Everyman 4,067 by Everyman

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4067.

It would hardly be an Everyman without the trademark items, highlighted in the grid. I thought last week’s offering was a little knottier than usual, but here 6D NAIROBI is the only elaborate parsing.

ACROSS
1 CHERUB
Chubby harpist, Edenic resident – unearthly being, primarily! (6)
The ‘primarily’ clue to greet you, and provide an easy way into the puzzle: first letters (‘primarily’) of the first six words of the clue, with an &lit definition.
5 MINUTE
Tiny something taken by secretary (6)
Double definition.
8 CANDLESTICK
Jack’s obstacle making Cedric and Les tickled in part (11)
A hidden answer (‘in part’) in ‘CedriC AND LES TICKled’, with reference to the nursery rhyme, which, it seems, refers to one Black Jack, a pirate adept at avoiding the authorities:

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack jump over the candlestick.
11 ILLNESSES
Everyman’s going to heads, having complaints (9)
A charade of I’LL (‘Everyman’s going to’) plus NESSES (‘heads’).
12 OPINE
Express view in ode to a Christmas tree? (5)
O PINE (an invocation, ‘ode to a Christmas tree?’).
13 HABITUÉ
Slapdash, a bit, UEFA’s only partly regular (7)
A hidden answeer (‘only partly’) in ‘slapdasH A BIT UEfa’.
14 CHICORY
Leaves by swish old railway (7)
A charade of CHIC (‘swish’) plus O (‘old’) plus RY (‘railway’).
15 PERFECT
Kind of tense? Ideal (7)
Double definition.
17 MONITOR
Twerp in middle of heath finding track (7)
An envelope (‘in middle of’) of NIT (‘twerp’) in MOOR (‘heath’).
20 LAYER
Coat chicken? (5)
Double definnition (the second an example, hence the question mark).
21 KNOTTIEST
King, extremely stuck up, beheaded: most awkward! (9)
A charade of K (‘king’, chess notation) plus [s]NOTTIEST (‘extremely stuck up’) minus its first letter (‘beheaded’).
22 IN GOOD FAITH
Oath: if doing, perform honestly (2,4,5)
An anagram (‘perform’) of ‘oath if doing’.
23 ONESIE
For himself, the king’s – that is to say – casual apparel (6)
A charade of ONE’S (‘for himself, the king’s’ – but I would associate the royal we with a king, rather than the impersonal personal pronoun) plus I.E. (id est, ‘that is to say’).
24 TAGINE
Cheers! Drink, then eastern casserole (6)
A charade of TA (‘cheers’) plus GIN (‘drink’) plus E (‘eastern’). A cooking pot or a stew cooked in it.
DOWN
2 HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Fruit, N. European, for Tom Sawyer’s pal (11,4)
A charade of HUCKLEBERRY (‘fruit’) plus FINN (‘N. European’).
3 RANKEST
Ken Starr not quite liberal, extremely gross (7)
An anagram (‘liberal’) of ‘Ken Star[r]’ minus the last letter (‘not quite’).
4 BALLSIEST
Bastille’s stormed, tougher than the rest (9)
An anagram (‘stormed’) of ‘Bastilles’. Everyman likes his one-word anagrams.
5 MOSES
Biblical lawgiver saunters with yen to depart (5)
A subtraction: MOSE[y]S (‘saunters’) minus the Y (‘with yen to depart’).
6 NAIROBI
Book with the writer supporting N. African capital – not about Kenyan city (7)
A charade of ‘N.’ plus [c]AIRO (‘African capital’) minus the C (‘not about’ – C being the abbreviation for circa) plus B (‘book’) plus I (‘the writer’), with ‘supporting’ in a down light indicating the order of the particles.
7 TAKE IT ON THE CHIN
Inane, thick tot – he misbehaves – grin and bear it (4,2,2,3,4)
An anagram (‘misbehaves’) of ‘inane thick tot he’.
9 HIGH
Drug-addled greeting heard (4)
Sounds like (‘heard’) HI (‘greeting’).
10 LEVY
Tax riverside protection in announcement (4)
Sounds like (‘in announcement’) LEVEE (‘riverside protection’).
14 COME OFF IT
Stop using smartphones, laptops etc? As if (4,3,2)
A play on IT as Information Technology.
15 PALS
What the crossword setter sees as exquisite, friends! (4)
The ‘crossword setter sees’ SLAP UP (‘exquisite’) in a down liight.
16 ENRAGES
Tangled dungarees abandoned by Dutch causes vexation (7)
An anagram (‘tangled’) of ‘[du]ngarees’ minus DU (‘abandoned by Dutch’).
18 NETTING
Taking home fishing kit (7)
Double definition, the first a reference to take-home pay.
19 ROTA
Schedule a hill to climb (4)
A reversal (‘to climb’ in a down light) of A TOR (‘a hill’).
21 KRONE
Merry after skipping starter: broken bread in Scandinavia (5)
An anagram (‘merry’, tosticated) of ‘[b]roken’ minus its first letter (‘after skipping starter’); ‘bread’ as money. Quite a bit of deception.

picture of the completed grid

39 comments on “Everyman 4,067 by Everyman”

  1. Yes, a more straightforward solve this week. PALS was the obvious solution for 15D, but I had no idea how the clue worked. I’m still not convinced that a slap up meal is ‘exquisite’ – plentiful, yes, but not necessarily refined.

  2. Thanks PeterO. Yes, NAIROBI was very dense. I wondered if SLAP UP, might also be a bit of a stretch if unfamiliar with rebus type clues. And KRONE a challenge.
    TAKE IT ON THE CHIN was a great surface and and anagram fodder. Inane, thick tot – he misbehaves.
    Liked CHICORY and OPINE as well.

    Looked up Ken Starr in RANKEST, not that it matters, and could just be made up. Assumed he would be British, but I found a leading USA prosecutor who was instrumental in Hilary Clinton’s downfall and defence of Donald Trump. I suppose, depending on your perspective, he could be considered as not quite liberal (as Republicans define themselves) and extremely gross.

  3. KRONE was straightforward, I thought – but then we have a son living in Sweden. Anybody else confidently start 3d with RING[O] before the penny dropped? Possibly the intended misdirection. Huck Finn was about as straightforward as they get. Enjoyable. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.

  4. ONESIE
    Found this interesting:
    … example near the end of 1992, which was a difficult year for the British royal family, as the Queen famously quipped “Annus horribilis”, the tabloid newspaper The Sun published a headline, “One’s Bum Year!”

    href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_(pronoun)#:~:text=but%20non%2Dspecific.-,Royal%20one,%2C%20%22One’s%20Bum%20Year!%22″ rel=”nofollow ugc”

    Well. It wasn’t about the king. I don’t know if he is (Royal) ONE too.

    Liked PALS (no issues with SLAP-UP), TAKE IT ON THE CHIN and KRONE.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

    Edit: Sorry. I made some mistake while placing the link. Unable to correct it.

  6. LOi: 15d SLAP-UP, a phrase I’d only ever seen before in British comics in the ’50s, and always referring to meals. Never had occasion to look up its meaning till now:
    ‘slang and colloquial. Very or unmistakably good or fine; of superior quality, style, etc.; first-rate, first-class, grand. (Common in 19th cent.)
    a. 1823– Of things. Now used esp. of meals.’
    First cited: ‘1823 Slap-up, used for ‘bang-up’. ‘Tis northern. ‘J. Bee’, Slang 161′
    Last sighted: ‘1977 There was a slap-up tea at the institute. Lancashire Life November 74/2′
    [There’s also ‘b. 1829– Of persons.’, but all citations are “19th cent.”]
    Very dated 🙁

  8. … but oed,com isn’t so sure:
    UK — /ˈlɛvi/ LEV-ee — /ˈlɛveɪ/ LEV-ay — /ləˈviː/ luh-VEE
    US — /ˈlɛvi/ LEV-ee — /ləˈvi/ luh-VEE — /ləˈveɪ/ luh-VAY
    Thanks E&PO

  10. Yes more straightforward than last week’s but KNOTTIEST held me up in the SE

    Liked: LEVEE, CHICORY, ONESIE, MOSES

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO

  11. KVa and PeterO – King Charles says “one”, not we. Can’t remember a royal saying the royal we. They do say we, referring to e.g. husband and I, but not otherwise.

    I slightly stuck myself on KRONE and so KNOTTIEST by mistyping in ONESIE, but otherwise far more straightforward for an Everyman.

    Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.

  12. Thanks for the blog , I tend to agree with Mike@1 for slap-up but Chambers does support the setter .
    PDM@2 , Ken Starr more famous for the Starr Report and the attempt to impeach Bill Clinton .Frankie @7 , American Pie also has Jack be nimble … etc referring to Mick Jagger at Altamont.

  13. I thought this was an excellent crossword and one of the best amongst recent ones. ‘Onesie’ = King Charles does say “one”. It was Queen Victoria who is said to have used “we”.

  15. Hi. I’m new here. I’m feeling my way into Cryptics through the Quick, Quiptic and Everyman at the weekends. Thanks to everyone who posts these blogs – really helpful for the beginner.

    Could someone tell me what the highlighted “trademark” items are for Everyman, please? Many thanks in advance.

  17. PALS was LOI for me, another one “ungettable” from the clue, to explain which you rather have to de-parse the answer. Failed that again though, same as with last week’s DOLPHIN. Both NAIROBI and KRONE were quite deceiving (and thus satisfactory in the end).

    Thank you, Everyman and PeterO

  18. Mozza@15: a rhyming pair (bluish), a one-word anagram (brown), a ‘primarily’ clue (creme?), a self-reference (pink), a geographical location (green). [The latter was self-referential as well this time.]

  21. Mozza @15
    Welcome. Apologies for the omission in the preamble: it is all too easy to be reluctant to repeat the same information for each blog, and forget that there may be someone coming here for the first time. jayuu @18 has already given you the rundown; I would add that the”rhyming pair” is often just that, in symmetrically placed long answers, but Everyman sometimes links answers in other ways (contrasting ideas such as BACK-pedalling and FRONT-benchers in #4,063; or repeated initial letter, such as Tongue Twisters, Tools of The Trade and Treasure Trove in #4,031)

  22. I struggled to parse NAIROBI and PALS. Many thanks PeterO for your explanations. I liked TAKE IT ON THE CHIN, CHERUB and BALLIEST. It’s lovely to see a new contributer Mozza – keep asking questions, there’s always someone who can and will answer. Thanks to Everyman. 😎

  24. Unusually for my friend in France and me, this was a DNF. Although we both got PALS for 15dn, we couldn’t parse it. We’ve never come across this device before, where the ‘indicator’ is lurking in the synonym rather than the clue itself.
    21ac was one of those instances where I heard a word in my childhood and inferred the meaning without ever looking it up. I’d always assumed ‘snotty’ meant unpleasant or argumentative, rather than ‘stuck up’.
    21ac was just a tad too convoluted for us. Merry didn’t suggest an anagrind, and we failed to spot the alternative meaning of bread, despite it cropping up in a recent puzzle!

  26. I meant to mention that SNOOTIEST came to mind as ‘extremely stuck up’ but of course the K didn’t fit. A clever bit of misdirection!
    Very good point @muffin I entirely agree.

  28. I would like to point out to Ludwig or whoever he is that -iest suffixes belong with superlative adjectives, and that extremely is an adverb.

  29. occasional @28
    … but ‘extremely stuck up” is an adjective phrase; or, to put it another way, an adverb may modify an adjective.

  31. Hi PeterO

    Extremely stuck up only suggests stuck up to an extent, even where that extent is somewhat great, thereby allowing for the idea that there may be others who are more stuck up — some people could be snottier.

    OTOH most awkward for KNOTTIEST seems okay, depending on the inferred meaning pointing to the most awkward problem (there are no problems as knotty) rather than a most awkward problem (there are other similarly awkward problems).

    Fine lines for sure, but I’ll never be a fan of extremely stuck up = snottiest.

  33. Enjoyed the ode and the slap up, but put me down as another unconvinced with exquisite as a synonym for it. More lavish or ott than refined. Minor quibble in an otherwise good crossword.

  36. Happy with this one but I spent some time trying to find a reference for “kloofiest” as “most awkward”,
    from “aloofiest”. I didn’t have “netting” at that stage.

  37. Good puzzle. Could not parse “Nairobi” and “pals”, but they were easy enough to get, especially the latter.

  39. COULD not parse pals and it still doesn’t make sense. Levee pronounced Levay also means a wake up ceremony for a French king or in in British a sort of Royal at-home open to those who have been introduced or invited.
    I liked ON THE CHIN and IN GOOD FAITH

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