As always, when I’m blogging at least, a carefully constructed puzzle which should entertain and in places stretch the less experienced solver and provide a diversion for those who’ve been doing the puzzle for decades and have moved on to more challenging cruciverbal contests.
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 Shows articles needing revision
RECITALS
(ARTICLES)* with ‘needing revision’ as the anagrind.
5 Bows found in war chest
ARCHES
Hidden in wAR CHESt.
9 Guiding bovine in German
STEERING
A charade of STEER, IN and G.
10 T-bone? Quite the opposite; it’s a rice dish
PAELLA
A clever clue with a delightful surface. Everyman is inviting you, through ‘quite the opposite’ to remove the T from PATELLA, the knee bone. Too inventive for an entry-level puzzle, I hear you say. Not in my opinion: get all the crossers if you can, and ?A?L?A with ‘rice dish’ as the definition is surely going to get you the answer. Then reverse engineer it and enjoy the setter’s work.
11 Then I get how playing vuvuzela perhaps is epic
GONE WITH THE WIND
A charade of (THEN I GET HOW)* and WIND, of which the vuvuzela, as an instrument, is an example. Margaret Mitchell’s only novel published in her lifetime, and famously adapted into the 1939 film. ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.’
13 Diana Ross’s colleague is kind of chicken
SUPREME
Referencing the group Diana Ross and the Supremes, so a dd.
14 Hide from ultimately hideous family
SKIN
A charade of S and KIN.
18 This kind of jazz makes you leap back
TRAD
A reversal of DART.
19 Great syrups for VIPs
BIGWIGS
A charade of BIG and WIGS. ‘Syrup’ is cockney rhyming slang for WIG, derived from ‘Syrup of Figs’.
23 Bizarrely, some cheer tabloid (a number)
HERE COMES THE SUN
(SOME CHEER)* and THE SUN. The anagrind is ‘bizarrely’ and the ‘number’ is one of the Beatles’.
24 Taking heads – extremely impatiently – ghastly husband, this Henry?
EIGHTH
The initial letters of the last six words of the clue, and a cad.
25 Remove somewhat obese para, temporarily
SEPARATE
Hidden in obeSE PARA TEmporarily.
26 Drank heavily, like an ornamental fish?
TANKED
A dd, the second element somewhat whimsical.
27 Easiest trips taking in Italy, in my view
AS I SEE IT
An insertion of I in (EASIEST)* The anagrind is ‘trips’ and the insertion indicator is ‘taking in’.
Down
1 Quit – and enlist once again?
RESIGN
A dd. In real life, you would have to insert a hyphen to give you RE-SIGN for the second element.
2 Charlie rests, then does housework
CLEANS
A charade of C for the phonetic alphabet ‘Charlie’ and LEANS.
3 Deliberately lose boxing match – no longer bold – waste
THROW OUT
A charade of THROW and [B]OUT.
4 Thinking ahead, men trim logs ornately
LONG-TERMISM
(MEN TRIM LOGS)* with ‘ornately’ as the anagrind.
6 Red Queen’s absorbing a bookworm?
READER
An insertion of A in RED ER for Elizabeth Regina. The insertion indicator is ‘absorbing’.
7 European capital‘s underworld’s dark, they say
HELSINKI
Aural wordplay (‘they say’) for HELL’S INKY.
8 Deputies‘ reputations not good
STAND-INS
STANDIN[G]S
12 Samples including Everyman’s – I’m disgusted – pointless diversions
TIME-WASTERS
An insertion of I’M and EW in TASTERS. The insertion indicator is ‘including’.
15 Ethicist squirming, most uncomfortable
ITCHIEST
(ETHICIST)* with ‘squirming’ as the anagrind.
16 Model and monarch in Iberian kingdom: bit of a dish?
TARRAGON
A charade of the ‘model’ T [Ford] and an insertion of R for Rex or ‘monarch’ in ARAGON. The insertion indicator is ‘in’
17 The quickest learners hurl foodstuffs at senior teachers
EGGHEADS
A charade of EGG and HEADS. ‘John Prescott was egged by a protestor during a rally in Rhyl’.
20 Finally finishes plastic surgery with the sharpened tool
SCYTHE
A charade of SCY for the final letters of ‘finishes’, ‘plastic’ and ‘surgery’ and THE.
21 Who speaks for author who’s pegged it in largish car
ESTATE
A dd. ‘The estate of Roald Dahl negotiated a deal with Netflix for the rights to the author’s classic books.’
22 Consume food – not seriously, you say?
INGEST
Aural wordplay for IN JEST.
Many thanks to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.
Loved the bone minus T PAELLA and HELSINKI.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre!
Little darling, it feels like years since …
Well yes, since GWTW …
Things to reminisce over and enjoy here, thanks E and P.
Thank you Pierre, and agree with your intro a carefully constructed puzzle which should entertain and in places stretch the less experienced solver and provide a diversion for those who’ve been doing the puzzle for decades and have moved on to more challenging cruciverbal contests. That should go on the Everyman puzzle site. A standard I think we would all agree with.
And agree with your blog on PATELLA It was entertaining, with that lovely “aha” moment, which the neuroscientists say is what keeps us cryptocruciverbalists keeping on coming back for more.
Another great surface in TIME-WASTERS, and probably Everyman’s biggest self-referential self-deprecatory chuckle yet.
I don’t know that EGGHEADS are necessarily the quickest learners. I lean more towards Collins someone (who) is more interested in ideas and theories than in practical actions and the non-attributed derogatory definition on Onelook A coldly out of personal touch intellectual.
Learned something new with the Cockney syrup for wig.
[It seems that the new Click to Edit feature on 15sq gives the time available proportionate to the length of our posts. I had 2 mins 53 secs to edit, but I’ve used most of that up writing this. Hope I haven’t missed anything. 🙂 ]
[No, still up over 2 minutes 50 something seconds for my second one. .Maybe they’ve given us more time on Everyman. 🙂 ]
I think EIGHTH must be my all-time favourite of the ‘primarily’ clues. They are often pretty inventive, but this one is superb. “Taking heads” indeed! And the doubly matching pair: GONE/COME and WIND/SUN. Lots of fun. Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.
I think Everyman must have been INGEST when he clued SYRUP-of-WIGS. Despite being regularly dosed with it a child, I had never heard it’s cockney meaning.
I thought this was a perfectly pitched Everyman, so thanks both.
paddymelon@3
Agree with you about Pierre’s intro. However, beginners may complain about the bone-T and the inky hell types.
Someone calls it a work of fiction. Someone calls it holy. There’s always room (rooms because it’s …?) for more epithets.
Chambers says egghead is ‘an intellectual’ (informal).
[That Onelook definition is from Wiktionary].
KVa@8.Noted the definitions of EGGHEAD. I still maintain they’re not necessarily the quickest learners. Maybe I’m being self-referential here. 🙂
Re PATELLA. I hope that Everyman newbie solvers come here and learn, as I did when starting out, some of the tricks to look out for, with the help of our illustrious bloggers and fellow solvers. I must admit it was my last to parse.
I have to give it to Alan Connor though for his riff on the classic Rufus clue for Patella which I also only learned through cryptic blogs.
TWO GIRLS, ONE ON EACH KNEE….This one?
I agree with TassieTim@6’s favourites, especially the primarily EIGHTH at 24a, and I would join KVa and paddymelon to add 10a PAELLA to that list.
The clue for 4d was fine, but I hate the solution – what a horrible word. I’m 5’5” and I like to look people in the eye; I guess that makes me guilty of shortism. Having just made up that word, do I now qualify as a neologismist?
Thanks Everyman for the fun and Pierre for the excellent blog.
Thanks for the blog , pretty good overall and the standard features were very well done this week. For PAELLA I must disagree , we need to reverse T-bone to get bone-T , then change the hyphen to a minus sign, then think of a bone lacking T , all very clever but not suitable for an Everyman puzzle.
Paddymelon@10, that Rufus clue is the title of a book by Alan Connor
Loved the pair (the two long ones). HERE COMES THE SUN was my FOI – tabloid gave it away.
Got PAELLA quickly but without parsing till I saw a comment in the cryptic comments referring to Rufus’ clue – then I got it.
Also like: HELSINKI, TARRAGON, TANKED
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
Yes, Jay@14.. I hope the conversation here will open doors.
I noticed the single word anagram appeared in the 1A position for a second week in a row. Last week it was introduces/reductions. Something to keep an eye on…
There was a version of that Rufus clue in an FT crossword in the last week or so, Moo, 17620, “Girls showing a bit of leg.”, from 4 January, which meant I had that clue in mind when I solved this.
I found this straightforward and a quicker solve.
Thank you to Pierre and Everyman.
Quite so Jay@17 .
A lovely crossword with some superb clues as others have noted. None of the usual Everyman devices though – but perhaps a new recurring theme as Jay pointed out.
Perfect Sunday breakfast fare.
Thanks Setter and Blogger
Nice puzzle yet again. I’m not entirely comfortable with the plural FOODSTUFFS clueing the singular EGG. Why not simply “foodstuff” which is also in the dictionary?
Matthew Newell@20 – I counted all the trademarks here:
* 24a is the primarily clue,
* 12d is the self-referential clue,
* the matching pair are opposites as sometimes happens: HERE COMES THE SUN and GONE WITH THE WIND,
* a single word anagram at 1a,
* a place name at 7d,
all regulars in the Everyman – they just haven’t been highlighted.
Lately I find the Saturday Prize puzzle to be easier than the Everyman which I would no longer describe as an entry-level puzzle. I would not recommend beginners to try the Everyman puzzles – they are better off with the regular weekly Cryptic, Quiptic and Prize puzzles.
I could not parse 10ac but felt sure it must be the rice dish PAELLA; 19ac BIGWIGS; 21d ESTATE.
New for me: TANK = drink heavily (for 26ac).
Thanks, both.
Maybe I’m dense, but SAMPLES is TASTES and SAMPLERS are TASTERS. The clue doesn’t fit the answer. Can somebody clarify this?
Morning fazale. TASTERS and SAMPLES could be equivalent if you consider them both as nouns: ‘There were some tasters/samples of continental cheeses on offer.’
We had small tasters of everything on the menu.
Another fun crossword with good variety. Having cut my teeth on (Alan Scott’s) Everyman over many years, finding a few sticky clues in each puzzle has never bothered me. Those with simple definitions (albeit complex wordplay) such as “rice dish” for PAELLA were more accessible than something like “epic” for GWTW. What was off-putting were references to Everyman as a beginner’s puzzle which I find rather patronising. Thanks Pierre and Everyman.
My first Everyman completed unaided, thankyou. What a pleasure after some of the recent ones. And by Tuesday evening as well.
Thanks all for the enjoyment and such a supportive blog.
Pamela @ 27, fazale @ 24 and Michelle @ 23: I agree with all three of you!
Wellback@31
That TASTERS=SAMPLES has been explained by Pierre@25 and GrahamP@26.
Adding to their effort …
TASTER (Collins)
a sample or preview of a product, experience, etc, intended to stimulate interest in the product, experience, etc, itself
the single serves as a taster for the band’s new album
Beginner here (if six months counts as beginner.) I was encouraged by the comment that many readers/commenters will have been doing this for decades!
I got all but Paella (but agree it’s a brilliant clue, bit of a groan) and Dart (not a music listener).
Loved it and did it in a hour! thanks Everyman and Pierre!
12d why ‘ew’? I got the rest.
GrahamP @ 21 – I read EGG as “hurl foodstuffs”, i.e. as a verb.
I’m struggling to understand the inclusion of the self-referential “Everyman’s” in TIME-WASTERS – the clue gives us “I’m”, so what is the self-reference providing?
Edited to add thanks to Everyman and Pierre.
I’m afraid Google and Wikipedia threw me on Iberian Kingdom. Which gives us the Kingdom of Iberia, located in present day Eastern Georgia. I would have preferred use of the term peninsula.
TIMEWASTERS
Tony Smith@34
“I’m disgusted”=EW (an exclamation expressing disgust)
tony Smith @34,TanTrumpPet @35.
Everyman’s gives us I’M, I’m disgusted gives us EW (an expression of disgust)
Put them in TASTERS and you get TIME-WASTERS
OK I get it though I can’t recall the expression being used, ugh, yuk, etc. yes but not ew!
Thanks Crispy.
And KVa sorry, just spotted you.
Syrups for WIGS was unknown to me; maybe a ‘cockney’ addition needed?
I got PAELLA fairly easily; it might have been better to just put: ‘Not T-bone … but I liked it anyway. I also appreciated the ‘no longer bold’ boxing match and the model who was ‘a bit of a dish.’
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
TanTrumPet@35
Ah! New meaning of the verb for me. Thanks.
‘EW‘ and other Words Added to the Scrabble Dictionary 2018
Much to love here. T-bone’s opposite was pure brilliance, even if in hindsight for this solver, as were taking heads and the symmetry of both longest entries.
Re: BIGWIGS, Collins online gives syrup straight away as “(British slang) a wig” at #5.
Many thanks for the puzzle and the blog.
Nothing much to add here. As usual, I found Everyman to be a diverting bit of fun.
The best version of the RESIGN/RE-SIGN trick that I ever saw was in an American cryptic (by Patrick Berry, I think): “What you do when your contract is up! (6)” with the exclamation point being the US convention to signal an &lit.
[I also wanted to add how much I loathe GWTW. Setting aside the many problematic racial issues and revisionist history in it–enough reason to hate it right there–the movie is a full hour too long. In particular, the part after the war (so pretty much everything after the intermission) drags dreadfully.]
Definite chapeau for PATELLA.
Loved the crossword. Always love Pierre’s blogs. Just a note to say it’s Everyman 4,029, though. If anyone tried to find it in future….
@shane 22. I must have still been half asleep when I wrote that. If the new edit function lasted days rather than hours I might be tempted to spare my blushes.
Whoops. Thank you Jayjay for the numerical correction. I’ll change it.
Why is DART “leap back:”?
That kind of jazz (TRAD) makes you leap (DART) backwards.
Nice puzzle.
Got Paella but didn’t understand why. Similarly: Trad – didn’t know dart was a synonym for leap, I thought leap (verb) was just for jumpy springy hoppy movements.
Gone With The Wind: was thinking for a while of an epic ending in “the horn”. I thought “then I get how” was anagram fodder followed by “horn”.
Estate: My reading of the clue is that it implies that “the estate of…” refers only to deceased authors!
Liked: Supreme.
Didn’t like: Tarragon. Too many r’s. First time around I immediately thought of model T + Castille or Aragon then dismissed it. Wiki warns me not to confuse Aragon with LOTR’s Aragorn.
Stared at 19 across and 17 down unsuccessfully even though I had all the crossing letters. Then 24 hours later I got them in a flash.
Peter@28 re 4d LONGTERMISM, is it a word? It is now 🙂 . See my comment @12 above.
TanTrumpet@35. Further to your question about the “self-referential” clue, today’s being TIME-WASTERS. I’m not sure if you were asking about Everyman’s>I’m, or why it’s described as “self-referential”.
Everyman always (as far as I can remember) has a clue where he refers to himself, which in the answer could be I or me, or Everyman’s as my or mine, or I’m (Everyman is) or I’ve (Everyman has). Characteristically, the surfaces are a little joke at Everyman’s own expense. Alan Connor/Everyman has acknowledged this somewhere. It’s one I look for to enjoy each week. TIME-WASTERS I found especially funny, as the inference, for me, is that Everyman is defining his samples (crosswords) as pointless diversions, and that, by extension, we, the solvers, are engaging in such time-wasting, pointless diversions, and can all have a laugh at ourselves.
Roz@13: thanks for an explanation of PAELLA that actually managed to explain to me how it worked!
I liked the Roz@13 explanation on paella too. I got it due to rice dish with the down letters I already had couldn’t be anything else, but did struggle to understand why!
My second full-house on the run. Lots of comments about Everyman getting too hard on here. I think it’s pitched just about right! 80% of it I find very gettable and fun to do. Lots more head scratching on the last 5 or so, but thankfully I have more letters to work with by then and often just find the definition and suss it from there…
3,950 was my first Everyman.
Only got PAELLA from definition and crossers, confirmed by a spoiler on last week’s blog. It wasn’t till I read Roz’s explanation above that I fully accepted it. Very difficult for an Everyman, I’d say.
21dn, ESTATE: I think “author” refers to the author of a will.
Cellomaniac@12, I think it would be ‘neologist’ (and is, in fact)
PAELLA is quite easy to solve with a clear definition and helpful crossing letters but I think for Everyman the explanation should be fairly simple, this was more like Enigmatist/IO , a cue for a favourite clue.
With a single dash , we see him lose his get-up-and-go (8) .
Letters to help _T_E_K_R .
Roz@58 Nice, and what a surface!!! (I’d consider it rather more straightforward than the diabolic clue for PAELLA though 😮
Jayuu , easy to solve but a clever bit. get-up-and- go means energy/activity , with a SINGLE dash it becomes get-up ( clothes) and go (run) .
The dash in T-bone reminded me of it.
@Roz Sure, but I’d say the clue is a – very clever – &lit. with dash being a part of it in 2 different senses. This actually made me think of RECITALS from this one, which, according to Collins, is also “(often plural) law the preliminary statement…” and thus “needing revision” from the clue (with articles for items).
There was a character in Minder called The Syrup.
He wore one.
I’m still of the view that there is more than one Everyman despite the denials. This had a different feel and the majority were write ins. NE SE SW NW, job done.
Not convinced by the WP of Paellla but the answer came readily enough with a few crossers, indeed it was one of my last ones in.
Quickest learners are not always eggheads!
After 56 years teaching!
Spent my first 28 years in London. Even lived in Stepney and had syrup of figs a few times but never heard it connected it with wigs. Saw long term instantly but can’t find long term ism in Chambers’s ( thats the spelling in my 1958 ed’n) or Oxford.
AND in my opinion anyone who says Everyman is entry level is simply bragging.
Pleasant.
Agree – not entry level.
Paddymelon@3:
“…in places stretch the less experienced solver”.
Stretched this solver past the breaking point.
This puzzle was impossible.