Some excellent political satirising from Knut.
The publication of Michael Wolff’s book about Trump furnishes yet more ammunication (if any were needed) to fire at the man with extraordinary hair(piece).
| Across | ||
| 1 | STABLE | Bannon denying the First Lady is “clever, steadfast” (6) |
| St[Eve] (Bannon – controversial ex-advisor to Trump) + able, although for me the “is” slightly gets in the way of the clue. | ||
| 4 | GENIUS | Unusually sanguine; not an extraordinary intellect (6) |
| S[an]guine* | ||
| 8 | SANSERIF | Special reply lacking in weight provided in print (8) |
| S(pecial) ans[w]er if | ||
| 10 | GUVNOR | Drunk, he left terribly hungover boss (6) |
| ([H]ungov[e]r)* | ||
| 11 | STUN | Model featured in tabloid shock (4) |
| T (model T) in Sun | ||
| 12 | MORON | Descriptive of Republican leader screened by satellite? (5) |
| R[epublican] in moon – not sure the question mark was really necessary. | ||
| 13 | LIKE | Left Tina’s ex-husband, getting a thumbs-up on social media (4) |
| L(eft) + Ike (Turner) – ref to the “like” button found on Facebook etc | ||
| 14 | REALLY | Truly awful extremists installed in bank (6) |
| A[wfu]l in rely (bank as in bank on) | ||
| 16 | A STUDENT | A bit of a stud, entertaining … like Trump when younger (allegedly) (1-7) |
| Hidden in “a stud entertaining” | ||
| 18 | ACQUIRED | Got a hundred pound note deposited (8) |
| A + c + quid with re inside (deposited) | ||
| 20 | ELFISH | Mischievous use of the Hispanic angle (6) |
| El (Spanish “the”) + fish, probably used here in the sense of fishing or angling for something. | ||
| 22 | FLAW | Note wall unfinished, performing U-turn; it’s a weakness (4) |
| F + wal[l]< | ||
| 23 | MOUTH | Light aeroplane conveying unionist spokeswoman (5) |
| Moth (de Havilland) around U(nionist) | ||
| 24 | RAND | Managed Democrat money (4) |
| Ran + D(emocrat) – South African currency | ||
| 26 | PERNOD | President Don retires, inviting The Queen for a snifter (6) |
| P(resident) + don< around ER | ||
| 27 | YARMULKE | Mary adjusted Luke’s untidy skullcap (8) |
| Mary* + luke* | ||
| 28 | TV STAR | Donald Trump or RuPaul? (2,4) |
| Not sure I really follow this one, other than that both RuPaul (known for RuPaul’s Drag Race) and Donald Trump (in his appearances on The Apprentice) are TV stars. | ||
| 29 | ASSESS | Evaluate idiots’ sons (6) |
| Asses’ s[ons] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SMART | Sting‘s bondage sex with Garfunkel (5) |
| SM (sado-masochism) + Art (Garfunkel, erstwhile partner of Paul Simon) | ||
| 2 | ARSENAL | North American league supports bottom side (7) |
| N(orth) A(merican) L(eague) after arse | ||
| 3 | LORD MAYOR | Civic dignitary said to praise the PM for going topless (4,5) |
| Hom of laud + May + [f]or | ||
| 5 | ELGIN | Bastard Nigel; the Greeks hate him! (5) |
| Nigel* – not a ref to Farage but to Elgin of the Marbles’ fame. | ||
| 6 | INVALID | Being disabled, elected Virginia Democrat is taking lithium (7) |
| In(=elected) + VA (Virginia) + D(emocrat) around Li (Lithium chemical symbol) | ||
| 7 | SMOCKINGS | Some tweets mocking Scaramucci; in stitches! (9) |
| Hidden in “tweetS MOCKING Scaramucci” – type of stitch used in embroidery | ||
| 9 | FIRE AND FURY | A friend edited Rage, the #1 best seller (4,3,4) |
| (A friend)* + fury – the name of the book by journalist Michael Wolff that the puzzle is largely themed around. | ||
| 15 | EXCELLENT | Spreadsheet program “fast”, “brilliant” (9) |
| Excel (spreadsheet part of Microsoft Office) + lent | ||
| 17 | TEE SHIRTS | Where Trump drives on the Sabbath, right on time in his casual clothing (3,6) |
| Tee (ref to Trump’s interest in golf) + s(abbath) + r(ight) on t(ime) in his | ||
| 19 | UNWINDS | Relaxes; document signed following victory at the General Assembly (7) |
| D(ocument) s(igned) after UN win | ||
| 21 | See 23 | |
| 23/21 | MADE A FORTUNE | Adam, 14, given a rollicking, cleaned up (4,1,7) |
| (Adam fourteen)* | ||
| 25 | NUKES | Kissimmee evacuated during sunrise – possible result of small hand pushing big button? (5) |
| K[issimme]e in sun< – a ref to Trump, for whom the relatively small size of his hands has become an internet meme, and the large nuclear button he claims to have. | ||
*anagram
Tee hee snigger!
RuPaul is a drag queen, so a T[rans]V[estite] star.
In case anyone missed it, the first row is also a Trumpian reference.
Thanks, NealH – and Andrew for the enlightenment re28, for which I didn’t have an answer: stupidly, I didn’t think to google RuPaul.
Yet another brilliantly witty and topical puzzle from Knut – the chortles just kept coming.
Huge thanks, Knut, for a super start to the week.
that was like, really excellent, guvnor
Worried I wasn’t going to finish, but found it was the 1-7 (why not 1,7?) that was putting me off, and for TEE SHIRTS I was looking for a golf course. I googled Trump’s courses and found they’re all called Trump _____, so twigged after that.
Thanks Knut, NealH
Oh, it’s A-student not a student. How thick, sorry
What Eileen’s middle para said.
We expect topicality from Knut, but this is off the scale.
Must have been a great one to blog Neal.
We enjoyed the satire but didn’t get 28ac despite googling RuPaul. Actually we thought that that and 16ac were a little bit weak, as if they’d been fitted in to suit the theme. But they didn’t spoil the enjoyment and some of the non-themed clues were 15dn too – we particularly liked SANSERIF and ACQUIRED.
Interesting coincidence that Monk on Saturday clued ‘Garfunkel’ as ‘Art’ and Knut clued ‘art’ as ‘Garfunkel’ today. And also Hoskins used the [f]OR device (slightly differently) yesterday.
Thanks, Knut and NealH
Enjoyable, topical crossword, which was right up my street and lots of fun. Thanks to S&B.
Very enjoyable and not as tricky as some Knut productions.
Thank you to him and NealH
Thanks to NealH for the blog and of course to those who have commented.
I wrote this on 6th. January following Trump’s TweetFest in response to the publication of FIRE AND FURY. In his feed, he boasted of having been an “A”- STUDENT (ie one who always achieves grade A, interesting if true), having MADE A FORTUNE, having been a TV STAR, being LIKE, REALLY SMART and of course being a STABLE GENIUS.
It’s quite remarkable that this has now become almost ancient history in the light of his s**thole outburst.
Strange days indeed.
Best wishes, Rob/Knut
Another entertaining and very topical puzzle – agree that it was relatively easy.
Thanks to Knut and Neal
Thanks Knut and NealH
I saw it mentioned somewhere (Guardian site?) that this was worth a look, and it certainly was, though the centre of attention remains as depressing and scary as ever. I’m impressed by Knut’s ability to turn out a polished crossword with so many relevant references so quickly!
Great fun! Well done Knut. It was hard to miss the theme in this puzzle, and it generated a lot of laughs from me. As already mentioned, not difficult but most enjoyable. I misread the enumeration at 28a and biffed TOSSER. I had to rethink when I got 23/21:-) It halped that YARMULKE turned up in another puzzle recently. Thanks to Neal for the blog too.
I thought KISSIMMEE (25d) might have been a reference to the Hawaiian scare at the weekend, but
a) Knut would have had to have been prescient
b) Google tells me that it’s in Florida
Very impressed with the topicality, both from setter and in terms of the rapid editorial process, congratulations all round.
What can I say? Only Knut can squeeze in so much hilarious topicality into a puzzle. Brilliant stuff.
Many thanks Knut and NealH
More praise from me too. So many chuckles. SANSERIF, MORON, SMART, LORD MAYOR … I could go on.
I was a bit surprised to see the A-STUDENT uncovered at one end, not that I suppose it matters. Like others, my last to fall was the TV STAR.
Thanks Knut and NealH.
Yes, impressive and therefore thumbs up from me too.
But to be honest, the use of “is” (in 1ac) I didn’t find ‘slightly getting in the way’ (as Neal called it), I found it really annoying. It is not right, actually.
On a few occasions Knut used a semicolon in his clues which I found somewhat ‘oddish’ to look at, but it’s probably linguistically ok. I wasn’t convinced by one or two definitions (‘print’ for SANSERIF and the one in 25ac) but soit. Personally, I would have omitted “the” in front of Sabbath (in 17d) but I guess it’s ultimately fine. I am certainly not a Trump fan (far from) but I think in national newspapers one should be careful with clues like 12ac. It may be a LOL moment for many solvers but it can be seen as libellous. At least, it gives an (ok, widespread) opinion – not sure whether a setter should give one though. A few years ago, a well-known Indy setter made me think about it (and change my mind) after I’d written something similar.
Nonetheless, highly entertaining. Not extremely difficult but very well constructed.
Trump’s a gift to setters, isn’t he?
Awesome. Loved it. Rather flew through it maybe thanks to the theme. Would love to see more of these!
Thanks to Knut and Neal.
Sil, I think it wasn’t the setter referring to Trump in that way, but Trump’s own Secretary of State. Fantastic stuff from Knut to get a great topical puzzle out so quickly. Thanks to Neal, too.
While I still stand by the principle of what I said [something that I also mentioned not so long ago in a Hoskins puzzle], I see now that you’re right, Eccles.
Apologies [a word that doesn’t appear in Trump’s vocabulary] to Knut.
It’s probably that I’m not really as focused (if that’s the right word) on Donald Trump and all that surrounds him as many others. I am more concerned about what happens in the country I live in. A country with politicians who are getting away with outright lying and with a PM who shockingly tries to defy Parliament where and whenever she can. Donald Trump has people around him with brains, people who will ultimately stop him from doing stupid things. None of this in the UK, unfortunately.
Late to the party, but I think the double definition in “TV star” is that Ru Paul is a “TV” meaning “transvestite”. Which is a shitty thing to do, and puts a bad taste in my mouth after an otherwise brilliant crossword.