enjoyed it.
Favourites included: DISCLAIMER, HAUNTING, TETCHILY, COCKATOO
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Thanks for the blog, good puzzle and I thought the standard was just right.
Like TassieTim@7 I only knew the offensive reference to TET , I will now try to think of it as a festival(s) . Yes PDM@8 still in UK use, mainly just as TETCHY .
Two countries for Jay , MICRONESIA meets the Pointless criteria, plus a very impressive anagram for INTOXICATES.
And someone mentioned a follow on last week, HUSBAND-TO-BE following on from BRIDEGROOM the week before.
I found Everyman more or less alternated between 15 minute-ish and 30 minute-ish solves for me. I’m not sure what makes the difference. (When we got two Kite puzzles pretty much back to back, I filled the second one on the app to see how fast that went in, and it was just under 10 minutes.) This one was back to the just sub 30 minute solve, so quicker than the 250th puzzle, by a way, but not as quick as I find Everyman can be.
INTOXICATES is impressive.
Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.
Tough puzzle. In recent weeks, the Everyman puzzle is more like a Prize puzzle.
New for me: MICRA = Nissan car (for 13d).
Thanks, both.
Very good I thought. Second outing for CHAD this year (and it was the primarily clue back in January as well) and INTOXICATES was good. We’ve had a few 11 letter single word anagrams before but I think Everyman’s record stands at 12.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
I felt INCITES=prompts, TETCHILY, TUTEE were harder than I’d expect for an Everyman and for whatever reason I just couldn’t unravel INTOXICATES despite knowing it was an anagram from first read and an unhelpful “thrills” definition. Add in an inability to get CONFIDENCE and SUITORS and having the wrong first word for PIPE-DOWN, I ended up taking about an hour in total after setting it aside at 45mins.
The rest of it went in fairly smoothly within about 30mins which is what I’d like from these. And used to get until a couple of months ago.
There were a few clues that required dropping a letter (URGE, HAUNTING) which I still find a bit challenging, but there were enough crossers to assist. I also found this to be back to “regular” Everyman standard after a difficult couple of weeks. I particularly liked TUTEE and SUITORS for the wordplay.
Did anyone else find the surface for TETCHILY difficult to comprehend? It actually put me off attempting the clue for a while as I just couldn’t make any sense of it!
I thought the festival was a nice change from the offensive (which appeared elsewhere recently), and, on the whole, I agree with Fiona and Tassie Tim that this was more of a return to the brief than a continuation of the trend to more difficult puzzles.
I’d also say the puzzle is drifting away from its remit. Old Everymans had a certain ease and flow to them that was consistently adhered to, and sometimes I don’t feel that with the newer presentations. The new puzzles are never without merit though, and I enjoyed this offering, especially the long anagram, which seems to be original.
The TET was a series of attacks launched by the VC and PAVN against the US and ARVN on the occasion of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, as I understand it. It kind of worked and kind of didn’t.
Liked Suitors. Impressed by intoxicates (unless Everyman simply uses an anagram solver website). Like a lot here, got Tetchily due to vague memory of Tet Offensive in various Nam documentaries.
Well, Crossword Compiler’s anagram generator didn’t manage to come up with either (bit of a weak spot in a fine program for me). But into sex act i did appear. It’s not really one for the Sunday morning saunter though, is it.
Enjoyable stuff.
Well I get depressed by the timers. Takes me at least an hour on a good day (very rare) but more often two hours or more to solve not including gaps where I leave it a few hours or days and then get an inspiration. And even then there is a couple that I don’t get till I come back to it on a Saturday and think “got it” or not.
Fiona @20 – that’s why I don’t normally give times, because I remember being a beginner and every crossword taking me so much longer than everyone else to solve the puzzles, although, now, I realise others were not speed merchants and just keeping quiet. I normally try to post relative times.
Fiona@20 it used to take me all week, carry it around with me , 20 minutes each lunchtime and 20 minutes on the train going home. I still think 20 minutes is the optimum time to spend and then have a break.
Thanks Roz – will continue to enjoy doing at my own time – might get faster in the future but even if I don’t will still enjoy
On the tougher end of the spectrum, I found, but completed in under half an hour. A lot of them were banged in without properly parsing – like others I thought TET for Vietnam purely from the war.
I think people who want to boast about their times should go away. And indeed have not seen any till recently. The last thing I need to see is someone going on about banging in their solutions in under 30 minutes when it has taken me over 2 hours and still have a few to find.
I was held up for a while by having confidently written KRONE for 23ac. I didn’t know the spelling of the Swedish currency, and K+R+ONE seems to parse OK. And I hadn’t heard of the Nissan Micra (perhaps we don’t have it on my side of the Atlantic), but once a few crossers were in the answer was clear.
Fiona, I absolutely agree with you.
Fiona, I am also in agreement with you. As Shanne @21 says, a comment on how relatively ‘easy’ or ‘tough’ a solver found it compared to their own normality is fine, always bearing in mind that easiness can vary for no apparent reason (the wavelength thing). I once used to do the Times crossies out of the Australian, but found the Times for the Times blogging site unbearably smug – not to mention disheartening. I love it that – generally – giving times is frowned upon on this site.
Fiona – apologies if I am one of the smug ones going on about times.
I was pretty much where you were when I started Everyman in the middle of last year. Often taking over an hour and needing to come back later in the week. And not always finishing it. I still have a lot of empathy for beginners or slower solvers.
My reference to time is not about boasting but trying to give an objective measure of how I feel Everyman has got harder over the past couple of months, My solving has come on in leaps and bounds this past summer and yet my times have got worse. That suggests to me that it’s the puzzle missing its remit.
All the best with your solving.
I think it could be a little unfair to criticise Times for The Times as being overly concerned with solving times, as that’s precisely what the site is about: solving at speed! That’s solving times for The Times Crossword, in case you hadn’t realised. So let’s leave it out on that score, at least. Each to their own, and all that. If the Everyman is now harder to solve, say so, and I’m sure notice will be taken as required.
An excellent puzzle – not too difficult compared with the last couple of weeks, but with a few chewier clues to make it feel like an achievement. I agree with the posts about solving times – it’s supposed to be a bit of fun and if anything, a personal challenge.
A satisfying and enjoyable solve – a Goldilocks level of ‘just right’.
SUITORS and INTOXICATES both goodies, along with NOTCH.
Never bother to time ourselves, always consider it an accomplishment if we finish in just the one sitting (needed a coffee break today!)
Take care in the heat fellow Kiwis!
Thanks Pip. did my chores before Everyman whilst it was cool. Tet offensive 1968-remember it even though i was still in London. TheVC tried coming out in the open to fight like an army. Didn’t work so they went back to their old ways.
Goldilocks for me too even if again a couple of parsings eludes me
Basically impossible. DNF.
Agree with the comments on stating times to finish ! I used to spend the whole weekend ! Putting it down of course for hours – but it used to give me a huge feeling of achievement when I finally finished on Sunday! Am much quicker now but I enjoyed this level …def goldilocks std for me too
Fave clues haunting and hot date, Micronesia and incites
Liked 1ac, and 6d.
Struggled at first with 2d, amd 5d.
Nissan model new to me.
Otherwise, solvable in spite of the heat
Rob. in Epsom,,Auckland
Much better than last week, even though we are weeks behind, it’s almost like our mate Everyman reads our comments and acts accordingly!
Surprised at your comment ,Rolf, maybe the hot weather is affecting you! LOL
Thanks to all concerned.
Some good clues but
Micra as a Nissan
Tutee – really, a word never heard
Cockapoo – omg
Sort of spoilt a really good puzzle for us.