New owners at The Observer, but happily for Everyman fans, the same old crossword. All the trademark clues in a pleasing and tractable cryptic.
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 Tyrant also asking for trouble in the end
OGRE
The final letters of the second, third, fourth and fifth words of the clue.
4 Computer info that declares you should go out with that woman in the East End
DATA
In Crosswordland, all East Enders still drop their aitches, so the advice from Dirty Den would be ‘Date ‘er’, which sounds (‘that declares’) like the answer.
8 Mannered family that’s often seen in horror films
ARTIFICIAL BLOOD
A charade of ARTIFICIAL and BLOOD.
11 New student, increasingly amorous
FRESHER
A dd.
12 Perhaps Virginia’s on our side?
ONE OF US
Virginia is ONE OF [the] US [States].
13 Denounced unbalanced tax decree
EXECRATED
(TAX DECREE)* with ‘unbalanced’ as the anagrind.
14 Former prisoner; now a Labour supporter?
EX CON
A dd.
15 Philosopher, one from Yale mentioned in speech
LOCKE
Aural wordplay (‘mentioned in speech’) of LOCK. ‘Yale’ are producers of locks and keys; and John LOCKE is an English Enlightenment philosopher.
16 Most of ‘lamb gateau’ declined somewhere in S America
GUATEMALA
(LAM[B] GATEAU)* with ‘declined’ as the anagrind.
19 Primarily, type wavily exercising rear, kept energetically rotating?
TWERKER
The initial letters of the last seven words of the clue and a cad.
21 Half-hearted idealist resolved to do nothing
SIT IDLE
(IDE[A]LIST)* with ‘resolved’ as the anagrind. If AL is the ‘heart’ of ‘idealist’ (which it is) then you only have two options for which letter to remove.
22 Classmate Darius misbehaving – I don’t understand
IT’S AS CLEAR AS MUD
(CLASSMATE DARIUS)* with ‘misbehaving’ as the anagrind.
23 Gosh! Note! A talking bird …
MYNA
A charade of MY, N and A. A chance for the Obligatory Pierre Bird Link: Mynas are part of the starling family and there are a number of species, but I have chosen the Yellow-Faced Myna to add a bit of colour to this morning’s blog. Whether this particular species can be trained to tell the vicar to eff off, I know not.
24 … never – never! – hiding a seabird
ERNE
Hidden in nevER NEver. My cup runneth over, with two OBPLs in two clues. Also known as the sea eagle, it comes up in cryptics more than it deserves to because of its combination of letters. It can’t embarrass you in front of the clergy but it’s very good at catching fish.
Down
2 Foresight faulty – if accepting this!
GIFT HORSE
(FORESIGHT)* with ‘faulty’ as the anagrind, and a cad.
3 … but queen’s entered passage
EXCERPT
An insertion of R for Regina in EXCEPT. The insertion indicator is ‘entered’. The ellipses – as almost always – can be ignored. They are just there for the surface.
4 Gemstone, one of 13 in a pack
DIAMOND
A dd.
5 List of data showing the Spanish bat how it sleeps
TABLE
A reversal of the Spanglish EL BAT. It’s reversed because it’s a down clue and it’s upside down, which is how bats sleep. The real Spanish word, since you ask, is el murciélago, which derives from the Latin muris caecus, or ‘blind mouse’. In French it is la chauve-souris, a ‘bald mouse’; in German it’s die Fledermaus, a ‘fluttering mouse’; and an old English word for it is the flittermouse.
6 Rabbit on cake of potato or batter
WAFFLE
A dd.
7 Peculiar offspring expected
ODDS ON
A charade of ODD and SON.
9 Tree crushes nuts in children’s film
THE RESCUERS
(TREE CRUSHES)* with ‘nuts’ as the anagrind. A 1977 American animated adventure comedy-drama film.
10 Bureaucrats in AFL-CIO of dim bent
OFFICIALDOM
(AFL CIO OF DIM)* with ‘bent’ as the anagrind. The AFL-CIO is the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
14 Everyman, so we’re told, ultimately skips exercise in which vision’s impaired
EYESTRAIN
A charade of EYE (aural wordplay for ‘I’ or ‘Everyman’), S for the last letter of ‘skips’ and TRAIN.
15 In Franglais, ‘the voyage’ is to suddenly increase speed
LET RIP
In Miles Kington’s Franglais, ‘the voyage’ might be LE TRIP.
16 Brute to leave everything, I swear, finally upset
GORILLA
A charade of GO and ALL, I and R for the final letter of ‘swear’ reversed.
17 Cooked sausage bringing calm
ASSUAGE
(SAUSAGE)* with ‘cooked’ as the anagrind.
18 So be it: detective sergeant offering atonement
AMENDS
A charade of AMEN and DS.
20 A little dork is sympathetically affectionate
KISSY
Hidden in dorK IS SYmpathetically.
Many thanks as always to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.
My niggles: DATA (a true cockney would glottal stop the t as well as drop the h and say DAY-A); FRESHER (‘increasingly amorous’ has a progressive, not just a comparative, element ie MORE AND MORE FRESH); GIFT HORSE (there’s no lack of foresight accepting it, just don’t be rude and check its age when it’s free). But I really liked ARTIFICIAL BLOOD! Thanks Everyman and thanks Pierre for a great blog
Thanks Pierre for your blog, and the lovely pic of the MYNA bird. That’s come up a couple of times recently in crosswords, with variant spellings.
I wondered if WAFFLE might be a triple def, but then I didn’t know about the potato cake until I looked it up.
DATA doesn’t work for me as a homophone, but that’s to be expected. My dialect has a long /a/ vowel first syllable, as in ”father”. Not for me to comment about the cockney.
Interesting that Everyman positioned DATA and TABLE intersecting on the grid, and that data was both an answer, and part of wordplay in the other. Is there something to that?
Liked the surface stories for ASSUAGE, IT’S AS CLEAR AS MUD, ODDS ON, GIFT HORSE and EYESTRAIN. Not keen on ONE OF US. The surface is ungrammatical and non sensical.
paddymelon@2
ONE OF US
I liked it. The surface looks all right to me. Please let me know what I am missing.
GIFT HORSE
Hadrian@1
‘To look a GIFT HORSE in the mouth’ —Does ‘fore sight’ cryptically indicate this?
(Of course, it’s about checking the age as you say)
Liked DATA and AMENDS.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
KVa@3. I can’t imagine a sentence Virginia is one of us, , spoken either from inside the US(of A), or outside of it. Virginia is one of the United States, surely? What am I missing? 🙂
KVa@3 – I stand corrected, thank you! Let me self-mansplain: the ACT of foresight (ie the looking into its mouth) is what is faulty (shouldn’t be done). Great clue!
This is what I understood.
Surface: Virginia (a girl) is on our side.
Cryptic: Perhaps Virginia=ONE OF (the) U S (United States) as the blogger has explained.
GUATEMALA is in Central America not South America or is there some nuance about locations in the Americas that I’m missing?
Well well, all these years of hearing that quirky bit of folk-advice and only now learning that it’s because it would be rude and ungrateful to check the horse’s age! Embarrassing! (Reminds me of some learnings as a kid, e.g. that matcha was not the singular of matches 🙂 ).
As for the rest, no complaints, enjoyed it, ta PnE.
David@7
GUATEMALA
Agree with you. Looks like an error.
Thanks for the blog , there seems to be a lot of black squares in this type of grid , ASSUAGE is a neat complete anagram , TABLE is very clever with the use of bat to make the wordplay upside-down .
I agree with David@7 , the clue needed a minor edit .
My mistake KVa@6. .The surface of the Virginia clue is ok. I meant to say the cryptic reading isn’t in my view.
I usually take the view that pedantry is out of place in Crosswordland but Guatemala simply isn’t in S America. We’ve already had West African Senegal misplaced into North Africa, I think Everyman needs some geography lessons
Guatemala is most definitely in Central America, what used to be termed Mesoamerica. This, to my mind, is quite a monumental error which, had it come across my desk in earlier times, would have made me very miserable indeed. Might GIFT HORSE not also refer to those Greeks bearing gifts – hence the lack of foresight in accepting? Otherwise an enjoyable enough puzzle, and thanks to Pierre for sorting everything out so neatly.
I was mildly Brahms when I did, this and it took a bit of effort to remember the solutions now.
It’s interesting how such a state only seems to have a marginal effect on solving ability, if any at all, in my case.
Thanks all.
Please could we drop the complaints about homophones? The words or phrases sound alike, or similar. It’s rare to find anything sounding identical in any accent. Enjoy the puzzles and get off your high horses.
I liked ONE OF US (I mentally added ‘those in the’), the locksmith’s philosopher, the faulty foresight of a GIFT HORSE, the Spanish bats in a TABLE, and the Franglais LET TRIP.
VeeJayEm @15, here here!
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
VJM@15 and Robi@16. It’s just a bit of fun, tongue-in-cheek as are many homophones, puns, aural wordplays. .
Arib@12, I agree with you about pedantry. Everyman/Alan Connor seems to be very insular in terms of where he’s placed geographically and culturally, and how he looks at the rest of the world, including dialects, like an Aussie howler recently. But that’s okay. I’m grateful for the work he does in making these crosswords available, and for us to have fun solving, and our discussions here.
(Trump has changed the map anyway. Hard to keep up. )
David @7
It would have avoided confusion to clue it as Latin America rather than S America.
But I don’t think anyone missed the answer because of the implied extended area covered by S America.
GUATEMALA
It’s either Central America if you look at the region
or North America if you look at the continent.
If he’d said “somewhere in America “ that would have been misleading but not actually wrong.
I enjoyed the reference in the blog to Miles Kington (sic – no “s” in his surname). Memories of the heyday of Punch!
Well I was convinced that 16a referred to the little known settlement of GLATEMABA IN S America until I realised the quotes were mis-directing me
KVa@20
Thank you, that was the bit I was missing so no error.
Robi@16 – at least we can agree on “here here” as a perfect homophone 😊
Apologies, MunroMaiden, for misspelling Miles’ name. I have corrected that now. He was a funny and talented man.
I am abit offended at Guatemala being in South America apparently. How on earth did that happen.
Thanks, Pierre@26. I have a book of his called Miles and Miles; I think I’ll have to reread it now 🙂
@Eddie 27. Don’t be too offended. It’s an editing error. Happens sometimes. What did you think of the rest of the puzzle?
I too have learned about why you ought not look a gift horse in the mouth – I thought it was something to do with upsetting its nervous disposition! New knowledge banked.
My first go at an Everyman under the new ownership. Some things I liked about the software. Quite a bit I didn’t. Harrumph, old man yells at cloud, etc. Thanks Pierre!
@Pierre 29. I enjoyed the rest of the clues especially LET RIP and learning about the two birds I hadn’t heard of.
I do think it’s a particularly bad editing error to get a foreign country in the completely wrong continent, that seems extremely careless to me, more so than just a spelling mistake or something similar. It makes me wonder if he’d call everything below Mexico South America, or anything that feels Latin americany, even though I’m sure he just forgot where Guatemala is. The end result just feels pretty bad for a crossword.
It obviously didn’t ruin the rest of the puzzle and I’m still glad I spent my time solving it, and I never normally care too much about editing mistakes because mistakes happen and I’m just happy I get a crossword to do. This mistake was just the worst one I’ve seen, and they should be more careful about factual information on foreign countries.
A great crossword thank you! Our favourites are ARTIFICIAL BLOOD; LET RIP; GIFT HORSE. Agree with previous comments re Central vs S. America, but no quibbles otherwise. Enjoy the weekend everyone, stay dry!
Good fun. I especially liked the Franglais Le Trip and Spanglais El Bat.
Didn’t parse One of Us. The rest was fine. My geography is crap so whilst I got Guatemala from the anagram fodder the rest was over my head.
I am sure that I have seen (in crosswords and elsewhere) Central America being considered to be part of South America. Whatever. I thought that the answer was clear.
Couldn’t parse “one of us” — didn’t twig to “us” being “US”. Thanks to PIerre for the explanation.
I enjoyed this puzzle inasmuch as I found it challenging but got it all out without resort to wildcard dictionaries. Right level. Thanks Everman.