Everyman 3,874/10 January

57 comments on “Everyman 3,874/10 January”

1. Fun puzzle.
   Favourites: SCARIER, BRATISLAVA
   Did not parse LIMBERING UP
   Thank you, Everyman and Pierre

2. re:19d

   There are (at least) 2 moderns theatres named after Becketts, the most famous opened at Trinity College in Dublin in 1992 named for the playwright Samuel references in the clue.

   Reading the final word of the clue to refer to a physical location (a theatre) rather that the art form (the theatre) puts the C into the CAD, but it’s a tenuous stretch.

3. ‘Harris’ (in 3dn) and ‘Paris’ (in 11dn) rhyme and so, I think, that is today’s pair.
   Indeed, the SE was very difficult (and not only for those learning the beautiful game).
   The use of ‘behind’ in 26ac is, to say the least, dubious: ‘A behind B’ meaning ‘BA’?

4. Sorry, I meant to say: ‘A behind B’ meaning ‘AB’.

5. Too many people are turning a blind eye to the important issue of sharks with malaria, so thank you Everyman.

6. Too deep for me, Nila.

7. A DNF – the SE too convoluted for me (even with the answer before reading your parsing, Pierre, in some cases). Nila @ 5 – the unlikely anagram at 3d was a delight, I agree.

8. Not a fan of this one. 10 across has a second, equally plausible answer in ‘GRIP’ (alternate letters of ‘garlic powder’). ‘Bigger moustaches’ is, IMO, just a straight up bad definition, and ‘7 to 10 years old’ as a definition of BROWNIE is just far too vague for my taste. There were plenty of good clues as well but those (and a few other problems) spoiled it for me.

9. Took me quite a while. I also found the SE the most difficult and I did not manage to get 22d AREA despite puzzling over it for ages.

   My favourites were: ERASMUS, LIMBERING UP, BEEB, MEMPHIS, STAGGERING

   and I have just realised that ISLE is hidden in mISLEading – I thought the misleading referred to man in the clue leading you to think of a person whereas the answer was an island.

   Thanks to Everyman and Pierre

10. I felt we had two pairs in the answers – those identified by Pierre and Sil – though the PARIS/HARRIS are stronger – and what a delightful anagram!

    One plea to setters, though: please find an alternative opening definition when clueing ISLE. “Man perhaps…” is such an old chestnut. I am really surprised setters don’t try and do more with Wight, Skye, Harris/Lewis, Mull, Rum, Dogs, Black, Bute etc (Apart from one memorable exception in the Indy but that was a theme rather than an attempt to clue the word.)

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

11. I too didnt enjoy this one, especially SE corner. I found three pairs, the two already identified @3 and @10 togetehr with 14D and 7D SMOTHERING and STAGGERING. Note that all the three identified are also in the corresponding entries rotated around the centrepoint of the puzzle. KAMALA HARRIS was a nice anagram. Thanks Everyman and Pierre

12. EPSOM SALTS appeared in another crossword on the same day. What are the chances of that? [Maybe 1000 to 1 – 30×30 possible pairs from a vocabulary of 9000???]
    I only got AREA from the discussion on Monday’s blog. Thanks NeilH

13. Petert @12: indeed it did. A double dose to free up the thinking. Almost identical clueing as well:

    “Where you can bet sailors will give you a purgative” and “Purgative from sailors in Surrey?”

14. Good morning from Everyman and many thanks to Pierre and other solvers. The linked clues are not a requirement, naturally, but this time there happen to be two pairs.

    * The ‘Central’ part of BRATISLAVA isn’t part of the wordplay, just a steer (almost literally) to narrow down the candidate locations.

    * I’ve followed the convention that when certain sound operations (eg cockney, spoonerism) are used, any additional homophone indicator is setter’s discretion. ‘Like’ is part of the wordplay fodder.

    * BECKETT was intended to be give an initial reading along the lines of ‘due for a revival’, but I can now see how that could be missed…

    * When I talk to new solvers about the difference between a clue-as-definition and a meat-and-potatoes cryptic clue, they tend to glaze over, and I suspect the distinction is more vital to us devotees!

    Most importantly, and my real reason for dropping by at a distance: I hope this finds all well and proceeding into this stage year.

15. Sil @ 3/4

    If you accept that a setter can include punctuation to misdirect (as I do), I think that leads to acceptance of omitting punctuation for the same reason.

    If you read 26 as “ ‘Wayward youth’, ‘is’ behind [it], fiery eruption ” it works reasonably.

16. I quite enjoyed this with SIEGE OF PARIS being my favourite.

    Like Sil @3 (and as I said last week) ‘behind’ doesn’t mean ‘in front of,’ unless you are reading from right to left.

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

17. Simon S @15; I’m sorry but I think that is Yoda speak. ‘IS’ is definitely in front of LAVA as you look at the answer.

18. Thanks, Pierre, not just for the explanations but also your comments. I couldn’t agree more. Got 21d and 22d but only following discussion with great friend and long time crossword buddy. Neither of us knew why, unusually. Difficult is one thing, bizarre clueing another. Every so often, Everyman reminds me why I still find this setter quirky on a good day and maddeningly unreliable on another. Hoping for better this week.

19. Simon S en Robi: I see what Everyman does/means, only find it a bit clumsy.
    If it is like Simon S says @15, we have “A B behind C” meaning “A B C” ….

20. I am beginning to enjoy the Everyman puzzles as they seem to have settled down to a more consistent standard in the last few weeks. This one and today’s puzzle have some tough clues but also some long anagrams to help at the start. Thanks to Pierre and Everyman.

21. I was slowed by my own mistakes. For quite a while I had LEAD (as in man perhaps being main man) and for a briefer period having ‘pencilled-in’ DICKENS rather than BECKETT as a possibility, due to the 3rd letter being my first crosser. Either way I thought that one was the weakest clue of an otherwise enjoyable puzzle which I didn’t get around to until yesterday afternoon. LOI was UVEA and was unsure I’d got it right until this fine morn.

22. I need hardly point out that the Vice-President does not inhabit the White House, or is this a nit too far? A nice anagram all the same.

    I didn’t find the SE all that hard, though my distaste for AREA was amplified by the non-rhotic “homophone”.

23. Sara @18, I hope you are enjoying this week’s offering. So far, I am finding it particularly baffling!

24. On the whole I rather enjoyed this – although I agree with you, Pierre, about 22D.
    With regard to the paired clues: time was, they were blindingly obvious – so much so that occasionally I could sort of solve them both simultaneously. But that’s long gone and these days the pairs are less, well, pairy. I sometimes clean forget to look for them, as with pangrams, ninas, themes – although fortunately, unlike with the other three, spotting or missing a pairing doesn’t affect the solving of other clues.
    With this one I did notice Harris and Paris rhymed – but since the rest of each clue had no connection, I assumed it was just a coincidence.
    I had trouble parsing TALC; I share the weariness with “isle” = “man” when there are, as PostMark mentions, so many other gloriously named isles around. (However I’m slowly coming to terms with this, as with various other irritants in the cruciverse – such as the idea that “Ian” always means a scotsman even though Iain is the more common spelling in Scotland, and also the idea that when the initials of any two completely random words are transposed the end result is a Spoonerism).
    EPSOM SALTS and KEGS brought a smile – and ERASMUS was nicely-hidden: took me a while to spot him!
    Thanks to Everyman for a pleasant sunday morning, and to Pierre for the clear and carefully explained blog.

25. poc@22. IMO Trump was a nit too far 🙂

26. Sil @19; I think it is clumsy. In my opinion “A B behind C” means either CAB or ACB, not ABC. For that you might need “A B, behind is C” or “A B C’s behind;” nuff said.

    Nearly every time we have a homophone, there is some discussion about rhotic or non-rhotic pronunciation. Homophones are unusable if every pronunciation is catered for. As I’ve said before, I think we have to use the dictionary pronunciations. Thus, for ‘area’ please see this That seems to sound like ‘airier’ to me.

27. Sorry, I meant this

28. Novice crossword solver adding humble comment…DNF (couldn’t get 8 of them) but enjoying the variety of comments here and benefitting hugely (she hopes!) from explanations…emboldened to contribute here having seen Everyman’s addition above. Thanks to all. I shall persevere!

29. Welcome, cara. Nothing humble at all about your comment – the Everyman is intended for newer solvers, and it’s good to hear that you’re making progress (and enjoying it). Keep practising (and dropping in to tell us how you’re doing).

30. cara @28: welcome on board. It always seems a shame that a new poster needs to feel emboldened because the community here is warm, welcoming and keen to embrace additions to the fold. But certainly I recall needing to feel emboldened before I pressed Post Comment for the first time. I’m still learning from being a participant here so I’m confident you’ll gain from both reading and posting. So do persevere away!

31. @29 Pierre and @30 PostMark …so much appreciated! Thank u both. Bracing for next week’s now, encouraged by your motivation : )

32. Grantinfreo@6, I was being daft and maybe your comment was meant as a pun anyway. But… to me the KAMALA HARRIS clue is the kind that an amateur would write, which annoys me because obviously Everyman is much better than that. Apart from the point made earlier about the VP not living in the White House, we have to imagine the randomness of a future VP or President treating a disease in sharks, one that doesn’t even exist!
    It’s probably a difficult name to clue, hence resorting to a nonsensical anagram, so why crowbar it into the puzzle for the sake of a rhyme with SIEGE OF PARIS?
    I see that others here were amused by it so I might be on my own here, but to me it’s not enough just to produce a wacky anagram. There should be a believable surface too.

33. Robi@27: It’s pointless to argue about this and such is not my intention. English speakers are either rhotic or non-rhotic, so it’s not a question of “catering to every possible accent”, however crosswords invariably favour the non-rhotic pronunciation. The link you give offers a perfectly good pronunciation of “area” which I have no problem with, but it doesn’t offer a pronunciation of “airier”, which is the point at issue.

34. I thought of the same quibble as poc @22: the vice president doesn’t live in the White House. But he — and very soon, but not soon enough, she! — does have an office there and presumably spends a lot of time there, so I think with a slight stretching of the meaning of “inhabitant”, we can allow it.

35. Thanks to Everyman for the crossword, and for dropping by.

36. Thanks for the exercise Everyman and it is always good to see the setter drop by.
    Of course, in the case of 3D, he could be implying he does not expect Biden to see out his term.
    Thanks for the explanations Pierre. I am another who thought the rhyming pair were HARRIS/PARIS, even though the Americans did have an oops day in the AMERICAS CUP yesterday.
    Yes, these puzzles are meatier than they used to be but that is not necessarily bad. I enjoy them regardless. So, Cara, welcome and keep at it.

37. John @35. Thank you for your comment. The screen name John is already taken on Fifteensquared, by one of our long-established bloggers, so when you visit again, can you choose another name, or modify this one in some way?

    Many thanks

    Pierre

38. As always I enjoyed Everyman’s long anagrams. But one of the strengths of a cryptic crossword is that when you have parsed a clue (and found two ways of arriving at the answer) you can be sure you are correct. Or can you? Not this week. Like NM @8, I was sure 10ac should be GRIP and of course I then struggled with the crossers.

39. Greetings from New Zealand.
    Everyman’s appearance in the NZ Herald is now 6 weeks behind the times. For instance 3869 was published today (Saturday 23 Jan) for which comments are already closed. Though we occasionally grumble about obscure British colloquialisms & geographical features and while we are currently physically cut off from the rest of the world we would still like to continue to make our (belated) contributions to this forum.
    Pierre, can you or your colleagues please arrange for the comments to remain open for tardy Kiwis.
    We’ll get to this one around the end of Summer.

40. Yess, second what Paul @30 says. Comments are closing too soon for us down under.

41. And being to edit our entries would be nice too. So reference above should be 39 not 30.

42. Paul @39
    My apologies. When I checked previous blogs for comments from NZ it appeared that you were 5 weeks behind so I set the ‘close comments’ time to 6 weeks. I have now extended it to 8 weeks so 3869 is open again.

43. Cheers Gaufrid. If only I could remember what I was going to write.

44. There was a time New Zealand was about ten years behind. Nice to know we’ve caught up a bit.

45. Hi from Perth Australia.
    I’m a few week behind in doing these too and only just did this one. DNF, 21d and 22d had me beat, though not helped by having MINE DRILLS for 24a which does fit.
    Cheers

46. I’ll take advantage of the deal recently hammered out between Gaufrid and Aus/NZ to join the discussion here several weeks behind. Or should that be ‘several, behind weeks’?

    As others have commented, the SE corner was far too difficult, and I didn’t do myself any favours when, in a combination of brain fade and a senior moment, I somehow convinced myself that Godot was written by Brecht (which is almost a homophone).
    UVEA was previously unknown to me, though eventually getable, as was the even harder AREA. The characteristic speech indictor was fine, but I spent far too long on possible moustaches: WA’RUS, ‘ANDLEBAR, good grief, give us a break: ‘airier? Ed’s suggestion @45 for MINE DRILLS is a better fit for ‘industrial kit’ though the word play obviously rules it out.

    I’m fairly new to this rhyming solutions convention, so I’m not clear if they have to be symmetrically placed. There seemed to be three fitting this criterion: 7&14, 3&11 and 12&20; and a case could be made for AREA and SCARIER but as no one has mentioned them, I guess I’ve just answered my own question.

47. I liked this puzzle and found the answers all satisfying, except for 22 down (“area”) which I got by guessing on the basis of the cross letters and taking “topic” to be the literal definitiion, but could not parse and would never have parsed in a million years. (Thanks to Pierre for the explanation.) This sort of homophone sucks. Moreover “area” is a pretty weak synonym for “topic”.
    Had to use wildcard dictionaries a lot to get the SE corner.
    My favourite, once I got it (with the help of a wildcard dictinary) was “Beckett”.
    I disagree with Pierre’s assertion that “there are no real obscurities in terms of vocabulary. ” IMHO “uvea” (21 down) is about as obscure as it gets.
    In respect of “Immanent White House inhabitant” — in addition to other suggestions that have been made, perhaps it should be considered that Everyman believes that Harris will be elected US president in 2024.
    Thanks to Everyman for an overall enjoyable puzzle, and for dropping in.

48. I agree with Rolf @47 about Kamala Harris possibly being elected in the future.
    The reason the NZ Herald has slipped so far behind is that over the Christmas period, for some unknown reason, they used some old versions of the crossword that were several years old. I was surprised to find my original comments still there on the blog.

49. Forgot to say how surprised and pleased I was to find the America’s Cup mentioned today, since it is about to start next week here in Auckland. I suppose it was too much to think that it was a nod to us here in NZ.

50. We really liked this one. Flew through the top and felt like 007 and Wonder Woman. Then the S-E corner which took an elapsed 18 hours ( we slept on it).
    What was good was that even though the clues were hard, they all made sense with only Beckett being obscure. The C for central Europe is correct – that is where Brastislava is according to goggle.

51. Barrie, we were only 10 years behind in Corrie, we had been doing magnificently well in being up with the play in most other areas. But now we are seeing Corrie only a week or so after it screens in the UK, the only other thing to catch up with is these Everymen.
    Perhaps the NZ Herald could give us 2 or 3 every weekend to catch us up! Or one on a Wednesday as well?

52. Why are we getting plus signs inserted in place of commas?

53. We had to resort to this page to finish the SE corner, but overall an enjoyable crossword. I got BECKETT straight away, so good to see a reference to him. Thanks for keeping comments open for longer, much appreciated! And re the Americas Cup – Auckland now in Level 3 lockdown so let’s see if that actually happens. Thank goodness for these crosswords and other puzzles to keep boredom at bay. It would be great to have the NZ Herald on side to get us up to date within a couple of weeks rather than the current 6-7 weeks. Take care all.

54. For 6A “Man perhaps somewhat misleading” we got Ashe (a she).
    It meshes OK and can be defended.
    Arthur Ashe is a male tennis star.
    Interesting that nobody else did – or if they did, they didn’t comment here.

55. DNF, floored by UVEA and AREA. Sour grapes maybe, but I agree with the suggestions above that both are ill-fitting clues for this crossword.

    Audrey, you jinxed us: America’s Cup now postponed as we are under house arrest again. Not saying it isn’t justified, but very irritating all the same.

56. Enjoyed the suggestion of Ashe for 6ac – very clever! store that away as a clue when you make up your own cryptics!
    Enjoyed 80% of this but like others not the SE corner. Did not see sense in either 21 or 22d totally obscure
    but did like Beeb, Brownie, Smothering, Bratislava the best. Had never heard of Pile Driver. I didnt think Piled river made any sense either. oh well

57. Finally got to this after a busy weekend at the beach. And yes it is supposedly now the end of Summer in NZ. Failed to make sense of Beckett, even with Everyman’s explanation. Overall though I enjoyed the variety of devices. Thanks Everyman & Pierre.

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