A pleasant Everyman this week.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
I’ve highlighted the self-referential clue. The primarily clue seems to be absent this time, but instead we have two rhyming pairs, which are also highlighted.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EAST |
Earl and | flipping emperor finally lost direction (4)
|
| E (tsa[r])rev. — E = Earl, tsar = emperor | ||
| 3 | HANDSPRING |
Round of applause: son parking with hoop as cartwheel (10)
|
| hand s P ring — hand = round of applause, s = son, P = parking, ring = hoop | ||
| 9 | EMUS |
They’re grounded and somewhat bemused (4)
|
| Hidden in bEMUSed — emus are flightless birds | ||
| 10 | SANDBAGGED |
According to Spooner, group fell under attack (10)
|
| Spooner would say “band sagged” — band = group, sagged = fell | ||
| 12 | DESMOND TUTU |
Archbishop’s mutt sounded rabid (7,4)
|
| (mutt sounded)* — ‘archbishop’ made me think of a list of Archbishops of Canterbury, but this refers to the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931 – 2021) | ||
| 15 | THICKEN |
Plot may do this: catch something from character with lisp (7)
|
| ‘Sicken’ with the ‘s’ a ‘th’ — sicken = catch something, and if the character from whom one catches something has a lisp, then ‘sicken’ becomes ‘thicken’ — actually the ‘from character’ is just cluttering it all up: it would be perfectly OK if it was ‘… catch something with lisp’, but ‘from character’ is put there for the surface — the definition is a reference to the saying ‘the plot thickens’ | ||
| 16 | ST. BARTS |
Small, tense composer of musical is somewhere in Caribbean (2,5)
|
| S T Bart’s — S = small, T = tense, the composer of musical is Lionel Bart (Oliver! etc), ‘s = is — according to Wikipedia, Saint Barthélemy, officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, also known as St. Barts (English) or St. Barth (French), is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean; news to me | ||
| 17 | OBSCENE |
Appalling church buried in | broken bones (7)
|
| CE in *(bones) — CE = church (Church of England) | ||
| 19 | LATRINE |
Dead enthralling, | largely, skating venue where you go (7)
|
| lat(rin[k])e — late = dead, rink = skating venue | ||
| 20 | UNTRAVERSED |
Adventurer’s ground that hasn’t been crossed (11)
|
| (Adventurer’s)* | ||
| 23 | NINETY-NINE |
Ice cream, or, non- standardly, IC (6-4)
|
| It’s a type of ice-cream. also IC = 99 in Roman numerals (according to some; the subtractive method of forming Roman numerals is not agreed by all, hence ‘non-standardly’) — the Wikipedia article here has a number of suggestions for the name, but so far as I can see there is no mention of the idea that Everyman is using in this clue | ||
| 24 | FLAN |
Perhaps quiche getting cool around lake (4)
|
| f(l)an — fan = cool, l = lake | ||
| 25 | AMPERSANDS |
Characters seen outside | branches of H&M (10)
|
| I think it’s this but can’t quite understand it: surely ampersands are seen inside branches of H&M (the branches are H and M) | ||
| 26 | EDDY |
Topless undergarment that may have you in a spin (4)
|
| [t]eddy — my knowledge of female undergarments is sketchy, but I gather that ‘A teddy, also called a camiknicker, is a garment which covers the torso and crotch in the one garment. It is a similar style of garment to a one-piece swimsuit….’ — ‘that’ a demonstrative pronoun | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EMENDATION |
Denominate reforms for improvement (10)
|
| (Denominate)* | ||
| 2 | SQUASHIEST |
Most like a pumpkin that’s as soft as can be? (10)
|
| 2 defs — a pumpkin is a squash | ||
| 4 | ABANDON |
Spontaneity in desert (7)
|
| 2 defs depending on whether you pronounce it dezz-ert or like dessert | ||
| 5 | DIDDUMS |
Executed swashbuckling author, article expressed: ‘Oh dear!’ (7)
|
| did Dum[a]s — did = executed, Dumas (1802 – 1870) is the swashbuckling author (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, etc), a = article — ‘expressed’ = got rid of, as a mother with her milk | ||
| 6 | PEANUT BUTTER |
Regrettably, punter ate tub – of this? (6,6)
|
| *(punter ate tub) — I suppose it’s regrettable if a punter eats a tub of peanut butter because this will induce vomiting etc | ||
| 7 | IAGO |
Tragic figure, Everyman has a go (4)
|
| I a go — I = Everyman, a = a, go = go — the tragic figure from Shakespeare’s Othello — the self-referential clue | ||
| 8 | GIDE |
Soldier had intro to erotic French author (4)
|
| GI ‘d e[rotic] — GI = soldier (American), ‘d = had — ref André Gide (1869 – 1951) | ||
| 11 | COOKIE CUTTER |
I’ll take the biscuit – regularly! (6,6)
|
| CD playing on the fact that a cookie cutter cuts regularly | ||
| 13 | FRUIT SALAD |
Sweet tomatoes maybe given to a bloke (5,5)
|
| fruits a lad — fruits = tomatoes maybe, a = a, lad = bloke — sweet as in pudding/dessert/afters | ||
| 14 | ASCENDANCY |
Predominance of crooked candy canes (10)
|
| *(candy canes) | ||
| 18 | ESTONIA |
Planes to Niagara? Not entirely getting you here! (7)
|
| Hidden in PlanES TO NIAgara | ||
| 19 | LEARNED |
King Edward among friends is erudite (7)
|
| Lear Ned — Lear = king (ref. Shakespeare’s King Lear), Ned is a diminutive of Edward | ||
| 21 | ANNA |
Ms Karenina going back and forth (4)
|
| Anna is a palindrome so goes back and forth — ref. Anna Karenina by Tolstoy | ||
| 22 | SNIP |
Trim legs raised (4)
|
| (pins)rev. — pins = legs — trim is a verb in the definition |
25a- The few H&M branches that I have seen, sport a large ampersand atop or outside the store. Perhaps that is the reference?
for 10a I had SANDBAGGER; 8d remained blank due to that and it was a DNF for me.
Thank you, John and Everyman
Thank you John for your blog, and thanks WordSDrove @1 for AMPERSAND. That has to be right. NHO H&M and now on looking it up it is very much part of their branding and signage, to the extent that they developed their own font.
I should also mention that one of Everyman’s trademark clues is the “character” clue, and today it’s the “&”.
@John. Not sure what you meant by your examples of pronunciation for the different meanings of desert in the surface and answer of ABANDON. No double “ss” sound there, for me anyway.
EMUS has to be my favourite clue. Made me laugh. They’re far from “grounded” or “bemused” when they’re snatching a sandwich from your hand at a picnic, or trying to disembowel another with their claws.
I noted that the grid contains…
H and S
S and B
B and O
S and S
And then we have the H&M reference.
I suspect it’s just a coincidence.
Liked NINETY-NINE and LEARNED.
ABANDON
Did John mean to blog about two different ways ABANDON is pronounced?
THICKEN
I thought…
‘sicken’ from character with lisp—>’sicken’ as spoken by a character with lisp
(No Violet this time?)
Thanks Everyman and John.
KVa@6. I wondered if the “character with lisp” in THICKEN was referring to Sean Connery, who Everyman has used before to indicate this kind of clue.
paddymelon@7
THICKEN
Wouldn’t Sean have shaid ‘shicken’?
Ooopsh.
Dnf 1a and not sure I follow the parsing as no mention of the ‘and I’??
What am I missing?
Jay@5: Can you decode your cryptic comment for me please!
I must have had Ms Thatcher on the mind as I put HANDBAGGED for 10a and couldnt understand the spoonerism 🙁
Bobwis@10: Its a typo in the blog. There is no “I” in my printed Everyman.
1a its TSAR reversed with the R (final letter) lost and an E for Earl put in front.
Cosmic@11 Ditto re handbagged for me. These days, I usually associate sandbagging with defending against flooding – a form of attack I suppose.
New for me: Lionel BART composer; NINETY NINE = ice cream.
I completely missed IC in Roman numerals; I saw it as the initials for ice cream, and decided that the clue was referring to ‘ninety nine’ being a non-standard version of ‘99’, which is what the ice cream is usually called. Maybe I was overthinking it.
I had St Kitts as the Caribbean island, after verifying that there is a composer called Tom Kitt. Seems just as valid as ST BARTS, at least until the crossers said it couldn’t be.
Other than that, I found this a fun solve.
Thanks to Everyman and John.
Cosmic@11, not intended to be cryptic, just an observation.
Wouldn’t ‘composer of musicals’ (plural) be a better description of Lionel Bart? Or am I missing something? I’m another who put ‘handbagged’ for 10a and then pondered the parsing without seeing the error of my ways until now.
Beaten by 10a. I never like the Spoonerism clues and have never heard of the word “sandbagged” meaning to be under attack. I did think that “band” had something to do with it. I’m glad you’ve cleared that up.
Thank you Cosmic!
Jay@17: Its simply that I cant find the HandS Sand B etc.
What are you referring to – patterns of squares? (If so which…)
Help!
Bobwis@10 and Cosmic@12: It’s not a typo in the blog and there is no ‘and I’. I show indicators in italics. If they take up more than one word, then fine, I leave it. But sometimes there are two indicators and they are next to each other. So that you can see that they are separate I put a separator, a vertical line, between them.
This is perhaps misleading. Perhaps I should omit vertical separators and leave the reader to work out that they are in fact two different indicators.
For AMPERSANDS, aren’t they part of a sign “H&M”, which is probably above the entrance to their every branch/store?
Liked overall, thanks Everyman & John
Cosmic@427,
H AND S is in HANDSPRING
S AND B is in SANDBAGGED
B AND O is in ABANDON
S AND S is in AMPERSANDS
…you get the idea.
Jay @476 Indeed true. But so what? What significance of HS;SB; BO; for AMPERSANDS?
Failed on 5d DIDDUMS, a word that I don’t think has crossed the Atlantic. I should have guessed it from the clear wordplay, as I did with 23a NINETY-NINE, another brand that we don’t see in Canada.
KVa@382, if Sean had played a minor role would he have shaid “shicken , not shtarred “?
Thanks E&J&Jay for the fun&games.
Failed to parse a few, including East, and never heard of Gide, but otherwise this was a fun solve.
“A pleasant Everyman this week.” ???
I couldn’t agree less.
Very tricky. I was looking for a breed of dog with Desmond in the name and didn’t get TUTU until diddums came out of somewhere. Sadly I had LATTICE instead of latrine.
Where did PRIMARILY get to?
I had lattice too ! I kind of see it now but anyway Latrine it is
I also got hung up on 19d via Edward Lear even tho he’s not a king, but got it right for the wrong reasons. I’ll take it
Quite liked this , they are quite hard ATM
Lucky we kiwis have heard of ninety nine- in the mr whippy world it’s a flake 99
Also liked Desmond tutu and thicken and squashiest tho hm not sure it’s a word much used?
This was one of the ones when the first pass reveals precious little.
But as I soldiered on it all fell into place.
Thanks all, an enjoyable fine, sunny Saturday solve.
So much for watching the Ashes this weekend.