The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4047.
This struck me as a little quirky for an Everyman, with a couple of oblique definitions, and no geographical reference other than the tangential 21D GARDA; but the matched pair, running HOT and COLD in 5D and 10D, the self reference in 25D ONE, the ‘Primarily’ 8D DRESSY and two one-word anagrams in 2D TIS (more or less) and 26A DISTASTE (more) are present and correct.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LET-UPS |
Pauses in Hamlet upsetting (3-3)
|
| A hidden answer in ‘HamLET UPSetting’. | ||
| 4 | STRESSED |
As these words are like most poetry (8)
|
| ‘As these words are’ are all stressed words. | ||
| 9 | FISH PASTE |
Perhaps Sturgeon’s gone east for pescatarian option (4,5)
|
| A charade of FISH (‘perhaps sturgeon’ – the misleading capital suggesting perhaps Nicola Sturgeon) plus PAST (‘gone’) plus E (‘east’). | ||
| 11 | RANGE |
Stray found in mountains (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 12 | TRACE |
Follow edges of footprint? (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 14 | MOON SHOTS |
Lowers trousers, having consumed liquor: high-risk actions (4,5)
|
| An envelope (‘having consumed’) of SHOT (‘liquor’) in MOONS (‘lowers trousers’). | ||
| 15 | MICROCLIMATES |
Critical memos rewritten; they only cover small areas (13)
|
| An anagram (‘rewritten’) of ‘critical memos’. | ||
| 18 | DRINKING SONGS |
Greatly enjoy percussion overwhelming Sweden’s rowdy music (8,5)
|
| An envelope (‘overwhelming’) of S (‘Sweden’ IVR – that is, International Vehicle Registration, the letter on a sticker which identifies the country of origin of a vehicle travelling internationaly) in DRINK IN (‘greatly enjoy’) plus GONGS (‘percussion’). | ||
| 20 | INCOGNITO |
At home with insignificant type, idiot, nothing, no-name (9)
|
| A charade of IN (‘at home’) plus COG (‘insignificant type’) plus NIT (‘idiot’) plus O (‘nothing’). | ||
| 22 | ISSUE |
Send out one’s children (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 23 | SHEAR |
Cut – or pure, you say? (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘you say’) SHEER (‘pure’). | ||
| 24 | HEDGEHOGS |
Stalls accommodating greedy-guts, prickly types (9)
|
| An envelope (‘accommodating’) of HOG (‘greedy-guts’) in HEDGES (‘stalls’ as a verb in the sense of delays). | ||
| 26 | DISTASTE |
Aversion: staidest upset (8)
|
| An anagram (‘upset’) of ‘staidest’. Everyman often uses one-word to one-word anagrams. | ||
| 27 | USHERS |
Guides some of gnus herself (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some of’) in ‘gnUS HERSelf’ | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LIFETIME |
One magazine, then another: you’re here for it all! (8)
|
| A charade of LIFE (‘one magazine’) plus TIME (‘another’). | ||
| 2 | TIS |
It’s decrepit? (3)
|
| Only just an anagram (‘decrepit’) of ‘its’, with ‘decrepit’ also suggesting a form “worn out with age” – that is, no longer used. How about using another antique form, decrepid? Perhaps that would look too much like a typo. | ||
| 3 | PEPPERONI |
Red / green / yellow ingredient topping Italy’s pizza’s … topping! (9)
|
| A charade of PEPPER (‘red/green/yellow ingredient’ – referring to a bell pepper) plus ON (‘topping’) plus I (‘Italy’, IVR). | ||
| 5 | THE COMMON COLD |
Article on public land leading to Parky’s indisposition (3,6,4)
|
| A charade of THE (definite ‘article’) plus COMMON (‘public land’) plus (‘leading to’) COLD (‘parky’ – as in 9A, the capital is for obfuscation). It is not certain how ‘parky’ came to mean chilly. | ||
| 6 | EARLS |
Casts Cockney as gentry (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘Cockney’ speaking with dropped aitch) ‘URLS (‘casts’). | ||
| 7 | SONG OF SONGS |
Young man with gloom lifting snogs wildly in erotic verse (4,2,5)
|
| A charade of SON (‘young man’) plus GOF, a reversal (‘lifting’ in a down light) of FOG (‘gloom’) plus SONGS , an anagram (‘wildly’) of ‘snogs’, for the book of the Bible, also known as the Song of Solomon. | ||
| 8 | DRESSY |
Primarily, decidedly ritzy / elegantly styled – suit yourself! (6)
|
| The ‘Primarily clue: first letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Decidedly Ritzy Elegantly Styled Suit Yourself, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 10 | SOME LIKE IT HOT |
Film rebooted: I Took The Limes (4,4,2,3)
|
| An anagram (‘rebooted’) of ‘I took the limes’. Well, nobody’s perfect. | ||
| 13 | ARCHDUCHESS |
Fancy lady revamping sad churches (11)
|
| An anagram (‘revamping’) of ‘sad churches’. | ||
| 16 | TASTINESS |
Delicious quality: after time, wine going to head (9)
|
| A charade of T (‘time’) plud ASTI (‘wine’) plus NESS (‘head’ – that is, headland). | ||
| 17 | ASSESSES |
Rates fools, storing jam with no lid (8)
|
| An envelope (‘storing’) of [m]ESS (‘jam’) minus its first letter (‘with no lid’) in ASSES (‘fools’). | ||
| 19 | MISSED |
Passed over – lamented (6)
|
| Double definition, although the second seems to me a little tenuous. | ||
| 21 | GARDA |
Creep up on a policeman in Limerick (5)
|
| A charade of GARD, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of DRAG (‘creep’) plus ‘a’. | ||
| 25 | ONE |
Everyman? Joke (3)
|
| Double definition: the impersonal personal pronoun (“one does not want to appear pretentious”) and “Have you heard the one about ….” |
Thanks PeterO for the great blog! Liked the puzzle.
TIS: My top fave. Loved your ‘decrepid’ comment. 🙂
STRESSED
As these words are –these words appear in italics in the online version.
Therefore STRESSED?
TRACE
A possible triple def? Follow, edges (as in a sketch/outline) and footprint?
Some nice charades and anagrams, much to like!
Thank you, Everyman and PeterO
Thanks PeterO. I quite liked TIS, and I think the question mark is leading to a watchamacallit? ..&littish? Agree ”decrepid” might have made it more so.
I don’t agree with, or perhaps don’t understand, the definition that words in most poetry are STRESSED. If most poetry is metrical, it’s the stressed syllables that fit the metre, unless the words are monosyllabic, and also fall on the ”beat” in the foot.
KVa @1
A feature of the utility that I use to enter the blog is that italics are ignored, which does no harm to ‘Hamlet’ in 1A, but confuses 4A – adding to the confusion, I add italics to clue definitions. Thanks for pointing out the originsl version.
paddymelon @3
4A again: the clue does not say that words are stressed in most poetry, but that most poetry is stressed – that is, most poetry uses stress as a structural device (but then there’s McGonagall).
I remember last week I didn’t particularly enjoy this as a whole. Gave it another once over, but afraid I still feel the same. It was just that I found little quibbles with many of the clues, and that the quality varied from contrived to lacklustre, not up to Everyman’s usual standard of entertainment.
I liked LIFETIME for the surface. My favourite was ONE, as that sums up Everyman’s self-referential, self-deprecating humour, in two words. Made me laugh.
paddymelon@3
TIS
I consider it &lit. Works without any -ish for me.
STRESSED
I should watch this space for more education on the subject (poetry, metric, syllables etc.,)
Edit: Thanks PeterO@5 for the clarification.
Thanks PeterO for getting back to me@5. I’ve done some more homework and still hold that the definition isn’t quite right. It doesn’t say stress structure, device, or pattern etc. I can’t find anything that describes poetry as stressed per se. And everything on stress in poetry mentions syllables within the context of metre, foot etc.
Yes, I’m afraid of that KVa @7. I think I should have stuck to my original decision not to comment today. 🙁
🙂
Stressed poetry, stressed solvers, must be time to get destressed. I think I would be distressed if Under Milk Wood was destressed. I think I’ve said enough.
Thanks both.
Thank you nicbach for a lovely time revisiting Under Milkwood. Below are the links for the audio (Part 1) 22 mins, and the film, a beautiful 90 minutes, well-spent. The audio on the video is less stressed. 🙂
AUDIO
FILM
(not going to fix the pesky s before the audio link, too hard without further errors, but the links work)And of course it’s Under Milk Wood, before anyone corrects me.
[My audio and video links to Under Milk Wood are awaiting moderation. In the meantime I’d like to thank nicbach for my lovely afternoon listening to and watching Richard Burton.]
Thanks for the blog, DISTASTE is a very neat clue and long enough to make Jay’s list.
MICROCLIMATES also a very good anagram but will not make the list.
I thought the words were stressed because they are italicised
Liked this, finished without too many problems apart from 18a and having to check how “Parky” referred to “Cold” in 5d. Liked “Lifetime” and “Tis” and “One”.
Thank you to Everyman and PeterO.
Enjoyable puzzle.
New for me: PARKY = cold (for 5d).
Thanks, both.
The app didn’t entirely lose the stressing this week, it showed the coding too as the clue highlighted, which made it an interesting solve.
I don’t think I parsed DRINKING SONGS, but bunged it in from definition. I wouldn’t have thought of DRINK IN for greatly enjoy. It still made me blink as I read the blog.
SONG OF SONGS was a write in as it reminded me of being in a group on the Tube coinciding with another group of lads in religious dress various, clutching Bibles. They were on the way to the Rugby Sevens at Twickenham and weren’t being polite about their Bibles, at full volume. I found them Song of Songs, a dubious read, then: this is porn!
Thank you to Everyman and PeterO.
Allan Scott who was Everyman for a great many years sadly died recently after a long illness
He also set for, amongst others, the Telegraph and there is a post about him here:
https://bigdave44.com/2024/05/16/rip-allan-scott-aka-campbell/#more-196376
Shanne @17: I sat there to drink in/greatly enjoy the view. Does that work? I seem to remember looking this, with no niggles. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
TassieTim@19 – it works, it’s how I parsed it as I read the blog, it’s just not an equivalence I’d normally use – I think because there are different emphases in viewpoint from the two phrases, on feels active, the other passive.
I don’t see how DRAG=creep in 21d.
Thanks Sue@18 I never use links but I will get someone to print this tomorrow so I can read it. Does anyone know roughly the years he set the Everyman ?
Poc@21 , time drags / creeps .
Guardian Prize 27,352 by Paul – Film Keith clued cryptically? (4,4,2,3) – I thought it was brilliant six and a half years ago…
…Opinions in the blog varied — KeithS@9 “loved” it — peterM@30 pointed out another film “THE KING AND I (Keith being an anagram of THE K & I)”
[paddymelon@12 – we used to be able to put two links in a post – of late that’s been reduced to one. Try posting them again separately.]
Allan Scott set from 1994-2015 according to a Spectator article I found, but I’m not trying to link from my phone on a Tube. Then it was Colin Gumbrell from 2015 to 2019?
Please continue Allan Scott related comments here:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/05/19/rip-allan-scott/
I’m not familiar with all (or many of) the conventions of setting crosswords, but isn’t it bad form to have ‘songs’ crossing itself and two solutions that are derivatives of the same word (taste)?
Fell down on STRESSED, as I forced ‘Italised’ in. Can’t even remember what I had instead of EARLS.
Never heard of MOON SHOTS or SONG OF SONGS. TIS was parsed from the clue but couldn’t figure out why. ONE makes no sense at all to me.
oed.com on ONE: ‘pronoun …V.13.b. a1642– spec. colloquial. A story or anecdote, esp. a humorous or exaggerated one; a joke; (occasionally) a lie.
Frequently in that’s a good one (also ‘un): used ironically to suggest a statement is humorously, absurdly, or mendaciously exaggerated.
…1996 Cleans? Ah, Jasus, that’s a good one. Cleans, she says. Is it joking you are? F. McCourt, Angela’s Ashes (1997) iii. 99′
I’m another one who doesn’t get the definition “like most poetry” in 4ac. If I understand PeterO @5 correctly, he’s suggesting that “stressed” means “using stress as a structural device”, but it’s not clear to me that that word can mean that.
I have a personal distaste for the device of using “one” to mean “joke”. It certainly can in some contexts, such as the example given by PeterO. But that’s just because “one” can refer to anything, as long as the context makes clear what sort of thing we’re talking about. If a baseball player (or, presumably, a cricketer) hits the ball particularly well, I might say, “That was a good one.” So can “one” be used to clue “hit”? That way, it seems to me, madness lies. But I must admit that the OED definition cited by FrankieG justifies the usage. In any case, I know this objection is just a personal idiosyncrasy of mine, and I’ll now shut up about it.
I didn’t know the word “parky”, but now I do (until I forget about it the next time it appears).
Liked: SOME LIKE IT HOT (both the clue and the film). I thought 5d must rhyme with hot. I was wrong.
Liked: all the anagrams.
Really liked: MOON SHOTS
INCOGNITO – crossing letters helped. “Insignificant type” = COG was tough. I knew it began with IN (“at home”). I find charades difficult.
SONG OF SONGS – couldn’t parse the G of SONG, and OF.
FISH PASTE – good to see that Nicola can still provide crossword setter misdirection despite falling from grace.
Overall: Quite a lot that I got from crossing letters, or guessed at def, but didn’t fully understand (e.g. DRINKING SONGS, ONE)
Parky(1935-2023) – RIP
Wondered about 14ac. Liked 15ac, and 7d.
21d was new to me.
Waiting to see the Lions here – hope they are ready to play!
Rob from Epsom in Auckland.
This one pushed us a bit but finally completed after a strong coffee. FISH PASTE and LIFETIME two of our faves.
No issue with STRESSED apart from no words being in itallics in our printed version.
I enjoyed this as a whole, but agree that Stressed is a bit odd in relation to Poetry. Maybe Everyman set himself a challenge to get as many of the answers to include a double S? Seven seems too many to be a coincidence: Stressed, Assesses (2 times), Dressy, Issue, Missed, Archduchess & Tastiness.
As Pip says, no italics in our version so bunged 4A in with a shrug. Everything else worked, bar some iffy definitions already alluded to, and I hadn’t heard of Garda.
Re the ‘one’ joke, it made me think of the slightly camp UK comedian who often used to say “Ooh, you are a one!” Was it John Inman? Dick Emery?
Bit easier this week I thought.
Far too much vagueness, far too many tenuous connections, far too many instances in which there were multiple possible answers, none really convincing.
I remember calling the weather “parky” in London in the early 70s if it was cold and you would need to wear a parka.
Decrepit = falling apart as an anagrind. Original.
I thought lamented = missed was a stretch.
It was a bit parky in Auckland this morning.
I liked hedgehogs. Got moon shots but the clue gave me moons shots.
Took me two days as it used to years ago, so I found it hard. I didn’t like the capital P on parky I see how it can be obfuscation but I do not think that is fair play. Thought Incognito was great, hedgehogs and Lifetime, but thought Drinking Songs clue was completely obscure to have been unsolveable. Only got it as the letters jumped off the page at me, and I could see what words fitted; hats off to anyone who got it from the clue. I thought in 1a the words should have been italicised too, how else could they have been deemed different from any others?