Everyman 3563/18 January

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Another well-crafted and enjoyable puzzle from Everyman this morning, with some particularly pleasing surface readings.

 

 

 

Abbreviations

cd  cryptic definition
dd  double definition
(xxxx)*  anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x]  letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 A line written by clever US diplomat
ALBRIGHT
A charade of A, L and BRIGHT.  Referring to Madeleine ALBRIGHT, who was the Czechoslovakian-born American diplomat.  She was the first woman to be Secretary of State.

5 Beginning to tour upper-class house
STUART
An insertion of U in START.  The insertion indicator is ‘tour’ in the sense of ‘go around’.  The Royal house of STUART.

9 Showing good aesthetic judgement in refurbished flat – suite I removed
TASTEFUL
(FLAT SU[I]TE)*  The anagrind is ‘refurbished’ and the removal indicator is ‘removed’.

10 Prairies: maps I collected
PLAINS
An insertion of I in PLANS.

12 For this one needs right type of oven
ROAST
A charade of R and OAST.  This is what some people call an &lit clue: the whole clue is also the definition. ‘And literally so.’

13 Shown on the box, Elvis teed off
TELEVISED
(ELVIS TEED)*

14 Italian painter ordered vindaloo and rice
LEONARDO DA VINCI
(VINDALOO AND RICE)*

16 Certainly at home, everyone’s against discipline at school
IN ALL CONSCIENCE
A charade of IN, ALL, CON and SCIENCE.

19 Nothing needs to be added to clear statement of policy
MANIFESTO
A charade of MANIFEST and O.

21 Jacob’s father‘s saving scheme account
ISAAC
A charade of ISA (individual saving account) and AC.

23 Brat‘s mistake after start of tantrum
TERROR
A charade of T and ERROR.

24 Ahead, master swimming against the current
UPSTREAM
A charade of UP and (MASTER)*

25 Feast I prepared for carnival
FIESTA
(FEAST I)*

26 Couple hired band
BRACELET
A charade of BRACE and LET.

Down

1 Player‘s agent ignoring fine
ACTOR
[F]ACTOR

2 Steps taken to control a star
BOSSA NOVA
A charade of BOSS for ‘control’, A and NOVA.  I am rubbish at dancing, always have been.

3 Disinclination to act shown by one with damaged retina
INERTIA
(I RETINA)*

4 Scary place sought, to include a hospital by river?
HAUNTED HOUSE
An insertion of A in HUNTED followed by H and OUSE for the river.

6 A live TV broadcast from a city on the Mediterranean coast
TEL AVIV
(A LIVE TV)*

7 Sign of tooth decay? Canine needs to be extracted
ARIES
Great surface.  CARIES is the technical word for ‘tooth decay’, and C is a dentist’s abbreviation for ‘canine’ (they’re the pointy ones).  So take the latter from the former, and you’ve got ARIES, which is a ‘sign’ of the Zodiac.

8 Assess performance in River Dee initially, then short river
TEST DRIVE
A charade of the River TEST, D for the first letter of ‘Dee’ and RIVE[R].

11 Wonky gyroscope lad fixed for actress
GLADYS COOPER
(GYROSCOPE LAD)*  You’ve got a two-word anagrind: ‘wonky’ and ‘fixed’.  No old films this week from Everyman, but an old actress instead.

14 Revised title includes second Kipling poem with a recurring theme
LEITMOTIF
Insert MO for ‘second’ in (TITLE)* and add IF for the ‘Kipling poem’ and there you go.

15 Without equal, nothing contains cricket side on level above English
NONPAREIL
An insertion of ON for ‘cricket side’, PAR for ‘equal’ and E for ‘English’ in NIL for ‘nothing’.

17 Omitted the French female solicitor
LEFT OUT
A charade of LE, F and TOUT.

18 I do it wrongly, in charge, being silly
IDIOTIC
(I DO IT)* plus IC.

20 Take care of slow-moving shark
NURSE
Well, I never knew it was ‘slow-moving’, but it’s a dd.

22 Arrive on time with one of Santa’s reindeer
COMET
A charade of COME and T.

Everyman puzzles – sound as a pound.  Thanks to him for this week’s offering.

18 comments on “Everyman 3563/18 January”

  1. Thanks, Pierre.
    I couldn’t parse 15d because I didn’t know that “on” could refer to a cricket side.

  2. That’s a good one to remember, crosser, since it comes up often. As well as OFF for the other ‘cricket side’.

  3. Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

    I appreciated the definition of &lit, Pierre, I was not quite certain what it meant.

    ROAST fooled me for a while, of course an OAST is a drying oven.

    I particularly liked PLAINS, BRACELET, NONPAREIL, HAUNTED HOUSE, LEITMOTIF and many others.

  4. Thanks Everyman & Pierre.

    Smooth as ever – I had to check GLADYS COOPER; I see that she played Mrs Higgins in the 1964 My Fair Lady film.

  5. Some people would call that clue &lit, but not all.

    Why? because it has extraneous elements, in this case ‘for this one needs’. In a full-on &lit the definition would be constructed from the SI elements, all of which would be doing double-duty in that regard. Here also, you could argue that as a roast doesn’t really require a particular oven, just a bog-standard one in working order, the surface doesn’t describe the required word very well. If it had been defined in the normal way (i.e. Right type of oven needed for meal) there would have been no problem.

    Here’s an &lit clue, oft-quoted, for MACHETE that side-steps these difficulties rather well:

    The jungly mass one cleaves.

  6. I knew I shouldn’t have gone into &lit territory …

    Paul B, if you are still listening, here is a serious request: could you please explain, in words of one syllabub, exactly what an &lit is? There will be plenty of people like Cookie, and me, and many lurkers, who would appreciate that. Can you have a semi-&lit? This is a forum for learning stuff, so I think we should be told.

    Tks

    Pierre

  7. Hi Pierre

    I’m no expert but I think ROAST is a semi-&lit (or ‘extended definition’) where the whole clue gives the definition but the wordplay is only part of the clue.

  8. That’s exactly it, Robi.
    Also exactly what Paul means.

    The clue as a whole is the definition and every single element (read: word) should be used for the construction/wordplay.

    Here: “For this one needs right type of oven”.
    The wordplay is: R (right) + OAST (type of oven), which covers only part of the clue.
    ‘For this one needs’ is, as Paul calls it, extraneous – so it’s not an &lit.
    ‘For this one needs’ is also not the definition.
    That would be ‘For this one needs’ + the wordplay elements.
    Therefore many call this a semi-&lit.

    Hope I made a worthwhile contribution today. 🙂

    Paul’s example: “The jungly mass one cleaves” is an &lit.
    It’s an anagram (jungly) of THE that goes inside {M (mass) + ACE (one)}
    The clue as a whole is the definition (with some imagination).

    In my alter ego’s Birmingham puzzle way back when, he had a clue that everyone (apart from Anax) thought to be a weak cryptic definition:
    “Noise at front door when bell rings (4,4)”.
    However, it was: DIN (noise) + {D[oor] inside GONG (bell)}, giving us DING DONG.
    An &lit that my alter ego’s really kinda proud of, even if my alter ego’s alter ego, which is me, doesn’t like ‘front door’ for D. This time, however, the surface needed it.

  9. I think you have ‘at front, door’ = D there, which is fine. I had to check gong=bell too just to be safe, but that’s right (Collins) too, so, absolutely banging &lit.

  12. Well! I ‘ve had an entertaining hour solving the puzzle and an even more demanding few minutes following the above erudite and informative discussions!
    Some interesting clues that required confirmation from the dictionary 14d and 22d, I enjoyed 8d and loi was16a-an excellent clue.

    Thanks to Everyman, Pierre and all the above contributors that make this a fun experience.

    We will draw a veil over yesterday’s events at the WCC and resist any comments lest we’re hoisted on our own petard.

  13. This was a good one this morning. 14d and 5a were my only electronically aided answers today. The explanations above were most interesting, I didn’t know what they were called, I just thought they were clevere clues! Very wise re the cricket Ian, although it’s hard not to put the boot in

  14. Most entertaining reading the above comments. Took an hour to finish today and got all except the first half of ‘leitmotif’. Liked 1ac, 5ac, 16 ac among others. Barely remember Gladys Cooper, and just remembered ‘Comet’ .

    What a brilliant game of cricket yesterday by the Blackcaps. Sorry England.

  15. I finished this correctly, I solved Roast although don’t know what &lit clues are. I liked Bossa Nova, Albright, and Nonpareil. The England cricket side were not nonpareil yesterday when playing against the New Zealand cricket side in the World Cup One Day International series. England were the “off” side, all out for 123 in the 33rd over ;-( NZ were the “on” side scoring 125 in 13 overs with the loss of 2 wickets. Well done NZ. Better luck next time for the England side! A good crossword thank for your commentary.

  16. L= line is new for me. As was “in all conscience”, not a common Kiwi expression. If anyone here does DIY COW, Manifest is this week’s competition entry. ISA isn’t known here but clue straightforward. Got Upstream but thought Ahead was the def so completely missed the anag. Never got Aries (forgot about it to be honest, came on here thinking I’d finished). Would I have? Maybe, maybe not, certainly never heard of Caries. Or Gladys Cooper. Or Leitmotif. But nice crossword (especially Boss a Nova) and entertaining comments above. As for the cricket, Joe Root’s face at the non striker’s end summed it up – and that was before McCullum came in to bat. Great stuff.

    Thanks Pierre and Everyman.

  17. I hardly understood what the english contributors were going on about – too cerebral on a sat night for me.Gave up when i couldnt get Albright, was not going to stare at it forever
    I hate it when the top left corner is my bete noir.
    thought bracelet was super clever. think we should not be too smug about the cricket we may be laughing on the other side of our faces once we meet the aussies

  18. A nice crossie. Got ARIES but couldn’t figure out STUART. Also kinda guessed NONPARELL (was thing NON-PARALLELED or something similar. Didn’t get LEITMOTIF either.

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