The puzzle may be found as a pdf at https://www.tinyurl.com/Everyman4151.
Maybe not my favourite Everyman, but with the usual hallmarks: the rhyming pair at 2D BRICKS-AND-MORTAR and 7D GET INTO HOT WATER (passing over the near miss at 8A and 22A); the self reference at 5A DOTAGE, the geographical reference at 15A ANDORRA, and the ‘primarily’ clue at 14A UNICORN, all highlighted in the grid. There is no one-word anagram this time.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ABOARD |
Ace meals on a ship (6)
|
| A charade of A (‘ace’) plus BOARD (‘meals’ – “bed and board”). | ||
| 5 | DOTAGE |
You shouldn’t have got into setter, perhaps Everyman’s beginning to show feebleness (6)
|
| An envelope (‘have got into’) of TA (‘you shouldn’t have’ – giving thanks for a gift, say) in DOG (‘setter, perhaps’) plus E (‘Everyman’s beginnng’). | ||
| 8 | INK-BLOT TEST |
Startled kittens bolt in psych procedure (3-4,4)
|
| An anagram (‘startled’) of ‘kittens bolt’. | ||
| 11 | MAKE A WISH |
Birthday announcement pathetic, a mawkish constant (4,1,4)
|
| An anagram (‘pathetic’) of ‘a mawkish’ plus E (‘constant’ – lower case e is generally used to denote the constant Euler’s number, the base of natural logarithms; Euler’s constant is a quite different number. Got that?) | ||
| 12 | ACNED |
Spotty old hat for a Cockney (5)
|
| An h-dropping ‘Cockney’ might confuse the answer with HACKNEYED (‘old hat’). | ||
| 13 | GRANDPA |
He’s related Greek saga’s finale including, additionally, prince (7)
|
| An envelope (‘including’) of AND (‘additionally’) plus P (‘prince’) in GR (‘Greek’) plus A (‘sagA‘s finale’). | ||
| 14 | UNICORN |
Unlisted (not indexed) company offering riches nowadays, primarily? (7)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Unlisted Not Indexed Company Offering Ritches Nowadays’, with an &lit definition referring to a startup company which has reached a valuation of US $1 billion while remaining in private ownership – maybe not quite as rare as unicorns. | ||
| 15 | ANDORRA |
Part of Finland – or, rather, another country (7)
|
| A hidden answer (‘part of’) in ‘FinlAND OR RAther’. | ||
| 17 | TEDIOUS |
Wearisome after time, editor with promises of payment (7)
|
| A charade of T (‘time’) plus ED (‘editor’) plus IOUS (‘promises of payment’). | ||
| 20 | DROLL |
On reflection, Liberal parliamentarian is amusing (5)
|
| A reversal (‘on reflection’) of L (‘Liberal’) plus LORD (‘parliamentarian’ in the other house) | ||
| 21 | OUTGROWTH |
How gut-rot’s provoked? (9)
|
| An anagram (‘provoked’?) of ‘how gut-rot’ with a rather stretched &lit definition. | ||
| 22 | TAXIDERMIST |
Stuffy type occupied with relics of the past? (11)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 23 | FRIDAY |
Good is the one that comes yearly (6)
|
| Of the 52 or 53 Fridays in a year, only the one before Easter Sunday is known as Good Friday. Cryptic definition. | ||
| 24 | DREARY |
Gloomy and arid, capturing attention (6)
|
| An envelope (‘capturing’) of EAR (‘attention’) in DRY (‘arid’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | BRICKS-AND-MORTAR |
Stand back! Mirror, perversely, is not online (6-3-6)
|
| An anagram (‘perversely’) of ‘stand back mirror’. In the original clue, ‘Mirror’ is in itaics. | ||
| 3 | AWKWARD |
Graceless sabre-rattler not starting to usher in war dead (7)
|
| A charade of [h]AWK (‘sabre-rattler’) minus its first letter (‘not starting’) plus (‘to usher in’) ‘war’ plus D (‘dead’). | ||
| 4 | DALAI LAMA |
Spiritual leader in a state, a chap’s written up (5,4)
|
| A reversal (‘written up’ in a down light) of ‘a’ plus MALI (‘state’) plus ‘a’ plus LAD (‘chap’). | ||
| 5 | DITCH |
Drop in moat? (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 6 | THE MAGI |
Those people: one soldier; three kings (3,4)
|
| A charade of THEM (‘those people’) plus A (‘one’) plus GI (‘soldier’), for the “wise men from the east’ who came bearing gifts for the infant Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew; although the Gospel indicates neither the number nor the rank of the visitors, by later tradition they are ‘three kings’. | ||
| 7 | GET INTO HOT WATER |
Experience mishap when visiting geyser? (3,4,3,5)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 9 | SMOG |
Foul air from small cat (4)
|
| A charade of S (‘small’) plus MOG (or moggie, a name for a domestic ‘cat’). | ||
| 10 | ADEN |
Major port in Pasadena (4)
|
| A hidden answer in ‘PasADENa’. | ||
| 14 | UNTUTORED |
Turned out, sadly, to be ignorant (9)
|
| An anagram (‘sadly’) of ‘turned out’. | ||
| 15 | AIDE |
Help with a passport, perhaps as embassy opens (4)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus ID (Identity Document, ‘passport, perhaps’) plus E (‘Embassy opens’). | ||
| 16 | RELAXED |
Rush around California airport that’s restful (7)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of LAX (the location identifier for the Los Angeles International Airport ‘California airport’) in REED (‘rush’). | ||
| 18 | DORMICE |
Rodents cut up – headless worm inside (7)
|
| An envelope (‘inside’) of ‘[w]orm’ minus its first letter (‘headless’) in DICE (‘cut up’). | ||
| 19 | SOHO |
I’m surprised map- maker’s upset part of London (4)
|
| A reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of OH (‘I’m surprised’) plus OS (Ordnance Survey, now a government-owned company in the UK, ‘map-makers’). | ||
| 21 | ODDLY |
In a weird way, how number’s found in the end? (5)
|
| I suppose the wordplay refers to the enumeration ‘(5)’ at the end of the clue (or to the clue number 21, the last in the list). |
ODDLY
Looks like it refers to…
‘the end’ ODDLY is TEN
Thanks PeterO.
Ta E and PO.
For a fun Aussie take on The Magi, google John Clarke Star of Wonder.
I had the same parsing as KVa@2 for 21d. Bit of an ODD clue I thought. I’ll take my hat…
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.
Thanks for the blog , I suppose gut-rot can be caused by an OUTGROWTH of bacteria but maybe puzzles in this slot should have an actual definition . MAKE A WISH earned a severe Paddington stare . I hope that newer solvers got some enjoyment from this puzzle .
I noticed the word was mentioned to be italics. I’ve often wondered why italics are used. Could someone explain please?
I MEANT THE WORD ‘MIRROR’
Good enjoyable Everyman. I liked GRANDPA in a Greek saga, Good FRIDAY, and GET INTO HOT WATER in a geyser. Like Roz @4, I disliked the clue for MAKE A WISH, which is an indirect anagram. My Chambers crossword dictionary for ‘constant’ gives c, G, h & k, although there are others as well. Rod @5/6; Mirror is a proper noun here – the name of a UK paper.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
Re Rod (5&6) I believe italics are used to suggest “enterties” to help with the surface of the clue. Here it suggests that it is perverse for the Mirror to not be online. In #4150 we had Carry On Nurse hinting at a comedy and a comedian. It is a form of misdirection.
Couldn’t parse ODDLY, so thanks KVa@1 – it makes sense now. Otherwise I found this less of a slog than last week.I did think OUTGROWTH was a bit odd.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
No, this bear of little brain still doesn’t get ODDLY.
I thought OUTGROWTH lacked a definition, and still think so.
Rod@5: it’s dangerous to assume that italics mean anything specific in cryptics. They might and they might not. Often they’re there just to make the clue read better.
poc@11 – if you take the odd letters (ie oddly) of ‘the end’ you get ‘ten’, which is a number. I hope I’ve understood that right.
I’d not heard of that use of UNICORN, so thought that there were two clues lacking definitions.
Thanks for the blog.
HumbleTim@12: Ah, penny drops. Thanks.
Re the blog, suggesting that the Sunday after Good Friday is Easter Sunday. As I understand it, that Sunday is – strictly – just Easter, or Easter Day. The 7 days after Easter Day are Easter Monday, Easter Tuesday, … etc, up to Easter Sunday. [Though only the Monday regularly uses that name – presumably because it’s a holiday.] So if Easter Sunday means anything, it means the Sunday 9 days after Good Friday.
(This comment is from an atheist pedant.)
This was quite good from memory. Make a wish I circled but I can’t now remember why, my online solve was a little while back.
grantinfreo John Clarke is a New Zealander, and rendered “Star of Wonder” in the character of Fred Dagg, a New Zealand farmer, in the 1970s, when he still lived in New Zealand.
Yay, Completed correctly without a dictionary. However too many unparsed guesses. SOHO, How is a kiwi to know about Ordinance Survey? And ODDLY? How I guessed it correctly is oddly. However all minor moans, in general I’m happy. FRIDAY is my favourite. Thanks.
A much more user friendly puzzle this week.
John Clarke is definitely a Kiwi, those Aussies will nick anything! LOL
Thanks to E and J
Favourite clue was Friday, one I didn’t even get! Just read it now, that was very clever. Like Taxidermist too, I did get that one. Enjoyed this solve very much, it must have been sitting in the winter sun that helped. I, like others have said, we would never know Ordnance Survey and also ID for passport was beyond me too even thought of course I know it is a form of ID.
Star of wonder, start of light, star of glory, that’s the story…
Yeah ha
Whoops. Not quite.
Star of wonder, star of light,
Star beauty, she’ll be right
Stary of glory, that’s the story
Following younder Star.