Private Eye/Cyclops 428 – The Deer Hunter

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Good work from Cyclops in this crossy. Some clues easy enough to cold solve to get going but funny, and a few tricky ones that fall after a few crossing letters. I nearly got mislead into writing in a wrong answer at 1 Across but just stopped myself in time.

Re 23 Down: It is 100 years since Mark Twain died. He stipulated that his autobiography should be released with certain parts missing, “not appropriate” to be seen for a certain number of years. So only now the complete work has just been published: Review

Help with 4 Down please.

Across
5 DEWDROP (WED)* AInd: indiscriminately DROP (decline) First read, first answered.
10 WHITEWASH WHIT (suspicion) WE< (about Private Eye) (HAS)* AInd: turned out.
11/26 BACKLASH BACK (withdraw) LASH (whip) Def: Retaliation. I didn’t like this clue because the wordplay giving LASH is so close to the answer.
12 FLUFFS FLUFF (plump – as in plumping a cushion) S[mell]
13 OVERTURN OVERT (public) UR (city) [coalitio]N An outing for UR that doesn’t call it ancient.
14/1 POLITICAL SUICIDE CD I knew it was POLITICAL something and tentatively pencilled in MACHINE for a while which delayed top left solutions. When I finally twigged I thought it was good:
End of member that’s been auto-engineered? (9,7)
19/16 WEST BANK WEST (N. America and Europe) BANK (list – as in leaning when turning)
20 FOREBEARS FORE! (warning) BEARS (Grizzly things, maybe) Nice surface:
Warning: Grizzly thing, maybe, old relatives (9)
22 STRENGTH (GENTS HRT)* AInd: strained. I nearly dismissed the pretty obvious anagram wordplay when I saw only one vowel in eight letters.
24/21 HIDDEN AGENDA Double Def. with a dose of comment:
Ulterior motive of those who exaggerated concealment of Iraq’s “WMDs”? (6,6)
27 NOSTALGIA (GO STALIN A)* AInd: out
28 SNOT RAG Another good CD:
Material aid for a blow job (4,3)
29 REGARDS REGARD (Eye) S[un]
Down
2 UNWELCOME UNWEL[l] (dicky not quite) COME
3 CHIEF I inside CHEF
4 DEERSKIN I can see NI[c]K’S< for the SKIN part but how does marginal needs (reversed) deliver DEER? Last answer entered as a result:
Nick’s marginal needs backing (not Conservative) – hide! (8)
6 ECHOES [kyli]E CH[l]OE’S
7 DEBATABLE BED< (Shag mounting) A TABLE
8 OSCAR OS (gross – Over Size) CAR (vehicle)
9 SADOMASOCHISM CD
15 IN THE SHIT [jun]E inside (HINT THIS)* AInd: undone
17 NURSEMAID (MANURE’S)* AInd: hit the fan, I’D (Cyclops would)
18 REPHRASE RA (artist) inside (HERPES)* AInd: spread
23 TWAIN T[hatcher] WAIN (old wagon) Def: Mark a.k.a Samuel Langhorne Clemens (see intro)
25 DOGMA A.M GOD< Nice to see erection back as a reversal indicator for a down clue, and used in a way that makes me laugh out loud. My favourite clue though there was some, how can I put it, stiff competition here:
In the morning, the almighty erection – you’d better believe it! (5)

5 comments on “Private Eye/Cyclops 428 – The Deer Hunter”

  1. beermagnet

    Thanks for the blog.

    In the clue that you’ve typed at 20a, we must have ‘things’.

    In 4d: Nick’s marginal needs backing (not Conservative) – hide! (8) NI[c]KS REED
    we get ‘reed’ from ‘marginal’, that which grows on the margin, hedge, REED.

  2. Beermagnet
    Thanks for the blog. I agree with Rishi on 4D; I think ‘marginal’ is to be read as a noun, something pertaining to a margin. I was quite happy to read the word as meaning specifically a marginal plant (although reeds belongs to the margin between water and land). I could not find a dictionary definition to match that specific usage, but a google of ‘marginal reed’ produced a couple of examples from plant suppliers at the head of the million hits.

  3. The OED gives marginal n: Bot. A plant that requires a constantly wet soil, and typically grows in shallow water at the edge of a pond or other body of water.

    Sort of works.

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