As it’s Everyman, you’d expect all the standard features to be present and correct.
And indeed they are. We have the linked solutions (this week they’re back to rhyming) at 12ac and 20ac, the acrostic at 1dn, the self-reference at 21dn and the geographical reference at 19dn. One slight deviation from the norm is the use of italics in a couple of the clues (6ac and 11dn). I’m not convinced that they add anything at all, if I’m honest.
And another possible deviation: I couldn’t help wondering about a mini-theme around A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I know Everyman doesn’t do themes, but I was struck, after OTTO popped up, that we also have references to weaving at 15ac (Bottom was a weaver by trade) and to a LOVE POTION (something Oberon tells Puck to smear on the eyes of Titania after she DROPs OFF in order to make her fall in love with the transformed Bottom, presumably involving some ESSENTIAL OIL…) But maybe I’m just overthinking things.
One clue where I definitely am overthinking – or possibly underthinking – things is 3dn. I’ve stared at this for a long time in the hope that enlightenment may dawn, but though the wordplay is clear enough I can’t really see what the definition is driving at. Your thoughts are welcome, as ever. And while I’m here, I must give a shout-out to 13dn, which I thought was a very clever clue indeed (Vulcan had a similar idea last Monday with REINVENT, but I think Everyman’s was much classier). Thanks to Everyman.
MOH’s fabricated hardness scale rating: Calcite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LOVE POTION |
Zero choice, quietly moving to find romantic elixir (4,6)
|
| LOVE (zero) + OPTION (choice) with the P (quietly) moving to the front | ||
| 6 | SANS |
Without partisanship? Not entirely … (4)
|
| Hidden answer (not entirely) in partiSANShip | ||
| 9 | DANCE MUSIC |
DJ’s tunes displaying acumen: disco, mostly (5,5)
|
| Anagram (displaying) of ACUMEN DISC[o] (disco mostly) | ||
| 10 | OTTO |
Shakespearean ass stripped off, revealing German lad (4)
|
| [b]OTTO[m] minus its outer letters (stripped off). In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nick Bottom has his head transformed by Puck into that of an ass | ||
| 12 | GO OFF THE BOIL |
Paper in error, ultimately, with the glib ‘Grease To Lose Steam‘ (2,3,3,4)
|
| FT (Financial Times, newspaper) in GOOF (error) + HEB (last letters – ultimately – of witH thE gliB) + OIL (grease) | ||
| 15 | ENTWINE |
Topless bloke – given plonk – to start weaving? (7)
|
| ENT ([g]ent minus its first letter – topless bloke) + WINE (plonk) | ||
| 16 | DROP OFF |
Unload – and snooze (4,3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | NANNIES |
Might one of these have an issue with kids …? (7)
|
| Cryptic definition referring to nanny goats and their kids, “issue” of course being standard crossword-speak for offspring | ||
| 19 | MIDWIFE |
… Labour leader? (7)
|
| Cryptic-ish definition | ||
| 20 | ESSENTIAL OIL |
Aromatherapist’s regular purchase, must-have painting (9,3)
|
| ESSENTIAL (must-have) + OIL (painting) | ||
| 23 | TRAP |
Ruse; persona backfired (4)
|
| Reversal (backfired) of PART (persona, as in a theatrical role or part) | ||
| 24 | IN GOOD TIME |
Gnome, idiot, ridiculously early (2,4,4)
|
| Anagram (ridiculously) of GNOME IDIOT | ||
| 25 | DALI |
Artist, Dutch heavyweight (4)
|
| D + (Muhammad) ALI | ||
| 26 | SEA ANEMONE |
Becoming tongue-twisted, lay eyes on a foe, tentacled beast (3,7)
|
| Sounds almost like “see an enemy” (lay eyes on a foe) – hence “becoming tongue-twisted” as the homophone indicator. I shall expect a few harrumphs about this one | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LIDO |
Primarily, location inviting dipping outdoors? (4)
|
| First letters (primarily) of Location Inviting Dipping Outdoors with the wordplay as extended definition | ||
| 2 | VANE |
Meteorological device useless in broadcast (4)
|
| Sounds like (in broadcast) “vain” (useless) | ||
| 3 | PREPOSITIONS |
Before jobs advertised, terms often stated? (12)
|
| PRE (before) + POSITIONS (jobs, or jobs advertised?). Rather than the grammatical term, perhaps the definition is referring to a negotiation where each side begins by laying out its pre-positions/advertised terms? But either way, what is “often stated” adding? To be honest, I don’t think I’ve got to the bottom of this, so please weigh in with better suggestions… | ||
| 4 | TRUFFLE |
Sweet time raising tiny creature with expensive coat (7)
|
| T (time) + reversal (raising, in a down clue) of ELF (tiny creature) FUR (expensive coat | ||
| 5 | OMITTED |
In Oxford English Dictionary, slang for ‘hand’ left out (7)
|
| Insertion of MITT (slang for hand) into OED | ||
| 7 | ASTRONOMIC |
Fond of food, topless, enormous (10)
|
| [g]ASTRONOMIC (fond of food, topless) | ||
| 8 | SHOPLIFTER |
Customer for whom every purchase is a steal? (10)
|
| Cryptic definition. Actually it’s quite a literal definition | ||
| 11 | SECOND FIDDLE |
Another swindle from junior partner (6,6)
|
| Another swindle could indeed be a second fiddle | ||
| 13 | REINVENTED |
Uselessly intervened – vis-à- vis wheel? (10)
|
| Anagram (uselessly) of INTERVENED, reinventing the wheel being a paradigm of useless intervention, so an &lit | ||
| 14 | STANDS TALL |
Inertia – flipping extremes in inertia – then assumes proud position (6,4)
|
| STANDST[i]LL (inertia) with the I changed to an A (flipping extremes in InertiA) | ||
| 18 | SCIENCE |
Game licence’s not beginning to show discipline (7)
|
| Anagram (game) of [L]ICENCES (not beginning) | ||
| 19 | MOLDOVA |
Taking some paracetamol, do VapoRub somewhere in E Europe (7)
|
| Hidden answer (taking some) in paracetaMOL DO VAporub | ||
| 21 | BIRO |
‘Terrible bore’ largely describing Everyman as a writer (4)
|
| Anagram (terrible) of BOR[e] (bore largely) around (describing) I (Everyman) | ||
| 22 | MERE |
No more than a lake (4)
|
| Double definition |
Good puzzle. More like the old Everyman, than recent ones.
Having dealt with several legal agreements in my working life, I parsed 3d Before (PRE), jobs advertised (POSITIONS), terms often stated- definitions in a legal document used as PREPOSITIONS [e.g., Grand Bank of Timbaktu (“Bank”)]. I am probably wrong.
Thanks E and moh
I realise now that I confused PRONOUNS with PREPOSITIONS. Please ignore my comment.
Thanks MOH. I was also puzzled about PREPOSITIONS. And thanks WordSDrove@1. I thought you wete on the right track with PREPOSTIONS being legal terms. Looked it up and found examples such as in lieu of, in accordance with.
As for the parsing, on re-reading with that in mind, and with tbe QM, my guess is it’s meant to be the whole clue as definition.
Quibble with the definition of SHOPLIFTER being a “customer” if every “puchase” is a steal. No custom, no purchase. Though I get the QM and the humour. They certainly get a “bargain”/”a steal” that everyone else has to pay for in some way.
The word SHOPLIFTER always strikes me as odd, the idea of someone stealing/lifting a whole shop.
Also TRUFFLE as a “sweet” (very broad definition) didn’t occur to me as I don’t have a sweet tooth. Prefer the mushroom delicacy. But got there with the wordplay.
Similarly MOLDOVA, “somewhere in E Europe”, wordplay very gettable and entertaining. How did Everyman come up with that?
Paracetamol and Vaporub very much the go down here at the moment with one of our coldest winters on record, and major flu outbreaks.
I did like SEA ANEMONE – rare for me to agree about homophones as I am a rhotic speaker (a term I’d never heard of until I started doing cryptic crosswords) though I usually get them now.
Also liked: DALI, TRUFFLE, SECOND FIDDLE
Thanks Everyman and MOH
A bit of a grr for 6a where the “Not entirely ” WithOUT is PART rather than SANS. I thought this a generally fair Everyman with a number of smiles – OTTO, TRUFFLE & DROP OFF.
Thanks E & MOH
SEA ANEMONE
Sounds like ‘see an emeny’ —tongue-twisted is a homophone indicator +a twisting indicator? ’emeny’ has to be twisted to ‘enemy’.
SANS
The def is ‘without’. I think underlining is inadvertently missed out by the blogger.
PREPOSITIONS
Agree with WordSDrove@1. I can’t see any def for the part of speech PREPOSITION.
Seems intentional on the part of the setter. There could always be a better explanation.
Let’s wait and see.
Liked REINVENTED.
Thanks Everyman and MOH (great blog as usual).
I interpreted 14D as STAND STALL and didn’t get the flipping bit at all.
KVa@8. SEA ANEMONE. So the parsing is made up of 2 homophones, one forward and one reversed?
sea an/see an plus reversal of enome/enemy.
When I tackled this I thought of the tongue-twister ”She sells sea shells by the seashore”, but it turns out that Everyman was more devious than that.
I believe that PREPOSITIONS is as I suggested @3. following @1. Legal term. CAD. Awaiting any better suggestion.
I failed to parse 14d and also the HEB bit of 12ac.
I parsed 3d in the same way as WordSDrove Before (PRE) + jobs advertised (POSITIONS) with the def being ‘terms often stated’, referring to legal prepositional phrases which I found when googling it:
A prepositional phrase is a group of words that includes a preposition, the noun or pronoun that is the preposition’s object, and any words that modify that object.
The following sentence contains two prepositional phrases that are bolded:
• According to the contract, tenants must pay rent on the third day of each month.
ref: https://law.rwu.edu/sites/law/files/downloads/Academic%20Success/Prepositional%20Phrases.pdf
[Whoops – thanks KVa @8, underlining now supplied for 6ac]
paddymelon@10
SEA ANEMONE
I think it is a tongue twister (which is inherently a homophone indicator).
ENEMY’s tongue-twister could be EMENY.
An unconventional clue. Difficult to categorise it.
PREPOSITIONS
I saw your suggestion, but couldn’t get why it’s a CAD. Looks like one def (terms often stated)+one WP (before…jobs advertised).
Of course, I am not 100% certain. There could be more to this clue.
I thought that this was difficult for an Everyman. Indeed, I failed on
MIDWIFE, REINVENTED and TRAP. Probably more my stupidity rather than there being anything wrong with the clues – although “leader” for a midwife is a bit iffy. But there were others I had to stare at for a week before I worked them out. Had no idea how the parsing for PREPOSITIONS worked despite it having to be the answer.
I don’t think ‘terms often stated’ in 3d is anything more subtle than another of Everyman’s customary loose definitions. As such it didn’t bother me more than they usually do.
I found that hard and couldn’t complete it.
Being somewhat ignorant, I used to think that ANEMONE was pronounced anenome before I saw the spelling. I liked the linked NANNIES and MIDWIFE, TRUFFLE, STANDS TALL, and the tongue-in-cheek BIRO.
Thanks Everyman and moh.
I think that the definition for PREPOSITIONS is simply “often stated” as in “often said”.
All parts of speech are, by definition, often said, and I don’t think that it’s more than that.
Cheers all.
Ha thanks @robi , thanks to your comment I have just discovered at the age of 53 that due to mild dyslexia I’ve been reading & saying anemone wrong my whole life, with the m & second n swapped over. So this clue made perfect sense to me!
Thanks MOH. For 3D, could there be a misprint in the clue, sTated instead of sLated? Ending a sentence with a preposition is often deplored.
For 3dn I read as double definition: 1. before jobs advertised 2. terms often stated (because of the frequency of use of prepositions in everyday language…perhaps?)
Thanks everyone for your suggestions for 3dn, but to be honest I haven’t felt that ‘aha, that’s what the setter was getting at!’ moment. Which makes me think it’s just a bit of a weak clue – though jvh @20 may just have a point about there being a typo…
I interpreted 17ac rather differently: Nannies, in the sense of grandmothers, have an issue (ie a child) with kids; also, nannies, in the sense of childminders, may have an issue (a problem) with the kids they are looking after. The first half of this could equally refer to nanny goats with offspring that have offspring, rather than human grannies.
Re PREPOSITIONS, I thought the same as Cara@21 and poc@15 – a vague definition.
You’re right, MM @23, all those meanings are definitely present in 17ac.
Lots to like today, ticked Sans, Midwife, Astronomic, Biro, Dali.
Thought 1D was a bit marginal, indirect anagrams are frowned on so what makes this device acceptable just because only one letter is shifted?
15 D was a good clue other than Uselessly, which seems a bit of a stretch as an anagrind. Mind you, Displaying in 9A is iffy too.
Didn’t parse 14A
But despite my grizzles I thought this one of Everyman’s best.
Sorry, meant 1A.
Like MOH I could not parse 3 down (“prepositions”) satisfactorily.
Otherwise I found this to be an emminently acceptable puzzle.
Thanks to Everyman and MOH.
Yes I agree, a good puzzle to get the weekend underway.
Only one comment :Go the ABs the Wahs and the Ferns !
Finally over covid and able to attempt this. Some nice ones – SEA ANEMONE, GO OFF THE BOIL ESSENTIAL OIL but I hated 14D. As a Physicist I don’t accept standstill = inertia
SORRY for Vanessa. Lucky for me I was following Arsenal and not the Wahs
Owning a music shop, we enjoyed second fiddle. Sea anemone was cool.
Go the ferns.