Sunday rolls round so let’s solve the Everyman
I found this tricky to get going but it all fell out soon enough. Can’t see the rhyming pair this week although possibly DUAL & ORAL, so over to you. Thanks Everyman.
A sozzled [COMIC AT]* & LOCKS meaning bars
Double def. My last one in as I was unsure whether it would be CONTROL or CENTRAL which both fit “key”. CONTROL was the boss in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and other spy films, tv series & books and CONTROL or CTRL is on most keyboards.
UNA – a girl & LIKE – have a crush on
A cutting of purpLE ASTer
Double definition
REAMS – lots of paper & CAP – a covering – all in a flipped ED(itor)
M(arried) removed from (m)ORAL – virtuous
Sounds like DUEL
G(ood) moving in BRIDGE ROOM. I’m sure I’ve seen a similar device to this in a clue recently.
Some of, incomplete unawaRE AS SESSions
The Financial Times could be THE FT – taking without paying
AI – artificial intelligence, technology say inside a reversed I for one & BORN
CAT – jazz lover & SPAN period of time reversed – in retirement
ECCLES – cake/town & A SET reversed – heading west – inside IS
TONE meaning temper or tone down with NAG – find fault – inside
MARK – book of the bible & TIME a magazine
Cell phones are much more a US thing than here for a mobile & it sounds like SELL – to market
LUNCH – eat – with start of A(rugula) inserted & PAD – to stuff & S(on)
C(old) & HARD – tough, not the toughest clue ever
The usual primary letter clue
Well it was obviously going to be an anagram and saw CLOUD in there, so wasted some time on that until crossing letters put that idea away. A horrible [OFTEN COLD CRUD]*
Unusally [CITIES ARE CALM]*
She of the Spice Girls, SCAR – cliff & Y(ear) & SPICE – chili say
Eats meaning worries. A & GIT – contemptible person & ATE – had as in food & S(econds)
A & (A & R(ector)) gathered by VICE – a sin
OPERA, well Wagner wrote a few & a vacuous T(iresom)E
I for Everyman inside most of STOC(k) – family
Final letters of quinoA garliC chiA gojI
I have looked forward to Everyman puzzles since starting to learn how to do cryptics and have not been using any aides when solving them for ages now. But I found this one not at all like usual puzzles and was really disappointed. Hopefully the proper Everyman will return.
I thought this a little difficult for an Everyman.
Standout clue for me was THEFT, but even that would have defeated me as a beginner.
Thankyou both.
This was tough, but some good clues with my favourites being THEFT and SCARY SPICE. Everyman does seem to have strayed from the brief here but fair play for another milestone as signalled in the CCLs around the perimeter. Thanks Everyman and welcome back Flashling.
This was the current Everyman’s 250th puzzle, hence “CCL” appearing in each solution around the perimeter.
The 100th puzzle (3872) and the 200th puzzle (3972) each contained “CENT” four times around the perimeter. Everyman eluded to this as a “quiet celebration” in his “meet the setter” piece in which he interviews himself. His 300th puzzle (November next year) will be no. 4072 (make a note!).
Congratulations to Everyman and thanks to Flashing for the blog.
Thank you flashling for your highlighted grid and blog. Very helpful. Especially this one.
And thanks to Paul T and Jay for the CCLS. That might explain the relative difficulty. Either Everyman was constrained by his hidden message, and/or he wanted to make it memorable. Hopefully he’ll be forgiven by newer solvers, who are introduced to what extra features, like the CCL here, or ninas, or pangrams, and milestone puzzles may add to complexity.
SCARY SPICE was funny but tough, because of the very broad definition pop star, and the wordy and misdirecting Red Hot Chili Pepper cluing SPICE. Cliff made me think of Cliff Richard. Scar for cliff is a word I’ve learnt in cryptics. Don’t know how common it is in the Old Dart.
There’s that setter’s favourite girl Una again. It’s a name I associate with women of more mature age than a girl.
Jay, there’s a potential follow-on from this puzzle and the one for today. I’m sure you won’t have missed it.
I liked the food theme in LAUNCH PAD, totally unrelated to the solution.
Thanks for the blog and thanks to Paul and Jay for the CCL extras.
I thought this was a bit too tough for an Everyman overall but some very good clues.
The BRIDEGROOM bridge room idea also used by IO in the FT about 3 weeks ago.
It was a week of crossword coincidences , Azed had ATOMIC TIME on the same day as this.
Una seems very popular at present with Setters. More of a challenge than most Everyman. Well hidden and brilliantly spotted CCL. I never see these extras
Thanks Setter and Blogger
I found this much tougher than any Guardian crossword last week, including the Prize, getting very stuck in the northwest corner with TONNAGE, CONTROL, CELL and MARK TIME, well the mark bit of it, all of which took me ages to parse. I eventually had a DNF by plumping for central, not control.
I saw the FRONT in OCCLUDED FRONT, so didn’t get stuck there. Nor did I spot the CCL device, so thank you to Jay and Paul.
Thank you to flashling for the blog, and Everyman.
CONTROL. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy unfamiliar to me. I thought it was a Get Smart reference. Shows the culture I was exposed to when I used to watch TV.
PDM, I thought of Get Smart too, though Max just called him “Chief”.
CONTROL was head of “The Circus” in the early “Smiley” novels up to the events ot TTSS . Memorably portrayed by Alexander Knox in the BBC series 1979 . Well worth watching if you can track it down, a stellar cast headed by Alec Guinness .
[Sorry about that Chief, CONTROL was the name of their agency.]
[Paul@12. True. I knew I didn’t have it right, as it should have been clued as top spies, or something similar. Wiki: The series centers on bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart (Adams)- Agent 86, and his unnamed female partner, Agent 99 (Feldon).[8] They work for CONTROL, a secret U.S. government counterintelligence agency based in Washington, DC, fighting against KAOS, “the international organization of evil”.
My Dad loved the show, and jokes about 99 and 86 abounded. I should add he also liked Dad’s Army and when I went to London in the 70s I actually lived in the flat/apartment below Arthur Lowe. I could hear his distinctive, cultured voice (different to his role) coming through the floorboards above me. I won’t tell you what he said talking to his wife. Best not to speak ill of the dead.]
[Paul@14. Thank you. My Dad said Sorry about that Chief for years.]
[Thank you Roz@13. Found this.
Oops, try again.
“Good thinking, number 99” is still heard at our house quite often. A DNF for me. I couldn’t get the crossing THEFT and AGITATES, left them for later and never got back. Thanks, Everyman and flashling.
Me@18. I know Roz doesn’t do links but it is as she recommended, Alexander Knox, TTSS, 1979.
Re 28 across. I think only the A is inside IS, followed by the reverse of SET.
Thanks to Everyman and Flashling
Was hard for me to get started on this. Tough puzzle but I enjoyed it.
Favourite: THEFT (loi).
New for me: OCCLUDED FRONT, ATOMIC CLOCKS.
Thanks, both.
Well spotted on the CCLs didn’t even think to look for a Nina.
Wow! 250 puzzles, that deserves a celebration. I wondered what had happened to the rhyming pairs.
I liked THE FT, ECCLESIASTES, SCARY SPICE and OPERATE.
Thanks Everyman and flashling.
Roz @ 13 and others
I remember watching Tinker, Tailor…. in 1979. All of us where I worked watched it and the next day we would all discuss it. It was followed by an adaptation of Smiley’s People in 1982 which was also great.
Both well worth watching.
I found this difficult for an Everyman, requiring several visits. Couldn’t find any rhyming pair.
10ac, CONTROL: haven’t read those books, so wondered about “top spy”.
28ac, ECCLESIASTES: it’s only A which is inside IS (as I now see Crispy@21 has already said)
4dn, CELL: I feel the American term should have been indicated. I don’t know anyone over here who refers to a mobile phone as a ‘cell’.
5dn, LAUNCH PADS: lunch is “eats” (noun), not ‘eat’.
The CCL’s were clever. (Thanks, Paul & Jay and congratulations, AC). I wonder how people knew it was AC’s 250th? Was it from spotting the CCL’s and calculating back to the well-advertised 200th?
JAY@4, alluded.
Paddy melon, you have to open the page then link that. Linking the Google search doesn’t work.
[ Fiona@25 I thought Smiley’s People was even better, I did not watch them until early 90s , repeated on BBC4 ]
[Fiona/Roz, I also recall the more recent (2018?) adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl which was extremely well done I thought]
TC@26 correction noted!
Roz @ 27
[I agree although I wonder if I thought Smiley’s People was better because I hadn’t read the book before I watched it – I had read TTSS before i saw the TV series – and so there was more suspense for me. I remember us all discussing whether or not Karla would come over and having to wait a whole week to find out.]
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2023/11/01/financial-times-17563-by-io/
BRIDEGROOM- “Cards on the table here after change of heart for man at altar (10)”
As a relative newcomer to this pursuit, I found this much harder than a “regular” Everyman. Glad I’m not the only one to have tried CENTRAL instead of CONTROL – as I use the Guardian Puzzles app I could see that something wasn’t right (no tick for proper completion), and eventually clocked it should be CONTROL (silly of me as I was a big fan of the Le Carre novels back in the day).
I do have a bit of a complaint about LAUNCH PADS. I couldn’t parse it, and figured it was something to do with LUNCH capturing the A, but surely “eats” would be LUNCHES – the clue might have been better with “Eat stuff including …”
Thanks to Flashling and congrats to Everyman on 250 puzzles!
Roz/Jay
[ I remember watching a scene towards the end of TTSS when George Smiley gives his wife Anne (played by the wonderful Sian Phillips) a present and she is indifferent to it – it was heartbreaking and I have never forgotten it.]
[Rewatched A Perfect Spy (1987) recently – also very good]
A clue from Everyman’s 200th puzzle (3972)…
12a. What’s sought by Smiley and Scarecrow? (12)
…another Le Carré reference!
TanTrumPet @31 “Eats” also led me to trying to fit “lunches” into the grid, but “eats” is slang for food or a meal so an acceptable usage.
Fiona – Anne Smiley’s indifference to George Smiley is in the books. I read most of them 20 odd years ago, and watched the 1979 TV version when it was shown – in student halls of residence as must watch TV – so should have remembered CONTROL, but I didn’t.
I don’t remember CONTROL being so important in the later books I read, but that was a while ago too.
Control was removed after Operation Testify in TTSS and died soon afterwards, he is in earlier books like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, very good 60s film with Richard Burton.
TanTrumPet@31, “eats” is a noun meaning ‘something to eat’. “Let’s get some eats.”
A big ol’ fail for me this week. CONTROL (which I didn’t get) was also the name of the top spy in the Fry & Laurie sketches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8T4Rr9Z6uc
The clue with arugula and rocket (the same vegetable, as I’ve often mentioned here) is right next to the clue bemoaning tough, cold greens. It’s like a little salad bar in the upper right. So when Everyman is difficult, he at least hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
Tony Coleman @26: I have long held that setters need not indicate American (or Australian or Canadian or whatever) terms or usages. The solver is charged with knowing the language–all of it–and cultural artifacts bounce around the globe so easily these days that it isn’t too much to ask. The indicator may sometimes be helpful, but isn’t necessary. (American spelling, on the other hand, must be indicated, or the poor solver might have confidently entered (e.g.) CENTRE when CENTER was required.)
Roz @ 37
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold was the first Le Carre book I read. And I also thought the film was very good. There is a sequel book published a few years ago which I have not yet read.
Thanks to Lin@35 and Tony@38 for pointing out that “eats” can also be used as a noun, I can see how LAUNCH PADS works now
Thanks Flashling for the post. Unlurking here after years of being a reader, after what I thought was a particularly tricky Everyman—the first in a while that I’ve actually failed to solve.
Really enjoyed SCARY SPICE and OPERATES though so still a good puzzle in spite of the extra level of difficulty. ACAI I thought was very good as well. Was completely unaware of CONTROL and struggled with the north side of the crossword in general.
I did all but CATNAPS in 45 mins. NHO cat=jazz lover which really demonstrates how Everyman is becoming determined to make his puzzles unapproachable these days. Where when I started I’d take another look later in the week, I no longer care enough to remember I hadn’t finished.
Only real moment of enjoyment came when I tried Harry Stile for Scary Spice based on having some checkers and knowing Cliff Richard’s name is originally Harry Webb! But that’s my own created enjoyment not a compliment on the setting.
Thank you, Everyman, for your perceptive critical review of The Ring Cycle at 21d OPERATE, my clue of the day.
I also liked 16a ORAL – “pronounced” had me looking for some oral/aural wordplay – and 19d AVARICE for the excellent surface.
Congratulations, Alan, on your 250th (I didn’t spot the CCL, very nicely done), and thanks flashling for the blog.
Remember Everyman always has a related pair, even if the relation bit can be tenuous. The related pair here were OCCLUDED FRONT and ACCLIMATISE. The CCL was a great idea.
Yes, I found this more difficult than some but I was having a bad day.
Thanks to both.
I bunged in an unparsed CENTRAL for 10ac, so this was a DNF for me. Even aside from that, I agree with those who found this harder than expected for an Everyman.
[As of quite recently, both Tinker Tailor … and Smiley’s People were available in their entirety on YouTube, at least in the US. I haven’t got around to watching the latter yet, so I hope it still is.]
[ Fiona@41 it is called A Legacy of Spies , a prequel and sequel to TSWCIFTC and tying up loose ends. Mainly about Peter Guillam with Smiley just at the end ]
Sprig@43 I have been doing Everyman for far too many years and I thought this was the hardest puzzle for a long time.
I found SP inferior to TTSS. Jayston couldn’t do that one, which didn’t help.
“CHARD – C(old) & HARD – tough, not the toughest clue ever” – as a novice it was quite tough for me lol. I liked 10a (I know now to look at my keyboard when I see “key”), 24a and 5d. 14d was v. tough. I really missed the rhyming clues. I need them, the Primarily and the Everyman (I, Ive, me, etc) to get a toe hold.
Probably amongst the hardest everyman’s I’ve come across. Could just be me
Love the CCLs, great way to celebrate your 250th crossword. Definitely a bit harder than usual but no complaints from us – our holiday brains needed a good workout!
Scary Spice, Theft and Bridegroom our favourites. Thanks all.
Impossibly difficult; filled with obscurities and overly subtle connections. Got it all out with very extensive use of wildcard dictionaries, but could not parse a large fraction of the anwers.
“Agitates” meaning “eats” is just ridiculous.
Well yes Rolf, can’t argue. As the blogger it took a while to fill the grid. And as for getting the blog done, a couple of days and still missed the 250-CCL bit
This took me about 50% longer than usual, and I had Treat (not having to pay for articles) instead of Theft (which I am kicking myself for not spending more time on), and Central instead of Control, which was a little obscure – relying on knowledge of JLC. So a DNF strictly speaking. On the other hand, you have to admire the skill of the setter to work in the CCL theme. Congrats on reaching 250!
This was a lot harder than others recently and not as enjoyable – I’m not saying I like easy puzzles but when you get the answer and have to spend the next ten minutes figuring out that it really is correct – largely through a rather ridiculously odd definition – it does take the edge off the fun. Almost no satisfying aha PDMs. I’ve read somewhere that the current Everyman is wanting to slowly make these harder – I think that would be a terrible mistake, it isn’t what these have traditionally been about, so to hear comments like ‘this has been the hardest Guardian puzzle all week’ (Shanne @10) suggests that he’s got the settings wrong. Fiona @ 1 said it all.
About the only bright point was not reading how WhiteDevil solved it in ten minutes or whatever.
As a solver of 20 or more years, I found this puzzle unpleasantly difficult.
I guess EM has to flex his muscles every now and again, but it doesn’t make for happy campers.
Thanks Flashling, and Everyman, I’m sure you have received the message loud and clear.
Flew through this in 10 minutes.
Don’t know what all the fuss is about.
Yeah, nah.