After a week of lockdown, and seemingly no respite in sight, it is reassuring to be able to dip into crosswords, or any other diversionary activity, to get one’s mind off things…that is until all the coronavirus-themed puzzles start popping up!
Some comforting familiarity from Cyclops this fortnight…with Boris, May and Trump getting mentions – although no Brenda, and relatively little smuttery…
I enjoyed the hidden ‘I SAY’ in Alexei Sayle at 12A, as well as Rocky wanting to act like Trump at 13A (I suspect it is more the other way around…), but I think my favourite was 17D with the dirty old Soho flasher’s ‘Mac’ being associated with Apple’s holier-than-thou branding…
There seemed to be quite a few borderline double definitions – 22A, 2D, 3D, 17D – or is that just me not working them out properly?
Thanks to Cyclops, and hope you are all self-insulating safely – and sanely…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | ECOLOGY | Scientific study is sort of cool in Egypt if there’s no physical exercise! (7) | scientific study / E_GY( |
|
| 5A | KESWICK | Drugs wife in boot town in northern England (7) | town in northern England / K_ICK (boot), around ES (Es, or Ecstasy tablets) + W (wife) |
|
| 10A | COMMON COLD | Green Conservative, past sell-by date, often unwillingly caught (6,4) | (something) often unwittingly caught / COMMON (green, park) + C (Conservative) + OLD (past sell-by-date) |
|
| 11A | LACK | Filthy topless miss (4) | miss / ( |
|
| 12A | I SAY | “WTF” clip from Alexei Sayle (1,3) | WTF! / hidden word in, i.e. clip from, ‘alexeI SAYle’ |
|
| 13A | WIELD POWER | Get to act like Trump? “Wow!” replied Rocky (5,5) | get to act like Trump / anag, i.e. rocky, of WOW REPLIED |
|
| 14A | COMMERCE | Bully keeping millions in trade (8) | trade / CO_ERCE (bully) around (keeping) MM (millions) |
|
| 16A | PLASMA | City’s in the pocket of Boris and America’s leader – it’s in the blood (6) | it’s in the blood / P_M (Boris) around (pocketing) LAS (LA’s, or city’s), plus A (leading letter of America) |
|
| 18A | ADRIFT | On one date cleavage proves to be purposeless! (6) | purposeless / A (one) + D (date) + RIFT (cleavage) |
|
| 20A | REDIRECT | Bloody Cyclops – cert to shift and sidetrack (8) | sidetrack / RED (bloody) + I (Cyclops, the setter) + RECT (anag, i.e. to shift, of CERT) |
|
| 22A | FLOODGATES | See 28A (10) | See 28A / See 28A |
|
| 24A | HAND | See 25A (4) | See 25A / See 25A |
|
| 25A | GLAD | & 24ac. Act like campaigning politician with a lot of money – “son needs support” (4-4) | act like campaigning politician / G (grand, £1000, a lot of money) + LAD (son) + HAND (support) |
|
| 26A | IRRITATION | Drag in traitor involved with one (10) | drag / anag, i.e. involved, of IN TRAITOR + I (one) |
|
| 27A | PEERAGE | Piss and rant: the making of the House of Lords (7) | the making of the House of Lords / PEE (piss) + RAGE (rant) |
|
| 28A | OPEN THE | & 22 Prepare to release liquid intake? Abandon all restrictions! (4,3,10) | double defn.? /prepare to release liquid intake? / To ‘OPEN THE FLOODGATES’ could be to prepare to ‘release liquid intake’ or to ‘abandon all restrictions’… |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | CROSSWORD | Bugger your task in hand? (9) | double defn. ? / bugger (a cross word!) / the task in your hand (or on your screen?!) is currently this CROSSWORD |
|
| 3D | LIMEY | Fruity Brit (5) | double defn? / fruity / if something is fruit-y, then it could be a lime-y; American slang for a Brit |
|
| 4D | GANG WAR | Joke about Northern crude turned up criminal hostility (4,3) | criminal hostility / GA_G (joke) around N (northern) + WAR (raw, or crude, turned up) |
|
| 6D | ENDED UP | DUP need shaking up –”Finally arrived!” (5,2) | finally arrived / anag, i.e. shaking up, of DUP NEED – rare slip to have ‘up’ in the wordplay and solution(?) |
|
| 7D | WALK ON AIR | Will anorak, on abandoning Labour leader, possibly be exhilarated? (4,2,3) | possibly be exhilarated / anag, i.e. possibly, of WIL( |
|
| 8D | CACHE | Long after Commons leader reveals store of valuables (5) | store of valuables / C (leading letter of Commons) + ACHE (long, yearn) |
|
| 9D | HOME SECRETARY | May’s three core wobbles, as a minister (4,9) | a minister / anag, i.e. wobbles, of MAYS THREE CORE |
|
| 15D | MAIL ORDER | The ‘brotherhood’ broadcast Amazon’s business (4,5) | Amazon’s business / homophone – a brotherhood might be a MALE ORDER of e.g. monks, which sounds like the MAIL ORDER business run by Amazon) |
|
| 17D | MACINTOSH | Computer brand once grubbily associated with blue movie patron? (9) | double defn. ? / for younger solvers, the Apple Mac was originally launched as the Apple MACINTOSH; and for younger solvers again, in the old days the only way one could watch ‘blue movies’ was to patronise seedy cinemas – usually wearing a grubby MACINTOSH! |
|
| 19D | TUGGING | Gut reaction: drink good for pulling (7) | pulling / TUG (reaction – anag, or reversal of GUT?) + GIN (drink) + G (good) |
|
| 21D | DESKTOP | With involvement of Kremlin head, despot hacked a PC (7) | a PC (personal computer, not Police Constable!) / DES_TOP (anag, i.e. hacked, of DESPOT) around (involving) + K (the head, or first letter, of Kremlin) |
|
| 23D | LILLE | Little England starts to seize run-down continental town (5) | continental town / L_E (first, or starting, letters of Little England) around (seizing) ILL (run-down) |
|
| 24D | HIT ON | Like an actress confronted by Weinstein: “sell-out to get working”? (3,2) | like an actress confronted by (Harvey) Weinstein / HIT (sell-out, success) + ON (working) |
|
Thank you mc-rapper!!! No huge problems this time for me. I thought that maybe ‘common cold’ was a slight lean toward coronavirus?
> I thought that maybe ‘common cold’ was a slight lean toward coronavirus?
That crazy meat eater.
Thanks mc_rapper. Re 1A – annoyingly, this was my last one in . I spent too much time with PE =Physical Exercise firmly lodged in my mind. That’s how we referred to those classes when I was a lad. PT is also widely used and was in a previous Cyclops some time ago. Keep well all and thanks again.
Thanks for the various comments – hope everyone is safe and well…
Not sure what lemming is on about at at #2 ?!
Franko at #3 – yes, PE/PT are both often referred to as ‘exercise’ or ‘training’ – fairly interchangeable… Likewise RE and RI for Religious Education/Religious Instruction – although I vaguely remember that it was called ‘Divinity’ wen i wuz at skool!
For me it was PT at junior school…although none of us knew what it meant……but at grammar school it was Physical Education!!!! None of your ‘exercise’ for us!!!
Mc, CORONAVIRUS is an anagram of ‘carnivorous’, a fact that was exploited in a brilliant headline in the Australian PETA journal:
Coronavirus Pandemic Is Linked to Eating Animal Flesh
which, if you’ll accept “pandemic” (= all over the place?) as an anagram indicator, is a cryptic clue for CARNIVOROUS.
https://www.peta.org.au/news/coronavirus/
At my (grammar) school, it was PE & RE, though what actually took place was closer to Training & Instruction than education.
Our subjects were taught by Killer and Holy Joe!!!! But I fear we are straying from the thread a little.
Winsor, take 200 lines: “I must not go off topic”
Tony…too easy these days with copy and paste!!! But I could write with four pens at once on occasions!!!
Watch out Winsor and Tony – my old Latin teacher ‘Flogger’ Brooks would have jumped on any straying from the topic!… ‘Romanes Eunt Domus’…discuss.
Tony Collman at #6 – thanks for explaining the CORONAVIRUS/CARNIVOROUS dichotomy – obvious when I look at it now!
Anyway, correspondence closed, I think…I’m a bit concerned that I haven’t seen the new edition hit my doormat yet, but Cyclops 674 is available on the Eye website…
mc @ 11 — The new edition hit my doormat yesterday (just one day late).
I notice that beermagnet hasn’t posted his blog for #474 yet. I hope he’s OK.
Hi Will – nothing to worry about – the latest Eye covers a 3-week period (due to Easter, not Covid-19) so the closing date for 674 has moved out by a week…
Doh! Thanks for that.
I guess that means 675 won’t be out till next week, then, mc, and they’ll be fortnightly from then?
Indeed , Tony…until they juggle the dates again at Xmas, as usual…
Ah, thanks, mc