A bit of a mixed bag this week: mostly straightforward, some excellent clues, but a few slightly iffy ones.
I enjoyed most of this, but a few clues look as though Everyman didn’t have time to come up with something better; there are a few dubious definitions and clumsy surfaces. On the other hand, I can forgive a lot for the sake of 27a, which is laugh-out-loud brilliant. Honourable mention to 2d as well.
As usual we have a pair of answers: the equal-and-opposite similes in 7d and 8d. Thanks Everyman as always.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FLOPPY DISKS | Pieces of legacy media: limp nerd finally is getting thousands (6,5) |
| FLOPPY (limp) + final letter of [ner]D + KS (plural of K = kilo = thousand). Portable data storage devices from the last century; millennials probably have no idea what we’re talking about. |
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| 9 | OF A SORT | Berlioz finally ignored fussy sforzato, in a way (2,1,4) |
| Anagram (fussy) of SFOR[z]ATO, ignoring the Z which is the final letter of [berlio]Z. | ||
| 10 | CHESTER | Box with Her Majesty somewhere on the River Dee (7) |
| CHEST (box, as in treasure chest) + ER (the Queen). | ||
| 11 | ERODE | Depreciate how Cockney cavalryman travelled (5) |
| A cavalryman travelled on horseback, so HE RODE. Or ‘E RODE in a Cockney accent, dropping the initial H. | ||
| 12 | CALM DOWN | Pacify mad clown on the rampage (4,4) |
| Anagram (on the rampage) of MAD CLOWN. | ||
| 14 | AT THIS RATE | That satire will be undisciplined if things continue as they are (2,4,4) |
| Anagram (undisciplined) of THAT SATIRE. | ||
| 15 | ASIA | Last 40% of ‘mercy killings’: most of world’s population (4) |
| Last 40% (4 out of 10 letters) in EUTHANASIA (sometimes called “mercy killings”). The continent with over 4 billion people. |
||
| 17 | ACHE | Some impeached a persistently dull pain (4) |
| Hidden answer (some…) in [impe]ACHE[d]. The surface is presumably an attempt to refer to recent events in the US, but I can’t see how it works as a sentence. | ||
| 19 | MAGNA CARTA | ‘Cat’ anagram (anag.) is ‘act’? (5,5) |
| Anagram (indicated by “anag.”) of CAT ANAGRAM. Act in the sense of “legal document”, as in Act of Parliament. Of course ACT is indeed an anagram of CAT; it’s a clever idea but I’m not sure the surface really works. |
||
| 21 | UNMAPPED | Named pup negligently; not yet investigated (8) |
| Anagram (negligently) of NAMED PUP. | ||
| 23 | TRICK | Cheat with a set of playing cards (5) |
| Double definition: the second refers to the cards played in a single round of a game such as whist or bridge. | ||
| 25 | GARLAND | Singer‘s floral ornament (7) |
| Doubne definition: the first is Judy Garland. | ||
| 26 | LINCOLN | President that’s kind of green (7) |
| Double definition: Abraham Lincoln, or Lincoln Green (the colour of dyed woollen cloth typical of the Middle Ages). | ||
| 27 | SPOONERISMS | Word-botching and the like? (11) |
| Spoonerism = mixing up the initial letters of words in a phrase, so it could be described as botching words. But “word-botching” is also a Spoonerism for “bird-watching”. So I think this is definition plus extended definition. Whatever it is, it’s brilliant. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FLAT OUT | Florida salesman using every effort (4,3) |
| FLA (abbreviation for Florida) + TOUT (salesman). | ||
| 2 | O SOLE MIO | Old, almost stately Italian love song (1,4,3) |
| O (old) + SOLEM[n] (stately, almost) + I (Italian) + O (zero = love in tennis scoring). Extended definition: the original version is indeed an old Neapolitan love song, though it’s been rewritten for Elvis Presley (It’s Now or Never) and later for a well-known 1980s ice-cream advert. |
||
| 3 | PATE | Perhaps artisanal terrine eaten for starters? (4) |
| Initial letters (for starters) of Perhaps Artisanal Terrine Eaten. Clue-as-definition: processed meat dish which may be served as the first course of a meal. |
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| 4 | DOC MARTENS | Boots out Democrats: Biden’s finally implicated (3,7) |
| Anagram (out) of DEMOCRATS, with the final letter of [bide]N inserted (implicated). Doc Martens, brand of casual boots and shoes. |
||
| 5 | STEAM | Hot air from 19th choice of squad? (5) |
| The first choice would be the A TEAM, the second the B TEAM, and so on . . . to S which is the 19th letter of the alphabet. The definition is almost as contrived as the wordplay: steam isn’t hot air, it’s water vapour which may be suspended in air. |
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| 6 | SITCOMS | Spaced, Ideal, Taxi, Catastrophe, Outnumbered, Miranda and Seinfeld primarily? (7) |
| Initial letters (primarily) of the seven TV shows named. Clue-as-definition (&lit): they are indeed all situation comedies. |
||
| 7 | SOBER AS A JUDGE | See a guard’s job brought about level-headedly (5,2,1,5) |
| Anagram (brought about) of SEE A GUARD’S JOB. Strictly the definition should be “level-headed” without the -ly, but I suppose that wouldn’t make such a good surface. |
||
| 8 | DRUNK AS A SKUNK | Under a dark sun, crazily strong cannabis gets you stoned (5,2,1,5) |
| Anagram (crazily) of A DARK SUN, with SKUNK (strong cannabis) under it (at the end, in a down clue). Everyman and other crossword setters often seem to think we should all be familiar with the nicknames of dubious drugs. | ||
| 13 | ARMAGEDDON | Old cove coming before academic for mighty battle (10) |
| I can’t quite parse this one. It looks like AGED (old), with ARM coming before it, then DON (university fellow = academic). But ARM = cove is a bit odd. I think the link might be “creek”, which is a tidal stream discharging to the sea; a creek can be considered a cove, which is a coastal inlet, and a branch of a river can be called an arm. It’s all a bit tenuous, though – am I missing something obvious? | ||
| 16 | ICE TONGS | Everyman sent cog spinning in barroom device (3,5) |
| I (Everyman speaking in the first person) + anagram (spinning) of SENT COG. | ||
| 18 | HUMERUS | Some member like 6, they say (7) |
| Homophone (they say) of HUMOROUS, therefore like the sitcoms mentioned in 6d. Humerus = bone of the upper arm, so part of a member (a limb). |
||
| 20 | RUINOUS | Crippling game in old America (7) |
| RU (Rugby Union = game) IN O (old) US (America). | ||
| 22 | PLATO | Greek troops not willing to participate (5) |
| PLATOON (troops), without ON. I’m not sure about ON being equivalent to “willing to participate”; it could mean “participating” (on the field of play). Unless it’s in the metaphorical sense of “turned on”? Plato, the Classical Greek philosopher. |
||
| 24 | SLUR | Baseless, lurid … containing this? (4) |
| Hidden answer (containing) in [baseles]S LUR[id]. Slur = derogatory term, which may be baseless (unjustified) and/or lurid (vividly unpleasant). |
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Them’s my sentiments too. Loved the word-botching, raised an eyebrow at cove = arm.
Regarding ON = ‘willing to participate’, I read it in the sense of “Are you still on for lunch tomorrow?”
Thanks Everyman and Quirister.
An ‘arm’ can be a ‘cove’ in a sense of ‘an arm of the sea’, being a bay or a cove.
See the Chambers Thesaurus.
But I am very annoyed by another one of these abbreviations Everyman seems to like.
After E = ‘Europe’, F = ‘French’ and D = ‘German’, we now have I = ‘Italian’.
On the whole an OK puzzle (although I didn’t like 27ac at all – there’s something missing to make it a proper cryptic clue).
Many thanks to Quirister & Everyman.
My favourites were RUINOUS, FLAT OUT, SOBER AS A JUDGE.
New for me was SKUNK = strong cannabis.
I could not parse the arm bit of ARM/AGED/DON.
Thanks Everyman and Quirister
I remember a physics lesson many years ago when Sparky explained to us that steam is the gaseous form of water as opposed to water vapour which is tiny droplets of water suspended in the air. What you see coming out of a kettle is water vapour. Steam is invisible and there is often a small layer of steam close to the spout before it is cooled by the air.
Anyway, it certainly isn’t, as Quirister points out, hot air.
My wife and I complete this crossword every week as soon as it comes out at midnight, and have persevered through the new wacky Everyman regime. But there are always clues that remain totally opaque, but we get them anyway. There are times when at one oclock in the morning we feel we would like to pass on a message to our new Everyman…..it can be distilled into “Calm down”, and “Grow up”. Older regimes we had to became experts in golf club terms, wine words, and regimental jargon. Now, in this brave new world, we flirt with toilet terms, hip acronyms, drug culture words and slang neologisms. And we put up with it, and rise to the top every week. But we do think it is right to signal that we are getting a bit fed up with the status quo, and regularly get obtuse answers in splte of the clues, and not because of them.
We are not part of the crossword in-crowd, nor would want to be. But we are curious to know what the view of the crossword cognescenti is? Do they see this as a valid progressive extension of the accepted rules, or do they see this setter as a rogue show-off?
I waited all week to discover the parsing of 13d and find myself on the same page as y’all.
Even if ARM is a cove (which is a stretch of a synonym IMO) it comes before AGED in the answer and after it in the clue with no guide to that inversion.
And while 27ac is a neat play on bird-watching, to watch spooners is not spoonerism
Nor is steam hot air. Must change my name to pedant
topcat @ 5: while not claiming to be a member of the inner circle of crossword fans, I do recognise that individual setters have their own quirks and that regular solvers come to recognise them and even expect them. Paul, for example, is known for being risqué on occasion, but he seems to get away with it by tempering his use of rude words to give the solver the occasional satisfying “penny drop” moment.
I think Everyman is trying to establish a unique character, and s/he is not quite there yet, though some trademark idiosyncrasies such as paired answers (7d and 8d in this example) are becoming well established. In that sense, your criticism may be justified and, I hope, helpful to Everyman. Many regular solvers complain at the overuse of cricketing terms, for example, which have become standard in the majority of crosswords; I don’t think it wrong for a new setter to try shifting the emphasis to new ground. I just hope it works in the longer term.
cosmic @ 6
Break 13D down into ‘old’, ‘cove coming before’, ‘academic’. That gives the required guidance.
simon S @8: Thanks on 13D.
Returning to Everyman after a longish break, I generally enjoyed this and liked 11a, 2d and 4d. Struggled with Armageddon and Platoon.
Thanks Everyman and Quirister.
Just to nitpick about Floppy Disks – they were still around in the early 2000s so Millenials (Gen Y, born 1981-96) may well be familiar with them. Gen Z not so much.
Yes a very mixed bag. The “word-botcher” may well refer to the famous Humphrey Lyttleton story where an interviewer asked about his interest in “orthinology” (sic) and only a day later did the perfect answer come to him.
“steam” for “hot air” is, as has been pointed out, just plain wrong. Such egregious errors should be picked up at editing.
Where Everyman is trying for a voice I think part of it is the “almost &lit” and slightly jokey clue that does not necessarily fully conform to the classical definition + wordplay. If we accept it is a different type of crossword, not a cryptic (as we know them) I think that’s fine and not something to criticise individual clues for.
Thank you Everyman and Quirister.
I found this great fun, especially the spoonerism at 27a for “bird watching”, the spoonbill for Bill Spooner came to my mind…
That’s brilliant TheZed @11, you have hit the nail on the head, see here.
Annoyingly I’d had 18d as Homeric, thinking about Homer from the Simpsons (sitcom link, kinda). Then the final c of that allowed me to (wrongly, very unfortunately) have Catachresis as my 22a which is a great one for word notching. Oh well.
In defence of STEAM, ‘air’ is an old term for any gas, and thus the gaseous form of water would fit the bill.
I do like Everyman’s quirkiness, and General Knowledge is not set in stone(d). “Biden’s finally” is S not N though, and the clue would work just as well with ‘Biden’.
Thanks Quirister and Everyman.
Frankie the cat @ 4
That’s what my physics teacher taught me too, and I’ve been faithfully repeating it ever since.
However, if you look here, it seems that’s an over-simplification. Saturated or superheated steam is invisible, but what you see coming out of a kettle is commonly referred to as ‘wet steam’, which is a mist/aerosol of water droplets formed as water vapour condenses.
Water vapour at room temperature is just as invisible as ‘proper’ steam – think of water evaporating from a puddle, or your skin drying in the air.
All that, of course, makes no difference to the clue – it’s still not hot air!
Nevertheless….
Since the word steam pre-dates modern physics, it is surely justifiable for Crosswordland to use it in its ‘common parlance’ or pre-scientific sense. Apparently in Old English it could mean ‘hot breath’, and we still talk about ‘letting off steam’. I know that’s not quite the same as ‘talking a load of hot air’, so the clue is still a bit of a stretch.
[I’m trying my best to make it work, because I really liked the ‘19th choice of squad’ device!]
Incidentally, I’m not giving anything away, but having just finished today’s Everyman I think it’s a cracker.
The main thing I noticed about this puzzle is that it’s awfully anagram-heavy: I counted 9.
But there were a number of good clues. I particularly liked MAGNA CARTA and O SOLE MIO, as well as the crowd favorite SPOONERISMS.
I found a few of these a bit tortured / unparseable (agree with others on 13D. And last 40% of a synonym? Hmm), although got all bar O Sole Mio. I never like it when there’s an answer I simply don’t know, and that fits the bill for me.
SKUNK is in my tattered old Chambers which is more than can be said for some of the answers in the recent classics themed crossword. Guardian setters have been playing fast and loose with the cryptic “rules” for as long as I’ve been doing them. Thanks to Q & EM
I thought there were some good clues here though I agree with many above comments about others. I think Everyman is getting better. A while ago I was ready to give up but now I might persevere.
Liked Chester, and remember my visit to that beautiful town. O Sole Mio reminded me of listening to it all over Italy till I was sick of it. Floppy Disks reminded me of learning to use a computer years ago. Lots of memories in this one, even though I couldn’t parse many of them.
Bit of a curate’s egg. I’m leaning towards Topcat’ s sentiments @5. And Quirister to the extent that some of the clues seemed rushed. I know Everyman reads these comments, so I say again: get yourself some better checkers.
I am finding that I’m over guessing some clues, and finding them harder as a result – today I knew what skunk was, but couldn’t work out how to get it into the clue. Duh. Armageddon, sorry, but come on. Many thanks Everyman and Quirister.
I liked Flat Out, Erode, O Sole Mio, Garland the best. I did not understand Armageddon at all, don’t like the large number of anagrams but I will happily admit they give me a good start when nothing seems to help me along. I don’t know how we were supposed to know the (lesser-known?) handles for cannabis
Enjoyable crossword which I finally finished but ashamed as a Kiwi to have not got RU for game. From the perspective aboard a boat a cove is an arm of water so I have no problem there. As always there are one or two new terms for me, though skunk isn’t one of them. I was introduced to Everyman in my 30s during the Scott era. There was invariably an old film I’d never heard of, but I was happy to expand my GK with my parents’ help. As our crossword community ages it may be opportune to now ask our younger friends & family about terms we are not familiar with. Who knows, we may even recruit some new participants to this wonderful pass-time.
I thought that “arm” for “cove” was quite acceptable. Thanks to Simon S. @ 8 for explaining about the ordering.
Overall a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Everyman, and to Quirister for explaining several parsing that escaped me.