As we nowadays expect from Everyman, a sound and pleasant crossword. How Everyman manages week after week to produce a grid with all those things (highlighted) in it I don’t know.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LEGISLATOR |
Allegorist blasted senator? (10)
|
| (Allegorist)* — Everyman’s trademark whole-word anagram | ||
| 6 | EMIT |
Give out prison sentence – in recess? (4)
|
| (time)rev. — time = prison sentence — I’m not sure why the question mark is there; it doesn’t seem necessary for the cryptic reading and what does it do for the surface? | ||
| 9 | SIDE BY SIDE |
Yes, biddies sauntering two abreast (4,2,4)
|
| (Yes biddies)* | ||
| 10 | STYE |
Source of irritation: pious type with Biblical term for you (4)
|
| st ye — st = saint (pious type), ye is a Biblical term for “you” | ||
| 11 | COLLARED DOVE |
Arrested pacifist; one might say ‘coo!’ (8,4)
|
| collared dove — collared = arrested, dove = pacifist | ||
| 15 | PRECEDE |
Herald in quiet decline (7)
|
| p recede — p = piano, the musical term for quiet, recede = decline | ||
| 16 | YUMMIER |
After year, uncapped premium adjusted: more attractive (7)
|
| y ([p]remium)* — y = year | ||
| 17 | CORRUPT |
Blimey: point at end of game is rotten (7)
|
| cor! RU pt — cor! = blimey, RU = game (rugby union), pt = point | ||
| 19 | ON THE GO |
Busy month; egomaniac not seen throughout (2,3,2)
|
| Hidden in mONTH EGOmaniac | ||
| 20 | HEAVENS ABOVE |
Gosh, cast earlier mentioned to include Poles (7,5)
|
| heave (NS) above — heave = cast, above = earlier mentioned (in a piece of prose one might say “above” to refer to something that has already been mentioned), NS = Poles (North/South Pole) | ||
| 23 | EVIL |
Everyman’s beginning to get very off-colour, mostly wrong (4)
|
| E[veryman] v il[l] — v = very, ill = off-colour — the self-referential clue | ||
| 24 | TEETOTALER |
American lacking spirit — and never stout? (10)
|
| CD playing on both spirit and stout being alcohol that a teetotaller doesn’t drink — “American” because it is I imagine the American spelling, with a single l, although I can’t find this in Chambers or Collins. [Didn’t look hard enough: it’s in Collins under teetotaler not teetotaller, as KVa@2 says] | ||
| 25 | SINK |
Scuttle, a bathroom fixture? (4)
|
| 2 defs, the first a verb, the second a bit odd: one talks more of a bathroom washbasin, although it is I suppose a sink; kitchen sink seems more appropriate | ||
| 26 | BALLADEERS |
Dance event, while getting maybe some bucks invested, finding singers (10)
|
| ball a(deer)s — ball = dance event, as = while, deer = maybe some bucks, |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LIST |
Tip one of 13, perhaps (4)
|
| 13 being SPEC SHEETS, one of them could be a list — tip (verb) = list as in lean or tilt | ||
| 2 | GODS |
Disheartened, merchandise is Mars etc (4)
|
| go[o]ds — goods = merchandise | ||
| 3 | SUBMOLECULE |
Columbus grappling with eel that’s very small (11)
|
| (columbus eel)* | ||
| 4 | ABSOLVE |
Pardon? First couple of letters complete a crossword? (7)
|
| AB solve — AB = first couple of letters [of the alphabet], solve = complete a crossword | ||
| 5 | ORDERLY |
Trim hospital employee (7)
|
| 2 defs — orderly (adjective) = trim, orderly (noun) = hospital employee | ||
| 7 | METEORITES |
Pieces of rock opera with ceremonies in which hero regularly crushed (10)
|
| Met [h]e[r]o rites — Met = opera, not a specific opera, but an opera house in New York known as “the Met”, rites = ceremonies | ||
| 8 | THE YEAR DOT |
Spooner’s beloved sailing vessel? That was ages ago (3,4,3)
|
| Spooner would (?) have said “the dear yacht” | ||
| 12 | DEMOTIVATED |
Less enthused as date vomited all over the place (11)
|
| (date vomited)* | ||
| 13 | SPEC SHEETS |
Speech sets out iterated criteria (4,6)
|
| (Speech sets)* — I was sure this was wrong as I couldn’t find anything to fit (the definition hardly helps), and when I gave up and used Chambers’ anagram search it didn’t give anything. But it’s in Collins, where I eventually found it | ||
| 14 | RECREATION |
Once again, making fun (10)
|
| re-creation — re-creation = “creating again”, or “once again making”, or “once again, making” — nice misleading definition | ||
| 18 | TESSERA |
Primarily: tile; equally, small stone enhancing Roman art? (7)
|
| Our first letters clue | ||
| 19 | ORBITAL |
A little alligator bit a lamprey that’s going around (7)
|
| Hidden in alligatOR BIT A Lamprey | ||
| 21 | BLUE |
Loudly trumpeted: that’s indecent (4)
|
| “blew” — blew = trumpeted, “loudly” a homophone indicator | ||
| 22 | IRIS |
Maybe Murdoch is memoirist? Not entirely (4)
|
| Hidden in memoIRISt — the reference is to Iris Murdoch the novelist |
I too was wondering why “American” was specified in 24 rather than just “One”, but I believe your explanation is correct John.
In 25a “bathroom sink” was definitely our term for the fixture in 60s UK, alongside the kitchen and laundry variants. I believe “washbasin” was what Americans called it back then, although the creeping Americanisation of our language has probably made it common usage now in the UK and here in Australia.
Thanks to Everyman and John
TEETOTALER
Collins online says this
teetotaler
in American English
(tiˈtoutlər, ˈtiˌtout-)
noun
a person who abstains totally from intoxicating drink
Also: teetotalist, esp Brit teetotaller
EMIT
In the surface reading, it seems to say that the sentence was pronounced
during a court recess. Is the QM indicating that it’s whimsical?
In the cryptic reading, it’s not necessary, as the blogger says.
Thanks John
Thank you Everyman and John. For 25a I had the same reaction as John. I go back further than Graham #1 and in 50s UK we said washbasin or basin for the fixture in the bathroom and sink only when it was in the kitchen.
V nice puzzle, as usual. Agree with KVa about TEETOTALER and the court recess in EMIT.
For BALLADEERS I read the insertion indicator as “getting… invested” rather than just “getting”.
Thanks both.
moh@4
BALLADEERS
Agree.
Interestingly, John has italicised ‘invested’, but left it out
of his explanation.
Crosser@3. Maybe it was a north vs. south usage difference then (or U vs. non-U even?). I’d definitely put myself in the northerner, non-U buckets.
I’ve always called it the sink in both locations.
Fiona@7
You live in the UK?
No geography clue in this puzzle? Odd.
I may as well add my two penn’orth to the sink debate. From the North of England, it’s pretty much always sink in the bathroom. I doubt anyone would insist on basin. Hence you would hear people talk about the ‘kitchen sink’ in a way that they wouldn’t say the ‘kitchen kettle’.
I have a Ph.D in chemistry and I’ve never heard of a submolecule.
Knox@10. Only a B.Sc. Chemistry but I agree; forgot to mention that on my initial comment.
This sink debate reminds me of the old joke: Q ‘What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?’ A ‘You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo.’
KVa @ 8
I was born and brought up in Glasgow but have mainly lived in London since my early twenties (with a brief four-year stint in Japan). For the last 29 years I have lived in Enfield, London.
I grew up in the East Midlands. A sink was a deeper vessel than a bathroom basin as its name suggested, perhaps?
My online dictionary says that TEETOTALER is the American spelling.