Everyman 4,026

42 comments on “Everyman 4,026”

1. UNHINGE
   UN+HI+NGE works?

2. Took me longer than usual, and DNF since there was no way I was getting LOSE ONES RAG. I’ve never heard of the phrase, nor do I know of Rupert’s history with the Daily Mail. I thought perhaps he LUSTed OVER RAG (matches all the crossers) but didn’t see how that went with blowing a fuse.
   Ta Everyman and flashling.

3. And yes, I parsed same as you KVa@1

4. ROE DEER
   Rode here vs Rowed here.
   I think ‘he rode vs he rowed’ was being discussed in a similar context just a few days ago.

5. I struggled with 23 across. Never heard of erne and was trying to work out how it sounded like two ( as in “pair” or “brace” rather than 2 down “earn”.

6. I’m not sure if this one was trickier or just more lateral thinking required – either way a fun time was had by me. I split 4 down the middle as KVa and for 18 also thought of cycling as the mode of transport. Thanks flashling and Everyman. Merry Christmas to all.

7. Washington Irvine@2: it was the News of the World that he shut down after the phone hacc king scandal. The phrase is pretty common in British English.
   Paul@6: I think more lateral thinking equates to a harder crossword, doesn’t it? As you say good fun, but possibly pushing beginners a little too hard.

8. Hacking sorry.

9. Fair point nicbach, though I’d suggest lateral thinking ability is more innate, compared to the array of crossword tricks & conventions that are acquired over time.

10. I tend to agree with Paul, T@9 that lateral thinking, while I can’t say if it’s innate, may be a different way of approaching puzzles, as opposed to rule-based solving. It is interesting though, that the most proficient solvers of cryptic crosswords, according to a study done by a UK University, (which was posted on 225 years ago and I can’t remember now), are people with science and technology backgrounds. I can imagine that they would need to proficient in both areas, ie understanding the rules, but also prepared to look outside the square and challenge. That range of approaches is demonstrated in comments here, and always interests me.

11. ROE DEER rode or rowed both occurred to me, but both make for a very strange surface (hoofed mammals travelled) when Everyman usually pays a lot of attention to surfaces.

12. I thought the wordplay for LOUNGEWEAR started out really well, but I would hardly call sweats LOUNGEWEAR, even with the perhaps.

    DOOM AND GLOOM and BRAS amused me for their profanity and cheekiness.

13. Re DRESSING ROOM, I was under the impression that the “board” half of “bed and board” referred to the meals, not the room. Maybe I’m wrong, or maybe that’s transatlantic language difference coming up again. Hey ho–I did get there.

    In 22d, I took BRAS to be most of brass rather than brash, since a noun meaning “cheek” was required.

    ERNE went in unparsed for me, so thanks for explaining, flashling. The erne is commonly seen flying in the corners of American crosswords where the setter has backed himself in, so all I needed was the definition on that one.

    Merry Christmas to all.

14. Oh, and I was surprised to find that INFIELDERS was a term in cricket too. (In baseball, the infielders are the three basemen plus the shortstop. While the pitcher and the catcher are also positioned in the infield, they don’t count as infielders.)

15. another here mrpenney@13 Most of brass (cheek) for BRAS.
    I think board and room (separately) are synonymous as verbs.

    Thannkyou flashling for your entertaining and informative blogs this year. Season’s Greetings to you and yours.

16. mrpenney@13
    DRESSING ROOM
    Agree with you on ‘board’.
    After reading your post, searched if board and room as verbs had similar meanings.
    Couldn’t find any such match. Maybe we are missing something.
    BRAS
    Agree again.
    ERNE
    Looks like there are two alternative pronunciations, one of them sounds like ‘EARN’.

17. paddymelon@15
    Sorry. We crossed.
    Do they (board and room) mean the same as verbs?

18. Thought this one was just right – though held up on the last two by having misspelled the answer to 8d

    Favourites were: GARDEN HOSE, IN ERROR, LOSE ONES RAG, DRESSING ROOM, PROFITLESS, DOOM AND GLOOM

    Thanks Everyman and flashling

19. Thanks for the blog, I also thought it was BRAS(s) , two very long complete anagrams for Jay’s list. I found ERNE a bit unusual , referring to another clue typically uses the number 2 and not two.
    GARDEN HOSE , I also wondered about feeding, you can get special attachments to fit on the end of a hose containing feed, a little bit gets dissolved all the time as the water passes through .
    ARCHIMEDES was a nice clue.

20. Roz@19 I took feed to mean supply, just as a another water pipe feeds the house.

21. 23a – I get the more plausible reference to 2d, but the spelling of Erne in old Scottish is Ern, so could be seen as a seabird twice maybe? Only the setter knows.

22. I found this difficult – it took me more than double what I normally reckon to take on a more challenging Everyman and twice my time for Boatman’s prize, which I completed straight after! Lots of clues I finally entered and parsed with a shrug, and I suppose so.

    TOFU doesn’t taste of anything much and only really becomes edible with drying out and lots of flavouring. I’ve eaten it in vegan cheesecake instead of the cream cheese as a bland tasteless base. I actually knew LESOTHO is a monarchy, so that went in easily and parsed UNHINGED the same way as KVa, after squinting at it several times.

    Thank you to Everyman and flashling.

23. Quite tough.

    I could not parse 15ac and 23ac.

    I could not see how BRASH = cheek for 22d. I agree withmrpenney, paddymelon, KVA et al that BRASS = cheek works better.

    Thanks, all.

24. ARCHIMEDES was my favourite, too. As a fully paid-up member of the tofu-eating wokerati, I find it’s OK as a base for carrying other flavours. Merry Christmas, everyone.

25. Good fun I thought. It struck me at the time that TACK is a perfectly acceptable answer for 21d. So crossers are required to confirm STUD.
    Thanks to Everyman and Flashing

26. I also was thinking brass for bras, puts me in mind of those armoured comic ladies. Brash would be cheeky wouldn’t it?
    Living in Vietnam, I too find tofu fine for carrying flavours. I mush prefer the fermented bean curd, Chau, which tastes of blue cheese and the Vietnamese use as a dip.

27. I found this very hard, and only finished in on Tuesday after returning to it frequently.

    GARDEN HOSE – I’d never heard of the forest of Arden, and only found it by googling after I got the answer with crossers.

    ERNE – I’ve only ever seen this spelled in the Scottish way (ERN as mark @ 21 says), so I had ERNS for the longest time. I would never have got the reference to 2d

    UNHINGE – I parsed per KVa @1 (and others), but I thought this was very difficult as a relative beginner

    I loved ARCHIMEDES and LOSE ONES RAG

    Thanks to Everyman and flashling, and Merry Christmas to all.

28. Lots of parsing difficulties this week. Thanks to Flashling for explanations. Not familiar with ‘copped’ = ‘achieved’ – so went searching for definitions & was interested to find so many different meanings particularly in the US.

29. 22 minutes for me, about average. I particularly enjoyed GARDEN HOSE and OHM’S LAW.

30. I failed to parse 23ac (ERNE) for the reason given by Roz @19: In cross-references between clues, I expect the clues to be referred to with numerals (i.e., 2 instead of two). But I guess that convention isn’t universal. Good to know.

    As an American, I was unfamiliar with the expression LOSE ONE’S RAG, but I did know what happened with the Sun, so I was able to guess it.

    Like flashling, I’m not thrilled by the imprecise use of “hearts” in 4dn — I would expect that to mean the centermost parts of the words, leading to UNHIG.

    I liked the discovery that INFIELDERS and FRIENDLIES are anagrams. It seems like this must be one of those things that shows up repeatedly in cryptics, but if so I’ve never seen it (or, just as likely, have seen it and forgotten).

31. I solved this but didn’t submit, as I was away skiing in France, without access to a printer – or a fax machine…perhaps the new Editor will modernise the Guardian/Observer prize puzzle submission process?…

    I couldn’t work out the link to 2D for ERNE – it had to be that from the crossers and definition…so thanks for the explanation(s) above.

    NB. I noticed a ‘Rozalyn’ and a ‘Rosaleen’ listed among this week’s winners – would either of those be our esteemed and prolific commenter ‘Roz’?…

32. mc_rapper @31: I have completed the Prize and Everyman nearly every week for a decade but have never submitted. I’m unwilling to pay international fax or mail charges. If electronic submission were possible, I probably usually would. Maybe they deliberately want to put up little barriers to entry, just high enough to keep the submission pool small and mostly local.

33. Couldn’t see where the Frenchman in 16 fit, and for the life of me couldn’t parse 23. Upon seeing the latter, oh dear! How daft do I feel?
    Happy Xmas all.

34. MC@31 , late reply , I have been celebrating Newton’s birthday. Not guilty alas, I would like some book tokens, I am Roslyn a further spelling but I am named after a Rosalind.

35. A Roz by any other name…(;+>)

36. Didn’t think Lesotho was a monarchy never thought about it tbh just knew it was a land locked enclave.

    11 down: Weaving device was obviously loom, so I could work out gloom then work out the rest. Then I could go back to 3 down, which had foxed me, and knowing that it probably rhymed with 11 down, I then I saw dressing room. The rhyming pair (and the other Everymanisms) really help beginners like me.

    Liked Archimedes, liked the image conjured up.

37. Tofu needs cooking properly, then it’s delicious. Takes its flavour from the sauce you use, and can be quite crispy with the right technique.. Without that it’s like eating a pencil eraser.

38. I circled a number of clues that I thought were rubbish and there were so many that overall I think this was easily the worst Everyman in ages. Was it really by the same setter? They have been so good recently.

    And yes I agree with Brass over Brash, and tofu is foul.

39. Jonathan@37: this must be some new use of the word “delicious” with which I am not familiar.

    Agree with others that the base word is “brass” not “brash” in 22 down.

    Did not make the connection with 2 down, but put in “erne” for 23 across because what else could it be?

    This puzzle was very tough, but not as bad as recent ones have been.
    Most of the clues were difficult-to-impossible, but “Archimedes” was ridiculously easy.

40. Like many I found this incredibly hard – interested that no one else mentioned the 24 ac . I thought it was totally unsolveable and I’d had thought the explanation for Hot Priest could surely not occur to anyone. Ohms law similarly was weird.
    On the plus side I remember clearly the murdoch scandal and thought Lose one’s rag was a fabulous answer to a fabulous clue. The comments on the Erne surprised me, I just looked up seabirds I knew I wouldn’t know North Hemisphere seabirds, and I didnt connect it with earn.
    Glad to have finished eventually in a lot more time than Mr Clever

41. We really enjoyed this but had to come back to it in 2 sittings – when it all fell into place. Loved ARCHIMEDES, ROE DEER, LOSE ONES RAG, HELICOPTER.
    Thanks all!

42. A great puzzle. We loved it even though a bit easy. Erne was the only one that got as, because we don’t see a lot of them there wonder critters round here.
    Hinge was good fun
    Can’t wait for next week.

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