Everyman 4,041/31 March

by

I think we should acknowledge that it is a big ask to produce an entry-level puzzle every seven days. On the whole, I think our setter manages that well: this week there are plenty of easy anagrams to ease you in, some chestnuts to help you along, and then some ones that are trickier to parse to finish with. As always, I’m interested to hear what the less experienced solvers out there thought.

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 LA Times first with leader on silly municipal regulations
BYLAWS
A charade of BY for ‘times’ (as in four by four), LA, W and S for the initial letter of ‘silly’. Its etymology is interesting: unlike bypass and byway, which are formations based on the use of ‘by’ to mean ‘running alongside’, the ‘by’ in BYLAW derives ultimately from Old Norse byr, a ‘place where people dwell, town, village’. ‘Town’ in modern Danish and Norwegian is by (pronounced ‘be’). And of course hundreds of towns and villages from Derby northwards have the -by suffix denoting ‘town’ or ‘settlement’: Wetherby, Grimsby, Whitby, Wetherby. Blame the Vikings.  So literally, BYLAW means ‘town law’.

4 Father Ted’s Jewish counterpart went on?
RABBITED
Well, the Jewish equivalent would be RABBI TED.

9 This restaurant’ll advertise tasty tapenades, olives, ricotta – Italian antipasti – you’ll want the starters!
TRATTORIA
The initial letters of the first nine words of the clue and a cad.

11 Plain and somewhat porcellanous
LLANO
Hidden in porceLLANOus.

12 One rambling, greeting king and queen once
HIKER
A charade of HI, K and ER for Elizabeth Regina, who is gradually being clued in crosswordland as ‘queen once’, or ‘former queen’. And CR is appearing as ‘king’ too, of course, although not here.

14 Powerful scent: a billionaire’s characteristic?
MUSKINESS
A whimsical cd, referring to the potential aroma from Elon Musk, who certainly qualifies as a ‘billionaire’.

15 Small Houyhnhnm, one hiding actual intentions?
STALKING-HORSE
I’m not ashamed to admit I had to look them up: Houyhnhnms are the race of horses endowed with reason (and speech) in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. So it’s a simple charade of S and TALKING HORSE.

18 An entrée with cured cod announced where soldiers get fit?
ASSAULT COURSE
Aural wordplay (‘announced’) for A SALT COURSE. Again very whimsically, a starter with preserved cod could be labelled as such.

20 Many like a society without aristocrats
COUNTLESS
A dd.

22 Replace a partner’s copper vessel
CUT IN
A charade of CU and TIN. I had to look up the definition; it’s to do with dancing. My SOED has:

cut in (v) interrupt a dancing couple to take over from one partner

It is marked as ‘dated’, which explains why a young thing like me didn’t know it.

23 Outcast’s check rejected
LEPER
A reversal of REPEL.

24 Exotic tanginess getting act of approval
ASSENTING
(TANGINESS)* with ‘exotic’ as the anagrind.

26 Procure leverage
PURCHASE
A dd.

27 Nearer the end
CLOSER
Another dd.

Down

1 Most of rear end and pecs area is maximally macho
BUTCHEST
A charade of BUT[T] and CHEST.

2 We’re told of shelter in a field
LEA
Aural wordplay (‘we’re told’) for LEE.

3 Kit swears wildly, has fun on a lake?
WATER-SKIS
(KIT SWEARS)* with ‘wildly’ as the anagrind.

5 Irrational, as the nastiest numbers?
ANAESTHETISTS
(AS THE NASTIEST)* with ‘irrational’ as the anagrind. The very common cryptic trick of defining ‘numbers’ as ‘people who numb’.

6 Modern experimental facility sent back curry
BALTI
A reversal of IT and LAB.

7 Swap short amount of time – about time! – for confidential info
TRADE SECRET
A charade of TRADE, SEC, RE and T.

8 Most of words rejected; Everyman’s beginning to get tired
DROWSE
I think Everyman is asking you to take ‘most’, in other words the first four letters, of WORDS, and reverse them, giving you DROWS; then if you add E for the first letter of ‘Everyman’ you’ll end up with your answer.

10 In sum, I might be one of these?
ROMAN NUMERALS
Referring to the fact that I in ROMAN NUMERALS is ‘one’.

13 City playing United, twice – plural – a matey kickaround, at first
KUALA LUMPUR
An anagram (‘playing’) of U, U, PLURAL, A and MK for the initial letters of ‘matey’ and ‘kickaround’.

16 No coal tar involved in type of surgery
ROOT CANAL
(NO COAL TAR)* with ‘involved’ as the anagrind.

17 Green tea brewed for youngster
TEENAGER
(GREEN TEA)* with ‘brewed’ as the anagrind. The chestnut to end all chestnuts, but the puzzle is aimed at beginners, so someone will be seeing it for the first time.

19 Carry, with difficulty, a little kitsch leprechaun
SCHLEP
Hidden in kitSCH LEPrechaun. A mainly AmEng word, derived from Yiddish.

21 Kind of song that brings illumination
TORCH
A dd.

25 Sit fast, regularly dismissing uncertainties
IFS
[S]I[T]F[A]S[T]. Another good crossword from Everyman this morning, no ifs or buts. Thank you to him.

70 comments on “Everyman 4,041/31 March”

  1. Top-notch ones: ASSAULT COURSE (good pun), and DROWSE (don’t recall seeing this technique before. certainly not used often. Liked it).

    ROMAN NUMERALS
    In sum: In an arithmetic sum? Or in short? Works both ways, I guess.
    I might be one (in our puzzles, to indicate the setter).
    I might be one of these: A simple surface reading works as well. Liked the clue.

  2. Agree with LVa’s favourites

    Enjoyable puzzle withe lots of nice surfaces. The twists and innovations made it even better

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

  3. I found this a quicker Everyman to solve but a lot was in my general knowledge area.

    CUT IN turns up in Austen or books set at that time, and on from there, but I link it with formal dances, the country dances or Scottish reels.

    Thank you Pierre and Everyman.

  4. It’s interesting how all those Yiddish loan-words that Americans don’t even notice as foreign anymore (SCHLEP today) are still worthy of comment in Britain. I’ve long thought it would be sort of fun to make a crossword laced with a bunch of them. But I’m a mensch, and doing that would make me a putz.

  5. Recent results have led me to think I might be developing a cryptic solver’s brain although I’m sure there is one just around the corner that will roundly disabuse me of such fantasy. However, if I am improving I think it is in no small measure down to Everyman and 15 2 1. Thanks (I think)

  7. I wonder what Pierre’s entry-level puzzle looks like? The gist of the discussion here seems to be that Everyman varies wildly in difficulty, sometimes providing a challenge for more experienced solvers. Goodness knows, then, what the brief for this puzzle is these days, but its past compilers appeared to be able to churn out an easy-but-good piece week by week. Easy or not, I don’t really like much the style of the incumbent, my problem of course, but there appear to be a good few compilers about who can write well without being too hard.

    In this one, I really liked the idea of RABBI TED, though the clue felt a bit so-so.

    Anyway on with the graveyard shift. Thanks P.

  8. I think I thought this harder than the week before, but still entry level. Some good clues and quite a few smiles. It took me a little while to get the last few, but I was kicking myself when I did.
    Thanks both.
    The Quiptic has turned up with today’s Everyman, has it been moved, is this a new ploy, giving beginners two goes on a Sunday, or just another accident?

  9. GD: Jay@117 (posted yesterday afternoon)
    I thought the Quick Cryptic was very precisely clued and a good innovation for new solvers.
    I also note that the Quiptic is moving to Sundays.

  10. [Especially liked 4a RABBITED for referencing Father Ted(1995-8):
    ‘Several quotes from the series have entered the popular lexicon, such as “These are small, but the ones out there are far away. Small … Far away … Ah forget it.”, “Down with this sort of thing”, and “I hear you’re a racist now, Father”‘]
    Thanks E&P

  11. It was a pleasant surprise to see my home city, Kuala Lumpur, emerge from the anagram fodder at 13d. The name sounds a lot more exotic than its meaning in Bahasa which is “muddy river”.

    I also lived in Oslo for a while and so speak Norwegian and must comment on Pierre’s note re pronunciation of the Norwegian word for town, by. It is pronounced ‘be’ when part of an English (or Australian) town but in Norway the letter y is also written as u with an umlaut (in names) and pronounced as a closed ‘oo’ sound as in German.

  12. Favourites: HIKER, COUNTLESS.

    I was unsure how to parse the TED bit 4ac RABBI.
    Also could not parse 8d – only got as far as rev of WORD[s] + S + E = Everyman). But I see what Pierre is saying about it. Never saw that before.

    New for me: Houyhnhnm (for 15ac).

    Thanks, both.

  13. KVa@9 – thanks for the info re the Quiptic having moved to Sundays. I just did it – tbh it felt weird to do it on a Sunday instead of Monday!

  14. michelle@12
    STALKING HORSE
    Houyhnhnm: This will remain always new to me (at least the spelling). 🙂

    RABBITED
    Father TED made an appearance elsewhere yesterday to the day before.

  15. The horses’ name was young ginf’s favourite part of Gulliver because Dad’s best mate from the army had a quarter draught who made a vocalisation just like it! Yes mrpenny@4, but no surprise when you think of all the songwriters, movie makers, etc. And today’s Yiddish leprechaun was fun! Thanks E and P.

  16. Thanks for the blog and the interesting digression on “BY” , NW coast of England as well , Kirkby, Crosby , Formby ….
    LLANO is a word I know from crosswords , the clue is very fair.
    ASSENTING a very neat complete anagram which will make the list for Jay.

  17. KVa @9, thanks for sharing that post.

    Everyman solvers may also be interested in posts 121 and 122 on the GD thread highlighting a programme on the history of crosswords tonight on bbc radio 4. It features the current Everyman (and Guardian editor) and Carpathian (who set the first Quick Cryptic yesterday).

  18. Houyhnhnm turned up in the same week as Yahoo in an Imogen puzzle.
    The Guardian on Saturday had a new feature, a Quick Cryptic, small 11×11 and very friendly with an explanation of the types of clue used. For aural wordplay they used the term “soundalike” which I like. I suspect that it can be found online?

  20. DROWSE
    I’m not happy with this.
    Most of ‘words’ rejected is DROW, not DROWS
    Where does the S come from?

  21. Anna @20, you need to take all of WORDS and then reverse “most of it”, so the S stays in position. Then add E. Which I think is what the blog says.

  22. Yes, Jay, that’s what I explained in the blog, so unlike Anna, I was happy with it in the end. Slightly unusual construction, though.

  24. Jay @ 21 and Pierre @ 22
    Ah, OK, I think I understand you now.
    I was understanding it that you reversed most of the word and rejected the S.
    Happy now.
    Thanks.

  25. Thanks for the interesting clarification of the Danish/Norwegian pronunciation. My source was Google translate, which in my experience is pretty good with giving you the correct rendering of the word – I have to say that to my ears, what it gives is very close to the -by sound in Derby, etc. Maybe better rendered by -bi than -be, to be fair.

  26. Carried it round with me all week and still DNF. Thought ‘Muskiness’ was ‘Bossiness’ (the ‘Boss’ aftershave) which made matters worse 😑
    Anna @20 thanks for asking as I was confused too and Jay @21 for clarifying.
    Would never have parsed some of them and 4a + 10d were a mystery.
    Thanks Pierre. Always very encouraging and clear and kind.

  27. Keep trying Cara , maybe in the future the Everyman will return to its stated role.
    I apologise in advance for my comments next week , we are seeing a great tradition trashed in front of our eyes just because a setter is obsessed with showing off.

  28. Pierre@25. I checked Google and found that same entry for pronunciation of by. All I can say is that it is flat wrong. The person doing it is either not Scandinavian or thought she was asked to pronounce it as it appears in English towns.

  29. Shanne@19 – thanks for info re the Quick Cryptic which I enjoyed. That’s a great idea for beginners and a brief glance at the GD blog shows that people seemed to have enjoyed it. But online I don’t see that they made a link to get to it/the Quick Cryptic… I only see links to the usual categories:
    Crosswords 
    Blog
    Quick
    Cryptic
    Prize
    Weekend
    Quiptic
    Genius
    Speedy
    Everyman
    Azed

    Roz@27 – I have a feeling I can guess what you might write next week, and if I’m right, I feel the same. Tbh it makes me wonder, what is the point of the Sunday Everyman now? Is it a simply a regular Cryptic puzzle or is it still supposed to be a puzzle for beginners which is what the old Everymans were several years ago (I loved them and I sometimes go back to redo them, I’m working backwards from #3600). I noticed there was a comment by ozofriendly on the Guardian blog – “maybe now that the quiptic has moved, (what’s that you say!?), the everyman can be quietly retired”.

    And now there is also a (Sunday?) Quick Cryptic as well. So is the Everyman going to be (supposed) regular garden variety weekday-level difficulty or Prize-standard difficulty from now on? Is there any pattern at all?

  31. Everyman is not my favourite setter (but while no genius solver, I’m not a beginner, so the puzzles mostly aren’t aimed at me); but I have no complaints about this one.
    I wonder if, like me, many folk first read Gulliver’s Travels in a children’s edition – I think mine mentioned only Lilliput and Brobdingnag. As an adult I read the full text, and the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos stuck in my mind, so no problem with the very simple and elegant STALKING-HORSE. Also liked RABBITED, CUT IN and ROMAN NUMERALS among others.
    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  33. Guardian’s new Quick Cryptic not to be confused with The Times’s long-standing Quick Cryptic, I’ll guess 😀

  34. “Return to its stated role” Sorry but where is it stated that Everyman is an entry- level crossword? It seems to be universally assumed on these threads but for me it’s just an ordinary crossword aimed at those for whom Azed is a bit too challenging.

  35. Michelle, I’d advise solvers moving from the quick/speedy to keep those puzzles going and add, in time:

    * quick cryptic
    and then in time:
    * Everyman and/or Quiptic
    and then in more time:
    * Monday puzzles and beyond
    (…and that’s just the Guardian/Observer ones!)

    This weekend there’s a slight nudging of the furniture. The prize this week is by the same setter who has said hello to new solvers in the quick cryptic. The Everyman uses its longstanding license to go themed once every few years. And the quiptic has leapt forward/back a day (and in fact will remain a weekend puzzle).

    One thing that’s especially pleasing about the QCs is that they offer pleasure to the seasoned solver too (though they might tend to ignore the rubric!)

    Good luck to anyone else whose Sunday will be egg-hunting one week late.

  36. Everyman, was introduced in 1945 as a simpler alternative to the Observer’s main puzzle which was particularly challenging (as set originally by Torquemada then Ximenes) and remains so to this day (Azed). I think this is the Everyman’s only remit.

  37. I have to confess, I don’t always enjoy Everyman crosswords. I used to love Sunday morning lie-ins with a cup of coffee & a printed-up copy of that day’s offering balanced on my knee – but the current setter has me harrumphing too often.
    This puzzle, however, had several lovely touches: COUNTLESS & the small Houyhnhnm made me grin – and RABBI TED is delicious. (If only there really had been an episode where a Rabbi came to Craggy Island….)
    Thanks Everyman for last Sunday’s fun, and Pierre for the ever-informative blog.

    [Roz & Michelle: I agree with you!!]

  38. Re the Everyman brief, Alan Connor (Everyman setter & Guardian crossword editor) included this in his latest Crossword Blog yesterday “Sundays also offer the Observer’s Everyman, introduced in 1945 because the paper’s other puzzle is deliberately and astonishingly challenging.”.

    That’s all.

  39. It looks as if the remit is changing with the movement of the Quiptic to Sunday and the new Quick Cryptic on a Saturday. And the slightly different Everyman this week.

    I saw both these new changes in the crossword section of the newspaper app as a subscriber, which works a bit like the puzzle app that’s going.

  40. Nothing to startle the (STALKING) HORSES here today, which was also my favourite clue, along with ANAESTHETISTS.

    Not that I go dancing anymore, but finding out CUT IN is dated makes me feel old. “Mind if I cut in?”

    FrankieG @10: Careful now.

  42. I’ve been plugging away at cryptics for just over a year now, and I still think of myself as a beginner. I thought this was pitched at about the right level – as Pierre says, a number of easier clues to get a toe-hold with a few trickier ones to stretch me a bit. In fact, I’ve thought Everyman has been in that sweet spot for the past 3-4 weeks now.
    I also had to look up the talking horses (never read Gulliver’s Travels).
    I laughed out loud at RABBI TED, and really liked the anagram for KUALA LUMPUR.

  43. [ My annoyance today is not with this puzzle, it is one in the paper this morning. I have found the Observer article from the 4000 puzzle . A quote referring to Everyman
    This would be a crossword that , in the words of Connor , “might be solved by the beginner , or the lapsed solver, or one who’s simply not prepared to comb through dictionaries for the answers ” ]

  44. I’ve been doing the Everyman for nearly 50 years, and although I do the Guardian puzzle every day now retired, it remains my favourite of the week. It’s been my life’s ambition to win the prize, but yet to manage this.

  45. Like Pierre, had to look up “Houyhnhnm”, and didn’t parse CUT IN, (It seems obvious now, in retrospect)
    Thank you to Everyman and to Pierre for the blog

  46. Enjoyed RABBI TED. Not so keen on 18a. I took cod=coarse to get to course. Not convinced either way.
    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  47. Just no. Unless you spend your time pinned to the media, it’s tortuous. I enjoy a cryptic puzzle once a week with my husband, and feel robbed!

  49. Like TanTrumPet@42, I returned to cryptics about a year ago and still consider myself a beginner. I found it quite quick and easy (unlike this week’s, which I’ve just finished, but await Roz’s comments about it with interest).

    Favourites were ASSAULT COURSE, STALKING HORSE and the amusing RABBITED.

    Thanks Everyman & Pierre.

  51. Frances@50 – your comment makes more sense now! There wasn’t too much media knowledge required for last week’s (unless you count Jonathan Swift 😊 )

  52. Mostly enjoyed this one. Liked MUSKINESS, COUNTLESS and KUALA LUMPUR. The long pair across rhymed again. ROMAN NUMERALS would have been “ungettable” from its clue alone, even with in sum thrown in. Cod could be whatever if still cured.
    Today’s is completely another animal though…

  53. KVa@48. No source. Just how I got to the solution. I didn’t think of entree for course, I’d have expected an insertion indicator to put the cured=salted=SSAULT between A and COURSE. So clutching at straws I took cod as in fake as in a coarse version of the authentic article.
    Pete.

  54. Liked: Rabbited. Rabbi Ted: that raised a chuckle.
    New to me: Llano.
    Still don’t understand wordplay in DROWSE, even after reading Pierre’s blog. Seems to me Everyman is telling me to take most of the word [WORDS] and then turn it upside down and then add an E at the end, which gives DROWE. I would expect him to tell me to anagramise [WORDS] then add an E at the end. Is “reject” an anagram indicator as well as a reverse indicator?
    As a newbie, I felt some clues had quite convoluted lengthy wordplay.

  55. Roz @18 Thanks for pointing me towards the new Quick Cryptic. Good fun and very rewarding. I positively flew it, so unbeknownst to me I must have gotten better at these.

  56. DROWSE: ok get it now thanks to Jay @21. I’ll to read all comments before posting mine! I’ve never seen this wordplay before (but that’s not saying much, I only started this year).

  57. It is quite an unusual wordplay, Zihuatenejo, so I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it … keep at it.

  58. @Roz 43. I have the same the reservations I suspect. Having crushed the Everyman today. And then a sudden quiptic. The ed’s comments might have offered reassurance but it b..gg..r.d my Sunday

  59. I think DROWSE does work as Jay@21 describes, but it’s a peculiar bit of wordplay for an “easy” crossword, and had me scratching my head. All the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order…

  60. Pete HA3@53
    ASSAULT COURSE
    I actually tried to look it up (cod=coarse) while solving this puzzle.
    Had an outrageous thought that A= An entree (in the sense of ‘starter’ or ‘entrance’) & tried to parse the rest like you attempted to.

    Widdersbel will ask me not to overthink. Of course, overthinking is a joy in itself That’s a part of the game 😊

  61. KVa@60. That’s word for word the line of thought I took. UK entree being a starter as opposed to US entree being a main course.
    I started off being happy knowing what the solution is. Now I like to know why the solution is. I guess that happens to a lot of us eventually.

  62. I managed to get 75% of this, before encountering difficulty. I became unstuck by entering 15 as ‘Speaking/Horse’ and 20 as ‘Classless’. As ever, thanks for the explanations which are invaluable as a moderate beginner!

  63. I’m old enough to remember that etiquette of men tapping a shoulder politely to ”CUT IN” when dancing.
    Girls didn’t get the opportunity though. I think there may have been much more devious strategies.

    With the middle letter R in TORCH, I was plumbing for CAROL, as a cryptic def, rather than double def.
    Kind of song that brings illumination Carols by candlelight?

  64. Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Favourites were STALKING HORSE; RABBITED; BYLAWS. No quibbles from us just thanks to all involved in setting and blogging.

  65. Never heard of llano, nor of balti (very obscure — hard to find in a web search). Got “muskiness” but could not parse it; Elon Musk does not (fortunately!) loom large in my consciousness.

  66. COULDN’T get Liano.
    Had all the cross ones but had to read the clue for 13d about a dozen times before I realized tha CITY was all I needed. Paddymelon should remember “a lady’s excuse me”
    I liked Rabbi Ted especially as Father’s and Rabbis do tend to go on a bit.

  67. Couldn’t get 11ac. Also 6d.
    But I did like 1d and may use it in my new book! 1ac could easily be guessed.
    And I TRY not to use a dictionary – the blogs are most educative.
    Pleasant warm Autumnal weather here in Epsom Auckland.

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