Another sound as a pound Sunday offering from Everyman, with all the regular quirks on display.
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 Awfully spare: chaps refuse to be seen here
SCRAPHEAPS
A gentle anagram to get us going: (SPARE CHAPS)* with ‘awfully’ as the anagrind.
6 Ring friend, wanting gemstone
OPAL
A charade of O and PAL.
9 Sells cheaply what you may be left with after division
REMAINDERS
A dd.
10 Vietnamese money‘s sound as a bell
DONG
And another.
12 Daredevil aunt drove us crazy
ADVENTUROUS
(AUNT DROVE US)* with ‘crazy’ as the anagrind.
15 Del Boy and kin needing no introduction: rogues
ROTTERS
A bit of UK-centric GK needed here: Del Boy and his family featured in the hugely popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, and the family surname was Trotter. So this is [T]ROTTERS.
16 Some giant iguanas somewhere in W. Indies
ANTIGUA
Hidden in giANT IGUAnas.
17 Fail to be seen in curly hairdo every day
PER DIEM
An insertion of DIE in PERM. The insertion indicator is ‘to be seen in’; and PERM, if you’d forgotten or indeed never knew, is short for Permanent Wave, an expression – and technique – which is about to celebrate its centenary.
19 City to twice enthral Ronald
TORONTO
An insertion of RON in TO an TO. The insertion indicator is ‘enthral’.
20 One proving there’s honour among thieves?
ROBBER BARON
A cd, with a double meaning of the sense of ‘honour’.
23 Old tenor given note? On reflection, one that sings higher
ALTO
A reversal of O, T and LA for the sixth note of the tonic sol-fa, with an extended definition.
24 Unwise, raging lad is … devil
ILL-ADVISED
(LAD IS DEVIL)* with ‘raging’ as the anagrind.
25 Drugs, they say for freedom from discomfort
EASE
A homophone, or aural wordplay if you prefer (‘they say’), of two ecstasy tablets, or Es.
26 Dunces Society intended to skip a test
ASSESSMENT
A charade of ASSES, S and ME[A]NT.
Down
1 Audibly rise, being angry
SORE
A homophone, or aural wordplay (‘audibly’), of SOAR.
2 Premier, a Republican, going up slope
RAMP
A reversal (‘going up’, since it’s a down clue) of PM, A and R.
3 Early parts of play: rôles include Victor, Amanda; they encounter – lucklessly, in vacation – Elyot, Sibyl!
PRIVATE LIVES
The initial letters of the last twelve words of the clue and a cad, referencing the goings-on in the three-act comedy of manners by Noël Coward.
4 Part of weekend I’ve spent finding salad
ENDIVES
Hidden in weekEND IVE Spent.
5 I ran into quiet hall, not half finding ferocious type
PIRANHA
An insertion of I RAN in P for the musically ‘quiet’ and HA[LL].
7 Master craving act of delaying
PROLONGING
A charade of PRO and LONGING.
8 Support Scotswoman to run: first minister?
LEGISLATOR
A charade of LEG, ISLA, TO and R. In the same way as overworked IAN is the archetypal cruciverbal ‘Scotsman’, ISLA can be his female partner. In a well-now-isn’t-that-interesting kind of way, I discovered today that the name is derived from the island of Islay. Our Scottish readers are probably going ‘Well, obviously …’
11 Blunt implements brandished, I subvert Kent
BUTTER KNIVES
(I SUBVERT KENT)* with ‘brandished’ as the anagrind.
13 Everyman, say: somebody conforming to convention (at first)
PROPER NAME
A charade of PROPER (‘conforming to convention’) and NAME (a ‘somebody’).
14 After a time, acts of praise for properties
ATTRIBUTES
A charade of A, T and TRIBUTES.
18 Hi-tech devices, they’re often dangled over cots
MOBILES
A dd.
19 Raw mayonnaise dressing
TARTARE
Another dd. The first is a term for a not to be recommended (by me at least) dish prepared using raw meat. Steak tartare is the classic. The second – with a variant spelling of TARTAR – is the mayo/pickles/capers combo.
21 Is the French land entirely surrounded by water?
ISLE
A charade of IS and LE for one of the words for ‘the’ in French.
22 Correct deadlifts at regular intervals
EDIT
The even letters of dEaDlIfTs.
Many thanks to Everyman as always.
Thanks Pierre, for the extra info in PRIVATE LIVES and (T)ROTTERS. I do look these UKGK-heavy clues up pre or post solve, but it helps to have your personal insight and clarification.
As often with Everyman, there were some entertaining surfaces. I liked the ADVENTUROUS daredevil aunt driving us crazy, the idea of the dunces’ society skipping a test, and the image of the hi-tech devices dangling over the cots. EASE was a good spot.
Enjoyed the light puzzle and the neat and informative blog.
Thanks, Everyman and Pierre!
Lovely puzzle, I especially liked this weeks primary and self referencing clues
Thanks Both
Good puzzle.
Not heard of ROBBER BARON but once I had all the crosses it couldn’t be anything else. Looked up the term and I don’t think there was anything honourable about them.
Liked BUTTER KNIVES, MOBILES (as PDM @ 1 said – entertaining surface), TORONTO, PIRANHA and ROTTERS, which took me a while to spot, made me laugh.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
Thanks for the blog, another very neat puzzle just right for the slot. I agree with NICBACH for the quality of the two regular features. The rhyming pair in their usual places Does ANTIGUA make the refined geography list for Jay? It is not itself a country ? I thought LEGISLATOR was put together very neatly.
Piranha among a few (Delhi, Dahl, dhal …) where I’m never totally sure where the aitch goes. Nice puzzle as per, ta P and E.
I found this one sailed in, but I had the requisite general knowledge.
Thank you to Everyman and Pierre
Good fun I thought. I also wasn’t familiar with ROBBER BARON and it’s not in my Chambers, but I did find it in Collins. I assume that the REMAINDERS which “sell cheaply” are specifically books, a definition which Chambers does support. @Roz, yes, ANTIGUA made it to the list!
Jay@8 I would agree with you for ANTIGUA but Pointless would not. Antigua and Barbuda is a sovereign state that is a member of the UN.
I liked the ‘fail to be seen’ for die in PER DIEM. Why do people insist on saying someone has ‘passed’ when they mean they have died? I appreciated the not primarily clue. I also enjoyed the clue for ASSESSMENT.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
… oh, and yes, I liked the Everyman reference for PROPER NAME.
I hope Cellomaniac liked TORONTO (and Pierre’s blog innovations 😉 )
Not quite like a KNIFE through BUTTER, this one, but certainly quicker than the current week’s. Anyone else stuck?
ginf @6 – know hwat you mean about aithces. With PIRANHA it’s from Portuguese (Tupi originally), and ‘nh’ in Portuguese is like ñ in Spanish (a voiced palatal nasal, in case anyone wanted to know).
Thanks E & P.
You can parse 17ac as fail (as in a comedian’s joke which fails is said to”die”) with to be seen in as the insertion indicator
Or fail to be (as in pass away) with seen in as the insertion indicator.
Favourite image: butter knives as blunt instruments. Put me in mind of soft cushions as an instrument of torture.
Thanks Pierre for the entertaining explanation and Everyman for another enjoyable puzzle..
Favourite: SCRAPHEAPS.
New for me: Del Boy (for 15ac) – I have never seen the show Only Fools and Horses so I needed help from wikipedia for the name Derek Edward Trotter -> ROTTER.
I did not fully understand 13d apart from the def Everyman = a proper name.
Thanls, both.
Grant@6 I find h the most awkward for spelling , especially the pulse/author and Gandhi – G and H I , or G H and I, the alphabet trick does not really help . See Azed 1Ac today.
MrEssexboy@12 I was a bit slower today , I have one dubious but clever follow-on clue for next week.
Ghlad I’m not alone, Roz.
My last one in was 13d PROPER NAME. I still don’t see why “(at first)” is there. The clue would work without it.
Robi @10, you are displaying a rather unfeeling attitude there. People say ‘passed’ because it’s a milder term. People experiencing profound grief have difficulty in even saying the word ‘died’.
A new record for me, 12 minutes!
essexboy@12,
Yes, I appreciated the aural wordplay in both the puzzle and Pierre’s excellent blog.
Toronto used to be called “Toronto the Good “ or “the city that fun forgot”, but it has reformed and is now a great place to visit.
This was another good one from Everyman. Thanks all for the fun.
… and about ‘proper name’, forgot to say earlier that I was taught that a name, like Grant, is a ‘proper noun’ …
[… and thanks for that link, eb @12 (7 hours ago!). Did an intro linguistics unit over a half-century ago; didn’t master the IPA, but learnt to like the anatomical descriptors, like ridiculing someone with a ‘prolonged unvoiced bi-labial fricative’]
… and I ‘ate it when people say ‘haitch’ …
Davy @17; I don’t think that it is unfeeling to say that people should use died instead of passing. We all have to get used to the inevitability of dying and it seems to me that we in the West generally try not to face up to death, which is treated quite differently in other cultures. 😉
Robi @23, I think the ‘different in other cultures’ thing can sometimes be exaggerated. Every language I know has ways of softening the blow. In French, as I’m sure Pierre can confirm, they will often announce someone’s ‘décès’, rather than ‘mort’, or they will say ‘il/elle nous a quittés’ (he/she has left us). Or they will use the word ‘disparu’, which is confusing as it also means ‘disappeared’ – and I’m always left wondering if the person concerned might make a surprise comeback!
Davy @17, in PROPER NAME, the ‘(at first)’ has to be there to indicate the order of the elements in the wordplay.
Somebody = a NAME
Conforming to convention = PROPER
(at first): put the PROPER before the NAME
(Btw, PROPER NAME is normally used interchangeably with ‘proper noun’. According to the stricter definition, a proper noun is one word, whereas a proper name can be multi-word. So Peter would be both, but Peter the Great would be a proper name, not a proper noun. Where that leaves grantinfreo I’m not quite sure. And of course a proper Charlie isn’t proper at all.)
Cello @19, & ginf @21: 🙂
[Robi@10 and 23, Davy@17 and essexboy@24. Re the discussion about ”died” vs ”passed”. I think in many cases it depends on whether the speaker (and/or interlocutor) believes in an afterlife, if they are consciously saying ”passed”, rather than simply being sensitive, or not facing up to the inevitability and finality of death, or using a word that belongs to their cultural history which they haven’t thought about. For those who do believe in an afterlife, the ”passing” could be not only a consolation, but even a joyous thing, more celebratory than mournful.
Yes, eb the ”disappeared” could be scary, but I’m okay, as I don’t believe in ghosts. 🙂 ]
I think “passed on” is the believer’s real euphemism. Now almost always just “passed” in the US. I loved ROBBER BARON. Very neat clueing.
I loved this crossword. But I did PROPER NOUN, not PROPER NAME, so in the end didnt work out EASE (which is a great clue) and ALTO. Still, a lot of fun. I am looking forward to tackling this week’s on a plane shortly.
[Way too late for most people to see this – apart from our faithful NZ contingent! – but today I read this tribute from France’s Culture Minister to Françoise Gilot, which reminded me of our discussion @23-26 above. (In the first two sentences we have ‘[elle] nous a quittés’ and ‘sa disparition’.) There’s an English translation on the Ministry’s website (here), which clearly no human translator has been anywhere near – it’s absolutely, unutterably dreadful!]
Easier than others recently –
Rob.
I found many clues to be nigh on impossible; connections too vague and tenous. I of course had never heard of “Del Boy”.
Having just lost a brother I do find ‘passed’ has its moments.
Nice crossword. I knew Private Lives but simply bunged it in unparsed and at the end thought that’s funny, no acrostic, he must have listened to whoever it was bitching about them here recently.
My thanks this week go to all of the posters above. Some genuinely interesting and witty contributions to my overall enjoyment of the crossword. Rolf, Only Fools and Horses is definitely a product of its time, but David Jason is one of the greatest comic actors of all time IMO. So if you like that sort of thing it is worth watching a few episodes on YouTube.
Only Fools and Horses was very much a feature of NZ TV back in the day! Great series, David Jason a comic genius. Really enjoyed this crossword & appreciated the extra explanation for 13D. Thanks all.
My fastest solve ever (just over 35 min) through embarrassed how long it took me to get TARTARE and TORONTO!
This kiwi is not old enough to have watched Only Fools and Horses on TV, but due to our family’s love of other David Jason shows I had enough understanding to get the Del Boy reference… 8 down on the other hand I thought was a UK clue, and was looking up GB prime ministers until I clicked!