A one-pint puzzle for me this week (and that was the first pint, which goes down quickly). Writing the blog took much longer than solving the puzzle, which had no real surprises.
I think 26a gets the ‘clue of the week’ award, for its inventiveness; mentions for 25/4/24 and 13d.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | VOX POP | As a street interview very often starts with Times: drink VO = ‘very often’ starts (first letters); X = Times; POP = drink |
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| 8 | BLAIRITE | Ex-PM’s disciple: prick securing bolthole LAIR = bolthole; in BITE = prick |
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| 10 | PARLIAMENT | MPs, altogether a primal shambles and little fun *(a primal), with ‘shambles’ as the anagram indicator; ENT[ertainment] = little fun |
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| 11 | THEATRE | Luvvies here tense with passion before Brenda’s comeback T = tense; HEAT = passion; RE = ER (the Queen), reversed = Brenda’s comeback |
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| 12 | BEMUSE | Bums screwing around with amphetamines put into confusion *(bums EE), where E = ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine) |
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| 14 | UNFROCK | Ecclesiastical “fire”? Get out of the habit Double definition: to deprive (a monk, priest, minister, etc.) of ecclesiastical rank, authority, and function; to divest or strip of a frock |
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| 16 | LEFTISH | Like a more traditional Socialist took off his motley LEFT = took off; *(his), with ‘motley’ as the anagram indicator |
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| 19 | SPOT ON | Smear working precisely SPOT = smear; ON = working |
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| 21 | INBREED | After one bender, screwed as hillbillies stereotypically do?g I = one; *(bender), with ‘screwed’ as the anagram indicator |
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| 23 | WITHDRAWAL | Retirement means coitus interruptus? Double definition |
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| 25/4/24 | HOME FROM HOME | Comfortable place for battered Miliband, initially dividing the Houses *(for), with ‘battered’ as the anagram indicator; M = Miliband, initially; dividing HOME HOME = the Houses |
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| 26 | SHAMBLES | Cock-up quiet promenades SH = quiet; AMBLES = promenades |
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| 26 | SPOONS | Makes love like an old-timer, putting penis head in shortly before beginning to shrink P = penis head; in SOON = shortly; before S = beginning to ‘shrink’ Gets the prize for the most Cyclops-esque clue of this puzzle. |
|
| Down | |||
| 1 | GO SOFT ON | Lose erection then no erection — be tolerant! GO SOFT = lose erection; ON = no, reversed (‘erection’ in a Down clue) |
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| 2 | OPEN SECRET | It’s public knowledge effectively, so pretence is bollocks *(so pretence), with ‘bollocks’ as the anagram indicator |
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| 3 | VARIABLE | Maybe ‘X’ has Blair squirming, trapped in state enquiry initially *(Blair); in VA = Virginia – state; E = enquiry initially The pedant in me objects to this clue — as a variable, it’s normally ‘x’, lower-case italic. |
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| 5/9 | STANDS DOWN | Brown, beset by several disapproving socialist leaders, gets depressed and resigns TAN = brown; ‘beset by’ SSD = first letters of ‘several disapproving socialist’; DOWN = depressed |
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| 7 | PIPIT | Bird seed sex PIP = seed; IT = still ‘sex’ for crossword compilers |
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| 8/15 | BORDER CONTROLS | Wears the trousers after skirt — a big factor in Ukip’s campaign BORDER = skirt; after CONTROLS = wears the trousers |
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| 13 | MOTHERHOOD | ‘Labour success confers such status’ — Archer’s old lady? Possibly the mother of the archer Robin Hood, and nothing to do with Jeffrey of that ilk |
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| 17 | SEDIMENT | Miliband? “I’m in broadcast!”, which is the dregs ED = Miliband; IM; in SENT = broadcast |
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| 18 | TISWAS | Excited state in parliament is wasted Hidden in parliament is wasted |
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| 20 | PLIGHT | Fair following for Penny’s hole LIGHT = fair (as in hair colour); following P = penny |
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| 22 | BALLS | More than one party generates bollocks Double definition — ’nuff said. |
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White
White
Here’s a link to something I found amusing:
Guide for parents
And, with apologies to the faint-hearted:
Nice and easy this fortnight, I agree, jetdoc.
2 down was a nice anagram and I really liked the surface and sentiment of 22 down. Balls indeed!
However with 3d, variables can be capitals when used as random variables in probabilities and statistics
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_variable
…so that is okay with me.
Cleverer then to have clued it “Probably X…”
Thanks, Lemma. However, the random variable is shown as upper-case italic…
Ah, yes that is true, hence the “maybe” in the clue, I guess.