Everyman 3,884

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3884.

Everyman’s usual ‘primarily’ clue, but no paired answers this time.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 BUTTERFLY KISS
Show of affection: awfully frisky, but … let’s! (9,4)
An anagram (‘awfully’) of ‘frisky but lets’. A butterfly kiss is offered by stroking someone on the cheek, or elsewhere, with the eyelashes.
8 ARUBA
Somewhere in W Indies, Antigua evacuated to make room for Polish (5)
An envelope, presented as a replacement: the interior letters of ‘A[ntibu]A’ are replaced by (‘evacuated to make room for’) RUB (‘polish;).
9 DISABLING
Making feeble slang for ‘criticise a load of jewellery’ (9)
A charade of DIS (alternative for diss, ‘slang for criticise’) plus ‘a’ plus BLING (‘load of jewellery’).
11 AWARENESS
Informed state of Royal Engineers in Swansea on manoeuvres (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of RE (‘Royal Engineers’) in AWANESS, an anagram (‘on manoeuvres’) of ‘Swansea’.
12 LLAMA
A bunch of shops sent back hairy Bolivian (5)
A reversal (‘sent back’) of A MALL (‘a bunch of shops’). The domesticated llama is not restricted to Bolivia, and its coat is more often described al wool.
13 SPELLER
‘Sorceress‘: who knows how many ‘s’s? (7)
Double definition; the question is not rhetorical.
15 ACHIEST
Most sore, a thorax injected with iodine (7)
An envelope (‘injected with’) of I (chemical symbol, ‘iodine’) in A CHEST (‘a thorax’).
17 POTSDAM
Heading west, bats halt, reaching German conference venue (7)
A reversal (‘heading west’) of MAD (‘bats’) plus STOP (‘halt’). Potsdam was the site of the 1945 conference at which Churchill, Truman and Stalin met to lay out the post-war future of Germany and the rest of Europe.
19 ESTONIA
Land crumbling into sea (7)
An anagram (‘crumbling’) of ‘into sea’.
21 LOCKS
Hair in smoked salmon: reported (5)
Sounds like (‘reported’) LOX (‘smoked salmon; a word imported from Yiddish).
23 SLUSH FUND
Luxuriant merriment during second date, money spent on wicked things (5,4)
An envelope (‘during’) of LUSH (‘luxuriant’) plus FUN (‘merriment’) in S (‘second’) plus D (‘date’).
25 SOAP OPERA
Undemanding diversion, then, a period in Lichtenstein’s career? (4,5)
A charade of SO (‘then’) plus A POP ERA (‘a period in Lichtenstein’s career’; a reference to the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein).
26 OWENS
Olympian who enraged Nazi sensibilities, primarily! (5)
First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Olympian Who Enraged Nazi Sensibilities’. Jesse Owens was a black American who won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. So much for Aryan supremacy.
27 PANCAKE MAKE-UP
Harry Kane (Cap.), getting trophy after month, we’re told by foundation (7,4-2)
A charade of PANCAKE, an anagram (‘harry’) of ‘Kane Cap’ plus MAKE-UP, which sounds like (‘we’re told’) MAY CUP (‘trophy after month’). For the surface, Harry Kane is the Captain of the England soccer team.
DOWN
2 ULULATE
Hour of anticipation: Glaswegian singer to turn up and screech (7)
A reversal (‘to turn up’ in a down light) of ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival, ‘hour of anticipation’) plus LULU (Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, professional name Lulu, grew up in Glasgow, ‘Glaswegian singer’).
3 TRAVELLED
Time composer made decisions, went on the road (9)
A charade of T (‘time’) plus RAVEL (Maurice, ‘composer’) plus LED (‘made decisions’; a little loose, I think).
4 RIDGE
Removing half of moat crossing: that’s elevation! (5)
‘Removing half of’ [drawb]RIDGE (‘moat crossing’).
5 LOSES FACE
Eats crow and louse, heartless café’s condemned (5,4)
A charade of LOSE (‘lo[u]se heartless’) plus SFACE, an anagram (‘condemned’) of ‘cafe’s’.
6 KABUL
Seen regularly, harbour in Kuala Lumpur (it’s somewhere in Asia) (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of ABU (‘seen regularly hArBoUr’) in KL (‘Kuala Lumpur’ – the abbreviation is even given in Chambers, and, of course, there is our contributor KLColin, until and unless he moves again).
7 SHITAKE
Mushroom in Bangladeshi takeaway (7)
A hidden answer in ‘BangladeSHI TAKEaway’. I am more familiar with the alternative version shiitake.
8 ADAM’S APPLES
Wandering, passed a palm tree, led to these in a story (5,6)
An anagram (‘wandering’) of ‘passed a palm’. The definition refers to the tale that the human Adam’s apple is the result of the forbidden fruit becoming stuck in Adam’s throat.
10 GIANT PANDAS
‘Much-loved creatures‘, soldier ant and asp? Questionable (5,6)
A charade of GI (‘soldier’) plus ‘ant’ plus PANDAS, an anagram (‘questionable’) of ‘and asp’. I like the surface.
14 RUMP STEAK
Spooner’s to frustrate Playboy: bottom cut (4,5)
A Spoonerism of STUMP RAKE (‘frustrate playboy’).
16 HITCHCOCK
Thriller director‘s Problem With Avian (9)
A charade of HITCH (‘problem’) plus COCK (‘avian’), with a nod to his film The Birds
18 TOCCATA
With perfect exactness, carbon copies captured a collection of notes (7)
A charade of TOCCAT, an envelope (‘captured’) of CC (‘carbon copies’ even if it is now unlikely to involve stained fingers) in TO A T (‘with perfect exactness’); plus ‘a’.
20 NOUVEAU
In France, contemporary cooking: oven; uvula, evenly sliced (7)
An anagram (‘cooking’) of ‘oven’ plus UUA, the odd-numbered letters (‘evenly sliced’) of ‘UvUlA‘. Note that ‘cooking’ does not belong with the definition; that would suggest the feminine nouvelle cuisine.
22 STOIC
Bed’s seen with Everyman in: rising; uncomplaining (5)
A reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of an envelope (‘with … in’) of I (‘Everyman’) in COT’S (‘bed’s’).
24 UNARM
Partially stun armadillo to render harmless (5)
A hidden answer in ‘stUN ARMadillo’.

32 comments on “Everyman 3,884”

  2. Re 17ac, Attlee was also at Potsdam, the result of the 1945 election having been announced on 26 July during the two week conference.

  4. I got through this one fine, but I wouldn’t say it was one of my favourites. Like a fortnight ago, no paired rhymes or alliterations. Oh – thanks, John E @3 – I missed the kiss and makeup. I did wonder about apple pancake. I did like OWENS – very accurate. Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.

  5. Groaned at May cup, had no idea why Lichtenstein had anything to do with soap operas, but was moved to remember a great docudrama about Jesse Owens, who blitzed the field at Berlin, and yes had Hitler and co grinding their teeth, but then sadly returned home to Jim Crow US and a life of struggle. Had to look up lox to see what locks was a homophone of. Thanks to PeterO and Everyman.

  6. Thank you for the blog, I too liked the OWENS clue. Did not know LOX so I have learnt something.
    Pop era for Lichtenstein is very weak.

  7. Went through this quite smoothly but could not get TOCCATO. Returned to it on Thursday and saw it straightaway and it is one of my favourites – really like the *to a t*

    Other favourites were: LLAMA, LOCKS, PANCAKE MAKE-UP (liked the homophone), RUMP STEAK (took me a while – but I really like this spoonerism)

    Roz @6 I also thought *pop era* a bit of a stretch

    Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.

  8. Fiona Anne @7 I cannot imagine the phrase ” pop era ” has ever been used to refer to the Pop Art movement but never mind, it did not spoil the enjoyment.

  10. I loved the Birds reference in HITCHCOCK – very clever. Likewise the primary letter clue. And – taking each Spoonerism I encounter on a case by case basis, the stumping a rake passes muster with me. Poor old Roy Lichtenstein – gone down in history remembered only by a select group of art lovers and by the crossword world as a way to clue POP!

    I liked the fact that a few definitions – particularly NOUVEAU (as PeterO points out) and the beautifully anagrammed ADAM’S APPLES – needed a precise splitting away from the rest of the clue. Lastly, I do seem to be encountering KABUL on quite a regular basis and – with apologies to Fiona Anne who gave it a tick – I find the straight equation of hair/LOCKS to be a bit chestnutty.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO

  11. I don’t agree with ULULATE for ‘screech’. Not only is it wrong physically but it’s lacking the cultural context, which is often honouring the dead. I do enjoy Everyman but lately I think that he and the Editor have slipped into uninformed territory. ROOT for ‘getting intimate in Australia’ a couple of weeks ago was an example. Definitely not ‘intimate’, but impersonal, or worse, in the way it’s used by men., a term I’ve never used by women, unless they were complaining about the way they were treated. I realise that words are words and fair game in crosswords, but the definition in both of these cases, with a British equivalent, I don’t believe would have made it to print.

  13. I liked the use of Harry as an anagram indicator in 27ac, have no real problems with A POP ERA, but agree that the definition of ULULATE is wrong. GIANT PANDAS was my favourite. My conservationist daughter often laments the overemphasis on charismatic megafauna in our popular conception of nature, though a type of soldier ant is a damaging invasive species in parts of Australia.

  15. I found this a little more difficult than usual, but enjoyable.

    I liked ESTONIA, PANCAKE MAKE-UP and TOCCATA.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  17. And also UNARM means to remove armour rather than to disarm. The things you learn doing crosswords 🙂

  18. No-one has mentioned it so far but “collection of notes” to define TOCCATA is pretty vague to say the least. Any piece of music could be described as a collection of notes but toccata has a specific meaning as does sonata or concerto. Imagine a contestant on Mastermind being asked the question “What is a toccata” and replying “a collection of notes”. I don’t think the point would be awarded. I thought SPELLER was poor also.
    I found this puzzle quite easy compared to some and liked the concise ESTONIA, the excellent OWENS and the misleading PANCAKE MAKE-UP. Many thanks to Peter and E.

  19. bodycheetah @17. Indeed it does. Here is Mark Antony in Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra, preparing for his death upon being given false news of Cleopatra’s following the defeat at Actium:

    Unarm, Eros, the long day’s task is done
    And we must sleep.

    There follows a short passage in which his servant, Eros, unbuckles him from his armour, leaving its ‘bruised pieces’ lying on the stage.

  20. Thanks, Peter. This was the first Everyman I’ve tried and I enjoyed it. First in was AWARENESS but my favorite was OWENS.

  21. Post Mark @ 10

    I have seen chestnut used to describe a clue before and I assume it means *that old chestnut*. There is though always a first time one sees a clue and this was that first time for me (and a change from TRESS which I have seen several time). Next time I promise to go *Tsk that old chestnut* (if I remember it which is not a certainty).

  22. Fiona Anne @21: I recall bodycheetah once commenting along the lines of “one of these days, I shall encounter lock and it won’t mean hair and I’ll be really thrown”. It’s become one of those bits of crossword code we all absorb over time but, of course, you’re right in that there will always be a first for someone. One factor that might diminish its frequency of use: as commented upon in these blogs over recent times, there is a trend away from using the feminised suffix ‘tress’ (actress, waitress etc) which might mean slightly fewer occasions to clue it.

  25. [ PostMark@22, do you think that Barry Humphries could be called a male actress, and if so, would that be acceptable to the Guardian? ]

  26. It’s a little odd that dictionaries, including Chambers, refer to lox as smoked salmon, but lots of other sources say that lox is definitely not smoked salmon. It is salmon cured in brine.

  27. DNK Lox, and Speller was pretty feeble, but the rest were a cut above this setter’s sometimes strained fare. Disabling and Giant Pandas were nice. Butterfly Kiss also, first time I’ve seen ellipses used here where they fit the surface reasonably well.

  28. I so wanted the answer to 13ac to be Sibylla – a homonym for an imagined plural of sibilant and a mthyical Greek prophetess.

  29. I found this quite challenging but very enjoyable. 27ac is one of the cleverest clues I’ve come across.

  30. Unhappy about toccata – could only be solved by those that knew that ‘with perfect exsctness’ could be doubly transformed to ‘to a t’. I.e. you had to be in the know. That is not how crosswords should function. But we got the answer anyway.
    Missed Adam’s apple – good clue that one.

  31. Favourites this week Disabling, Locks, , Llama , Hitchcock, Pancake Makeup ( though I don’t understand use of ‘harry’. I know who he is but why does harry mean mix up the letters?
    There is such a lot I know little or nothing about but one subject I do know quite bit about is the Japanese language and the anglicised spelling of shitake is just not correct. It is accepted that half the world’s grocers will spell this in any number of ways, but to miss the second i is just not correct. There is not a Japanese alive who would pronounce it without the long double ii sound. So 7d just does not work and it is a common enough ingredient it must be accepted to be spelled correctly. Anyway that is my peeve this week.
    Have ever heard of eats crow – that is one to look up

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