A pleasing puzzle from Everyman which hits the spot of being tractable but still of interest to more experienced solvers.
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 Baked good might make you portly? As if!
FILO PASTRY
(PORTLY AS IF)*
6 ’70s sitcom, fluffy fare?
MASH
A dd cum cd. The first is referring to the classic US war-comedy sitcom (often written as M*A*S*H and an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital); the second is referencing mashed potatoes, which are not fit for serving unless they are fluffy (and well buttered, in our house).
9 ‘Republican monarchy’: hard to penetrate crazy vestiges of Empire
ROMAN BATHS
‘Crazy’ wasn’t an anagrind after all, was it? A charade of R, OMAN (for it is a monarchy) and H inserted into BATS. The insertion indicator is ‘to penetrate’. What did the Romans ever do for us? Well, they left us a few Roman baths, for sure.
10 Withdrawing exasperated utterance, seeing celeb
STAR
A reversal (‘withdrawing’) of RATS, which was Charlie Brown’s ‘exasperated utterance’ of choice.
12 Place for experiments; artist with sketch being cross
LABRADOODLE
A charade of LAB, RA and DOODLE gives you the ‘what’s-the-point-of-that’ canine hybrid.
15 Musician, chaste? Around about 50/50
PURCELL
An insertion of C for circa or ‘about’ in PURE, followed by two Ls. Something else the Romans gave us.
16 Piece of work announced: instructions for gardener, seamstress?
SO-AND-SO
A homophone (‘announced’) of SEW SOW and SEW, which could be instructions given equally to a gardener and a seamstress. The definition is the pejorative one: ‘he’s a nasty piece of work/a nasty so-and-so.’
17 Slice of apricot tart and cheese
RICOTTA
Hidden in apRICOT TArt.
19 Vegetate on vacation touring Chile resort in caravan, perhaps
VEHICLE
An insertion of (CHILE)* in VE for the outside letters of ‘vegetate’. The insertion indicator is ‘touring’ and the anagrind is ‘resort’ (or more precisely, re-sort).
20 Waving hello, maniac creates despair
MELANCHOLIA
(HELLO MANIAC)*
23 Number of regressive Leninists
NINE
Hidden reversed in LENINists.
24 Playing in flames is penultimate set of games
SEMI-FINALS
(IN FLAMES IS)*
25 A canal God recalled
SUEZ
A reversal of ZEUS.
26 Notes describing sheep liver, perhaps, somewhere in US
NEW ENGLAND
An insertion of EWE in two Ns for ‘notes’, followed by GLAND. The liver is our heaviest organ, but is also the largest gland in the human body.
Down
1 Some of Armenia is agricultural land
FARM
Hidden in oF ARMenia.
2 Shiny fabric? Implausible
LAME
A dd. For the first definition you’d have to add the accent: LAMÉ.
3 Biplane agent repaired (mechanical reparation)
PANEL BEATING
(BIPLANE AGENT)*
4 Dish, German, in Baden-Baden … maybe throw up
SPAG BOL
An insertion of G for ‘German’ in SPA (of which Baden-Baden is an example) and LOB reversed (‘up’, since it’s a down clue).
5 Tries once more removing Bottom from what actors do with play
REHEARS
REHEARS[E] The definition is referring to a criminal hearing.
7 After seeing, perhaps Golf: Introduction to Driving Everyman would play (… he’s never had a lesson)
AUTODIDACT
A charade of AUTO, D for the first letter of ‘Driving’, I’D for ‘Everyman would’ and ACT.
8 In training, rower hopes to achieve measure of potency
HORSEPOWER
(ROWER HOPES)*
11 ‘La ti re so‘? Hang about: this gives me energy!
SOLAR HEATING
(LA TI RE SO HANG)*
13 A standard time before workers finally built employers’ homes
APARTMENTS
A charade of A, PAR, T, MEN and TS for the final letters of ‘built’ and ’employers’.
14 Aggression displayed by curt, uppity, oddly ugly eunuch with energy
TRUCULENCE
A charade of (CURT)*, ULENC for the odd letters of UgLy EuNuCh and E. The anagrind is ‘uppity’.
18 Let hate wildly make you a competitor
ATHLETE
(LET HATE)*
19 Cunning and very posh, the French will conceal banking info
VULPINE
A charade of V, U for the nowadays almost crossword-only definition of ‘posh’ (as opposed to non-U) and PIN inserted into LE for one of the French words for ‘the’. PIN stands for Personal Identification Number. I used to get slightly irked by shop assistants asking me to enter my PIN number (since that would be my Personal Identification Number Number) but I’ve stopped doing that now. Life is too short. VULPINE means ‘fox-like’, whence ‘cunning’. Cf BOVINE, OVINE, MURINE, LUPINE, CANINE, FELINE and (since Everyman has not offered me a bird this morning) AQUILINE …
21 Duchamp’s art, denying aesthetics primarily?
DADA
The initial letters of the first four words of the clue, and a cad. Michel Marcel Duchamp was a pioneer of the Dada art movement.
22 American edition (second-hand)
USED
A charade of US and ED.
Many thanks to Everyman for this Sunday’s puzzle.
A nice workout without being too frustrating. I kind of liked PURCELL, even though the wordplay doesn’t seem quite precise enough. But there were plenty where it was: e.g. ROMAN BATHS, LABRADOODLE, VEHICLE, NEW ENGLAND, TRUCULENCE etc. We have always called spaghetti bolognese SPAG BOG, so that held me up until I unravelled PURCELL. A couple of quibblets: does MELANCHOLIA = despair? Is HORSEPOWER a measure of potency? Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Re 16a, I think the gardener’s SEW should be SOW??
Favourites: STAR, VULPINE, SEMI-FINALS, PURCELL, FARM, SPAG BOL, ROMAN BATHS (loi)
New: LABRADOODLE.
Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.
It’s both sow and sew for the wordplay, Ranger@2, and either one for the homophone.
Yep, pleasant enough Sunday morning, and agree, TassieTim, about melancholia/despair; as for potency, I guess it’s close enough to power, so the horse just scrapes home. Spag boG, otoh, has always made me wince! All good fun, ta E and P.
Took me a while to get going on this one and although I was sure that 9a was ROMAN BATHS it took a while before I suddenly saw why. Same for REHEARS.
Loved SO-AND-SO. Other favourites were TRUCULENCE, MASH, PURCELL
I thought that *uppity* was a signal to reverse CURT in TRUCULENCE rather than an anagrind.
Thanks to Everyman and Pierre
Failed an Everyman for the first time. No worries, it was a fine puzzle. 9a ROMAN BATHS defeated me, as I couldn’t get my brain away from looking for an anagram of R(epublican) plus MONARCHY with H(ard) in it – excellent misdirection.
I aIso didn’t get 4d SPAG BOL. I didn’t know Baden-Baden as a spa, and we always called the dish SPAG BLOG. Actually, we make it with rotini, and call it ROT BLOG, which I think sounds even more appetizing than TassieTim’s SPAG BOG.
Anyway, as I said, a nice puzzle, with 16a SO-AND-SO as my favourite – very clever. Thanks Everyman and Pierre (I agree with your assessment).
…and yes, Fiona Anne@5, I think you are correct in your parsing of 14d TRUCULENCE.
Much enjoyed this. I agree with Ranger @2 that the instruction to the gardener is “sow” (seeds) and to the seamstress is “sew” (stitches); I would assume this is a typo in the blog, as I think g.i.f. @4 is implying. Like Fiona Anne I read “uppity” as a reversal of CURT. Thank you to Pierre, especially for liver as GLAND, which I had not parsed, and to Everyman for a fun puzzle.
[For MASH get Smash, although Pierre’s fluffy, well buttered alternative sounds much tastier.]
SO-AND-SO typo corrected – thanks to all who pointed it out.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
There’s is a point to Labradoodles, Pierre. Poodles don’t shed their hair, and poodle crosses don’t either, so they are suitable dogs for people with hair allergies.
It is received wisdom that the Everyman is an easier puzzle that might be (to quote Pierre) “of interest to more experienced solvers”. Ever since the new Everyman took over, this is not so for me: it’s the puzzle in the week that I am most likely to struggle with, and I didn’t finish this one.
Done about 10 or so Everymans now. Newbie to cryptic. If I get 50% I’m happy. Though getting ones experienced folk on here say they didn’t is nice!
An entertaining Everyman; some weeks seem much better than others.
In 1A, should that be ‘goody’? I don’t understand what a ‘baked good’ is. If that’s right, perhaps someone can explain.
I ticked TERRACOTTA (nicely hidden), PANEL BEATER (good anagram) and HORSEPOWER.
I liked AUTODIDACT, MELANCHOLIA and TRUCULENCE which took me back to Satre’s Nausea.
Apologies to gif but, as in the TassieTim household, we’ve always had ‘spag bog’, even though the latter word is clearly not an abbreviation of the Italian. (Rather like continuing to refer to a tuna bake as ‘Ada in aspic’ which is a name my mother used. I’ve just looked up the phrase and it only appears once on Google – which is me making the same reference when ASPIC turned up in a puzzle last Summer!)
A nice gentle Everyman last week. I do get the observations made by others that the new setter is more testing but still very fair imo. Like cellomaniac and Fiona Anne, I ticked SO-AND-SO as favourite.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
Petert @15: you’ve just prompted me – MELANCHOLIA also got a tick for splendid anagram and surface.
[Isn’t nausea just being more Norwegian?]
Hard work for me again…pleased to have got about 2/3 but current progress is 1 step forward, 5 back : ) thanks Pierre for precious guidance…
PostMark@16 Without wishing to provide too much of a spoiler, ASPIC has also turned up recently in another paper’s crossword. (without ADA though)
My favourites were FILO PASTRY, MASH and SPAG BOL. (Maybe I was just feeling hungry at the time.) I thought “portly as if” was a great anagram for the first of those. Robi @14, I think “good” is a back-formation from “goods”. A baker is a purveyor of baked goods, so one item of those could be referred to whimsically as a “good”.
Pierre, in our house the MASH has to be about 50% butter.
I’m definitely in the SPAG BOL (rather than spag bog) camp. Incidentally in Bologna they will tell you that “spaghetti bolognese” isn’t an authentic Bolognese dish. The version there is not with spaghetti but with tagliatelle or some other pasta, and the sauce is creamier and less tomato-based. I like both versions!
Many thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Robi @14, I took ‘good’ to be the singular of ‘goods’. It is a usage that you come across (although not necessarily for bakery products).
I am with Gladys and Cara.. Once fun to do but now too difficult for someone who cut his teeth on Everyman. Lighten up please.
I sporadically try Everyman and more infrequently complete it. This was one of those occasions. FOI was farm and LOI was vulpine.
I liked lots – filo pastry, spag bol and rehears – my favourites were roman baths and so-and-so – even more now with Pierre’s guidance I see the definition!
Many thanks to Everyman and Pierre
21d – Duchamp’s first name was Marcel.
In 5d there is the glance at Bottom in MND . He takes part in a play that lesser characters enact in the forest.
Thanks Lord Jim @20 and Pierre @21. Maybe in crosswordland one might say ‘baked good’ but I don’t think it would pass muster in the outside world. One could say: “One of the baked goods” or as I said before perhaps “baked goody.”
Gladys @12 – you’re not alone in this. I commented only last week that after doing the Everyman for over 40 years, I now struggle nearly every week since the change of setter.
PS, maybe it’s American usage, as I found a couple of examples in Merriam-Webster: The clip finds Hamilton star Daveed Diggs reading on a couch with Cookie Monster, who, of course, is reading a book about his baked good of choice.
— Rania Aniftos, Billboard, “Here Are All the 2021 Super Bowl Ads Featuring Musicians,” 4 Feb. 2021
Tiger nut flour is a great ingredient to added extra moisture and fiber to baked good both savory and sweet.
— Stephanie Eckelkamp, Good Housekeeping, “9 Ways to Eat Tiger Nuts, the Fiber-Filled Superfood That Belongs in Your Pantry,” 21 Jan. 2021
I enjoyed this Everyman though I failed in the NW. Never having heard of spag bol, I invented spit bal and had the romans leaving us vichy. Also thought panel beating was penal beating.
After complaining, I found this week’s Everyman much easier. Oh well.
Came back to Everyman recently after a few years hiatus, definitely feels more tricky than I remember, but still fun for a beginner level like me. Enjoyed this week a lot, loi 9a on Tuesday after 48hrs struggle… I retrofitted baths from stab = to penetrate, crazy used as anagram indicator, with h (hard) chucked in there somehow … Pierre’s way might be neater and not requiring randomly putting h in the middle. Love this blog, thanks Pierre et al.
Weren’t happy with filo pastry. Saw the anagram and wracked brain for an item to buy at the bakery – bun loaf, roll etc.
You can’t ask for a filo pastry!
DNF 7, 19D. Got bored of looking for words I didn’t know. Liked 12, 22A. Thought this one of his harder ones, again too hard for an Everyman.
I agree with Gladys @ 12 and AJB 58@27. I, too, have been doing the Everyman puzzle for over 40 years and they are no longer for me. Managed only half of this.
I thought this was easier than recent with some excellent clues, though needed help with 7d – must’ve missed that lesson. I don’t believe the more challenging Everyman is necessarily discouraging for beginners who are less prone to equating not finishing with not enjoying, and this blog provides excellent eplainations to aid improvement. Thanks Pierre & Everyman.
I agree that you cannot ask for a filo pastry, but i did get it and was grateful that it got me started. No idea what U and non *U mean, not common here in Enzed
11 d was just plain weird – I didnt understand why we would ever consider LA TI RE SO HANG to mean anything I was busy rehashing the Sound of Music score but it meant nothing.
Very much liked So and So , Vehicle, Spag Bol and Lame
Feel really happy that we finished this one. Some hard clues for us – autodidact isnt normal English!
I guessed labracollie, but luckily Cath knew more about dogs than I.
Very much enjoyed this week, although needed help on one or two clues as usual. But I like to think this is only serving to improve me for next time. ‘Suez’ was of particular relevance as all eyes have been on it this week, watching the stranded Ever Given – fortunately now refloated!