I’m not sure why, but I found this a rather more challenging Cyclops than many recent ones, and all the better for it. There certainly seems to be a plethora of male genitalia in there.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HAGIOGRAPHY | Creep’s life: getting aggro with hip, romping in the grass *(aggro hip), with ‘romping’ as the anagram indicator; HAY = grass. A sycophantic biography |
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| 9 | TAURUS | Sign of a sort of bend in arse that tips over setters U = a sort of band; TAR = rat (‘arse’ in the sense of ‘unpleasant person’), reversed; US = setters. Definition: sign |
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| 10 | ENTHRONE | The Enron fiasco set up Brenda’s role, possibly *(The Enron). Brenda, in Private Eye parlance, is the Queen. |
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| 11 | SKITTLES | Game broadcaster gets end away before titles roll SK[y] = broadcaster, without its final letter (‘end away’); *(titles) |
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| 13 | AMBIENT | Like background music it’s possibly meant to cover being sexually uncertain *(meant); BI = bisexual |
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| 15 | MESSIAH | Divine delivery specialist she aims to toss *(she aims). For some reason, although I knew what was to be anagrammed, and I had all the checking letters, it took me a while to spot this. |
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| 17 | URGENCY | Thing that’s pressing out-of-control gurney over tip of cock *(gurney); C = tip of cock |
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| 19 | OPERATE | Make cuts, leader having abandoned aspiration and merit? [h]OPE = aspiration, without its first letter; RATE = merit |
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| 22 | GAUCHE | Awkward when Hague jostled to grab top cabinet position C (top cabinet position) in *(Hague) |
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| 24 | ESCAPADE | Romp in which one gets head of dick caught in fly D = head of dick; in ESCAPE = fly |
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| 26 | REARWARD | Arse with division at the back REAR = Arse; WARD = division (e.g. in a parliamentary constituency) |
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| 27 | SNATCH | Fanny’s fragment of music Double definition — female genitalia; fragment of music |
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| 28 | BILL CLINTON | Prospective legislation material crushed by Conservative former leader BILL = prospective legislation; LINT = material; in CON = Conservative. Definition: former leader |
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| Down | |||
| 2 | AIRSTRIKE | Song cycle about initially shit US military intervention action? AIR = song; TRIKE = cycle; S = initially shit |
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| 3 | INSULIN | Penis, you feel ultimately, is within two tiny inches — here’s protein! SUL = final letters of ‘Penis, you feel’; IN IN = two tiny inches; Insulin |
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| 4 | GREASE | Bribe gets a stony country heard Sounds like Greece, which is stony in the sense of ‘stony broke’. |
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| 5 | ATTACHE | Diplomat bound to ditch date ATTACHE[d], ‘bound’ without D |
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| 7/6 | DARK HORSE | Do hackers, right for cocaine, hurt a shadowy figure? Anagram of ‘do hackers‘ with R (right) instead of C (cocaine) |
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| 8 | INTERACT | Work together — lay to rest government legislation! INTER = lay to rest (bury); ACT = government legislation |
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| 14 | MARGARET | Thatcher needs place to sell kinky gear inside? MART = place to sell; *(gear). Lest we forget… |
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| 16 | STRAPPADO | Members backing ’the old man’ and party getting suddenly dropped as a punishment PARTS (members), reversed; PA = ’the old man’; DO = party. If you want more information… |
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| 18 | CUE BALL | Reminder to luvvie: testicle is the white one you hit CUE = Reminder to luvvie; BALL = testicle. In snooker, to hit this correctly, you need a properly-shaped tip |
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| 20 | PICKS ON | Bullies act like Kim Jong-il when it comes to a successor The the supreme leader looks to his sons for a successor |
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| 21 | FEUDAL | Describes outmoded system of union crushed by Iron Lady (youth gone, retiring) FE = iron; U = union; LAD[y] reversed. Definition: ‘Describes outmoded system’ |
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| 23 | CORGI | Royal favourite — appreciative ejaculation by George I COR = appreciative ejaculation; GI = George I |
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| 25/12 | DICK CHENEY | Bush’s vice: penis chain to get energy and desire rising DICK = penis; CH = chain; E = energy; YEN, reversed = desire rising. According to this, ‘Cheney is sub-species of dick known as the “Chicken Hawk”, which is a person who publicly supports a war but is too much of a pussy to fight in it himself’. |
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A thematic visual joke this week:
Well, I didn’t do this puzzle (I don’t think it’s accessible online and I live in the US), but I was drawn by your title and preamble for some reason. Thanks for introducing me to Dickipedia! And the visual joke is great — is that one of your own efforts?
Dorothy, if you google “Private Eye crossword” you should find it. No, alas, I didn’t take the pic — it’s just one of those that someone put intothe public domain.
Found it. Thanks very much.
I know you get no sympathy in crosswordland for saying that you didn’t know a word -it is supposed to be gettable from the wordplay.
Strappado was a new one for me and I think that members =parts instead of MPs, arms, legs or ahem, something else is quite hard
Hagiography also new -and grass =hay instead of pot, weed etc not easy.
Agree it was hard -457 much easier.
For the first time in a long while I had to cheat to finish this, after a week of trying, mind. As like Bamberger, STRAPPADO and HAGIOGRAPHY were new words to me.