Everyman 4,078 by Everyman

by

Everyman to be solved so time to persuade the dog to take me to the pub

All the usual suspects you’d expect in an Everyman, it seemed to me to be a lot easier than some of late but I’m a little bemused by 20a so ideas are welcome

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Hold together, split apart (6)
CLEAVE

A double def and contronym where the meanings are direct opposites

5. Prudent having tamed mammal before start of December (6)
SHREWD

SHREW – well it’s tamed in the Taming of the Shrew – & start of D(ecember)

8. Make huge amounts of faulty damp-courses (4-7)
MASS PRODUCE

A faulty [DAMP COURSES]*

11. US novelist’s hideous neck bites (9)
STEINBECK

A hideous [NECK BITES]*

12. Dream job as described by croupier? (5)
IDEAL

A croupier might say “I DEAL”

13. Expresses disapproval, having a thing or two (7)
OBJECTS

Double definition

14. Egyptian kings heard in N Atlantic islands (7)
FAEROES

Sounds like PHARAOHS, I made a right mess of my paper’s grid trying to enter the wrong one to begin with and realising it wasn’t going to fit.

15. Shunning middle speed – cam faulty – makes off at speed (7)
DECAMPS

Without the middle of spEed [SP(e)ED CAM]* faulty

17. Stops when Democrat becomes Republican and fights (7)
RESISTS

R(epublican) replacing D(emocrat) in DESISTS

20. Consume in haste – the result? (5)
WASTE

I’m not convinced I fully understand this, If you eat hurriedly you might waste some. I must be missing something here.

21. Flight in which you might be still moving? (9)
ESCALATOR

Well they are continuous moving staircases and if you stand still you move anyway

22. Poem Iris edited before the reader, Scout’s Honour (1,7,3)
I PROMISE YOU

[POEM IRIS]* edited & YOU – the reader

23. Heathen siege surrounds classical city (6)
ATHENS

Hidden in heATHEN Siege

24. Eased a temper? Only somewhat calm (6)
SEDATE

Two consecutive hidden clues – eaSED A TEmper

DOWN
2. Move with difficulty to raise either end of rear in this altered tartan item (10,5)
LUMBERJACK SHIRT

LUMBER – move with difficulty & JACK – to raise & R(ear) or (rea)R in an altered THIS*

3. As spelled out in full, one of Agatha’s poisons (7)
ARSENIC

As is the chemical symbol for Arsenic

4. States’ fast trains (9)
EXPRESSES

Double definition

5. Principally, such provision only requires knife! (5)
SPORK

First letter clue, it’s spoon/fork mix-up

6. Banal comedian’s material (7)
ROUTINE

Double def

7. Surgery query: ‘How red is he?’ … utter jerks (5,4,2,4)
WHERE DOES IT HURT

[HOW RED IS HE UTTER]* jerked

9. Regularly avoided collision reversing in capital city (4)
OSLO

Alternate, reversed letters in cOlLiSiOn

10. Liverpool’s Mo snubbed: flipping shame (4)
ALAS

Most of footballer Mo SALA(h) reversed

14. Predicts California surrounded by trees (9)
FORECASTS

CA(lifornia) inside FORESTS – trees

15. Morning: judo master drinks whiskey (4)
DAWN

W(hiskey) in DAN – judo expert

16. Tennis champ, twitching newcomer taking week off (7)
MCENROE

Without W(eek) NE(w)COMER* twitching

18. Son competed, spread out (7)
SPLAYED

S(on) & PLAYED – competed

19. Agricultural servant to get on board, you say? (4)
SERF

Sounds like SURF

21. Everyman’s ultimately prizeless after Everyman’s up for awards (5)
EMMYS

ME – Everyman reversed & MY – Everyman’s & end of (prizeles)S

Thanks Everyman and merry Christmas and happy new year to you all.

As things stand the future of the Observer remains unclear, we can only hope the crosswords continue when the dust settles.

35 comments on “Everyman 4,078 by Everyman”

  1. Having failed on four in the west I wouldn’t say that this was easier than usual. I could see how 1a worked but couldn’t find the word that would satisfy both conditions. Beaten too by the lumberjack shirt. Still don’t really understand WASTE either though I put it in.

  3. WASTE
    Is it a DD (with one being a CD)?
    Def 1: consume in haste (as in waste money)
    Def 2: the result (of consumption)? —>human waste

  4. Hello , new to this forum. Thank you for a parsing these, flashing.
    22 a comes from the proverb. “Haste makes Waste”. I’m a senior so I know haha.
    THANKS AGAIN

  5. Nice to get one with no need to resort to online methods. Not entirely sure about 19d, a servant to me is someone whose main employment is working for the personal benefit of a master and is for money. A serf to me it is only part of their job and done as part of renting their land access, and the benefit is in effect commercial.

  6. Agree with Mangala@4 about the idiom “Haste names waste”. An online source says it appears in John Ray’s 1678 proverb collection, where the full text is: “Haste makes waste, and waste makes want, and want makes strife between the goodman and his wife.”

    The clue for 21d is an autobiographical reference by the setter. He was recently nominated for an Emmy for something else (non crossword related) but didn’t win! Bad luck, Everyman.

    Thanks to Everyman and flashing and merry Christmas all.

  7. wasnt that happy about 14 across, i’ve only ever known the spelling FAROES… so had PHARAOH in the grid for ages… maybe FAEROES is more common than i realise… but it felt a bit hmm

  8. Like ji1222 @7 I was held up in the NE as I also have only ever seen the islands spelled Faroes.

    Liked SHREWD, ARSENIC, LUMBERJACK SHIRT, RESISTS

    Thanks Everyman and flashling

  9. Favourite: EMMYS, ARSENIC, IDEAL

    Took me a while to work out the soccer reference in 10d but that is one player I have heard brief mention of in the news headlines 🙂

    New for me: the saying ‘Haste makes waste’ (thanks, google) for 20ac which was my LOI.

    Thanks, both.

  10. I was also confused by the spelling of FAROES as FAEROES but guessed it must be an acceptable alternative.
    I liked the two pillars, WHERE DOES IT HURT (first in) and LUMBERJACK SHIRT (favourite), STEINBECK for the neck bites and EMMYS for being a clever clue.
    Thanks commenters for clearing up the parsing of WASTE.
    Thank you to Everyman and flashling.

  11. That FAEROES thing is the aesc (pronounced ash) that’s a letter in its own right in Fa(e)roese, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic. It sounds like the A in cat, so its use changes the pronunciation from our usual FAIR to something like FAAR. Odd inclusion as other words could fit, where ALAS or IDEAL are revised.

  12. Spelling of faeroes stumped me for a while, but it had to be. Waste was my LOI. Thanks for the proverb explanation @mangala.

  13. I put CLEAVE in for 1a but couldn’t figure out why. Never heard of a LUMBERJACK SHIRT but once the J went in, it worked.

  14. Many thanks to Mangala and Jay for their explanation; 20a left me scratching my head and I was relieved to see I wasn’t the only one. When Flashling cannot parse a clue, is it really one that should be in? Apart from that, fairly straightforward.

  15. 20a
    Waste as in wipe out, destroy (to destroy a meal could mean you ate it very quickly)
    waste = homophone waist (increase) result of excess consumption

  16. Kva at 3 also I think
    20a
    Waste as in wipe out, destroy (to destroy a meal could mean you ate it very quickly)
    waste = homophone waist (increase) result of excess consumption

  17. Lots of great interps of waste. I’m for the plain one, à la flashling: to consume (a resource) in haste might (?) result in waste.

  18. [20a “1588 Haste makes waste, as proofe dooth say: And little said, soone mend ye may. A.(Anthony) Munday, Banqvet of Daintie Conceits“]

  19. But we’re also advised to use “more haste less speed” Maybe these proverbalists weren’t bothered about waste?

    Liked STEINBECK although my mum insisted it was Hemingway to the point that I started to doubt myself

    Cheers F&E

  21. Good anagram to make MASS-PRODUCE, the moving flight for ESCALATOR, the moving rear of the LUMBERJACK, the ‘I’m going to catch you’ As for ARSENIC [and it did for a short time], and the twitching newcomer for MCENROE.

    Good discussion about WASTE, I just assumed it was defecatory! As paul b @20 surmised, 20 and 23 were clearly muddled up 😉

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  22. Really enjoyed this week.. but took the whole week to complete!

    3d Why Agatha’s poison? I guess Agatha Christie..

  24. Defeated by the LUMBERJACK SHIRT, didn’t understand WASTE, and discovered that I don’t know how to spell FA(E?)ROES.

  25. I vaguely resent clues that I can’t solve without googling – are we really expected to have heard of specific footballers and know what teams they play for? But then I suppose we all have different “general knowledges” and what is obvious to me is not obvious to others and vice versa.

  26. I always thought the croupier ran the roulette wheel, and the person who dealt blackjack was just called a dealer. I don’t know if that’s a transatlantic thing or just my ignorance (or both!). And I’m another who’d never seen the spelling FAEROES. But other than those, all was well, and I got there in the end.

  27. LUMBERJACK SHIRT; STEINBECK; CLEAVE our top picks this week. The spelling of FAEROES completely stumped us; WASTE was our LOI.
    Overall not bad, certainly pushed us which is no bad thing. Love the link to Everyman being nominated for an Emmy as per earlier comment in this thread – well done!

  28. Not bad. Like Pip I spotted Faroes/Pharoah but took a while to get the spelling that fitted. Don’t get waste – maybe because I had dram for a long time. I like WHERE DOES IT HURT and LUMBERJACK SHIRT and I PROMISE YOU.

  30. To me “Faeroes” was obvious. It had to be homonym of “pharaohs”, and since “Faroes” didn’t fit, stick in an “e”.
    Wikipedia gives both spellings.

    The word “consume” in 20 across does not mesh with the “haste makes waste” proverb, so I’m dubious about this parsing. Like flashling I was dubious about “waste” as the answer, but put it in since what the hell else could it be?

    Overall I enjoyed this puzzle. Got it all out without resort to wildcard dictionaries. Thanks Everyman. Keep ’em coming at this level.

  31. It’s not really a spoiler but I think you’ll begin to enjoy the Everyman more for the next few weeks. Phil

  32. I like this level of difficulty. There is just enough to make the grey cells work overtime, but not too much
    mind boggling trickiness that completely stumps the casual solver.
    Flashling, your mysterious comment about future Everymen is intriguing!
    Thanks to you and he, (them?) for the blog and puzzle.

  34. Really liked waste – a great clue for those with a command of the English language.
    Cath was less 8mpressed but …

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