Everyman 3,994

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So it’s the Sunday following some sort of bash down London way

Couldn’t see any obvious Coronation clues or theme but who knows, the usual suspects are present – rhyming answers, primary letters & self reference. Over to you.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Ruin a French party (4)
UNDO

Nice easy start, UN – A in French & DO for paty

3. Fog and fuel swirling in Indian Ocean bay (4,2,4)
GULF OF ADEN

A swirling [FOG AND FUEL]*

9. State what can be gathered from radio waves (4)
IOWA

Missed this originally as I was looking for something like aver for state, but it’s hidden in radIO WAves

10. Fancy a plant? (10)
ORNAMENTAL

Well some plants are quite ornamental

11. Assemble, in ranks, grand personages; they may appear as a shower (7,5)
FALLING STARS

FALL-IN assemble & G(rand) & STARS – personages

15. Let back in to US university after study (7)
READMIT

READ – study & that US University M.I.T.

16. Right: a nurse may do this to a wound (7)
REDRESS

A nurse might RE DRESS a wound. Was slightly misled by thinking the first R was “right”

17. Cockney’s articulated intellectual aspect of feature (7)
EYEBROW

Dropping the H it sounds like HIGH BROW – intellectual.

19. A starter of risotto with herb in store (7)
ARCHIVE

A & the start of R(isotto) & CHIVE – a herb

20. They may show equals what can be found in the sports hall? (8,4)
PARALLEL BARS

Double crypticish definitions

23. Later, I stupidly leave a vehicle in commercial area (6,4)
RETAIL PARK

[LATER I]* stupidly & PARK – leave the vehicle

24. Snack that’s prepared … I bet! (4)
BITE

a prepared [I BET]*

25. Remove all joy from some food that’s eaten, adding a bit of rémoulade (10)
DISHEARTEN

DISH – some food & a bit of R(emoulade) inside EATEN

26. Measure of speed: A little kayak gets flipping 100mph! (4)
KNOT

A bit of K(ayak) & TON – 100 reversed

DOWN
1. Ignorant, like a Boy Scout describing Norway (10)
UNINFORMED

N(orway) inside UNIFORMED as boy scouts tend to be

2. Sad, drunk and now on the phone? (10)
DOWNLOADED

DOWN – sad & LOADED – drunk, def refers to songs or videos say downloaded to view/listen later

4. Utterly principled; radiating integrity; good, honest – truthful, primarily? (7)
UPRIGHT

Trademark Everyman primary letters clue

5. Fawn that’s not so exciting (7)
FLATTER

Two definitions

6. Release Communist, one that’s initiated combustion? (4,7)
FREE RADICAL

Chemistry time here, FREE – release & RADICAL – communist say

7. Tax, perhaps like an ancient invader of Britain, did you say? (4)
DUTY

Sounds like they are JUTE – y after the invaders

8. Infielder regularly needing source of water (4)
NILE

Alternate letters of iNfIeLdEr

12. Fervent memorialist to enshrine with glory (11)
IMMORTALISE

MEMORIALIST* fervently

13. Deep thought and time invested in peace-making (10)
MEDITATION

T(ime) inside MEDIATION – peace making

14. Everyman’s among fools, ultimately preposterous in prevalent estimation (10)
ASSESSMENT

ME – Everyman, the setter inside ASSES – fools & the ultimate letters of (preposterou)S (i)N (prevalen)T

18. With hip-hop artist, one with a gift? (7)
WRAPPER

W(ith) & RAPPER

19. A type of informal shirt, big and loose (2,5)
AT LARGE

A & T-shirt & LARGE – big

21. Produced some sombre dirges (4)
BRED

Hidden in somBRE Dirges

22. Brief emotional outburst: ‘Sit up, lad!’ (4)
OTIS

A brief O(h) & SIT reversed

 

37 comments on “Everyman 3,994”

  1. Thanks flashling. Needed your help for OTIS and DUTY.
    Can’t believe I missed DUTY from definition. I used to live in a Jutland Street.
    I am surprised about the homophone. (Can’t remember our agreed word here when we mention what we’re not supposed to mention. ) Even in my Aussie accent I tend more towards dyooty than jutey. I know jutey is thing, but I’ve looked up pronunciation of DUTY on a few British online dictionaries, and the phonetics and sounds seem similar to mine.

    OTIS . Of all the lads in the world. why OTIS? Is the reversal upwards in a down clue anything to do with the elevator/lift company? I might regret asking that question. 🙂

  2. Good fun, as you say, a nice easy start with a some harder ones scattered around.
    ORNAMENTAL plants are a horticultural category.
    My favourites were KNOTS and EYEBROWS.

  4. Thanks, Everyman and flashling!

    Liked EYEBROW, PARALLEL BARS, DUTY and AT LARGE.

    FALLING STARS:
    FALL IN=assemble, in ranks (I think the ‘in ranks’ bit should be included here).

    paddymelon@1
    I liked your comment on OTIS (mainly, the elevator reference).
    In our CrosswordLand, the elevator will be OTIS and SITO alternatingly.

  5. nicbach and KVa, I’ve just noticed we also have UPRIGHT, FALLING STARS, PARALLEL BARS, DOWNLOADED and maybe FLATTER.

  6. Today’s earworm. I couldn’t find any live, but from Ella Fitzgerald on there are some great artists doing this, and Jose Feliciano is the one I remember. I loved it when I was younger and never knew it was based on a true story and written by Cole Porter.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWXTNr8ExKc

  7. This may be sour grapes as I could not get Dishearten, but the ‘that’s’ really threw me off! Adding the ‘R’ inside rather than at the end of eaten was pretty tricky too. Plus the definition seems a bit iffy as well. I’m frequently disheartened but I’d never say I’d lost all joy.

    So grumble over. Thanks again Everyman for the puzzle and flashling for an excellent blog.

  9. Found this more difficult than usual with some descriptions that didn’t work for me. I thought “a plant” for ORNAMENTAL was loose as was “one with a gift” for WRAPPER. And although I finally bunged in OTIS, well there are thousands of “lads” (as PDM implied). And I couldn’t make the homophone work. OK sour grapes over.

    Liked FALLING STARS, READMIT, MEDITATION

    Thanks Everyman and flashling

  10. Thanks for the blog, I liked PARALLEL BARS for the equals sign, IMMORTALISE is an impressive anagram and will add to the list for Jay . ORNAMENTAL is a term widely used for certain plants, chosen just for their beauty .
    I still do not get the definition for DOWNLOADED ?

  11. Another good puzzle, thanks Everyman.
    If I had a quillet it would be that there are rather too many ‘take the first letter from the following word’ indications for one puzzle. I prefer “starter of”, which is accurate, to “a bit of” and “a little” which seem vague and also appear in consecutive clues.
    Thanks to flashing for the blog.

  12. Roz @ 10

    If you download something (say an app) onto a smart phone it is downloaded and therefore

    “now on the phone”

    Took me ages to see

  13. I found this like a curate’s egg, tough in parts, and gave up on OTIS, which I should know as a boy’s name as I actually know a teenage Otis, but really couldn’t justify it to myself from the clue (nor any of the other answers suggested by word finders – utes, stis).

    Thank you to Everyman and flashling.

  15. Much harder than the average Everyman and I found some of the clues a bit iffy, viz ORNAMENTAL. But it could just be me.
    Thanks for the explanations.

  16. It was tough to start this one, solved only 5 clues on my first pass. Managed to finish it slowly.

    I was unsure how to parse 22d the O in OTIS but got the rev of SIT part and def = lad.

    New for me: LOADED= drunk (for 2d).

    Thanks, both.

  17. For those of us keeping track of follow-on clues, we’ve now had 2 puzzles in a row where the homophone relies on ‘yod coalescence’:

    3993 TUDOR = ‘chewed a’
    3994 DUTY = ‘Jute-y’

    pdm @1: if you look at the Wiktionary entry for ‘duty’ and click on Audio (UK), you’ll hear both the uncoalesced and coalesced variants.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  19. I thought this was more difficult than usual.

    As Roz @10 said, I liked the equals sign in PARALLEL BARS, the ignorant Boy Scout, and the good anagram to make IMMORTALISE.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  20. As one of the trendy things in gardening is to mix your ORNAMENTALS with the veg, I was ok with plant as a definition.

  21. Good spot MrEssexboy@17 , I have a very tenuous follow-on today but better for yesterday which does not count.
    I hope your link is Otis Redding.

  22. Anyone tempted by Azed please have a go today, it is extremely friendly, you will surprise yourself.

  23. [Roz @21, indeed it is, with co-writer Steve Cropper on guitar and the rest of the Booker T & the MG’s gang. Pure pleasure. Recorded just before Otis Redding’s untimely death, released just afterwards. Cropper added the waves and the seagulls.]

  24. It seems that Everyman has toughen things up as this one, and today’s crossword, took much longer than usual – or I am getting stupider?

  25. I was sure I had heard “Miss Otis regrets…” but could not remember when

    It was Kirsty McColl and the Pogues – and it was brilliant

  26. To me, these days, Otis brings to mind one of the lead characters in Sex Education.
    Agree with Simoninbxl @24 that this week’s was harder than usual, but enjoyed IMMORTALISE, FREE RADICAL and, when I saw it, DOWNLOADED.

  28. I couldn’t figure out the homophone in 7dn. It’s not a homophone in my way of speaking, but I’m a strong believer in giving setters some latitude in this area: if it’s a homophone for some reasonably large subset of English speakers, it’s fine with me. (Otherwise, given the diversity of ways of speaking English, we’d almost have to give up on the idea of homophone clues.)

    To be annoyingly picky, I don’t see FAWN and FLATTER as equivalent: the former is intransitive and the latter transitive. But that’s a minor objection to a very satisfying puzzle.

  29. [EB@ I have got the album of the same title , original vinyl. A bit of a mish-mash really , released posthumously and record label issues but it does have the title track ]

  30. Thanks both.
    I had 22d as UTIS. Shakespeare used that word for a noise and it is reversed in the clue. OTIS is probably a better fit but…
    The rest was the usual gentle Sunday lunch accompaniment for me.

  31. [Thanks essexboy for the homophone info, and for Otis Redding.]

    So is it just a coincidence we have OTIS and answers with up and down etc in them?

  32. O! ‘Tis curious, that. (Says he with raised EYEBROW.) And BRED = raised, and DUTY can be raised too. And if you’re DISHEARTENEd you’re down. Pity the NILE doesn’t rise in IOWA. I guess that WRAPs it up.

  33. @24 Simoninbxl I’m with you – this took 32 minutes, whereas my usual speed is 20, and the one before was a DNF.

    OTIS was my LOI. I enjoyed FALLING STARS, MEDITATION and PARALLEL BARS.

  35. In NZ these days duty is more like dyudy to rhyme with beauty. Is this happening out there too? Thank our last PM for making it acceptable.
    Liked free radicals ( but it’s been a while since my chemistry studies and I had to think whether it was -al or -le)

  36. Initially I thought 6d might be Fire Starter for “one that’s initiated combustion” but realised it didn’t fit with the crossers. I wonder if this was intentional misdirection. Similarly for 21 down Emos seemed to fit as “sombre dirges” (as all Emo songs are) and looked like it came from “Produced some” with produced as the anagrind, but I guess I was overthinking it.

  37. Took a while to get wrapper but that might be an age thing. Could not get dishearten which was a case of looking for a more complex answer rather than using the obvious.
    Nice puzzle.

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