As is customary, all very sound and pleasant. I was less than thrilled by the hiddens, but they’re OK. There are the trademark complete anagrams. It was hard to see any more rhyming pairs than one pair; the TORONTO – NEED TO KNOW one is a bit of a stretch and may not be intended. And I think that 13dn is the self-referential clue. How Everyman manages all this week after week is impressive.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, insertion, anagram, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MINT |
Invent a herb (4)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 3 | WALL STREET |
What may be seen in Manhattan is a film about greed (4,6)
|
| 2 defs: Wall Street is in Manhattan, and is also the name of a wonderful 1987 film (“greed is good” is the famous quote (or misquote, since Wikipedia tells me that it’s actually “greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”)) | ||
| 9 | TIES |
We’re told of SE Asians’ connections (4)
|
| “Thais'” | ||
| 10 | THERAPY DOG |
Goth prayed desperately for source of support (7,3)
|
| (Goth prayed)* — I’d never heard the term, but it makes sense | ||
| 12 | LETTUCE LEAF |
Greens’ constituent circulated cute leaflet (7,4)
|
| *(cute leaflet) — nothing to do with the political party — pity that we have ‘leaf’ in both clue and answer | ||
| 15 | TAKEOUT |
Murder a pizza? (7)
|
| Almost 2 defs, but not quite: to take out someone is to murder them, and a pizza is an example of a takeout | ||
| 16 | SAHARAN |
Very hot Norwegians, A-ha: randy (to some extent) (7)
|
| Hidden in NorwegianS A-HA RANdy —not the best ever hidden in my opinion because it seems so contrived that one tumbles to it pretty quickly | ||
| 17 | ROOSTER |
List includes duck – but you want another bird … (7)
|
| ro(0)ster — roster = list, 0 = duck (cricket) | ||
| 19 | TABASCO |
… a small company, and you want credit note up-front? Sauce! (7)
|
| tab a s co — tab = credit note, a = a, s = small, co = company | ||
| 20 | ELDERFLOWER |
Cockney retained her provision for baking – and something for liqueurs? (11)
|
| ‘eld ‘er “flour” — crossword cockneys drop their h’s — held = retained, her = her, flour = provision for baking | ||
| 23 | DISCIPLINE |
Thomas perhaps embracing trendy field of research (10)
|
| discipl(in)e — disciple = Thomas, perhaps (Bible), in = trendy | ||
| 24 | DRAG |
‘A bore’? Tolkien creature? That’s not on (4)
|
| drag[on] — dragon = Tolkien creature | ||
| 25 | STABLE DOOR |
Daffy old boater’s one swinging more than one way (6,4)
|
| *(old boater’s) | ||
| 26 | AS IS |
Judas Iscariot, within: unaltered (2,2)
|
| Hidden in JudAS IScariot — as with 16ac, a bit contrived; or at any rate a bit odd, so not hard to see | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MUTILATORS |
Dodgy stimulator for agents of unwelcome change (10)
|
| *(stimulator) | ||
| 2 | NEED-TO-KNOW |
Tangled knotweed? No, only if necessary (4-2-4)
|
| *(knotweed No) | ||
| 4 | ACHIEST |
After injection of iodine, a thorax is most sore (7)
|
| a ch(I)est — a chest = a thorax, I = iodine (chemical symbol) | ||
| 5 | LARDERS |
Large prison officers failing to open smallish rooms (7)
|
| L [w]arders — L = large, warders = prison officers | ||
| 6 | TOP OF THE BILL |
Leading lady to see where appetisers appear (3,2,3,4)
|
| 2 defs: the leading lady will appear (or at any rate expects to appear) top of the playbill, and appetisers appear top of the bill in a restaurant — although I don’t quite see how ‘leading lady to see’ indicates ‘this is what the leading lady will expect to see’ or something like that | ||
| 7 | ENDS |
Disasters Leonidas dodged regularly (4)
|
| [L]e[o]n[i]d[a]s | ||
| 8 | TOGO |
Country 15? (4)
|
| Togo is a country; 15ac is takeout and takeout food, or a takeout, is food to go | ||
| 11 | RUN-OF-THE-MILL |
Funny, mirthful Noel, OK? (3-2-3-4)
|
| *(mirthful Noel) | ||
| 13 | CROSSWORDS |
Everyman regularly gets into these arguments (10)
|
| cross words — Everyman regularly gets into (ie becomes involved in setting) crosswords, since he does it every week, and cross words = arguments — the self-referential clue without I or me | ||
| 14 | ENCOURAGES |
Incites, in middle of open court, displays of fury (10)
|
| An unusual clue-type, in that it’s a sort of half-hidden: hidden (and it is the very middle) in opENCOUrt, then RAGES — rages = displays of fury — I’ve always wondered why this type of clue isn’t more common, because it seems to me to be perfectly OK | ||
| 18 | RIDDLED |
Cooked but not good: dotted with holes (7)
|
| [g]riddled — griddled = cooked, g = good | ||
| 19 | TORONTO |
Lad caught by Dorothy’s dog somewhere in N America (7)
|
| To(Ron)to — Toto is Dorothy’s dog in The Wizard of Oz, Ron is the lad, Toronto is the capital of Ontario (but not of Canada, whose capital is Ottawa) | ||
| 21 | ADDS |
Tosses in a turgid offhand prècis … finally (4)
|
| a [turgi]d [offhan]d [préci]s — some have criticised setters who say that the last letter of a one-letter word is just that letter, as here, but that seems to me to be pernickety: after all the last letter of ‘a’ is ‘a’ [Actually KVa@1 quite correctly points out that the last letters can be regarded as only beginning with ‘turgid’] | ||
| 22 | ASIA |
America is a revolutionary, enormous mass of land (4)
|
| (A is a)rev. — A = America rather than the usual US or USA; one does sometimes see this |
ADDS
Nice comment in the blog.
Anyway, without getting into ‘the last letter of a is a’ bit, it could be read as
‘A+ last letters of the next three words’.
TAKEOUT
In the first part, should we call it a wordplay rather than a def as murder=TAKE OUT?
TOP OF THE BILL
The bill of a show or concert is a list of the entertainers who will take part in it (Collins).
Looks like it can stand alone without leaning on play, lean etc.,
Top faves: ELDERFLOWER, TOP OF THE BILL, TOGO and ENCOURAGES!
Thanks Everyman (nice puzzle) and John (excellent blog).
TOP OF THE BILL
read: *without leaning on play, hand etc.,
No ‘primary’ clue. Can’t remember that happening before (though there is a ‘finally’ one). It seems to me that the level of difficulty has been dialled down a little lately. TOGO was very neat. Thanks, Everyman and John.
Thanks John. I read ADDS as per KVa@1.
My take on TAKEOUT is pizza with question mark, as DBE, as it’s one word., and murder as wordplay, as KVa said, take out, 2 words.
I also agree with KVa on TOP OF THE BILL, Leading lady, and the second def as to see where appetisers appear, all underlined.
LARDERS made me laugh, especially as I used to work in prisons. I thought NEED-TO-KNOW was clever, and funny. Liked the surface for MUTILATORS, the long anagram. As usual enjoyed Everyman’s indicators, apt for the surface, like dodgy and tangled and the daffy old boater in STABLE DOOR, with possibly a double entendre in the definition.
Favourite: CROSSWORDS. I agree with just “leading lady” being the first definition for 6. Interesting that Everyman favoured hot Norwegians for 16 when virtually any other nationality would have done the job. It seems like “cockney” is an all-purpose “sounds-like” indicator as long as a dropped h or two is in the mix. Is this used by other setters?
Thanks John and Everyman.
padm@4
TAKEOUT
Hasn’t John said the same thing about the ‘pizza?’?
TOP OF THE BILL
I see the ‘to see‘ as a link.
possibly a double entendre in the definition
Didn’t get it. Could you explain …if appropriate?
One observation on TOGO:
TO-GO is an adjective but TAKEOUT is a noun. I find that TAKE-OUT is an adjective
qualifying a TAKEOUT. It works, I guess.
Paul T@5
ELDERFLOWER
Seen Cockney used like this a couple of times before. Not sure it’s right or not.
Add me as another supporter of KVa’s ADDS.
It was TOGO and ROOSTER that made me laugh and I loved ENDS as the insider joke.
I agree that this was not difficult, and RIDDLED was the only clue to give me pause. It shows again that puzzles on the easier side can be very enjoyable.
Thanks Everyman and John
KVa@6 – I see To go and take out as synonymous. I believe Take-out is an adjective in “take-out pizza”, for example.
Another case where two similar clues ran in close proximity: Jack on March 20 (so less than a week earlier than this puzzle) had TORONTO clued as “Friend of Dorothy embraces man in city (7)”. Jack’s surface is better, since “friend of Dorothy” is a slangy (and somewhat dated) way of referring to a gay man. But anyway, since Everyman is now also the editor, I feel like we should cut him a little less slack for this sort of thing….shouldn’t he have sent himself back to the drawing board?
pdm@4
I missed an emoji in my post@6. You know where!
Martyn@8
Of course, TAKE-OUT and TO-GO are synonymous. Hyphens take centre stage!
Bonus nit-picking: Also, I learn that these are US terms but no US indicator(s) in the clues!
Kva@10: I have long argued that the setter is under no obligation to indicate an American term or usage. (American spelling is another matter.) You’re expected to know the language–if it’s in the dictionary, it’s fair game. And all but the most recent Ameranisms are right there in your favourite lexicon. So why do words of American origin get special treatment?
Spelling is another matter, because it’s unfair to require, say, THEATER rather than THEATRE without warning you.
TOGO, TAKEOUT
mrpenny@11
Your point sounds quite logical. Noted. Thanks.
For those interested:
Sunday No 36 FT News Puzzle by Buccaneer
a-ha ‘…often incorrectly stylised as A-ha’ are Norwegians.
Thanks for the blog, ptretty good overall , MUTILATORS will make the list for Jay but 1 D for a change. TOGO for the geography list .
I agree with Tassie Tim@3 on the difficulty and the lack of “primarily” , perhaps we will have a run of “finally” like ADDS .
Paul@5 A-ha are from Norway .
Paul, Tutukaka@5 & KVa@6 – Everyman appears to be the only setter who assumes that “Cockney” is a combined aitch-dropping and homophone indicator.
He’s done it before. I don’t like it. 🙁
Discipline and disciple share the same Latin route which felt a little ‘samey’.
Tolkien and dragons wasn’t an association I would have immediately thought of, though he wrote about them more extensively outside of the works he’s now most commonly known for.
Cockney is spoken, not written, so I’m ok with it being used to indicate the spoken word and hence a homophone.
@Roz, thanks, I’ve noted 13 single word anagrams so far this year. The longest have been of 10 letters, there are 7 of these.
Thanks for the blog.
Jay@16 are you still only counting anagrams from 7 letters or more ? It does seem a suitable cut-off point. Everyman seems to use grids with a lot of 10 letter entries.
Enjoyable puzzle, good for beginners.
I love it that John includes a colour (green) for link words in the clues and that the indicators are in italics.
Thanks, both.
Aha! Thanks FrankieG. I completely missed that.
Roz@17, yes, 7 or more is the cut off.
Last year the record was 12 with PREDOMINATES/IMPERSONATED
KVa@6. To swing both ways is slang for bisexual.
pdm@21
Bi the bi, you missed this (me@10):
pdm@4
I missed an emoji in my post@6. You know where!
Jay!
Are you planning to come up with a book?
John – I fear that your heading for this puzzle is showing a lot of spoilers.
FrankieG @15 – he’s definitely not the only one who does this. Personally, I’m fine with it – Cockney indicates how they speak, not how they write.
Took me much longer than the previous week’s one. Failed to connect duck with o and was puzzled by it until now, then saw it clearly stated by Collins, duh…
Favourites were TOGO, CROSSWORDS and ELDERFLOWER, and it was nice to see a-ha mentioned. ASIA appeared in the same slot and with the same crossers as ASEA a couple of weeks ago (with ADDS replacing ODES, for good measure).
Thank you, Everyman and John
(Totally unrelated to the above, it struck me this week that nowhere was made up of now and here, and I thought there was some beauty in it. Happy whatever you are celebrating these days!)
Widdersbel@24: Sadly, I think that nowadays it’s how they spoke. Estuary has seemed to nearly supplanted Cockney.
Toiled happily for a week but got there by yesterday evening 🙂 only to find I’d made 23a ‘distilling’ 🙄
Thanks all.
No complaints from me, particularly about the lack of a “primarily” clue. I thought this fit the Everyman remit extremely well.
Enjoyed this, filled it all in last Sunday.
When I was visiting my mother in the hospital, I saw a dog across the hall. I rushed over to see what was what, and he was a therapy dog, brought in to cheer up the patients. Since my mother was definitely one who was cheered up by critters, I asked to have him come over and visit her, which she did enjoy. He was an Australian shepherd, a breed I’d not seen before, and three-colored, which apparently in dogs occurs in both sexes.
Thanks Everyman and John.
Do stable doors swing more than one way? I thought they opened in two sections. Not sure what you would call a door which opens in either direction: maybe a saloon door?
jvh @ 30 You are right: a stable door is a two-section door where the upper section can open separately from the lower one (though not vice versa).
As you surmise, a door that opens bi-directionally is a saloon door.
(I used to be a builders merchant, and we sold both.)
Did this one on holiday, on my phone, so I was relieved it was fairly straightforward. DISCIPLINE took some time, but my favourite for that.
All good, except for 23a, where I was thinking of Dylan Thomas, Thomas More and Doubt and it’s various forms…finally, with all the crossers, could not get “distilling” out of my head (a little like Cara@27?) so DNF. Thank you to Everyman and to John for his blog.
Liked: Elderflower. Thought it was funny. I don’t normally like the Cockney or stutterer type clues.
Couldn’t get Larders and Toronto. Then 24 hours later I could. That happens a lot.
MrPenney @post 9, Hugh Stephenson didn’t edit Everyman puzzles, so Alan Connor doesn’t officially edit his own either! There is no Observer crossword editor.
I was wondering if I was missing something for WALL STREET, but it appears not. It’s not really a cryptic double definition as far as I can see, no different to a non-cryptic crossword clue that says ‘Part of Manhattan that was the subject of a film about greed’.
I soon realised that 1a had to be mint, but I feel that ‘invent’ is a poor synonym. To mint something is to make it physically, whereas to invent it is a mental exercise which doesn’t inherently require making it.
Like others I did wonder about 25a ‘stable door’ as well.
15a I’m used to the term take-away – I don’t recall hearing takeout.
I think ‘primarily’, ‘for starters’, ‘in the end’ and ‘finally’ all fall under the same heading really?
DavidMW@36 I think “takeout” is the American equivalent of “takeaway.”
Re. WALL STREET, I think the clue was playing on one thinking immediately of the film Manhattan (Woody Allen’s), and then sending us to another.
My favourite was LARDERS, for the picture drawn, and the nice turn of phrase. Thanks to Everyman, and to you all for the blog and comments.
Yes, the italics in the newspaper version made the other film clear, but I didn’t think there was enough deception in the not very natural wording. What can be seen in this film is a film … (If ‘Manhattan’ was also a film about greed, that would be deceptive at least, but it isn’t.)
I seem to be pinpointing clues this weekend that no one else has a problem with, so maybe my brain’s broken!
I parsed Togo from police radio 10 5 (15 ) relay / to go ? Helped me anyway!
22ac got me at first with Thomas. 20ac took tricky.
25ac first I had ‘saloon’ !
And I was baffled with 10ac.
Very cold here in Epsom Auckland
Rob.
Favourites today are ELDERFLOWER; THERAPY DOG; LARDERS. Managed to get through with no extra help so maybe easier than previously? Good start to a chilly weekend here in Whangaparaoa!
Struggled with “discipline”; “Thomas perhaps” suggested Dylan to me; cf. @33. Never thought of “disciple” (not being at all biblically oriented). Needed wildcard dictonary help.
Like others I am turned off by Cockney being a homophone indicator.
I agree with DavidMW@36 that “mint” does not mean “invent”.
Stunning day, complimented by a solid and enjoyable crossword. I got the 80s pop reference but didn’t like the surface for Saharan. A couple of biblical references today – maybe Jay could start tracking those too?
favourite clues, discipline, riddled wall street and rooster l
one gripe tho 20ac
‘eld ‘er flour does not even make sense, could anyone imagine this phrase used in a sentence
Overnight the sleeping mind finished it off. This morning crosswords was evident and delightful.