Private Eye (Cyclops/636) Symbolic finger

19 comments on “Private Eye (Cyclops/636) Symbolic finger”

1. Clearly, Cyclops’ filth doesn’t descend as far as bestiality, or he might have clued 2d as “Excited man to fuck sheep” (TUP). I suppose it that be limited to sheep-on-sheep action with “Excited ram to copulate”

   I needed a few crossers before I was ready to crack the anagram at 1a, but I was on to SICK LIST pretty much on sight. I originally had LITTLE JIGGER for 21/22, thinking it might be a slang term (by reference to “jig-a-jig”) I hadn’t heard of. The penny dropped while I was compose my entry email, luckily. Well, not that luclikly, I suppose, as I haven’t won the comp afaik.

    

    

2. Was stuck on 24 down, until I got the flash of inspiration with all three across clues completed….for some reason, I figured the answer consisted of the first two letters and the last three letters of the clue, coming up with DUNCE. Wrong, and too devious, even for Cyclops.

3. But, Tony, you will surely only know you’ve won or lost when the next issue comes out?

4. Thanks beermagnet. 16a was the last one in for me also (after initially going astray with sick note). One thing that put me off with the sick list solution was that I could not see it hyphenated in the OED  or online in a word search.

5. Well ok, Urban Dictionary did confirm ‘jigger’ as penis.  But that was in an entry claiming that the word had 38 meanings, whcih also included vagina.  And hadn’t I previously remarked, that UD will find an ‘obscene’ meaning of just about anything? I really should have paused for thought.  But the idea of finger as a drink measure had also long ago slipped from my consciousness.  Not surprising maybe, given that when I do drink any spirit, it’s more like  a quarter fingersworth.

   The real persuader for me of the rightness of “little finger” — an education too late, unfortunately; I seem to be losing touch with bits of the demotic — is this from https://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Little_finger:

   “In some Western cultures, the wriggling or bending of the little finger indicates a small penis, an insult to the person whom it is directed at. The Australian Government used this in a recent advertising campaign against speeding, depicting females bending their little fingers at speeding males.”

6. I enjoyed the image in that first paragraph of crossword solving being a strenuous sport that needs a half-time break and an orange! Do they still do half-time oranges, or am I harking back to a golden age of jumpers for goalposts etc.?…

7. Football manager talking to new player:

   “As it’s your first game I’m going to pull you off at half time.”

   “Wow, at my old club I just got half an orange!”

8. Winsor, hopefully the cheque would arrive well before that. I suppose there’s still time to hope, though (just about).

   Lemming,so my guess about JIGGER was right! Glad I didn’t see the UD entry or I would probably have gone with it.

   MC, first para of what?

   Will, haha!

9. When I won, some time in the previous century, the cheque didn’t arrive until a week or so after publication date.

10. Tony at #8 – the first paragraph/intro of this blog

    Will at #7 – haha – the old ones are…the oldest!

    lemming at #9 – my last win (of two…so far) was so long ago I don’t remember the sequence of events, but I did consider framing the cheque for posterity…

11. Good people,

    I am interested in some definitions of your solving since I am suffering extremely low levels of esteem.

    I started the Eye crossword many years ago no with the aim of completing half the clues over a fortnight. I can now finish but talk of ‘first pass’ completions of 85% are another world!!!

    I now try a first pass which is a cold look at each clue individually. That gets me something like 25% on a good day.

    My second pass is another run through, using crossing letters, where they exist.

    From then on, it is a melee of about an hour which usually leaves me five clues or so to finish off in a separate session, usually, the following day. The fresh mind seems to do wonders on this last day.

    What do others get up to?

12. @Winsor

    You are me! Spookily* so, in fact…

     

    (*No seasonal pun intended.)

13. @Winsor
    I don’t have the self-will to try to “cold solve” all clues without writing in the ones I get, thus giving cross letters for other answers.
    I go around the grid picking next clue to attempt as the one with the most or most significant crossing letters (i.e. first letters).
    The “First Pass” I describe is when I find I’ve attemped all the clues (I put a dot next to the clue when attempting it – solved or not)
    So during the “first pass” some clues will be attempted more than once, whens it attracts further crossing letters.

    Of course this doesn’t work on all crosswords. Some Guardian Enigmatists have been known to be totally blank at the end of the “first pass”

    When stuck there’s nothing like a break to clear your mind.

14. Last successful one in was DENSE, and was completely lost on SICK-LIST. Seems a very hard clue to me.

15. @MC, ah, yes, of course. I was confused because I was thinking you were the blogger, but of course it’s the Guardian Genius you blog, isn’t it? (Just finished 184 today finally, btw! Lost count of how many times I’ve picked that one up and put it down without adding anything.)

    @Winsor, what I like to try and do is read through the clues once just to appreciate the surfaces. It’s hard to resist starting to analyse them cryptically though, so I usually find one or two easy ones go in anyway. Then I make a solving pass through all the clues in order. After that it’s a question of looking for promising crossers as described by beer_magnet above. Quite often I manage the Cyclops in one session, but if I don’t (and I often won’t with harder puzzles) I nearly always find that some clues that seemed impossible first time fall easily when returning to them refreshed.

16. @winsor and contributors. I’m now able to complete the eye crossword each issue. This is thanks due to using this site for a few years and getting some tips and advice.

    However I do struggle each edition and need quite a few sessions. I look for the ‘obvious’ anagrams first. Definitely,  taking a break and returning to it helps me. Have to say that on first reading most of the clues leaves me baffled. Always surprised (and slightly smug) each fortnight when completed.

    Re #4 Did anyone else have an issue with 16a being hyphenated i.e. SICK-LIST.? This threw me off track for quite a while as I couldn’t find it anywhere hyphenated and although I slotted it in, it was the first answer I checked on this blog.

17. The latest printed issue (received today) has a hyphenated sick-list in the ‘official’ solution and a 636 winner who is not called Tony (or John!).  I’ve just completed 637 in one session by trusting my instincts on the surfaces and leaving some of the parsing until later — an approach that works for me because I’m very familiar with the Cyclops setting style and don’t do many other crosswords.

18. Thanks to everyone for their approaches. it would not be good to have all the same. It also makes me feel less adequate when I don’t get all at first pass!!! I can accept hyphenated sick-list since the list is not sick- it is the people who are sick (or lazy, if one is toward the political right!). Franko, I relate to the smug feeling too. Although, my abiding feeling is one of sadness that there is a two week wait till the next puzzle. I have even been driven to attempting the very old ones still available in the site. They pose a different challenge since the political element of what is happening at that time makes for some difficulties.

19. oops…adequate should read inadequate!!!!

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