Another pleasing and tractable Sunday puzzle from Everyman, with the usual trademark clues.
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 Healthy Andrea represented as this?
HALE AND HEARTY
(HEALTHY ANDREA)* with an extended definition. HALE is a bit of a strange word, in that you pretty much never see it on its own, only as part of HALE AND HEARTY. It’s cognate with ‘whole’; in fact its origin is the Old English word for that, hæl.
8 Oddly superfast fish
SPRAT
The odd letters of SuPeRfAsT.
9 Carelessly I drop cash, being delirious
RHAPSODIC
(I DROP CASH)*
11 Chop up ‘n’ treat, they say, something made of leather?
CUBAN HEEL
A homophone (‘they say’) of CUBE ‘N’ HEAL. Fashion would not be my specialist subject on Mastermind, but I got there in the end with a few crossers.
12 Top monk, nosey parker reportedly
PRIOR
Another homophone (‘reportedly’), of PRIER.
13 Man compared to Newman a lot
NOT HALF
Inventive clue. To get ‘man’ from ‘Newman’ you need to get rid of half of it.
15 A song, Hollow Aura Surrounding City
GLASGOW
An insertion of A and S[ON]G in GLOW. The removal indicator is ‘hollow’ and the insertion indicator is ‘surrounding’.
17 Trapped in laundromat is sensitive artist
MATISSE
Hidden in laundroMAT IS SEnsitive.
19 Cuts damaged a big city somewhere in Italy
TUSCANY
A charade of (CUTS)*, A and NY for New York (city).
21 Tusk’s one with power
TEETH
This is a nicely constructed surface, since [Donald] Tusk was President of the European Council from 2014-2019, and certainly wielded some power. I think what the setter is getting at here is that ‘power’ is a definition of TEETH, and that a ‘tusk’ would be one of those, hence the singular and apostrophe s.
23 Two thirds of Irish had a meal and sleep
HIBERNATE
A charade of HIBERN[IAN] and ATE.
25 Maniac Musk lands dramatic wins
SLAM DUNKS
(MUSK LANDS)* I knew the term simply as a basketball shot, but dictionaries give it also as Everyman’s definition.
26 A warm jacket may be so worn
LINED
A dd. The second definition refers most often to faces.
27 The present time?
BIRTHDAY PARTY
If you are an Everyman regular, you will be on the lookout for the paired clues. Since I had already solved HALE AND HEARTY, the enumeration and the potential rhyme gave me a good hint of this cryptic definition.
Down
2 A Dalmatian, perhaps, having swallowed a little Bonio, is agile figure
ACROBAT
An insertion of B for the first letter of ‘Bonio’ in A CROAT. Dalmatia is a region of Croatia.
3 Perhaps the PM’s hiding fondness, in the end, for EU members
ESTONIANS
The current PM (like many before him) was privately educated at Eton, so it’s an insertion of S for the last letter of ‘fondness’ in ETONIAN and S.
4 Some leaner vegan sauce
NERVE
Hidden in leaNER VEgan.
5 Run not especially serious car part
HEADLIGHT
A charade of HEAD and LIGHT.
6 Storyteller with a stuck-up attitude
AESOP
A charade of A and POSE reversed.
7 Housework restored dignity
TIDYING
(DIGNITY)*
8 Officers have children in very little time
SECOND MATES
An insertion of MATE in SECONDS. If I were being picky, I would say that you MATE to attempt to conceive children, not to have them. But I’m not in a picky mood this morning.
10 Aye, cedar was cooked for rye bread ingredient
CARAWAY SEED
(AYE CEDAR WAS)*
14 In a flap, freed hens perked up
FRESHENED
(FREED HENS)*
16 A lake in European country – or one far away
AUSTRALIA
An insertion of AL in AUSTRIA.
18 Primarily, three hifalutin Easterners (myrrh and gold involved)
THE MAGI
I’m sure you know how this works by now: the first letters of the last seven words of the clue; and a cad.
20 Once more, holy man is contrary
AGAINST
A charade of AGAIN and ST.
22 Criticised drunken topless fathead trashing Spain
HAD AT
([F]ATH[E]AD)* The two removal indicators are ‘topless’ (for the F) and ‘trashing Spain’ (for the E).
24 Big vehicle, tyre’s not about to be pneumatic
BUSTY
A charade of BUS and TY[RE]. ‘Pneumatic’ is a certainly dated, and probably now inappropriate to many, adjective to describe a woman with large breasts.
Many thanks to Everyman for this morning’s puzzle.
A pleasant solve, but “tusk’s one” defines ‘tooth’ imo (as opposed to “tusk’s one of them/these”).
On my first run through I had 14 answers and polished off the rest fairly quickly. Not so sure about TEETH – shouldn’t the answer be singular? Nice try to explain that, Pierre, but I’m not convinced. I liked AESOP, and TIDYING for being an unlikely anagram, but took far too long (i.e. about a minute) to see AUSTRALIA – how unaware can I be? Pneumatic for busty reminds me of Brave New World, it being the adjective Huxley uses to describe Lenina Crowne. For the most part, these were well constructed clues that fell to a little thought, though not many stand out particularly. Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.
Snap, Gonzo
Thanks for the blog, helpful as always. I’m still struggling to parse 13a though. I got it from the crossers, but can’t see how the clue instructs you to halve Newman.
You may be right about TEETH, Pierre, but I’m afraid I wasn’t so generous in my reading of it, taking it as a double definition, with one of them employing a grocer’s apostrophe.
Thanks Pierre. I’m with Jackkt@5: [A] Tusk [i]s one [of a set of] Teeth.
I found this one hard going. Perhaps I wasnt Hale and Hearty as in the present restrictions I missed a Birthday Party. These seem to be the rhyming couplet unless there is some other connected pairs else in the puzzle I missed.
Morning Alison. What Everyman is getting at with the NOT HALF clue is if you ‘compare’ ‘man’ to ‘Newman’ then you don’t require half the letters – the first three. So with NOT HALF of the word, you make the change:
NEWMAN.I must say that my first instinct for 21ac was that the wordplay led to TOOTH. I may be guilty as charged of being overgenerous in my support of the clue, but I sincerely hope that we haven’t come to accept the grocer’s apostrophe as one of crosswordland’s convention’s.
Pierre: I don’t think Tusk’s is a grocer’s apostrophe. It indicates the omitted “i” of “Tusk is”.
Tassie Tim @2 – I was reminded of this:
Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye / Is underlined for emphasis; / Uncorseted, her friendly bust / Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.
TS Eliot, Whispers of Immortality.
10D. The should be CARAWAY SEED, not plural. An oversight, I am sure.
Thanks, VDS. Blog corrected.
Reasonably straightforward solve.
A couple of quibbles; shoe heels are, I think, made of much more than just leather. I think run means head over as in: ‘I’m going to run/head over to the shop.’ – unless there is some other context.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
21ac again:
If the apostrophe is short for ‘is’ , then ‘Tusk is one’ = TOOTH, not TEETH.
I can’t help wondering why the setter didn’t simply put: ‘Tusks with power’.
As a side issue with reference to discussions last Sunday, I have posted here twice this morning, firstly from my tablet and later from my desktop, and on neither occasion was I asked do anything to prove I am human, nor have my contributions been riddled with slashes wherever I have used an apostrophe or single quote.
Everyman’s ‘Primarily’ clues justifiably get some stick, but I thought THE MAGI was a legitimate hoot. CUBAN HEEL was fun too.
No chance of getting a bird in there somewhere, Pierre?
Not unless I’ve missed something, Ranger …
Did not parse NOT HALF
Liked CUBAN HEEL (loi)
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Failed to parse Tusk or Had at. Both look unsatisfying luges now they are explained(?).
Everything else straightforward and easier than some.
Not Half was quite fun.
I are rye bread quite often, must try with caraway seeds
16D was clearly not clued with us in mind
Took a while to start but got through relatively easily.
Had At was the only sticking point- have never heard of the term and probably will never hear it again.
We struggled with a few of these today, namely 11ac and 13ac. Could be the lockdown effect or just not getting the bleeding obvioys. Overall pretty happy, liked Rhapsodic, The Magi and Glasgow (one of our fave cities)
Could not parse 3 down (“Estonian”) at all, and did not get 13 across (“not half”) completely. But got the puzzle out in its entirety without resort to wildcard dictionaries,. Enjoyed it.
Thanks to Everymand and thanks to Pierre for the explanations of 3 down and 13 across.