Everyman 3,807

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The Observer crossword from Sep 29, 2019

A puzzle in which Everyman went from one level to another (with a lot in between).


Four weeks ago I said that Everyman, at last, got me on board.
However, I still have some issues with a couple of the definitions and indicators.
There is one clue that (even after asking my regular solving partner for help) I couldn’t parse: 20ac.
Surely someone will stand up, tell me what’s going on here and makes clear that, just like other solvers, I’m only human!

Across
1 HIGH-MINDEDNESS Forgiveness asked for in sheds, men hiding awkwardly (4-10)
Anagram [awkwardly] of SHEDS MEN HIDING
To me (and my solving partner) ‘high-mindedness’ and ‘forgiveness’ are not synonymous.
The only time I saw them linked in a dictionary was in the Chambers Thesaurus under ‘magnanimity’, in positions 12 and 17 ….
10 A-LIST Famous last words of cruciverbalist (1-4)
The last part of CRUCIVERBALIST
‘A’ and ‘list’ are both words and they are indeed the ‘last words’ you can find in ‘cruciverbalist’.
It still feels a bit odd, though, to speak of last words of something that is just one word itself.
Or is it indeed very clever like some commenters below think it is?
11 PRINCETON Pop star to name university (9)
PRINCE (pop star) + TO + N (name)
Prince (1958-2016)
12 NO-HOPER NY neighbourhood for each and every schmuck (2-5)
NO HO (NY neighbourhood) + PER (for each and every)
‘No Ho‘ apparently stands for North of Houston Street, a posh part of Manhattan, NY.
Not that I knew that – had to look it up.
Here too, I would question the definition: a ‘schmuck’ is a stupid or obnoxious person, which doesn’t have to be what I call a ‘no-hoper’.
13 TARTLET Tense after biting the French pastry (7)
TART (biting) + LE (the, in French) plus after that T (tense)
14 EXTRA Supplementary codex translated in part (5)
Hidden solution [in part]:   codex translated
16 ANASTASIA Perhaps a … a tsarina’s missing daughter in the end? (9)
Anagram [perhaps] of:   A A TSARINA’S minus [daughte]R
My first one in and one of Everyman’s attempts to write an &lit.
Anastasia was the daughter of Tsar Nicolas I, allegedly killed by the Bolsheviks at the end of WW I.
19 NEWCASTLE Actually, its fortress was erected in 1080! (9)
Hence the city’s fortress was, actually, an old one and not a NEW CASTLE
Bit whimsical but here it is: The Castle .
20 SULKS Missing a certain Kelvin, hangs around and pouts (5)
No idea how this works.
I could have asked Gaufrid – who usually knows more or less everything – but I thought I’d leave it up to other solvers.
Many thanks to those ‘below’ who pointed out that this is:  SKULKS (hangs around) minus K (Kelvin).
I assume Everyman uses ‘a certain’ because only one of the two letters K has to be removed.
22 TRIPPED Behind time, sped forward and fell over (7)
T (time) + RIPPED (sped forward)
25 YEARNED Longed for deanery to be given makeover (7)
Anagram [to be given makeover] of DEANERY
27 RETALIATE Repay a literate maniac (9)
Anagram [maniac] of A LITERATE
‘Maniac’ is a noun and therefore this is a nounal indicator.
For me, these indicators only work properly if ‘A noun‘ = ‘noun of A’, which is not the case here.
Draw your own conclusions.
And Mike @13 did. He is right in saying that ‘maniac’ can be an adjective according to the dictionaries.
Why didn’t I see that?
Forget about what I said in relation to this clue, although it still represents my general view on nounal (anagram) indicators.
28 SATES Malaysian dish, followed by seconds, is satisfying (5)
SATE (Malaysian dish) + S (seconds)
Many solvers will probably be more familiar with ‘satay’ (but ‘sate’ is fine).
29 LOW-MAINTENANCE Throw men into canal, we get state of independence (3-11)
Anagram [throw] of MEN INTO CANAL WE
A statement of the militant wing of The Brexit Party?
Down
2 IRISH STEW Varadkar etc worry, describing provision of mutton, vegetables etc (5,4)
IRISH (Varadkar etc) + STEW (worry)
3 HET UP Anxious in Phuket about missing Cambodia (3,2)
Anagram [about] of:    PHUKET minus K (Cambodia, IVR – Kampuchea)
4 IMPORTANT Bring in, from abroad, worker? It’s vital (9)
IMPORT (bring in from abroad) + ANT (worker)
5 DRIFT Tendency Germany has to introduce disagreement (5)
D (Germany, IVR – Deutschland) + RIFT (disagreement)
6 DECORATES When Xmas comes, gives a speech and decks the hall (9)
DEC (when Xmas comes, December) + ORATES (gives a speech)
7 EXTOL One-time troll oddly getting praise (5)
EX (one-time) followed by the odd letters of TROLL
8 SINATRA Tsarina sacked entertainer (7)
Anagram [sacked] of TSARINA
Ol’ Blue Eyes .
9 MARNIE Primarily miscast, Schwarzenegger in Hitchcock film (6)
M[iscast] + ARNIE (Schwarzenegger, Arnold’s nickname)
The film based on this novel .
15 A CAPPELLA Unaccompanied, in palace, lap dancing (1,8)
Anagram [dancing] of PALACE LAP
I am pretty sure muffin will not like ‘in’ as a link word here.
17 ACETYLENE Extraordinary – topless way of dressing on Tyneside is a gas (9)
ACE (extraordinary) + {STYLE (way of dressing) minus the S at the ‘top’} + NE (Tyneside, North-East – or, alternatively, the postcode NE for the Newcastle area)
18 SPLENETIC Scratching bottom, pestilence stricken and crabby (9)
Anagram [stricken] of:   PESTILENCE minus the E at the bottom end)
This is the fourth clue (after 20ac, 22ac and 6d) in which Everyman splits the definition from the wordplay using the word ‘and’.
19 NATURAL Cruelly decapitated tarantula, twice: that’s normal (7)
Anagram [cruelly] of: TARANTULA, first minus the T at the start, then minus the A
Is it possible to decapitate a spider twice?
21 SADISM Kinky practice is seen in blue movie’s intro (6)
SAD (blue) + M[ovie], with IS inside the two
23 IN TOW Divided by West, proceeding without control (2,3)
INTO (divided (by)) + W (West)
Not sure ‘divided (by)’ is the right thing.
Collins, for example, tells us: “[maths] Used to indicate a dividend: three into six is two”.
This should perhaps be seen as:  IN TWO (divided (by)) with W (West) ‘proceeding’, moving one place [see comment @14]
What we have then is IN TWO meaning ‘divided’ or ‘divided by’ when it really should be ‘divided by 2‘.
And therefore, on second or third thoughts, I am still not happy.
Moreover, ‘proceeding’ is surely part of the definition and so it shouldn’t be doing double duty?
This clue confuses me.
24 DRAWN With scores tied, you get tense (5)
Double definition
26 AT SEA Lacking direction, getting further into the Red, maybe (2,3)
AT (further into) + SEA (the Red Sea, for example)

 

29 comments on “Everyman 3,807”

  1. I thought SULKS was skulks (hangs around) minus the first K (a certain Kelvin – ie only the first one). I can’t imagine it being Kelvin MacKenzie in the surface.

  2. 20Ac I failed to parse this too. Looking at it again, we have SKULKS less K (Kelvin) – but the ‘a certain’ still beats me …

  3. Thanks Sil. There were a few definitions here I looked at sideways, including 1a. Those two terms are not the same to me either.
    20a has me confused too. I wondered if the definition was “hangs around and pouts” as I do not equate sulking with just pouting. It takes movement as well. But how to explain the clue? No idea. Kelvin is K in Physics and Chemistry but that seems to add little. That name (Kelvin) comes from William Thompson so that doesn’t help either. I had hoped you would be able to decipher this one for me.
    Apart from that I felt it was typical of the new Everyman.

  4. Yes, some liberties taken, I thought (vague synonym at 1ac, plus the iffiness as mentioned at 10ac, and others).

    But I would like to point out that “schmuck” in Yiddish is rather rude – it refers to a part of the male anatomy, so in calling someone a “schmuck” you could be criticising their intelligence, their social skills, or indeed their general ability to advance themselves…. It worked for me, but perhaps only vaguely …

    Thanks Everyman and Sil

  8. Very enjoyable.

    My favourites were ANASTASIA, LOW MAINTENANCE, IMPORTANT.

    Thank you Everyman and Sil.

    I parsed 20a as SKULKS minus K = SULKS. Surface reads better with ‘a certain’?

     

    I parsed

  9. Well I had a huge tick against 10a A LIST.  I thought it was very clever and inventive.  A and LIST are the last two words that appear in “cruciverbalist” – it works perfectly.  I can only imagine that it is the fact that it is so inventive that makes people say “iffiness” and “a bit odd”.

    I also really liked 9d MARNIE and 15d A CAPPELLA for their clever surfaces.

    A very enjoyable crossword.  Many thanks Everyman and Sil.

  10. PS I’ve only just noticed from browsing through some previous blogs that quite a few new comments appear a few weeks after the initial posting.  Then I found the comment from Denise de Groot @13 of 3800: “The Everyman puzzles are 3 weeks later in the New Zealand Herald”.

    It’s nice to read your comments, NZH readers.  I look forward to seeing what you think of this one in 3 weeks time.

  11. Just saw ‘skulks’ when I came back to this, this morning.

    I liked A-LIST and ACETYLENE but thought the clue for NEWCASTLE was weak – seems just like a Quick crossword GK clue to me with an unnecessary ‘Actually.’

    Thanks Everyman and Sil.

  12. Thanks, Rishi @7. I thought my disingenuous apology would help me escape a telling-off for the rude joke!

  15. You’re surely right about that one, Schiele.

    I will tweak the blog accordingly (but I still have slight reservations about this clue).

  17. This puzzle was a mixed bag, in my opinion. I liked the simple construction of 11a, the &lit at 16a, and the “last words” construction at 10a, but …

    I’m generally more tolerant than some about loose definitions, but 1a was too much for me.

    I don’t think 23d works with either parsing. I suspect that Sil’s original parsing is the intended one, but it’s wrong: 3 into 6 is 2, but 3 divided by 6 is 1/2!

    I don’t understand how to turn “further into” into “at” in 26d.

  18. I’m enjoying these crosswords with their occasionally quirky definitions, especially since I discovered this blog.
    8d held me up for the longest time.
    I spotted immediately that ‘artisan’ was an anagram of Tsarina but I couldn’t figure out how to make that fit the definition. It was only when I’d filled in most of the across clues that I found another anagram of tsarina.

  19. A few tricky and dubious clues here as noted, though I didn’t have any trouble spotting Skulks minus the K in 20ac. I had to look up Anastasia and found there was speculation she may have escaped and disappeared rather than being murdered by the Bolsheviks so I think 16ac is actually a very good &lit.

    Thanks Everyman & Sil and a shout out to Lord Jim. Yes we are a few weeks behind down here so we can be fully entertained by the comments above. Apologies to my fellow Kiwis, but I’ve actually done this one a day early online to prepare for the big game tomorrow. Go the ABs!

  20. Another cracking crossword – s(k)ulks makes perfect sense as a clue. Agreed re 1 across, but easy enough to get, and I too started with ‘artisan’ before finding Frank. I am enjoying the inventiveness of the ‘new’ setter. Many thanks to Everyman and Sil.

  22. Found this hard but enjoyable. Had trooped instead of tripped and on tow instead of Intow
    Wonder how many of us will be talking to ea other after tonight since one country will be bitterly disappointed. Nervous as heck —-go the boys
    Liked low maintenance, Princeton.
    Did use e-help for castles, Hitchcock films but never found noho in any NY list. Guess it’s what upper end locals know-ho not us far away

  23. I cannot for the life of me, understand the parsing of 3D ‘het up’ even with Sil’s explanation. Also I agree with Sil’s comments that some of these definitions don’t seem accurate.

    Who will win the rugby tonight? Here’s hoping.

  24. This was okay, A List took a while even though it has been clued recently somewhere.

    I didn’t know K = Cambodia so biffed Het Up

    There seemed some repetition or theming of a minor nature with Newcastle, Tyneside and NE, two Ks removed, Tsarina appearing twice, I couldn’t see any other patterns of which this setter seems wont.

  26. I agree with Mike@13 about “deck” and “decorate”.

    I’m glad that others (even Sil-the-blogger!!!) had trouble parsing “sulks”.  The parsing stumped me completely. (Although it’s a bit of a forehead-slapper once it’s pointed out.)

    No-one else has complained about the weakness of 28 across; to me “low maintenance” and “state of independence” are nothing like synonymous.  Am I missing something?

    However, overall, I enjoyed this puzzle and got it all out without *any* assistance from wildcard dictionaries or thesauri.  🙂

     

  28. Didn’t like 1ac or 29ac; got some v easily and others needed brainpower. Got Het Up easily, 20ac made sense to us, otherwise pretty good. Unlike the AB’s who were outplayed and outclassed on the night. Great game England, looking forward to tonight – c’mon Wales!!

  29. Audrey, at a stretch one might imagine a backpacker, low on funds, travelling north to south through South-East Asia, being anxious about missing Cambodia having arrived in Phuket. Perhaps Everyman should have planned her/his gap year more thoroughly?

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