Everyman 3,855

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The Observer crossword from 30 Aug, 2020.
Perhaps it is just me but I found this puzzle a bit harder than usual.

The construction of some clues (like 11ac and 24ac) may be a bit daunting for those relatively new to crosswords.
There are quite a few references to adult-oriented 70s/80s pop music in this puzzle (and I didn’t even mention Styx and Sting in the blog).
As ever, we do have a rhyming couple, the two long Across entries.
Many thanks to Everyman for the Bank Holiday fun.

ACROSS
1 SPLIT HAIRS Find problems with this spiral fracture (5,5)
Anagram (indicated by fracture) of: THIS SPIRAL
6 ZINC Sample of jazz incorporated metal (4)
Hidden solution (indicated by sample of): jazZ INCorporated
9 CROW’S NESTS Somewhere on boat, Spooner is familiar with shapes of waves (5,5)
Spoonerism of: KNOWS (is familiar with) CRESTS (shapes of waves)
Not sure a boat has more than one crow’s nest, also not sure the ‘definition’ suggests a plural.
10 MARS Wrecks the planet (4)
Double definition
11 GIFT OF THE GAB Persuasiveness of digital image bought into; proof finally the net’s retrograde (4,2,3,3)
GIF (digital image), followed by the last letters (indicated by finally) of: boughT intO prooF, and then after that: THE plus a reversal (indicated by retrograde) of BAG (net)
15 PHLEGMY Covered in slimy matter, e.g. lymph: revolting (7)
Anagram (indicated by revolting) of: E.G.LYMPH
16 AQUARIA A Queen song that’s operatic with brill setting, perhaps (7)
A + QU (Queen, abbreviated) + ARIA (song that’s operatic)
A brill is a fish which you may perhaps find in an aquarium which explains the somewhat whimsical definition.
However, I am not sure whether this justifies the plural of the word aquarium.
17 RETREAT Priest fries ants regularly in sanctuary (7)
Regular choice (in this case the even letters) of: pRiEsT fRiEs AnTs
19 SCEPTIC He casts doubt, festering, about origin of climate (7)
SEPTIC (festering) around the first letter of CLIMATE
20 PICK UP THE TAB Learn part of Greek alphabet (beta) and make it your treat (4,2,3,3)
PICK UP (learn) + THETA (part of Greek alphabet, the 8th character) + B (beta)
Here, B is not an abbreviation for ‘beta’ but just the way a capitalised beta is written in the Greek language.
23 REAL Genuine antique Spanish coin (4)
Double definition
Pronounced differently.
24 ANNE BOLEYN Woman in power once, a European, the old throwback in the news (4,6)
First we have A, then: E (European) plus a reversal (indicated by back) of YE (the old) LOB (throw), after which the whole lot (except the A at the start) goes into N,N,N (news)
Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, mother of Elizabeth I.
Oh, and one has to split throw/back – something that is common in The Guardian but not often used in an Everyman crossword.
25 STYX Rod’s announced hellish setting for Sailing (4)
Homophone (indicated by announced) of: STICK’S (rod’s)
Styx is the infamous river in Hades across which Charon ferried the dead.
Everyman clearly couldn’t resist the Rod Stewart connection.
26 CAT STEVENS Songwriter‘s musical number penned for inclusion of tenor (3,7)
SEVEN (number) penned by, i.e. going inside, CATS (musical), after which T (tenor) goes inside that (indicated by for inclusion of)
After 16ac and 25ac, this is already the third pop music clue today (and be prepared to have more in 18d).
Although his major successes lie in the distant past (Matthew & Son, Father and Son, Wild World, to name three – oh, and Kitty (!), a particular favourite some 50 years ago) Cat Stevens – real name: Steven Georghiou – still performs, also using his other name Yusuf Islam.
A shame he said some terrible things about Salman Rushdie once.
DOWN
1 SOCK Clobber? (4)
Sort of double definition
Firstly, ‘to clobber’ as in ‘to beat’ as in ‘to sock’.
Secondly, sock as an item of clothing, part of one’s clobber.
I am a bit at odds with Everyman’s singular/plural uses today, apparently.
For me, a sock is just one thing, and clobber a collective noun.
Well, there’s a question mark in the clue, so let’s call it quits.
2 LAOS Rogue broadcast in communist country (4)
Homophone (indicated by broadcast) of: LOUSE (rogue)
Before the Homophone Police turns up (and on a previous occasion it did): Laos can be pronounced like ‘louse’.
Some people say ‘La-osh’, though. Collins is happy with either of them.
3 TASTING MENU Selection of dishes of bland Greek character, pungency suppressed (7,4)
TAME (bland) + NU (Greek character, the 13th of the 24) suppressing, i.e. going around, STING (pungency)
4 ADEPTLY Cleverly lay around outside office (7)
Anagram (indicated by around) of LAY, which then goes around DEPT (office, short for Department)
5 RATAFIA Primarily, robust alcoholic tipple, acerbic from infused almonds? (7)
Indicated by Primarily, the first letters of: Robust Alcoholic Tipple Acerbic From Infused Almonds
The second time this week this (to me, unfamiliar) word cropped up – after Knut had it last Tuesday in the Indy.
7 INAUGURATE Invest in gâteau, ruin organization (10)
Anagram (indicated by organization) of: GATEAU RUIN
8 CASABLANCA Film that’s translated into English for White House (10)
Translating CASA BLANCA into English will give you WHITE HOUSE
The famous 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
12 HAUTE-SAVOIE A hot, suave libertine is enticing (to begin with) somewhere in France (5-6)
Anagram (indicated by libertine) of: A HOT SUAVE, which will then be followed by the first letters (indicated by to begin with) of both IS and ENTICING
A department in the east of France, its capital being Annecy.
13 SPARE PARTS Angry? Tie up loose ends (5,5)
SPARE (angry), followed by a reversal (indicated by up) of STRAP (tie)
14 PLUTOCRACY In Acapulco, naked Tory devised system of rule (10)
Remove the outer letters of [A]CAPULC[O] (indicated by naked), then take an anagram (indicated by devised) of: CAPULC + TORY
18 TITANIA Queen depicted in blockbuster, Mercury’s essence missing, ending in Radio Gaga (7)
TITANIC minus the central letter of MERCURY (indicated by ‘s essence), followed by the last letter of RADIO GAGA
To make this work one should see Radio Gaga as one object.
19 SKEWERS Prepares kebabs in botanical gardens wearing half-length trousers (7)
KEW (botanical gardens) wearing, i.e. going inside, half of [TROU]SERS
21 MEME Everyman twice depicted in internet joke (4)
ME (Everyman) + ME (Everyman again)
22 ENOS Biblical character‘s a little toffee-nosed (4)
Hidden solution (indicated by a little): toffeE NOSed
The solution was clear enough but I have to admit that I’d never heard of this Old Testament character, a son of Seth.
But then, the Bible is not really my forte.

 

26 comments on “Everyman 3,855”

  1. Like you, Sil, I found this one a bit tougher than the last few. PHLEGMY – what a word, and the apparent anagram fodder seemed so unpromising. MEME, on the other hand, was simple and elegant, and SKEWERS was nice. The NW held me up as long as the rest put together – not sure why, once I cracked it, though vacillating between tasting/grazing menu didn’t help. Not sure of the louse/Laos homophone either. And I am a DNF – I had RAY Stevens – I thought “He’s a bit obscure as a songwriter”. Can’t remember how I parsed it now, either. Thanks, Everyman and Sil.

  3. Yea this one took me longer than last weeks and didn’t get CAT STEVENS. Like Sil I thought ENOS might be the answer but I wasn’t sure as I had never heard of him. Liked SKEWERS, STYX, AND CROWSNEST (first time I’ve managed to solve a spoonerism clue and I agree about the plural) also PLUTOCRACY, SCEPTIC.

    Thanks to Everyman and Sil

    Now to look at this weeks

  4. Like our blogger I had a question mark over CROW’S NESTS in the plural. I also wondered whether ANNE BOLEYN was ever a ‘woman in power’ though I imagine she carried a bit clout in the royal household and having Henry’s ear for a few years she might have had some influence over certain matters of state.

  5. Like TassieTim@1 I thought that I was getting misty, thinking that I was on a winning streak with Ray Stevens, before the Cat crept in.

    Everyman is beautiful in its’ own way.
    Thanks Sil.

  6. Like Sil and jackkt@4 I queried CROW’S NESTS plural. A harder puzzle and I had to cheat on a couple

    Thanks for decoding 3D. I had (mis)identified TAU as the Greek symbol and couldnt figure out how to get MEN to be stung.

     

     

  7. I was beaten by Everyman, failing to get HAUTE SAVOIE and AQUARIA, and I didn’t fill in CROW’S NESTS until Thursday. Definitely a notch or two up the difficulty scale from normal.

  8. Everyman just keeps getting better with some choice cultural references and superb surfaces on show. I was once seen by my mates coming out of a Styx gig wearing a black satin tour jacket with detachable sleeves …

    PLUTOCRACY favourite for hideous image conjured up by the surface 🙂

     

  9. Although I did complete this, with the help for the last two of my husband who is definitely not of a cryptic mindset, I do find the explanations helpful, as I get several but with no real idea why. I really appreciate the clarifications, although then I wonder how I ever did land upon the right answers…..Afraid I got 25a from the classical allusion only, who are Styx? Perhaps better not go there after I complained last week about irrelevant threads. Many thanks, Sil

  10. I liked the jazz/metal in 6a ZINC, and the clever Rod Stewart surface of 25a STYX.  Also 1d clobber = SOCK was nice.  I thought HAUTE SAVOIE and ENOS were a bit obscure!  But maybe that’s just my personal ignorance, and they were solvable.

    ANNE BOLEYN appeared very recently in Pan’s Quiptic 1,084.  I agree with jackkt @4 that it’s not correct to describe her as having been “in power”.  Her daughter Elizabeth became queen regnant, but Anne herself was merely queen consort with no constitutional power, no matter how much influence she may have had behind the scenes.

    Many thanks Everyman and Sil.

  11. Sara@9 Styx is an American rock band. Their UK hit was Babe in 1979. Not necessarily considered to be cool, hence Half Man Half Biscuit’s song about the embarrassment of being “Seen by me mates coming out of a Styx gig”.

  12. This was the first Everyman I completed all on own without resorting to DanWord, so I was pleased any way, and now people are saying they found it hard, so that brings double satisfaction. (Usually if I finish the comments say it very easy!) I have finished this week’s too!

    I had not parsed the triple N in ANNE BOLEYN, so thank you Sil for that. The number of CROWS NESTS depends on the number of masts (and thus on the type of ship) so there can easily be two or more. For myself I found all the singular/plural choices perfectly allowable from the cluing though I understand why some did not.

    Many thanks to Everyman for a fun puzzle and to Sil for the blog.

  13. I quite enjoyed this. It must be difficult to produce a good crossword every week, so compliments to Everyman for that.

    There were a few quibbles, however. I thought the Spoonerism was rather weak but that is often the case unless it gives a known phrase. For the Clobber? clue, I immediately thought of rags and various other four-letter words like slam. I think angry is ‘go spare’ rather than spare and the ending in Radio Gaga would have been more correct if hyphenated; otherwise you might be looking at an ‘o’ and Gaga as perhaps an anagrind.

    Nice rhyming couplets.

    Thanks Everyman and Sil.

  15. I had both SOCK and SACK as potential answers for “Clobber?”.  “Sack” being an unorganised pile of stuff, and, at a pinch, an attack (as in “plunder”).

  16. This was definitely quite chewy in places but then again, I managed to finish it – so I’m feeling chuffed. My fave was STYX, for the misdirection and for the image it evokes: heading to the afterlife would be bad enough, but doing so to the strains of ol’ Rod…
    Like Bodycheetah, I was also taken with the imagery in 14D (though in my case largely because it reminded me of my all-time fave film credit: the cast-list of The Favourite includes the glorious, “Nude Pomegranate Tory”. The performance in question is a fleeting one, no more than a couple of minutes or so – but once seen, never forgotten!)
    I guessed ENOS (thanks to google) and ANNE BOLEYN (thanks to Sil for help completing the parsing) and thanks to Everyman for the sunday morning fun!

  17. Usually I spend an hour or two in the evening going through a crossword and either finish it or (more often) don’t. This time, I got all but about eight clues, came back a day later and got another couple, then another couple. With only two left, I thought I was definitely defeated, until I was in the shower this afternoon and it occurred to me that libertine might be an anagrind. Though I had never heard of Haute Savoie until today some googling got me there, and then the only option for 16a was Aquaria (which I had previously considered and rejected — a quick google for Aquaria led me only to the factoid that there is a drag queen of that name who recently won a TV talent show).

    Got there! It was my most epic battle with a setter yet:)

    Thanks Everyman (and thanks Sil for parsing Anne Boleyn)!

  20. Very late to the party this week, but wanted @15 to know that I also considered SACK a potential answer — especially since I had never heard the use of clobber for clothes.

  21. I am surprised no o e queried QU as an abbrev for queen
    Is that a thing?
    Also thought the news thing in Anne Boleyn unsolvable
    But I liked the attempts to divert and liked Clues for Casablanca, Cat Stevens and spare parts best this time
    Down here I always thought Laos was pronounced Lau rhymes with cow

  22. Did not get Sock nor Cat Stevens and this one challenged us far more than the last few weeks. Good to be pushed and always learning new ways to solve / parse the clues. Fave was Styx and Anne Boleyn was a goodie but not sold on QU for Queen.

  23. A tough one this weekend.
    Crows nests, anne boleyn, and cat stevens especially hard and resorted to other means. Have no idea how news parses to n n n.
    Oh well the crossword gods have awakened after our rapturous success achieved last week in less than an hour, bringing us back to reality.

  25. Got it all out but needed help from wildcard dictionaries, and a lot of luck.  Could not parse a lot of the clues (Titania, Cat Stevens, aquaria, Anne Boleyn, ….).

    Thought this was rather hard , overall, and many clues seemed to me to be a bit unfair.

    Unlike others I found Haute Savoie and Enos to be straightforward.  In respect of the latter, I have zilch Biblical knowledge but the name rang a bell, and being “hidden” made it pretty easy.

  26. Alan and Cath @23, re “n n n” see comment by Trevor F @19.
    Vanessa and Pip & Doug, QU possibly meaning ‘Queen’ is in Chambers (but not in the other dictionaries).

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