Cyclops 658 – Dumbed-Down Accord

12 comments on “Cyclops 658 – Dumbed-Down Accord”

1. 2D/15A seems a rather backwards clue, but there are synonyms of ‘grand’ that fit the word order, to give (for example) ‘baby of high rank’.

2. Can’t hep thinking that someone tossing at a coconut shy isn’t going to win any prizes. I spent ages on 1D trying to make ‘Old Bill’, till ‘the’ penny dropped.

3. Luckily I was primed for ‘one’s’ = ‘your’ from the other week, or I might have had trouble with 11ac. I thought 22 was a beautifully Cyclopean clue for BROOD and it was very pleasing to see “M. Caine” used in an anagram of CINEMATIC.

   2d/15 deserved to get a bit of a hammering, I think. Surely ‘grand baby’ would be a more likely description of the young royal? Or have we missed something?

   There were a couple of typos, btw, mc: In 9ac, “cup reported” should presumably be ‘cub reporter’ and an ‘n’ has slipped into ‘limb’ in the parsing for 3dn.

4. Winsor at #2 – I have won many coconuts at the local fete over the years with a firm toss!

   Tony at #3 – thanks for the typos, duly corrected – I may have been shlightly ‘tired and emotional’ on Friday night as I typed up my parshings on the late train home from London…

   The jury remains open on 2D/15A…

5. Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Cyclops

   Could Prince Archie be the? i.e (in the sense of heir and a spare) “Baby GR ( George REX ) and?

   Probably not, but I think sometimes setters with a slightly twisted sense of humour (wot cyclops?), enjoy posing this sort of thing and then sitting back to enjoy the sideshow.

6. @Dansar….Straws? Clutching? However, I admire your imagination!!!! 🙂

    

7. I got to 21D Off Days – but thanks for explaining how. …….would have twigged if clue had been “Dicky mounting duke, say, in disarray……” Keeps the grey matter flexible, though.

8. Thanks mc_rapper67. I found this a tough one but managed the solutions.
   I wrote one note against 6 “why main?” and had forgotten about main in the sense of sea e.g. the Spanish Main.
   Re 2D – I somehow thought of this like someone describing a person orally in a kind of shorthand. I had a mental image of John Mills being asked what a Mr X was like, “Teacher, Tall, Spindly” i.e. noun and then adjective(s).
   Forgive my musings!

9. It’s a late comment for which apologies, but 3D threw me.  I had “Ant and mates’ mass action” as derived from Ant (as formerly of Ant and Dec fame) and his presumed local associates’ slangy northern English pronunciation of ‘that working’ for ‘mass action’; thus “ t’werking “.  The member concerned being an imagined Cyclopsian smutty gender equivalent for that of a lady.

   Sadly the cross clues didn’t stall my misconception!

10. No comments on 13a?  I know that putting a smear of grease on a bearing surface to lubricate it is akin to a meme that comes very readily to mind, but I don’t think of ‘smear’ and ‘lubricate’ as synonyms or semantic similars.

11. @lemming

    ‘Smear’ derives from O.E. smeru = fat, grease; cf German, Schmer = grease (Chambers). The normal present-day verbal meaning derives from exactly the practice you describe.

12. The substantive smear<-Fat, grease, lard, ointment derivation is fine. The problem is that I can look through the whole of the OED’s smear,n. and smear,v. pages and not find any reference to lubrication among the various examples of usage. And I’ve not come across any modern instances of anything like “This joint is grating; it needs to be smeared.” Can anyone point to any, in any modern sociolect or jargon?

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