A PDF of last week’s puzzle can be found here: https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/1f7c315e-6b87-40ad-90cc-ddd7ea87556a/file/puzzle.pdf
This struck me as a relatively straightforward Everyman puzzle, although I do have a few minor quibbles, as pointed out below. Everyman trademark clues highlighted in the grid, though there was no geographical reference this week, and no single-word anagram. A couple of very neat touches, though, including the (two-word) anagram for PERFIDIOUS and the nicely self-deprecating clue for NODE. Thanks to Everyman.
Moh’s endlessly arguable cruciverbal hardness-scale rating: Gypsum
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | IN A BAD MOOD |
Did boar, having lost tail, moan sadly – being this? (2,1,3,4)
|
| Anagram (sadly) of DID BOA[r] (having lost tail) MOAN. The idea behind the definition being, I suppose, that, having lost his tail, a boar might well be in a bad mood | ||
| 6 | APED |
Copied sample from tape deck (4)
|
| Hidden in (sample from) tAPE Deck | ||
| 9 | SNAPPINESS |
Quality in which you’re quick – to anger? (10)
|
| Double/cryptic def, playing on two meanings of ‘snappy’ as speedy and quarrelsome | ||
| 10 | CRAM |
Flipping Frenchman to get stuffed (4)
|
| Reversal (flipping) of MARC. Makes a welcome change from René as the pattern crossword Frenchman | ||
| 11 | DOUBLE-DATING |
Activity for four using Gregorian and Julian calendars? (6-6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | T-SHIRTS |
Clobber boisterous marsh tits, not keeping mum (1- 6)
|
| Anagram (boisterous) of [ma]RSH TITS (not keeping ma/mum). If anyone clobbers the marsh tits in my garden I shall be very tempted to clobber them back | ||
| 16 | ETCHING |
Runs off, about to throw up artwork (7)
|
| [r]ETCHING (about to throw up without the R/runs off) | ||
| 17 | GET BACK |
Arrive home and recover (3,4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | LEISURE |
The French certain – this writer’s assumed – to be working? Not so (7)
|
| LE (the French) + SURE (certain) around I (this writer’s assumed). I’m not happy that the definition as given is grammatically appropriate – it would seem to point to ‘at leisure’ rather than simply ‘leisure’. But it’s a minor quibble as the wordplay is clear and it hardly impedes the solve. Edit: thanks to KVa for pointing out that it works better if “to be” isn’t part of the definition – in which case I think you can take both “working” and “leisure” as potential modifiers for, say, “time”, which does yield the necessary grammatical equivalence | ||
| 20 | ABBREVIATING |
Striking bargain – six slices of butter – alternately shortening (12)
|
| Anagram (striking) of BARGAIN VI (six) BTE (slices of BuTtEr alternately) | ||
| 23 | I SAY |
Och! Hebridean island’s loch has vanished! (1,3)
|
| IS[l]AY (Islay – a Hebridean island – without L for loch). Islay, of course, is home to some of the finest single malt whiskies to be found anywhere | ||
| 24 | CHAUCERIAN |
Geoffrey’s repaired cane chair, you said? (10)
|
| Anagram (repaired) of CANE CHAIR U (you said). Def: of or relating to Geoffrey Chaucer | ||
| 25 | NODE |
Gesture of agreement: Everyman’s beginning to be a knob (4)
|
| NOD (gesture of agreement) + E (Everyman’s beginning) | ||
| 26 | OSTENSIBLE |
See in blots – splotchy – what’s apparent (10)
|
| Anagram (splotchy) of SEE IN BLOTS | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | IF SO |
In that case, reject outsiders for life with offspring, briefly (2,2)
|
| [l]IF[e] (reject outsiders for life) + SO[n] (offspring briefly) | ||
| 2 | ALAS |
Oh dear, a maiden scratching bottom (4)
|
| A LAS[s] (a maiden scratching bottom). Which to someone of my age cannot help but bring to mind the 1970s tennis girl poster | ||
| 3 | APPROPRIATE |
Right to steal (11)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | MINIBUS |
1,002 buns going off in little roadster (7)
|
| Anagram (going off) of MII (1002 in Roman numerals) BUNS | ||
| 5 | OBSCENE |
Primarily outrageous – beyond saucy – causing extremely nauseous emotions? (7)
|
| First letters of the last seven words, with the usual extended definition | ||
| 7 | PERFIDIOUS |
Tormented, so purified faithless (10)
|
| Anagram (tormented) of SO PURIFIED | ||
| 8 | DEMAGOGUES |
Senators regularly mugged off firebrands (10)
|
| Anagram (off) of sEnAtOrS (senators regularly) MUGGED | ||
| 12 | AUCTIONEERS |
Hands up – then they may give you the lot (11)
|
| Cryptic definition. Though to be strict about it, auctioneers tend to sell lots rather than give them away | ||
| 13 | STAGNATION |
Lack of liveliness – but stable, Spooner says (10)
|
| Spoonerism of ‘nag station’ – which could, at a push, be another term for a stable | ||
| 14 | WHITEBOARD |
Corporate staple: member of global minority on committee (10)
|
| WHITE (white people being a minority globally) + BOARD (committee) | ||
| 18 | KNIGHTS |
Chess pieces: more than one black, you say? (7)
|
| Soundalike (you say) of ‘nights’ (more than one black) ‘Night’ for ‘black’ seems a bit off to me, but maybe there’s a better parsing? | ||
| 19 | LETTUCE |
Characters implicated in doleful ‘Et tu’ – centurion leaves (7)
|
| Hidden in (characters implicated in) dolefuL ET TU CEnturion. Refreshing to have a clue for this particular salad staple that doesn’t invoke the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister | ||
| 21 | LIMB |
Arm or leg displaying scale (not the first) (4)
|
| [c]LIMB (scale without the first letter) | ||
| 22 | KNEE |
King once called: Attack! (4)
|
| K (king) + NÉE (once called). ‘Knee’ for ‘attack’ is just about sanctioned by Chambers, which has ‘to press, strike or nudge with the knee’, but this strikes (or perhaps knees) me as a pretty stretchy definition, especially – as here – in the imperative |
Thank you, miserableoldhack. Yes, this one was very straightforward.
After spending 20 minutes trying to get today’s puzzle (I have several links, none of which works) I’m reduced to asking yet again if someone can let me have the link for today’s. Jay, perhaps? And thank you, Alison C from last week, I deleted the Observer cookie but it made no difference.
Agree ‘materially’ with moh’s hardness rating!
Share most of your quibbles too, moh!
LEISURE
Will it read (somewhat) better if we consider ‘to be’ to be link words?
T-SHIRTS
ha ha ha. Nice comment. OK. Not so nice, but apt. 🙂
KNIGHTS
No. I had the same parsing. Black as night…doesn’t mean black means night.
LETTUCE
Non-UK solvers like me gain a lot of UK GK from these puzzles and blogs. I may forget
the names of some UK PM’s, but not Truss (What’s in a name? Truss had no support!).
Thanks moh for the detailed blog.
Hi Crosser, here you go. And it’s Azed today.
Many thanks for the link, Jay.
Thank you, Jay, sorry to bother you.
15ac For me, to keep mum means to keep quiet. I was trying to solve the anagram without the sh. It was only when I got 14d, which came quite late, that I was able to get it. I could not parse 10ac, trying to think of a M. Arc, so thanks for your help with that MOH. And thanks to E as well.
Thanks, it’s always interesting to see the answers I haven’t managed to get
https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4155
Thanks for the blog , this seemed much better with a lot of good clues and I hope it was suitable for newer solvers .
WHITEBOARD , why Corporate staple ? I use them all the time .
T-SHIRTS , are you sure your Marsh Tits are not Willow Tits in disguise ? I can never tell the difference .
Severe Paddington stares for ABBREVIATING and MINIBUS . This provoked resistance (8,7)
On getting the solution by nefarious means I thought 24 down was a beauty; completely floored me!
Thanks KVa @2 – as ever, you’re right about LEISURE, and I’ve amended the blog accordingly.
Roz @8, yes, they’re damned hard to tell apart, but I’m assured by people who know about these things that we have both marsh and willow tits here. Both of them far too rare to be clobbered.
Yes MOH , the Marsh is rare but reasonably widespread , the Willow is very endangered .
I saw a Willow ?? this morning at Pennington Flash , we went to watch the IronWoman start .
Roz @ 8
When I read the blog I thought straightaway – there will be hard Paddington stares for 20ac and 4d – you don’t disappoint….
Roz @11, we have three pairs of willows, which we see very often during the winter, when they come to the bird table. The marshes mostly hang out in the woods and despite, as you say, being more widespread, are considerably harder to spot here.
Thank you so much for explaining some of these, I had an awful time with this one and gave up. Sometimes my mind just doesn’t work with the compiler 🙄
Good Everyman; I liked the tailless boar IN A BAD MOOD, the DOUBLE-DATING activity for four, the ETCHING causing one to throw up, and the AUCTIONEERS.
Thanks Everyman and moh.
Like Roz@8, 4d got a hard stare and defining a minibus as a little roadster is a bit of a stretch, imho. Thanks to moh for the blog and I agree with your hardness rating.
Roz #8 thanks for your kind
thoughts always …I finished it! ☺️…but totally feel for Lynette #14 – that was me the last few weeks! Thanks Ev and for the blog.
Well done Cara@8 and get your revenge this week Lynette@14.
Fiona@12 , it has to be mentioned and this crossword should be the last place for indirect anagrams .
MOH@13 you are very lucky , they are very fussy about habitat and will not move far from home so they are struggling . Maybe the beavers will help .
Question: is there a way to save progress on The Everyman. Prior to January of this year my progress would save automatically so I could come back to it after an hour or two if stuck, but since January, and ironically since I bought a subscription to The Observer to keep access to the crosswords, the grid reverts to blank if I log off.
Hi Jay @3, and thanks for all the links. Is there a way to edit the link from the previous week to make it work for the current week, please? I mean, there must be, but is it something you could explain to a person with very basic programming knowledge (from about 30 years ago!)
SNB @19 – I was a guardian/observer subscriber and that has carried over since the observer split off. Normally do the Everyman in hard copy. Doing it online this week was disappointed to find that if I had to pause and restart my session I was back to square one. I’m sure that previously I could carry on from where I had got to.
Is this a recent “enhancement” or have I accidentally altered a cookie setting?
Thank you miserableoldhack!! I enjoyed this puzzle last week, but did rather struggle with a few, which you have explained. Was it just me, or is the King screaming Knee! for Attack! rather Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Ni! No mention of a shrubbery, though, alas.
Hi GrannyJP @20. I hope you get this and find it useful for next week and beyond. I have a small file on my phone memory with:
https://tinyurl.com/Everyman-NNNN
The NNNN is the number of the Everyman crossword that you want to access. It also has the last one that I used. So for this week it has:
https://tinyurl.com/Everyman-4155
That means I just change it to the next number, copy and paste it in the Web browser address zone and access the site. And yes I got this from Jay (many thanks, Jay).
Thanks so much, Humph @23, and Jay, of course – that’s just what I wanted!