Sunday and the end of Royal celebrations and Everyman to do.
Bits of this were trickier than I’ve come to expect from Everyman. I don’t get 6a AMPS – must be obvious to someone. I found several clues to be iffy – the parts of speech in the defs not seeming to match to grid entry in my mind. Perhaps I’m just grumpy today.
ACROSS
1. Weave, having put in Graves, drop of Tokay and perhaps Beaujolais (10)
INTERTWINE
INTER – bury, put in the grave & a bit of T(okey) & WINE – Beaujolais maybe. Graves plural and tense seem wrong though
6. Electrical units in more ways than one! (4)
AMPS
Perhaps I’m being a bit slow but don’t get this.
9. Must crimson, stirred wanting hint of ruby, show reds? (10)
COMMUNISTS
A hint of R(uby) removed from a stirred [MUST C(r)IMSON]*
10. Incongruous situation – almost exhibiting resolve (4)
IRON
11. Endorse heist? Government punishing (4-8)
BACK BREAKING
BACK – endorse & BREAK – IN & G(overnment)
15. Stuck in Paris, I bleat: It’s farcical! (7)
RISIBLE
16. Broadcaster’s American Season offering spy film (7)
SKYFALL
James Bond film. SKY – TV broadcaster & FALL – US season
17. Flight attendant to depict aliens in retirement (7)
STEWARD
DRAW & ET(S) all reversed
19. Trendy, exclusive and small (they’re typically under a foot) (7)
INSOLES
IN – trendy & SOLE – exclusive & S(mall)
20. Bear that wrestled with monarch is very impressive (12)
BREATHTAKING
A wrestled [BEAR THAT]* & KING
23. In twelve roses you’ll find symbol of love (4)
EROS
24. Serious reading? True, I later will be confused (10)
LITERATURE
A confused [TRUE I LATER]*
25. A little retrograde, Everyman’s beginning to seem old-fashioned (4)
DATE
TAD reversed & E(veryman). I’m not convinced date works in what appears to be the def for dated
26. British traitor is privy to second of cabals in Slovakia (10)
BRATISLAVA
B(ritish) & RAT & IS & LAV(atory) – privy & cAbals
DOWN
1. American in the Golden State (4)
INCA
2. Bird and a fragrant herb, we’re told (4)
TIME
Bird as in a prison stretch and sounds like Thyme
3. Vinegary tripe for starters and dessert (7,4)
RHUBARB TART
RHUBARB (tripe) & TART – vinegary. Put that way the dessert doesn’t sound too attractive.
4. Crumple seeing tiny problem (7)
WRINKLE
5. Pole grows older, not married, leading to general moods (7)
NATURES
N(orth) & M(arried) removed from (m)ATURES
7. Slightly spoil friend, drinking spirits (10)
MARGINALLY
MAR – spoil & GIN – spirit & ALLY – friend
8. African eagles seen flapping (10)
SENEGALESE
12. In Gulf earlier, Scotsman’s finding old Red Sea denizens (11)
ABYSSINIANS
ABYSS – gulf before IN & IAN’S – the typical crossword Scotsman
13. Cooked spider crab, brittle foodstuff (10)
CRISPBREAD
14. Drunkard removing top before party, aunts regularly escorted from premises (7,3)
USHERED OUT
A topless (l)USH & ERE – before & DO – party & aUnTs regularly
18. Increasingly eccentric daughter, over-the-top – that is right (7)
DOTTIER
D(aughter) & O.T.T. (over the top) & I.E. & R(ight)
19. Extremely dark coat removed, jet-skiing excitedly (7)
INKIEST
The coat removed from [(j)E(t) & SKIING]* excitedly. Does inkiest really mean extremely dark? Not to me.
21. ‘Young dog.’ ‘Adult?’ ‘It’s not yet an adult.’ (4)
PUPA
22. Homer’s envious royal avenger, primarily? (4)
HERA
Ahh the primary letters clue, left to last
I wrote a clue in a yet-to-be-published puzzle a few months ago involving a pun on Graves as tombs and a wine, but it was different enough from 1a to let me off the hook! I think Everyman’s clue works if you’re okay with ignoring ‘having’ as a link.
I was fine with DATE. If things ‘seem old-fashioned’, they date.
INKIEST was actually (J)ET-SKIIN(G), I think, but that’s probably just a typo. Definition seemed okay to me.
AMPS: ‘electrical units’ also refers to amplifiers as seen eg stacked behind rock bands – that’s the way I understood it at the time, anyway.
BRATISLAVA was a great charade, but I don’t like that style of definition, although it seems to be generally accepted by many.
Twmbarlwm@1
I see AMPS the same way as you see.
1a: Was easy to solve, but I felt uneasy for the reasons mentioned by flashling.
DATE: Yea. It’s fine.
Liked BACK-BREAKING and USHERED OUT a lot.
I didn’t get AMPS either, but of course they’re electrical units (for electric guitars). I’ve no problem with inter for put in graves (implying more than one body to bury and I’m ok with date for seem old fashioned. We all have our grumpy days flashling. Thanks for the blog and thanks to Everyman for another fun and friendly puzzle.
flashling, I hope knowing how much we appreciate your blog will help you recover your equanimity.
Not sure if your comment about INKIEST and ‘extremely’ is about the superlative?
When I first encountered a clue like that a quibble came to mind. We’ve had this discussion before and I accept that if it is the ‘-est’, it is at the extreme.
And the pair is BACK-BREAKING and BREATH TAKING, although they went in so quickly they were hardly either.
Another one here who didn’t mind DATE or Graves.
Being fond of both tripe and vinegar that would be my choice for the starter, and the RHUBARB TART for dessert. (Skip the main course). Quite liked the quirky reversal of the word order. A chucklesome surface.
Agree Twmbarlwm@1 with both of your comments about BRATSILAVA. I enjoyed solving that bit by bit. The misdirect in ‘is privy to’. Made me laugh. Also liked INSOLES.
Thanks for the blog, I do share your general view over this, whilst solving I was thinking that I would not have liked this much when I was learning to do cryptics. I will be interested in what the newer solvers think about it.
AMP(ere)S and AMP(lifier)S are both sort of standard abbreviations, so okay I suppose.
DATE – add TO at the front and the definition works a bit better.
PDM@4 has the rhyming pair and a very “interesting” meal.
I came here to check the parsing of AMPS as I wasn’t certain about it. There was a lot to like about this Everyman with its misdirections and the quirky RHUBARB TART, but I also had a few clues I wasn’t 100% of the solution.
Made good progress until the last few in the NE. Thought 6a might be “maps” and couldn’t solve 7d. Then thought 6a might be AMPS (though couldn’t parse it) and finally got MARGINALLY. Didn’t get IRON.
Liked: INTERTWINE, SKYFALL, BREATHTAKING, USHERED OUT, DOTTIER
Thanks Everyman and flashling
[me@4. Speaking of typos, meant BRATISLAVA of course. Important to get the charade right.]
Looking back at the crossword itself, 26 has been changed to say ‘somewhere in Slovakia’
I wasn’t convinced by DATE at all, but happy to see other’s parsings here.
Thanks for the blog!
Many decades since having tripe and onion, but stewed rhubarb was a regular chez the young ginf. Don’t know if it’s the same in other languages, but it tickles me how slang terms can be so disparate, like bird and time for imprisonment, not to mention porridge. Agree with troops above, nothing too egregious from Everyman last Sunday. Ta to him and flashling.
grant@11 , we have stir as well , where does that come from ?
[ MrEssexboy , your Azed clue this week is 13 Down ]
I struggled with 10ac as my copy of the paper had “Sting in the tail – almost exhibiting resolve “. The version above makes more sense; I wonder when it was changed
IRON was a well-I-suppose-so clue as it was obviously IRON(y) but the definition of irony didn’t work for me, nor a WRINKLE as a “small problem”.
Like flashing, I didn’t get the double def for AMPS. No problem with INTER or DATE.
For 6a I had either OHMS or MHOS. I think it’s a much better clue for for either of those than for the actual solution – though I felt something was wrong as it would be impossible to tell which it was.
DATE works fine in the sense of “become dated”, as in if you use the substitution test “that will DATE badly”.
I’m amused by the number of people who didn’t parse AMPS and can only conclude that the middle of the Venn diagram of crossword solvers and rock concertgoers is sparsely populated 🙂
Loved PUPA and BACKBREAKING.
I found this a lot tougher than usual and failed the NE corner test. I couldn’t see past ohms and mhos (resistance/conductance in my day) which probably didn’t help.
Graves with an -s is just the name of a wine (region).
grantinfreo @ 11 and Roz @ 12
In Finland, slang terms used in connection with imprisonment are linna (castle), and kakku (cake). Linna is fairly understandable but kakku … ??
A particularly poor offering from the incumbent, this one, and I share the blogger’s general feelings about it. There is poor technique on display at various points, which was as far as I can recall never a problem for previous setters holding the post. Oh dear.
Thanks Everyman and flashling, I tend to agree with commenters @1/3/4/16 resolving the various queries and quibbles.
I think it was paddymelon last week who (non-spoilingly) pointed out the happy coincidence in 20ac of a bear’s encounter with a monarch 🙂
As Crispy @9 says, the online version has now been changed – the Special Instructions say ‘The word ‘somewhere’ has been reinstated in 26 across’ (my italics). That suggests that Everyman originally had ‘somewhere in Slovakia’ rather than ‘in Slovakia’ as the definition – which would resolve Twmbarlwm’s misgivings – but that the ‘somewhere’ was removed, perhaps to save space, by the editor.
[And thanks Roz @12 – I think that’s the first Azed clue I can call a write-in! (for me, that is – it just happened to coincide with my personal GK, as well as being linguist-friendly). I was exceedingly thick on the last one you recommended – even after all that discussion on triples, I failed to recognise it as a triple! I’m still struggling to equate ‘bowl’ with ‘marble’ though; it seems to be a bit like saying ‘big ball’ = ‘little ball’.]
I didn’t have an issue with Graves, as the gravedigger said: “I’m going to inter two bodies in graves this morning”.
I thought RISIBLE was well-hidden in ‘Paris I bleat’, and I enjoyed the ‘privy’ in the clue for BRATISLAVA, which is now improved with the ‘reinstatement’ of somewhere.
Thanks Everyman and flashling.
Not quite a write-in, but nice and straightforward. Thanks to E and flashling.
[EB@21, even a write-in for me, I actually knew two of the components but not the third. Bowl=marble is of course in Chambers, There are numerous words for marbles that Azed uses, taw and alley are quite frequent. ]
Nice puzzle, neither too difficult nor too easy.
Liked: BACK-BREAKING, BRATISLAVA, ABYSSINIANS, NATURES.
New: for 14d LUSHER = drunkard (but was familiar with LUSH = person who drinks too much). Oh, I see now that I parsed it incorrectly.
I did not parse: 6ac AMPS?
Thanks, both.
Anna@19 yes I agree with castle but cake is surely the strangest of all .
Roz @12 – Where does ‘stir come from? I think that it comes from ‘porridge’, which of course begs the question of where ‘porridge’ comes from. Particularly in Ireland, ‘stir’ or ‘stir-about’ was and maybe still is a term for what the Scots call porridge. My only example to hand comes from Maria Edgeworth’s novel, The Absentee, where Lord Colambre, visiting his estates in rural Ireland, is the overnight guest of one of his tenants:
“A fine day for us this Sunday morning; my Grace is gone to early prayers, so your honour will be content with an old woman to make your breakfast. Oh, let me put in plenty, or it will never be good; and if your honour takes stir-about, an old hand will engage to make that to your liking, anyway …”
The online version now has a number of amendments to my printed off copy from last Sunday. Including 1d. Which was “American in the Sunset State”. According to Google this is Oregon and so this had me puzzled for some time.
Totally agree Roz@5. My introduction to Cryptics nine years ago was through Everyman and a compiler with a consistently precise style, that without the use of a blog, I got into his rhythm within a few weeks. Solving this last week I was thinking if I was starting out now, I wouldn’t have got that start through Everyman.
Thank you , now the stir does make a bit of sense. I always assumed that porridge came from prison food but it may well be something different.
[ EB @21 , Azed 6AC also loosely in your field. PDM@4 a definite Azed clue for you at 22Ac]
Douglas@28 I learnt to do cryptics using Everyman a long time ago and I agree with your style comment.
I try not to criticise now because it is not aimed at me, I would like to see what newer solvers think about it now. Most weeks it seems very good.
I need to start saving the clues when I cut it out to send off since they seem to keep changing them.
[gif@11, Anna@19, and Roz@12 and 26. gif’s question got me going, and having worked in prisons and being a linguist by training, was intrigued. Was going to leave this to others (essexboy?) and didn’t bookmark the searches. ‘Stir’ could be a Gaelic/Romany word originally meaning being imprisoned. The other theory was Old English meaning guidance, correction etc. Makes sense.
Could ‘cake’ be related to ‘porridge’?
Roz to eb@ 24. My husband still comments about my knowing the word ‘taw’ from playing marbles myself as a child. Eldest and a female. What else was there to do in summer in Queensland except play in the dirt under house on stilts with the boys? 🙂 ]
Anna and Roz, maybe the kakku is what you smuggle the file in in 😉
[Been away. Missed Spooner’s catflap@27 and Roz@29 You’re keeping me awake. Am being forcibly retired, in more ways than one. You’ve given me something to look forward to. Thank you.]
There was a classic scene in the Porridge TV series where the doctor hid a Christmas cake in a file.
PDM@31 another stir of the pot.
Inky = very dark, is common enough, I think (‘inky night’), so I suppose we can accept INKIEST for extremely dark.
[PS I love the Finnish double ks. I have a pal from Helsinki called Pirkko. Her hubby, a Dane just lazily says Peerco, but I love to roll the r and spike the kk, just to tease him]
[Roz@34. ? ]
[Me@37. Roz@34. Sorry that was a heart emoji. I’m a bit of luddite, which is why they’re retiring me. ]
Meanwhile, Rob T @16, yes it is a bit surprising. My first was Floyd, 1971, and only a few dotted across the years after that, but among the 225 cohort there is a huge rock literacy, so amps should be a gimme.
I was at the Isle of Wight Festival 1969, The Who, Bob Dylan etc . Possibly the youngest person there, aged minus 8 months.
grantinfreo @ 36
The Finnish double and single consonants are one of the most difficult aspects of pronunciation for British learners. English speakers tend to double the consonant; and find the single consonant very difficult. The difference is phonemic though, so important.
just a couple of examples:
kisa – competition, race
kissa – cat
satua – fairy tale (in the partitive case)
sattua – happen
henkari – clothes hanger
henkkari – ID card (in common parlance)
Vowels work the same way, but cause much less trouble to the learner:
katua – regret
kaatua – fall
Rob T @16. I not so sure. I was in the guitar shop just last week looking to upgrade my Vox but still missed the second def of AMP.
Was the earlier ‘sting in the tail’ for 10 across (in some printed versions)? Anyone know what happened?
Paul @42 haha, happens to the best of us. One day last week a clue required a four-letter “French resort”. Took me ages. Answer was NICE. I live in… Nice 🙂
[Anna@41 — I’m wondering what you mean by having trouble with the doubled consonants. Is the k doubled like the k in “bookkeeper”, across a word boundary of sorts? Or what is it the English have trouble with?]
Hi. Could someone explain to me how Tripe = Rhubarb?
Hello Jonny@46 it is just slang terms really, both can mean nonsense.
“That is a load of tripe/rhubarb/nonsense.”
Thanks @Roz. Definitely heard that for tripe but not for rhubarb.
Hated this puzzle. Agree with Flashling about “amps”. I don’t
think that irony means an incongruous *situation*. Didn’t like “seeing” in 10 down. Never heard of “bird” meaning a prison sentence. I put in “time” for 2 down since that fitted with “fragrant herb, we’re told” — only thing it could be. Thought the justification might have something to do with “time flies” (like unto a bird) although that was too tenuous for me to really believe it.
I find myself agreeing withRolf @ 49 with all his comments. Perhaps it’s because we live in NZ. Time for bird? Never heard of it.
Liked intertwine, backbreaking, dottier. These are my level of clues.
I thought this was ok. I knew ‘bird’ from old English TV shows (like Porridge) – don’t know why others wouldn’t. Iron was my last one in, and I agree with others questioning whether irony is a good solution for ‘incongruous situation’. Paul @42, my amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a vintage Celestion1x12 speaker. Beautiful tone and clarity.
When you finish a crossword you want to feel enthused because the setter has set sike puzzles you either failed to get or guessed or got lucky – and now you marvel at the quirkiness or cleverness of the clue.
It didn’t happen! The good clues were good but the tough clues were fizzers.