My blogging colleague Quirister described last week’s puzzle as ‘occasionally a bit untidy but generally fun’. I can’t find a better description of this week’s Everyman, so it’s déjà vu all over again.
The two ‘linked’ answers are in the downs: UNDER THE WEATHER and BIRDS OF A FEATHER. Everyman seems keen on including a pair of answers each week as a little trademark. I’m neither for nor against the notion, as long as it doesn’t force some unusual answers elsewhere – which it hasn’t here. He is in my good books this week anyway because as well as BIRDS OF A FEATHER, he has given me a real bird. I’ve had this one before, but mustn’t grumble.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Fizzy soda with nuts is amazing
ASTOUNDS
A nice easy Annie to get us going: (SODA NUTS)* with ‘fizzy’ as the anagrind.
5 A pig died on a boat
ABOARD
And a gentle charade for second up: A, BOAR and D.
10 It might be spelt ‘spondulicks’
BREAD
A dd. ‘Spondulicks’ and BREAD are both slang words for ‘money’; ‘spelt’, as well as being one of the possible past participles of ‘spell’, is a variety of wheat which can be used to make spelt bread.
11 Bear has movement in woods and time to relax
TEA BREAKS
In the same way as the Pope is always Catholic, bears do indeed have movements in the woods. They may well relax afterwards, who knows? You didn’t have to go into that level of thought to get the answer, though: it’s just (BEAR)* in TEAKS with ‘has movement’ as the anagrind and ‘in’ as the insertion indicator.
12 Patriotic icon to order us about
TUDOR ROSE
(TO ORDER US)*
13 Polish off course, mostly
SCOUR
(COURS[E])*
14 Streetwise comedian has clout
WITH-IT
A charade of WIT and HIT.
15 Having left work, nips back for delivery
OFF-SPIN
A charade of OFF and SPIN for ‘nips’ reversed. A ‘delivery’ in cricket which (if both combatants are right-handed), spins in towards the batsman.
18 Case oddly taken by Oxford policeman (a literary figure)
C S LEWIS
A charade of C and S for the odd letters of ‘case’ and LEWIS for Colin Dexter’s literary policeman from Oxford. Clive Staples Lewis was also for a period an Oxford academic and is probably best known for The Chronicles of Narnia series.
20 Browser of web finding seedy affairs lacking in France
SAFARI
(A[F]FAIRS)* or (AF[F]AIRS)* Your call. SAFARI is a web browser; I’m a Firefox man myself.
22 Greek character having seconds, imbibing moussaka with no fillings
SIGMA
A charade of S, then IG and MA for the outside letters (‘with no fillings’) of ‘imbibing’ and ‘moussaka’.
24 McKellen role: splendid wizard? Not half! Aye-aye!
RICHARD II
A charade of RICH, [WIZ]ARD and I, I for two ‘ayes’. The surface is cleverly constructed, so I will explain it for those of you going ‘What?’ Sir Ian McKellen is recognised as one of the greatest actors of his generation, and one of his most recent roles has been as Gandalf, the wizard, in the film adaptations of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. He famously established himself as a Shakespearean actor with his role as Richard II in the late sixties/early seventies. If you only know him as Gandalf, spend the next two minutes of your life watching this. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were best mates, but that’s by-the-by.
25 Sergeant-major’s lacking in cash? Get off the train!
ALL CHANGE
[SM]ALL CHANGE
26 Armies of headless phantoms
HOSTS
[G]HOSTS. ‘Army’ for HOST is best illustrated in phrases like ‘a host of angels’ (or ‘a host of golden daffodils’, I suppose).
27 Ducks desire to be cooked
EIDERS
Yesss. A bird at last. I have had the EIDER before to give you the obligatory Pierre bird link, but here he is again. It’s a true sea duck, lives almost entirely off mussels, and I have seen it most often off the Northumberland coast, where because of its link to St Cuthbert (he ‘protected’ it in the 7th Century) it’s known as Cuddy’s Duck. And yes, that’s where EIDERDOWN comes from. It’s (DESIRE)* btw.
28 Potent drink, wild sprees: very good
ESPRESSO
This coffee is ‘potent’, I guess, so it’s a charade of (SPREES)* and SO. I’m not persuaded that SO and ‘very good’ are interchangeable, except maybe as sentence starters.
Down
1 A telco hosting piece of malware, reveals MP
ABBOTT
There are usually 650 MPs, so you’ve got a lot of choice. Strictly, Diane ABBOTT is not an MP currently, since Parliament has been dissolved, but Everyman wasn’t to know that. She is certainly not unknown (she’s been an MP since 1987 and has been Shadow Secretary of a number of departments) but you might have had to resort to a few crossers and the wordplay here. It is an insertion of BOT in A BT, with BT being an abbreviation for British Telecommunications, which is a ‘telco’ in the jargon.
2 Lazily dreamt I intend to get an exercise machine
TREADMILL
A charade of (DREAMT)* and I’LL for ‘I intend to’. ‘Dreamt’ and ‘spelt’ instead of ‘dreamed’ and ‘spelled’ in one puzzle. I’ve learnt not to read too much into these things.
3 Where some papers put the crossword gets you feeling sick
UNDER THE WEATHER
A cd cum dd. Under the weather is fine; just don’t put it across the fold.
4 Vacuous éclat, French right taking on industrial city
DETROIT
Rather strange surface reading, but it’s ET for ‘éclat’ with its middle letters removed (‘vacuous’) inserted into DROIT for the French word for ‘right’.
6 People like each other, conducting affairs — bothered?
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
(AFFAIRS BOTHERED)* Nice spot of the anagram by Everyman.
7 Slice of ‘pie à la mode’, US cultural touchstone
ALAMO
For me at least, these meaningless surface readings are spoiling the crossword a bit. How can a ‘pie’ be a ‘cultural touchstone’? It’s not even needed for the wordplay, since the solution is hidden in A LA MOde.
8 Wanting old Chinese bigwig to suppress Apple IT
DESIRING
An insertion of SIRI in DENG. SIRI is Apple’s virtual assistant thingy that you speak to. This inadvertedly reveals intimate details about you to the tech giant so that they can make shedloads of profit from monetising your personal data. And you thought it just dimmed the lights.
9 Cope’s poem, ‘King, Before Noon, Rising’
MAKE DO
A reversal (‘rising’, since it’s a down clue) of ODE, K and AM.
16 Impressionists in times gone including Rodin? Not quite
PARODISTS
An insertion of RODI[N] in PASTS.
17 Reserved peer gives hostile response
ICY STARE
A simple charade of ICY and STARE.
19 Therapist’s contract
SHRINK
A dd.
20 Arcana about to be accepted by religious groups
SECRETS
An insertion of RE for ‘about’ in SECTS.
21 Provided backing before a small company becomes failure
FIASCO
A charade of IF reversed, A, S and CO.
23 Cold bagel idiot’s offering
GELID
Hidden in baGEL IDiots.
Many thanks to Everyman for this Sunday’s puzzle.
Very enjoyable solve. My favourites were HOSTS, WITH-IT, MAKE-DO, SAFARI, PARODISTS, RICHARD II, ICY STARE.
Thank you Everyman and Pierre.
How can a ‘pie’ be a ‘cultural touchstone’? Things can be as American as apple pie, I suppose.
I admit I didn’t finish this, which may invalidate my comment, but this was one of those new Everymans that made me think that too many liberties were being taken for the sake of amusement. I guess it’s a matter of taste (I seem to remember “Everyman” saying something along the lines of wanting to push a few boundaries in the name of entertainment), and many people here seem to like it.
There are plenty of sound clues, but I agree with Pierre that there are too many nonsense surfaces, eg “Ducks desire to be cooked” and Wendy Cope’s non-existent poem, apart from the ones Pierre has mentioned. I also can’t see how aye-aye can be II without a homophone indicator (24a). Was the setter too fond of the McKellen wizard connection to abandon it? Don’t most setters come up with amusing ideas that they reluctantly shelve because they don’t make a lot of sense? (Needless to say, I’m not a setter, and I’m perhaps being too critical. I have enjoyed some recent Everyman puzzles a bit more.)
Nila @3 — where you saw nonsense at 9d I saw (acceptable) misdirection.
Fair enough, John. As I said, it’s a matter of taste. I personally think it’s too easy to link an artist to a [i]non-existent[/i] title using crossword shorthand.
I really do not enjoy this new setters technique. I am able to finish the crossword,but struggle with one or two clues….but like one other person said , I do not get that “ yes!” Factor…
The McKellen clue also brought to mind his delightful ‘how to act’ self-parody with Ricky Gervais in Extras.
I am very much with Nila on this one, which, perhaps surprisingly, I did finish. Can someone tell me what a “charade” means in this setting? (Pierre’s helpful explanation) I got 21d but still do not see why it is so. Several answers are there because they are a best guess-fortunately correct- but less satisfactory than I’d like. It continues to be a mixed experience, some fun, frequent frustration.
Re 7d and the cultural touchstone: in French menus “à la mode” means a meat dish cooked with vegetables in wine, or a dish cooked “in the manner of” a specific region; but in American menus “pie à la mode” means apple pie served with ice cream. So I suppose it’s (sort of) a touchstone for which nation’s culinary culture you follow.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre – I enjoyed it.
Sara @8
In the basic type of charade clue, the separate parts are simply defined one after the other. Regarding 21d Provided backing before a small company becomes failure
Provided = IF and backing results in Fi followed by A, S(small) and CO(company).
I enjoyed this puzzle and am not as fussy as some. I particularly liked the misleading COPE clue.
Many thanks to Pierre and E.
I actually enjoyed this one and finished it quite quickly (for me). My only gripe: with-it. Surely this passed out of the English language like young Michael Caine films with dolly birds?
I enjoyed this. I really liked 5a ABOARD and 16d PARODISTS which were very clever. I thought the surface of 7d was fine, with its suggestions of apple pie, American Pie etc. “Ducks desire to be cooked” at 27a reminded me of the talking food at the Restaurant at the end of the Universe.
Like Michelle @1 and Davy @10 I also really liked “Cope’s poem” at 9d. I do however agree with Nila @3 that “aye aye” in 24a needed a homophone indicator, but that was I think my only reservation about a really nice puzzle.
Many thanks Everyman and Pierre.
An enjoyable solve. One or two very small quibbles: ‘lacking in France’ could mean one or two of the Fs in affairs, although the anagrind and letter count suggest only one; I was told never to add extraneous words to hiddens, so the ‘pie’ in 7D is superfluous to the wordplay; AYE AYE as mentioned above.
I quite liked the ‘Cope’s poem,’ spelt [clever!], SMALL CHANGE and PARODISTS.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
For 9D the answer as per solution is MADE DO, not MAKE DO!
27 a: Further to Pierre’s remarks about Eider Ducks: the name originates from the river Eider, which runs all the way from the Baltic coast to the North Sea
Can I ask why Pierre’s Everyman solution doesn’t give the length of the solution after each clue?
I’ve never considered it important,really. You can see how many letters are in the answer from the solution.
Everyone is entitled to his or her own pet peeves, and one of mine is anagram indicators that don’t convey anything suggesting an anagram. If “lazily” can be an anagrind, then what on Earth can’t be one?
^ In fairness, “lazily” is listed as an anagram indicator in the Chambers Crossword Companion and Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary. I think it works in the sense of carelessly, sloppily.
I think ‘lazily’ is fine as an anagrind, Ted. I’ve seen worse.
Somebody needs to thank Pierre (as well as Everyman, of course) for his reflections on bears in woods. Quite brightened my afternoon, and left me with a pleasant image of Yogi enjoying a relaxing cup of tea after completion of business.
Re 7D…. No-one suggesting that perhaps the US cultural thingy here is in reference to the famous (Battle of the) Alamo ? Seems feasible to me as a US resident ! And of course would simply be hidden (a slice of) in a la mode … (pie again could be considered superfluous).
Thank you Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle and Pierre for a super blog.
It has just occurred to me that 7d is probably all right, Everyman has put pie à la mode in brackets, it should be regarded as an entity, the pie is not superfluous.
PS, that should be inverted commas, not brackets, apologies, it is late here…
Here is a wiki reference for ‘Pie à la mode’.
Thanks, Pierre.
I don’t usually check the printed solution, so was interested when at #14 VDS Prasad pointed out that this week’s Observer gives the answer to 9D as “MADE DO”.
The online solution at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3814 also gives “MADE DO” as the answer.
Was that a typo, or is there some way to derive “MADE DO” from the clue?
My first thought had been to try to find a phrase starting with MAR (with R for King) but I quickly got to the view that “MAKE DO” is unarguably the correct and unique solution.
So now the question is “which version qualifies for the £15 prize?“.
Thanks, Adrian (and VDS Prasad) for pointing that one out. MAKE do is undoubtedly the solution, so it’s another Observer foul-up. Who gets the prize is a question for the (non-existent) editor. I doubt a correction will be published.
Can someone explain All Change for me. Is change not cash ?
Forget above. I get it know. Remove SM from small change. I’ll get my coat.
Yes, Sugarbutties, you have it – bloggers here use square brackets to indicate removal of letters and the SM is the Sergeant Major bit.
Am I the first kiwi? I quite enjoyed this far more than last week
Struggled to see smoothness in 9d and still don’t like it much
I thought it was unfair to mix up scour and make no reference to it other than ‘mostly’ but liked many clues such as espresso, all change, 2d and 19d
As an antipodean I struggled with 1d. Relied on the crossers and assumed BT for the telco. Enjoyed this Everyman. Last one in Scours.
I enjoyed this puzzle and got it all out. I could not parse several answers, but. (E.g. “treadmill” and “desiring”). KInd of forehead-slappers when I saw
Pierre’s explanations. Thanks to Pierre and of course to Everyman, who I think is doing just fine. Ignore the complaints, Everyman!
Gelid and parodists were new ones on me. Agree with those looking for a soundlikeicator in 24A. And how can ‘so’ mean’very Good’? Mind you, I put Expresso in for that one with no way of explaining the xo. Thus dnf for the second week running: irritating.
First finish in 3 weeks for me, partly due to moving house to the Winterless North. i really enjoyed this but had a few question marks so thats Pierre for explaining. I’m no cricket expert, but I interpreted Pierre’s description of off-spin as working from the left to nip back so could 15ac be an &lit?
Keep it up Everyman.