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.