everyman 27/05/2024

This one: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4049

1 across: Is no longer interested in row, abandoned with gusto (8)

OUTGROWS the letters of ‘row’, together with the letters of ‘gusto’, abandoned – i.e. messed up / all over the place / anagram of rowgusto || easy starter

5 across: Amateur scales back, being more than dozy (6)

ASLEEP ‘a’ for amateur, then ‘sleep’ (peels backwards) the letters of ‘row’ – the definition part being ‘more than dozy’ || apparently scale can mean peel, but it’s not a particularly common usage – grrrrr.

9 across: Starts to figure out problem? Dandy! (3)

FOP first letters of ‘figure’, ‘out’ and ‘problem’ || come on Everyman, this isn’t the Quiptic

10 across: Falling apart with bile, pair of unionists: slow down there! (5-2,4)

BUILT-UP AREA ‘apart’ with ‘bile’ and ‘uu’ (pair of unionists), all falling – i.e those letters all get mixed up; the definition part is “slow down there”, i.e. indicating a place where you are meant to slow down

12 across: One observes small tattoo put on part of chest as an alternative (9)

SPECTATOR ‘s’ (small) ‘tat’ (tattoo) put on (i.e. wrapped around) ‘pec’ (part of chest) ‘or’ alternative; ‘one observes’ is the definition part

13 across: Again performed piece of theatre didactically (5)

REDID piece of (meaning: hidden in the following words) theatre didactically; the definition part being ‘again performed’ || again lame

14 across: Agitated, caused queasy feelings in the main (6,3,4)

ROCKED THE BOAT A double definition clue; both ‘Agitated’ and ’caused queasy feelings in the main (‘main’ referring to sea or ocean) define or are synonymous with the phrase.

18 across: Often the alias is deployed to appear insincere (3,1,5,4)

HIT A FALSE NOTE An anagram – the group of letters ‘often the alias’ gets ‘deployed’ — i.e. use these letters – to make the answer

20 across: One of our feathered friends who travelled around the world? (5)

DRAKE Francis Drake is known for circumnavigating the globe – a drake is also a male duck || of course, flat-Earthers prefer to believe that Drake sailed to the edge of the disc, then all the way back again on the B-side

22 across: Rebooted downloads that may include many boxes (9)

WOODLANDS An anagram (‘rebooted’) of ‘downloads’ ; the definition part is ‘may include many boxes’, which makes sense when you realise that ‘box’ is a type of tree common in the words in England

24 across: Husband wearing band, constant love token, beginning to sigh soft sounds (11)

WHISPERINGS whisp (husband ‘h’, with ‘wisp’ wrapped around it (wearing)), then ‘e’ (a fundamental constant in mathematics), ‘ring’ (love token) and ‘s’ (first letter of sigh) – the definition part is ‘soft sounds’ || a good old fashioned, but utterly daft, cryptic clue

25 across: Sense of self, such as love (3)

EGO ‘eg’ (such as, as in for example) ‘o’ (love, as in ‘zero points’ in tennis); definition part is ‘sense of self’

26 across: Understand IT’s 1s and 0s ? (6)

DIGITS ‘dig’ (understand) ‘its’ (IT’s) – the definition part being “1s and 0s” || yeah Everyman I dig your groovy 70s vibe

27 across: Demonstrations in favour of taxes (8)

PROTESTS ‘pro’ (in favour of) ‘tests’ (taxes — as in the verb ‘that ordeal really tests me)

1 down: Clumsy pronouncement by easily surprised patron of seafood restaurant (6)

OAFISH The easily surprised patron of the seafood restaurant sees the food and says ‘O! A fish!’

2 down: Location up by Crete in resort for privileged (3,6)

TOP SECRET ‘tops’ (spot (location) up (back to front) ‘ecret’ (resort, as in ‘re-sort’ of the letters of Crete).

3 down: Discredit potato, on reflection? (5)

REBUT ‘rebut’ is ‘tuber’ backwards (on reflection)

4 down: Kettle, perhaps one that’ll leak? (7-6)

WHISTLE-BLOWER A double-definition clue: ‘kettle’ (old-style stove kettle that whistles when it has reached boiling temperature), and ‘one that’ll leak’ (a brave soul who will make it more widely known when their organization is secretly doing bad things)

6 down: Wonderful sandwhich one found in Cape (8)

SUPERHERO ‘super’ (wonderful) ‘hero’ (sandwich); the definition part is ‘one found in Cape’ || apparently ‘hero’ is a term used to describe a large sandwich, coined in New York in the 1930s. Also note that capitalisation and punctuation are often used in clues to mislead us, but should be ignored by solvers. So ‘Cape’ makes us think of a geographical place, but we should resist that and think of the common noun ‘cape’.

7 down: At first, Everyman’s rattled, then embarrassed, having made mistakes

ERRED ‘er’ (at first Everyman’s rattled – i.e. first letters of Everyman’s and rattled) ‘red’ (embarrassed, as in blushing/red-cheeks)

8 down: Theatrical work, sweet thing in which children have fun (8)

PLAYDATE ‘play’ (theatrical work) ‘date’ (sweet thing, as in the fruit)

11 down: Pick up and convert this particular set piece (4,3,6)

TAKE THE CORNER A corner kick is a ‘set piece’ in soccer; ‘take’ can mean pick up. This has to be the correct answer. But I can’t entrely figure out this clue || Is it just a really crummy clue, or am I missing something? I know what my money’s on, but LMK if you have any insight…

15 down: Supplier of stimulant high after cocaine, ecstasy (twice) and weed (6,3)

COFFEE POT ‘coff’ (‘off’ high, as in ‘out of it’, after ‘c’ for cocaine), ‘ee’ (ecstacy twice), ‘pot’ (weed) – the definition part being ‘Supplier of stimulant’, ‘cos it gives you coffee

16 down: Flowers sources here, from Cole and Erskine (9)

OLEANDERS It’s a hidden word: ‘sourced here’ means you’ll find it here, in the following words: ‘from Cole and Erskine’

17 down: Dogged son had borrowed money (8)

SHADOWED ‘s’ (son) ‘had’ (had !) ‘owed’ (borrowed money – hence owed) – definition part being ‘dogged’.

19 down: A Caledonian’s fancy neckwear (6)

ASCOTS ‘a’ (A) ‘scots’ (Caledonians, meaning Scots) – an ascot is a weird short fat tie worn by men from the eighteenth century – look it up || crossword setters often use Caledonia to indicate Scotland, even though it was the Roman name for only the bit North of the river Forth. OK though that is a big bit.

21 down: Imitating sound of mobile phone alert? (5)

APING ‘a ping’ (arguably, this is the sound of a mobile phone alert), the definition part being ‘aping’ || question-mark clues have all kinds of rules, but they often mean that the answer can itself be intepreted in a goofy way – in this case ‘a ping’.

23 down: In sound, tip for composer (5)

LISZT A ‘sounds like’ clue; here ‘In sound’ is used to signal ‘sounds like’. So the answer is a composer that sounds like a synonym of ‘tip’. Well, in this case that’s ‘list’, as in ‘lean over’ || maybe you need to be Brahms and Liszt to understand this kind of thing

So what have we learned?

We learned about Clementine Paddleford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_Paddleford – who coined the term ‘hero’ in the context of giant sandwiches. She hopped around the USA in her light aircraft, investigating cooking and eating habits, and wrote influential works about that.