The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4055.
All the usual: the ‘primarily’ at 21A POMPEII, the rhyming pair 4D MIXED BLESSING and 11D POWER DRESSING, the self-reference at 23D IGLOO, the geographical reference at 1A SURINAME (and more locally 24A NOTTING HILL), two one word anagrams, 1A SURINAME and 27 A AGNOSTIC (with a third tucked away in 4D MIXED BLESSING. However, you do not get all this in glorious Technicolour in a grid; the Guardian seems to have made a change to their website which stumps the utility I use to format the blog (although there is a partial workaround which still works after a fashion) It is just too hot to work out how to construct and insert a grid by hand. As for the puzzle itself, it is notable for the amusing device in 18A MISPRINTING.
(Admin)
It occurred to me that I could take a screenshot of completed puzzle …
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SURINAME |
Sumerian translated in S American country (8)
|
| An anagram (‘translated’) of ‘Sumerian’. | ||
| 5 | ABSEIL |
Do mountain activity: muscles ache, you say? (6)
|
| A pun on ABS AIL (‘muscles ache’ – I would say that ‘ache’ is a bit off-centre, and at that depends on one pronunciation of the answer). | ||
| 9 | OPS |
Some neuropsychiatric medical procedures (3)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘neurOPSychiatric’. | ||
| 10 | SAXOPHONIST |
One with horn, aroused, has options including kiss (11)
|
| An envelope (‘including’) of X (‘kiss’) in SAOPHONIST, an anagram (‘aroused’) of ‘has options’. | ||
| 12 | PHRASED |
Stated acidity level pulled down (7)
|
| A charade of PH (‘acidity level’, chemistry) plus RASED (‘pulled down’, destroyed). | ||
| 13 | WEDDING |
Losing three at outset: longwinded, rambling, where speeches made … (7)
|
| An anagram (‘rambling’) of ‘[lon]gwinded’ minus its first three letters (‘losing three at outset’). The link to the next clue does serve some purpose, in that it gives an extra hint for the allusive “definition” here. | ||
| 14 | ALCOHOL-FREE |
… open bar, components swapped, causing no intoxication (7-4)
|
| FREE ALCOHOL (‘open bar’) ‘with components swapped’. | ||
| 18 | MISPRINTING |
Mr Farah, running fast? Only if this has happened! (11)
|
| An unusual wordplay: MO SPRINTING (‘Mr Farah running fast’) … with, you’ve guessed it, a misprint. | ||
| 21 | POMPEII |
Preserved over millennia – pumice erupted – immortally Italian, primarily? (7)
|
| The usual entry point for anyone having difficulties: initial letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Preserved Over Millennia Pumice Erupted Immortally Italian’, with an &lit definition. Heerculaneum suffered more from pumice than Pompeii. | ||
| 22 | STIMULI |
With one student, university (MIT)’s flipping offering incentives (7)
|
| A reversal (‘flipping’) of I (‘one’) plus L (‘student’) plus U (‘university’) plus ‘MIT’S’. | ||
| 24 | NOTTING HILL |
Not initially tying up driver Damon somewhere in London (7,4)
|
| A charade of [k]NOTTING (‘tying up’) minus the first letter (‘not initially’) plus HILL (British former F1 racing ‘driver Damon’). | ||
| 25 | EAT |
Consume with passion in East End (3)
|
| The aspirate dropped (‘in East End’) in [h]EAT (‘passion’). | ||
| 26 | RESIGN |
Once more endorse – or call it a day? (6)
|
| Double definition, with the first, to avoid confusion, normally given a hyphen: RE-SIGN. | ||
| 27 | AGNOSTIC |
Coasting, out of control? I’m not sure (8)
|
| An anagram (‘out of control’) of ‘coasting’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SNOW PEAS |
Now quiet, in the main, getting mangetout (4,4)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ‘now’ plus P (piano, musically ‘quiet’) in SEAS (‘the main). | ||
| 2 | RESTRICT |
Concerning, uncompomising stint (8)
|
| A charade of RE (‘concerning’) plus STRICT (‘uncompromising’). | ||
| 3 | NOSES |
Beaks pointing up, two sons touring Spain (5)
|
| An envelope (‘touring’) of E (IVR , ‘Spain’) in S SON (‘two sons’, one abbreviated). | ||
| 4 | MIXED BLESSING |
Glibness, to the crossword compiler? Not entirely good news! (5,8)
|
| Wordplay in the answer: ‘glibness’ is an anagram (MIXED) of BLESSING. | ||
| 6 | BROAD BEAN |
Fathead suggests this vegetable (5,4)
|
| A charade of BROAD (‘fat’) plus BEAN (antique slang, ‘head’). | ||
| 7 | ELICIT |
Derive conclusion in knowledge (lawful) (6)
|
| A charade of E (‘conclusion in knowledgE‘) plus LICIT (‘lawful’). | ||
| 8 | LETS GO |
Gets free fires (4,2)
|
| Double definition, although for the first, ‘gets free’ suggests to me an effort by the escapee, whereas in LETS GO the emphasis is on the holder. Of course, ‘fires’ also has a tension, but is a common usage. | ||
| 11 | POWER DRESSING |
Wearing Armani, perhaps depressing row resolved (5,8)
|
| An anagram (‘resolved’) of ‘depressing row’. | ||
| 15 | HAMPERING |
Obstructing picnic provisions on island: no good! (9)
|
| A charade of HAMPER (‘picnic provisions’) plus I (‘island’) plus NG (‘no good’). | ||
| 16 | VIRULENT |
After very boastful statement, National Theatre highly malignant (8)
|
| A charade of V (‘very’) plus I T\RULE (‘boastful statement’) plus NT (‘National Theatre’). | ||
| 17 | EGOIST |
Bits of Lego I stick together, self- absorbed (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘bits of’) in ‘lEGO I STick’ | ||
| 19 | OPENER |
First goal that allows Reds breathing space? (6)
|
| I can see no wordplay, so I take it that this is a cryptic definition – The Reds are Liverpool FC. Perhaps it could be regarded as a double definition, the first being ‘first’, but that would be more or less the same definition twice over. | ||
| 20 | EMOTES |
TV controller’s heading off: makes song and dance (6)
|
| A subtraction: [r]EMOTE’S (‘TV controller’s’) minus its first letter (‘heading off’). | ||
| 23 | IGLOO |
Everyman’s ‘grand bathroom’? Freezing, rudimentary place (5)
|
| A charade of I (‘Everyman’) plus G (‘grand’) plus LOO (‘bathroom’). |
Thank you Peter O. It’s disappointing that we are no longer able to have the grid here. I have always appreciated your blogs and thanks for going to the trouble.
OPENER I believe is referring to red wines, and the need/custom to open them to let them breathe before consuming.
I enjoyed this Everyman on the whole, with several good clues, though I had the same quibble as PeterO with LETS GO.
I’m not sure of the definition “I’m not sure” for AGNOSTIC, as reading Thomas Huxley’s words, it seemed that there is lots of certainty in his meaning. But I accept Everyman’s definition is closer to common parlance these days.
IGLOO was entertaining, but again I’d question the definition. Igloos on the whole are not freezing and their architecture is far from rudimentary.
Chuckles for EGOIST, POWER DRESSING, SAXOPHONIST.
I’ve added a grid, taken from a screenshot.
I hope that helps
Thanks Ken! Yes. it helps.
paddymelon@2
AGNOSTIC (Cambridge online)
someone who does not know or does not have an opinion about whether something is true, good, correct, etc.:
He claims to be an agnostic on the question of man-made global warming.
By common parlance, you meant this?
Another def on the same site (actually, this is the first one):
someone who does not know, or believes that it is impossible to know, if a god exists,
I agree with you that many agnostics think that it’s not possible for anyone to know if a god exists. I call myself an agnostic but I am one who is not sure if a god exists and also not sure whether it’s possible or not for others to know…
OPENER
Your explanation seems correct. Thanks. I was thinking like PeterO.
Liked PHRASED and MISPRINTING.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
I liked this a lot but can’t parse opener. I think paddymelon@1 may be right, but if so it’s a bit weak.
I don’t suppose we will get too many “this was too tough for Everyman” comments this week. I thought it very well pitched. MISPRINTING was lovely. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Thought 8d LETS GO “Gets free fires (4,2)” might have been a typo, and should have been “Sets free”?
Liked 11d OPENER, parsed as paddymelon@1.
[That grid’s a bit on the large size, Admin@3]
My favourites were: PHRASING. SNOW PEAS, ABSEIL, VIRULENT
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Thanks for the blog , we have a rare double Jay for SURINAME , also AGNOSTIC for the anagram list.
Some excellent clues here , SAXOPHONIST , WEDDING , MISPRINTING , MIXED BLESSING .
OPENER I had the same as PDM@1 , I now see the alternative in the blog, it is a sort of double cryptic definition . I never knew that Oscar Wilde was a Liverpool fan.
I agree with Frankie @7 for LETS GO , Sets free …. – is much better . I disagree with Frankie over the grid size.
It was an interesting coincidence that last week’s Quiptic (7/7) also had IGLOO in the same position at 23d. The clue was ‘White House perhaps has one good bathroom.’
I liked the MIXED BLESSING and POWER DRESSING combo, as well as MISPRINTING.
Thanks Everyman and Peter O.
Yes Sue@10 I am always surprised by this but it is bound to happen . The other week we had SCANDAL twice, C in SANDAL each time.
There is another misprint in the clue for 2d – “uncompomising”. Don’t think this one is intentional.
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO
Favourites: RESTRICT, MISPRINTING (loi).
New for me: Damon HILL = British former professional racing driver (for 24ac).
I could not parse 25ac, 19d – never heard of the Reds = Liverpool FC (football club?)
Thanks, both.
I only recently learned about SNOW PEAS from another crossword, and here they are again. And here is IGLOO again, though I preferred last week’s Quiptic clue. But I did enjoy MISPRINTING and MIXED BLESSING.
SURINAME really doesn’t sound as if it’s in South America – but it is.
That was very enjoyable, and just the right difficulty for me – unusually I nearly managed to finish, with only three left blank. Some lovely ones, like MISPRINTING. Very satisfying.
If you let go of a bad memory or an addiction you “get free”. Cue for a song – “Let it go, let it go……”
I read Reds as referring to wine too – didn’t even make football connection. Ticks for phrased (although I usually use a Z when I’m pulling things down) and the clever misleading clue for misprinting. Other than that I thought this a good fit for Everyman. Thanks to him and to Petero for detailed blog as always.
Not very challenging and with several nice clues. Favourites: SAXOPHONIST, WEDDING, MISPRINTING (!). Couldn’t parse OPENER – thought it was something along “breathing space” = “open air” (in Cockney, perhaps) -, but would agree with both paddymelon@1 and DaveF@5. Mangetout seem to become a staple here lately, and POMPEII appeared in #4,044. Along with FrankieG@7, would have preferred LETS GO being “sets free”.
Thank you, Everyman and PeterO
Didn’t like the apostrophe in 23d, which I think can mean neither a possessive nor an abbreviation here. I had the same doubts as others re OPENER, but the wine-related explanation is reasonable.
While the surface for SAXOPHONIST was amazing, I can’t help but nitpick that the saxophone is not a horn but a woodwind instrument
Obi@20 I did wonder about that but I think some jazz players call their saxophone “my horn” .
Maybe our jazz experts will be in later with examples.
Obi @ 20 That’s true, but in rock and soul saxophones are considered to be part of the horn section.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
When I’m not sitting in a field, before today’s fundraising extravaganza, I’ll post the comments about Everyman difficulty on this week’s blog.
This wasn’t as quick as the week before for me. I also wondered about wine for the OPENER and LETS GO, but liked the trick in WEDDING.
Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.
Maybe the typos, “Gets” and “uncompomising”, were deliberate, to go with MOSPRINTING?
[Roz@9 – I need to zoom out to 80% to see the whole grid, but then I can’t read the text]
Many thanks to PeterO for an excellent blog. I thought this was pitched about right for an Everyman. Lots to like. MISPRINTING was lovely. SAXOPHONIST and MIXED BLESSING also very good. I’m in the a sax is a horn, even if it isn’t, camp.
Ros@9, what is a double Jay please?
Roz @21. Jazz expert here. “Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn…” – Charlie Parker
Thank you SC@26 I knew somebody would have a good example
Pauline@25 , Jay keeps lists. One list is countries as an answer , the other is COMPLETE anagrams , 7 or more letters. I think this is the first example of both.
Fair play Roz and SC with the horn references. I have a very vivid memory of a school friend being ridiculed by a music teacher for submitting an application that said he wanted to learn an instrument from the horn section, preference being the sax.
A good Everyman at a sensible level of difficulty. A pity for me that one clue depends on a pet hate of mine, the very common mispronunciation of ABSEIL.
To confuse matters further, the saxophone is a woodwind instrument because of the reed whereas brass instruments have a mouthpiece. However, it’s not an orchestral instrument whereas all other woodwinds that I can think of are. And whilst we’re on the subject, of course piano is percussion not string. Flanders and Swann did a lovely bit on confusing instruments in the preamble to Ill Wind.
Misprinting brought a laugh. I was with the red wine people, although I was thinking Liverpool FC to start with, I reread the clue.
Thanks both.
I am not I was, sorry.
Anyone else go “NOT + T for initially tying + there must be a driver named Damon Inghill”? I guess I have a stray “up.” Thanks PeterO and Everyman!
poc @19
Some do not like it, but the common explanation of the apostrophe s in clues like 23D IGLOO is that it is an abbreviation for has, indicating a charade.
Thanks to paddymelon for parsing OPENER, which had baffled me although it had to be the solution.
Anyone conversant with jazz will be entirely comfortable with saxes being called horns. Although not routinely instruments in an orchestra, there are many examples of their use in orchestral pieces e.g. Ravel’s Bolero.
Misprinting was very elsuive until the penny finally dropped – very clever device!
The overall difficulty level was about right this time, many thanks Everyman.
Re DavidMW (35) – and when a sax is used in an orchestra, it sits alongside the clarinets, being a reed instrument (one type of woodwind).
I thought this was an entertaining Everyman, with a few unusual types of clue – MISPRINTING was brilliant.
I saw no problem with LETS GO as referring to a self-referential “gets free”; eg, at a meeting where someone is uptight, and they finally let go, they’re setting themself free from an inhibition, for instance. Or maybe I was brought up on too much hippy-speak…
NB – in the answers at the top, EGOIST should be EGOISTIC.
PS – this week’s seems fun too…
Re saxophones etc … I should have further added that the saxophone sits next to the clarinet department in an orchestra specifically, because it’s also (like clarinets) a single-reed woodwind instrument. The oboe, cor anglais and bassoon (and double bassoon) are double-reed woodwinds. (The flute family are woodwinds with no reed at all.)
Sorry, late to do this, this week’s field was a local fundraising event. Last Monday’s blog in the Guardian included this comment on the Everyman difficulty:
“A theory recently did the rounds whereby the entry-level Everyman puzzle had got trickier. During the last fortnight or so, we read, the powers-that-be have listened and the puzzle has returned to its old self.
It’s a cheering example of an institution responding to feedback so we will delicately ignore the fact that the apparent sequence of normal-harder-normal was compiled and typeset a little time before the “too hard” theory began doing those rounds. There’s a moral in there somewhere, but I’ve no idea what it is. Onwards?”
Moral: Possibly that the Everyman setter isn’t good at assessing difficulty?
I think I made a not dissimilar comment for Everyman 4054. Perhaps I shouldn’t comment in case Everyman makes them harder again (I’m quite happy with the difficulty level as it is) but: SNOW PEAS – the clue contained quite a large part of the answer (“now”). I thought this only happened with small one or two letter words.
Liked: SAXOPHONIST, AGNOSTIC
MISPRINTING: I Had Mosprinting for quite a while
OPENER: got from crossers, couldn’t parse.
BROAD BEAN: new to me: “bean” = “head” – you live and learn.
ELICIT – this one stumped me.
Really enjoyed this – obviously MISPRINTING raised the biggest chuckle here. OPENER – interesting, unlike most I hadn’t made the wine connection, but did understand the football reference; that said when a team is said to have gained some breathing room it is usually after a second or third goal, so perhaps I got lucky!
I am perhaps too new to the Everyman to make a valid assessment, but the variation in difficulty is within my tolerance at least – I start on a Monday morning and if I finish by Monday afternoon, fine – if I complete on a Friday afternoon with some gentle googling, also fine.
A bit late to the party, but in jazz any instrument can be called a horn, certainly anything you blow. I knew a bassist who referred to his bass as his horn.
[Ros @27, a belated thank you.
[Ros @27, a belated thank you for taking the time to reply 😎. I may not be wiser but I am much better informed!]
Re. 19 D. For OPENER – Does he mean “Mouth” for breathing space? If so, extremely tenuous….
A great crossword on a grey day here in Whangaparaoa. Favourites were MISPRINTING; SAXOPHONIST; ABSEIL. No quibbles from us, this was taxing enough and provided a few chuckles, no bad thing on a dreary day. Thanks to Everyman!
It was okay.
I had Mosprinting and didn’t think to correct it. Not sure I like the device. But perhaps that’s sour grapes.
My wife had an MA in German so I learned to pronounce up- zile. That took a while to sort out. Like Barrie I got Mo sprinting but I changed the o to I without realizing why!
However I had brown bean and wending so a fail for me this week.
Regards from Howick
Bogged down with a head cold this week, I had a DNF, but I enjoyed the puzzle,nevertheless.
Roll on next Saturday.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
All.good. Liked misprinting.