It’s Sunday, so Everyman with the dog in the pub for my 400th blog
I found this quite tricky in places, I don’t see a rhyming couple this time. Over to you. Thanks Everyman,
ACROSS
1. Sticky quality that’s characteristic of seafood? (10)
CLAMMINESS
6. Pointedly cut back? That’s crazy (4)
BATS
9. It may take notes for one on the fiddle (5,5)
MUSIC STAND
10. ‘European capital?’ ‘Cairo, Slovenia.’ ‘… not entirely’ (4)
OSLO
11. Tired? I’ll trot out something to read (6,6)
LITTLE DORRIT
15. European, and united, it’s become apparent (7)
EMERGED
E(uropean) & MERGED – united
16. Section of symposium in ICA building that may transport you (7)
MINICAB
Hidden in symposiuM IN ICA Building
17. Perks up demonstrations (7)
RALLIES
19. Hot and bothered, with fourth and fifth characters quitting playgroup (7)
POPULAR
You need to remove the 4th & 5th letters from [PLA(yg)ROUP]* and then bother it
20. Terrific Hitchcock thriller with a drop of red sauce (5,7)
GRAND MARNIER
GRAND = terrific & MARNIE – Hitchcock film & a bit of R(ed)
23. In retirement, make some changes? It’s regularly seen, in the main (4)
TIDE
24. Finished, being hot (7,3)
KNOCKED OFF
Double def, hot being stolen – knocked off
25. Expressed weariness, heard in TV station (4)
SIDE
26. Harbours’ charms (10)
ENTERTAINS
DOWN
1. At first, celebration agreeable – before Everyman showed up (4)
CAME
C(elebrate) A(greeable) & ME – Everyman, the setter
2. Primarily, architectural polygonal / semicircular exhedra? (4)
APSE
3. Ones on the wing in derisory prison (11)
MOCKINGBIRD
MOCKING – derisory & BIRD – prison
4. Wrote symbols, number 500, describing gallery (7)
NOTATED
TATE gallery inside NO – number & D – 500
5. Star with radiant smile that’s matey (7)
SUNBEAM
SUN – star & BEAM – smile
7. In stoic fashion, lab cats try to run free (10)
ABSTRACTLY
[LAB CATS TRY]* running free
8. Wears checks where drinks are sold (6,4)
SPORTS BARS
SPORTS – wears & BARS – checks
12. Men with pointers meddled – everywhere you look! (11)
OMNIPRESENT
13. Isolates unhealthy Easter eggs … (10)
SEGREGATES
[EASTER EGGS]* are unhealthy
14. … so quietly, went on to say … ‘chubby’ (4-6)
WELL PADDED
WELL – so & P – quietly & ADDED – went on to say
18. River around north’s quiet presently (7)
SHANNON
Irish river, SH – quiet & N(orth) & ANON – presently
19. Feel uncomfortable following roast: dash! (7)
PANACHE
PAN – roast & ACHE – feel uncomfortable
21. Double the size of your dating pool in inhospitable location? (4)
GOBI
As it the desert, you might GO BI(sexual)
22. Does a mafioso’s job on old fellow, vacantly fearless (4)
OFFS
O(ld) & F(ellow) & a vacant F(earles)S
My stab at the pair is LITTLE/GREAT. My memory is that this all went in well enough, though having mistyped MOCKINGBIRD as MOCKONGBIRD made me struggle with the Dickens title for too long. GOBI produced a smile when the penny dropped. Didn’t know the Hitchcock film. SIDE for TV station is a bit old fashioned, isn’t it? Thanks, Everyman and flashing (and congrats on the milestone – worth an extra pint).
Well done flashling! Thank you for your contribution to us all. And thanks to your dog and pub as well for their support.
Should ones on the wing in MOCKINGBIRD have been one’s on the wing? Or one on the wing?
I quite liked SEGREGATES and MUSIC STAND for the humour.
Congrats flashling on your 400th blog! Thanks for your great service to this community.
Hundreds and hundreds more to come! Best wishes!
MUSIC STAND, POPULAR, WELL PADDED and GOBI were my top faves.
Thanks Everyman and flashling!
MOCKINGBIRD
paddymelon@2
Agree with you!
I found this quite tricky in parts and didn’t finish. Having put in crabbiness instead of clamminess, I was unlikely to find mocking bird. And I missed five at the bottom, including the wonderful GOBI. Of those I did get, I liked MUSIC STAND, GRAND MARNIER, WELL PADDED and SEGREGATES.
Congratulations flashling, thanks for the lovely blog. And thanks for the challenge Everyman.
Went at a good pace, found nothing really obscure though not familiar with Tv Station = Side.
Was momentarily stalled by “Grand Marnier” and “Little Dorrit”.
In 3d, as others have previously stated, had trouble with the plural “ones” and thought “bird” meant “time in prison” not prison or prisoner, so had a little difficulty in exact parsing…
Liked “Gobi” and “Well padded”
Thank you to Everyman and thanks with congratulations to Flashling
I well remember the instruction ” This is boring, change sides”. There were only two then, in the UK at least, three by the time we could receive a signal.
The DORRIT part of LITTLE DORRIT somehow eluded me. I think I put it off until I had a pencil and paper, then forgot about it.
Thanks both.
EMERGED
Should the ‘it’s’ be part of the def?
BATS
Should the ‘that’s’ be part of the def?
SUNBEAM
Could someone help me with a dictionary reference for the sense of ‘matey’?
KVa@7. MATEY , in this sense. Collins online.
VOCATIVE NOUN
You can address someone as matey when you are being friendly towards them. People sometimes also use matey when they are annoyed with someone.
[British, informal, feelings]
No problem, matey.
I’m more familiar with sunshine than SUNBEAM in the sense I’ve taken this, and didn’t find it in Collinsl
Wondered likewise, pdm@2; one hunts grouse, perhaps, but not bird.
SUNBEAM
paddymelon@8
Thanks for your quick response.
I found SUNBEAMy in the sense of ‘friendly’ in some dictionary (can’t recall which one).
friend/matey=SUNBEAM must be there too. Just that I couldn’t locate it.
Thanks for the blog , 400 is a great achievement and a lot of effort.
I agree with PDM@2 and others for MOCKINGBIRD , maybe it is just a misprint.
KVA@7 SUNBEAM is used in the UK as a term for pal, matey , friend etc. You might need a dictionary of slang to find it.
SIDE as tv station (25a) is unheard in Canada.
The clue for 3d MOCKINGBIRD should have been sent to the greengrocer’s for editing.
I don’t see the equivalency of ABSTRACTLY and stoically at 7d, but I can live with it.
21d GOBI was my favourite clue but I don’t think I’d want to dive into any pool there regardless of my orientation – too gritty for me.
Thanks Everyman for the fun and flashling for the 400th time. Was this also your dog’s 400th blog?
SUNBEAM
Thanks Roz@11
Like Cellomaniac@12 I did wonder about the equivalence for ABSTRACTLY but I decided to suffer without complaint.
KVa @13 sunshine is also used but often when you are going to get told off by a teacher or police officer say – Okay sunshine …….
Roz@14
SUNBEAM
Thanks again. I have come across the use of sunshine in the context.
Agree with TassieTim@1 regarding the antonym pairing. So far this year we’ve had Black/white, Hot/cold, Grand/little.
Thanks to Everyman and flashing.
There’s a challenge for regular Everyman solvers in this week’s blog from Alan Connor: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/article/2024/may/27/crosswords-what-to-do-when-a-puzzle-looks-harder-than-it-actually-is
(You can find it on the Guardian crossword page if you don’t trust the link).
Bridgesong is this just online? It is not on either crossword page from yesterday.
If anyone is tempted by Azed it has worth having a look at the puzzle today.
This is the first Everyman I didn’t get close to finishing in a long time. I found this much harder than normal as I can usually finish them.
Hoping for a better result this week.
Roz@18 the “challenge” in the blog by the current Everyman (acknowledging that there have been many comments recently suggesting that the puzzle is getting harder) is for suggestions of a specific Everyman puzzle, from at least before 2020, which is the “perfect” difficulty level and generally hits the spot. He then says he may recalibrate the current difficulty level using that puzzle as a guide.
[Roz@18 I’ve just posted the entire article in the GD section for the benefit of you and anyone else like you who don’t prefer to click on links]
Having somewhat criticized some recent Everymans, I thought this was far more like it. My only worry was SUNBEAM but that has been resolved by helpful comments above. Thank you to Everyman and for the 400th blog flashling.
Following on from me@20…
My suggestion is 3,591 from 2015.
It was blogged by Pierre who opens the blog with…
“A fine puzzle from Everyman. Just right for this slot. I liked this one a lot…”
I so look forward to the Sunday Everyman but feeling quite despondent – really struggled with this one. Hoping my brain can get around the one next week.
I found this on the slightly tougher side for current Everyman crosswords, very much the same time if not slower than I solved the rest of this week’s Cryptics, barring Brendan’s (and I was travelling for that one, so changing trains), including the Prize.
It was all in and parsed, liked GOBI, BATS for it’s such a chestnut held me up.
I linked the crossword blog referred to above on general chat last week, solved the early Everyman in Quiptic time (so less than half as long as this Everyman took me) and commented that’s what I’d found.
Congratulations to flashling, thank you for the blog and Everyman for the crossword.
Thank you Jay @20 and KVa @21 , I hope the current setter looks at puzzles from earlier times to see how it is done.
Roz, belatedly, you will find it online at the crosswords home page on the Guardian website.
[If you can’t wait to get started on Azed (there’s nothing on the G website as yet) and don’t have access to the paper, then there is a scan available at the “ClueClinic”]
I had reservations about several clues, some of which have already been mentioned.
The missing apostrophe in ‘ones’ (3d) is unfair. Conventionally it’s allowable to include misleading punctuation in the clue, but not I think to omit it when it’s necessary.
I’ve heard SUNSHINE as slang for ‘matey’, but never SUNBEAM, and it’s not in Chambers.
‘Abstractedly’ doesn’t mean ‘in stoic fashion’. In my view they are not even close. A stoic is not unfeeling or absent-minded.
Tough puzzle.
Favourites: CLAMMINESS, GOBI (loi).
New for me: SUNBEAM = slang in UK for sunshine/matey (found this via google search); SIDE = TV station.
Thanks, both and congrats on your 400th blog, flashling!
Liked this, the favourite was GOBI, followed by GRAND MARNIER and WELL-PADDED. Didn’t see how SUNBEAM was matey, but put it in nonetheless, same for SIDE and TV station. As mentioned above, LITTLE DORRIT and GRAND MARNIER could be considered a pair of opposites, while TIDE and SIDE definitely rhyme.
Thank you, Everyman and flashling, and congratulations on the 400th!
jayuu@31: (The link between in stoic fashion and ABSTRACTLY is probably philosophically, which both are, even if not related directly – we have this discussion quite regularly.)
Oh yes I forgot about the abstract stoic. The bird was a che? but that was a wtbleep?
SUNBEAM – often used by M&W, as here. Can’t find the clip, but these are the subtitles: ‘
As a follow-up to his legendary appearance on their Christmas show, conductor Andre Previn again has his pride and scepticism brilliantly exploited.
-Who was the fella we had in mind, Eric? -Kenny Ball. -No, no, no, more distinguished than him. -Acker Bilk. -No, he looks like Acker Bilk. -Benjamin Britten.
-That’s the one. -He’s the one. -Is he any good? -Benjamin Britten? -Yes. -Well, he’s not bad. -We’re on the right track. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Benjamin Britten happens be a very good friend of mine and I would hate to think that he would suffer the same indignity as I did.
Well, you can tell your friend that he will be dealing with two people who have received a very sound musical education. Where?
I’ll tell you where, SUNBEAM. Milverton Street School. Milverton Street School? Oh, you’ve heard of it!
Yeah, yeah, every Friday morning, after scripture, -Miss Turnbull used to play all the classics to us. -All the classics? All the classics, yeah. The Dream of Olwen.
-There’s black notes in that one, you know.n-Black notes?! I’ll tell you something else, it was Miss Turnbull that got him to take up piano lessons.
-Oh, you took piano lessons, did you? -Of course. -How many? Two. -Two? -Two. Yes. It was the left hand on Monday, and the right hand on Thursday.
The trouble was, I could never make it on the Thursday, that’s why I can only play with the left hand. It was a pound a lesson. Five bob if you took your own piano.
-Want to see the marks on my back from..?
-Now, look. Mr Morecambe, you seem to forget, you seem to forget that I have heard you play the piano and I… I wasn’t very impressed.
(Don’t!) (Control yourself, we need him.) -Well, the point was, of course, you’ve only heard me play one piece. -Yes, true.
I mean, if you could just walk over here, I’ll show you. This way. -After you. -No, please. -That’s very kind. -Smaller than I thought. -Yes.
Now. What would you like? -Erm, how about a little Debussy? -Good idea.n Help yourself, it’s in the drinks cabinet.
-What would you say to Honeysuckle Rose? -Not a lot. HE PLAYS AVERAGELY Be honest. Goodbye.
Eric, phone the Palace and tell them after the show it will be Benjamin Britten who will be presented to her. -Good idea. Yes. ERIC WHISTLES
Did you…? Did you say, presented to…her? Well, it’s all very hush-hush, you see. We’ve got to keep it quiet, We can’t talk about it.
You honestly mean to say that SHE is going to attend this performance?
Not only that. But there is a 50-50 chance that she will be bringing the sword with her. ERIC WHISTLES
So if we could just have Benjamin Britten’s telephone number, please. -Yes, well, now… Boys, I’ve been thinking. -Please, sit down.
Take the weight off your arpeggios. You did say that whoever conducts this important new musical work for you will get to meet…her?
ERIC AND ERNIE WHISTLE See, Benjamin Britten, he’s… Benjamin Britten’s good. Yes, he’s good. He’s very good, but he’s not… He’s not that good.
How can I put this to you accurately? He’s very… He’s very expensive.
Now, I… I would be willing to take a cut, do it quite cheap, you know, because of the…
ANDRE WHISTLES See, Eric, I mean… -That Grieg Concerto… That Grieg Concerto, that wasn’t really all your fault. -No.
Boys, I’ve been thinking and I’d like to be the one to conduct this important new work for you. -What do you think? -Impossible. -No. -Please. -I’ll talk him into it.
Don’t worry. Excuse me. -We’ve… -We’ve got him hooked. -Yes. -He’s like a salmon in shallow waters. He can’t move. -Did you say cheap? -Yes. How cheap?
ANDRE WHISTLES ERIC WHISTLES For nothing? -That’s your lowest offer? -Well, yes.’
I hadn’t written ‘difficult’ on this one, so it must have been par-for-the-course as far as I was concerned.
I was another who flirted with ‘crabbiness’ at the beginning but was soon disabused. I liked the good anagrams for LITTLE DORRIT and SEGREGATES, the well-hidden MINICAB and the wordplays for PANACHE and GOBI.
Thanks Everyman and flashling.
I thought this was a good level Everyman. Although the answer was obvious, I still don’t get ‘side’ for ‘TV station’. And I agree about ‘abstractly’ – I could see what the anagram must be, but the clue didn’t make sense. Otherwise …
Lloyd@36: I remember ‘side’ for TV channel from back when there were only two. “What’s on the other side?” would be a frequent refrain in our house, but I’m talking about many decades ago. It doesn’t seem to make any sense nowadays.
We still say “What side’s it on?” when looking for something on the telly. I’d bet we’re not alone.
Thanks anyway Bridgesong@ 27 , I have read it on GD .
I really struggled with this one.
I’m a relative newbie and I feel like I’m missing a trick on 18D – how does ANON equate to ‘presently’?
Also, in what sense does ‘dash’ mean the same as PANACHE?
Otherwise, GOBI was a joy! As was CLAMMINESS
SHANNON
‘Presently’ in the sense of ‘soon/shortly’ as in ‘I will be going there presently’.
PANACHE
‘Dash’ in the sense of ‘flair’.
(attn:Blobbert78)
PANACHE
Dash
The dancer performed with spirit and dash (dictionary.com)
I’m another who struggled with this one.
I still can’t see the connection between Stoic and ABSTRACTLY – jayuu @ 32 has mentioned a philosophical relationship, but I’m not sure I understand it.
New to me: GRAND MARNIER as a red sauce, I only know of it as a drink; SUNBEAM for matey (like others I am familiar with SUNSHINE), so thanks to FrankieG @ 34 for the E&E reference; WELL-PADDED as a synonym for chubby.
Thanks to Everyman and flashling (with congrats on 400 as well!)
TTP @23 sauce is a general term for alcoholic drinks – He has been on the sauce again.
KVa – thank you so much. ANON makes perfect sense now.
That sense of DASH is entirely new to me!
Thanks again
TanTrumPet@43: Collins’ Thesaurus has “philosophic(al)” as a synonym of both “stoic” and “abstract”, so ABSTRACTLY might work as “in stoic fashion” by way of “philosophically”. I am by no means sure, though, that this is the case.
Congratulations on blog 400 flashling. Many thanks for them.
I concur – the related pair are LITTLE (Dorrit) and GRAND (marnier).
Roz @44 – thanks for that, sauce and aclohol now filed away for future use
jayuu @46 – I understand what you were getting at now, and I can see that “stoic” could easily lead to “philosophical”, but I don’t think the fact that “philosophical” could also be a synonym for “abstractly” provides a link from “stoic” to “abstractly”. There was a discussion recently about whether synonyms are “transitive” – i.e. “a” leads to “b”, and “b” leads to “c”, therefore “a” leads to “c” – and I think this is a good example of a situation where they aren’t.
Anyway, I’ll park this and move on to this week’s challenges!
I found this enormously difficult compared to the usual Everyman.
I’m another who initially put in CRABBINESS, although neither that nor CLAMMINESS matches the definition very well as I use the words.
For an American, I feel that I’m reasonably well up on UK colloquialisms (especially older ones, as my knowledge often comes from not-terribly-current novels, TV shows, etc). But SIDE for a TV channel had hitherto escaped my notice.
Well, that’s 3 Everyman puzzles in a row that I found almost impossible.
(apart from the intelligence-insulting ‘primarily’ ones of course)
After many years of usually finishing them or at least getting close, that’s the end of the road for me.
The setter is obviously targeting smarter people than me now.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
liked 1ac – didn’t like 11ac
Thought OF GRANDMARNIER only as a drink!
And always used SUNSHINE rather than sunbeam!
Rob.
Our first not completed for a long time – didn’t get bottom right corner apart from OFFS, tired brains maybe! Overall thoroughly solid crossword. Favourites today – LITTLE DORRIT; GRAND MARNIER; SUNBEAM. Thanks Everyman and Flashling.
Impossibly difficult. I’m getting sick of this.
I didn’t really enjoy this either. Worst Everyman in a long while (this crossword and this setter)
Never heard of Dorrit or Marnie.
Back to back acrostics in 1 and 2D is poor setting
Back to back ‘off’ clues in SE corner is also poor setting
Agree with those challenging the plurality of ‘ones on the wing’ for a singular Mockingbird
Loose def in 7D and 14D, the latter just being plain rude
18D wordplay far too tortuous for an Everyman
26A why the apostrophe?
I have asked previously if this setter has any decent checkers. It feels like he doesn’t.
Just seen the current Everyman’s lamentably self-serving article reverenced above by Bridgesong @17. Try 3,766 or indeed any of Colin’s later Everyman crosswords (his first few were off the mark).
This was set by the difficult Everyman. Fire him and just employ the other guy.
Fledgling, 400 blogs is a lot. Congratulations, but the explanations were a bit brief This time IMHO.
Yeah, nah.
Marcus Aurelius would be rolling in his grave if he read this. Stoicism is one of the more pragmatic philosophies around and could hardly be seen as abstract.
If the setter had spend a little more time on this, there are plenty of German philosophers with names beginning with H that could be used as part of the clue.
Maybe “how Hegel and Heidegger might think when the lab cats try to run free”.
Seems our NZ colleagues didn’t like this either. I understand things get a bit easier in coming weeks, seems like the setter listened to you.
Flashling – that is good to hear! Yes we are a few weeks late getting these. No idea why that should be either, if there are some good ‘uns coming perhaps the supplier could skip a few duds and bring us into line.
I AGREE with those who didn’t like ABSTRACTEDLY. Haven’t heard SIDE FOR TV channel since living in UK and there were only two competing channels. At least we kiwis are familiar with SUNBEAM thanks to Winston. It’s good to know that someone over there reads our comments. Clams are not the first seafood that springs to mind and anyway I don’t think of them as sticky
I look forward all week to the Saturday Everyman and its challenges. Unless I’m tutoring then I’m rapt in the puzzle. I hope to find some straight forward solves on my first run through-seven this week-and then any anagrams. Both 12 and 13 down were straightforward synonyms in my opinion. Consequently I finished the puzzle comfortably in my usual time of two to three hours without frustration. I’m quite content with the status quo so thanks to Flashling and compiler.
Interesting that nobody else has made the following comment.
We thought of both rats and bats as possible answers for 6 across – and chose to go with rats as a better fit. At least here, ‘rats’ is a standard response to some crazy hypothesis – and a star, as one makes it for a decoration, has cut back points.
Why do so many on here seem to want an easier crossword? I didn’t finish this one, but still enjoyed it and love this blog for the explanations on those I didn’t get! I take a long time over each everyman, a few weeks sometimes and clues come to me at random moments along the way. For those thinking of giving up, just take your time…