I just had a surprise – the Christmas issue of Private Eye dropped through the letterbox today, Friday.
I hadn’t noticed last issue covered only for 1 week (and a bit) not the usual 2, and your entries for this one, number 717, should have been in by Tuesday.
Given that, I will publish this blog as soon as I have finished it – it seems churlish to wait till the usual Monday morning.
Then we can all get stuck into the next puzzle which is the usual Xmas special.
The Xmas issue covers 3 weeks so we have plenty of time to have a bash at the giant 27×27 special
Back to this puzzle. There seemed to be a number of what I would call “minimal anagrams” – cases where an anagram is clearly indicated and it is indeed an anagram action, but of the most lackadaisical kind, such as swapping two letters. Somehow this is disconcerting, you think “is that all it is?”.
Solving was lumpy. I was off to a good start by filling in all 6 answers in the top left in short order, but was then completely stumped on the top right. It was that top right corner that held out the longest – I just could not think of Corbyn. I certainly needed all crossing letters to get the final answer 7 Down which is a very good clue using a novel wordplay mechanism. I’ve seen that L/R swap used before and it always catches me out.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | RABBIT | Talk of bra stuffed with small coin (6) BRA* AInd: stuffed, BIT (small coin). Rabbit in the “Chas’n’Dave” sense |
| 9 | REPORTER | From whom there’s news Brenda’s back on the drink (8) ER< (Brenda, The Queen, ER), is back (reversed) PORTER (the drink) |
| 11 | STANDARDS | Seeks to be an MP, holding right to be in ad for British newspapers? (9) STANDS (Seeks to be an MP) around (holding) R[ight] in AD. “The placename Standard” is a recognisable name for a newspaper |
| 12 | CORBY | Old party leader sees off his last Midland town (5) CORBY[n] For some reason I had trouble with this one |
| 13 | LAPSE | Slip makes genital area extremely sore (5) LAP (genital area) S[or]E |
| 15 | DESTROYER | Buck suppresses story about being a vandal (9) DEER (buck) around (suppresses) STORY* AInd: about. Minimalist anagramming |
| 16 | OBSERVATORY | Good place to see stars getting oddly sober on toilet (LA excepted) (11) (SOBER)* AInd: oddly, making OBSER, then [la]VATORY |
| 21 | PROPRIETY | In favour of dutiful conduct, maintaining the ultimate in regular decency (9) PRO (In favour of) PIETY (dutiful conduct) around (maintaining) [regula]R |
| 23/26 | UNDER OATH | Obliged to be truthful around the ground (5,4) (AROUND THE)* AInd: ground, excellent anagram which I didn’t see till afterwards having BIFD’d the answer |
| 24 | TITLE | Lady‘s boob on live entertainment debut? (5) TIT (boob) L[ive] E[ntertainment]. Lady is a example of a title thus the “?” on the clue. Clues like this are why we pay our hard-earned money to read The Eye |
| 25 | HOUSEBOAT | Crafty thing has MPs seated next to snake (Tory leader) (9) HOUSE (MPs seated) BOA (snake) T[ory]. Nice definition |
| 27 | GERONIMO | Extremely lacking, Lord Gnome collapsed with “Independence” war cry (8) ([l]OR[d] GNOME + I[ndependence])* AInd: collapsed. As a very small boy I remember shouting “Geronimo!” when jumping off the big earth mound in the big field (aka defending the castle). |
| 28 | BEATEN | Elton put away inside, hammered (6) EAT (put away) inside BEN (Elton). Not that Elton |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRESTLE | Support broadcast letters (7) (LETTERS)* AInd: broadcast. First read and first answered – not the world’s hardest anagram |
| 2 | ABBA | A group of alcoholics including bishops (4) AA (alcoholics, A Anonymous) around BB (Bishops) |
| 3 | FIDDLE | Fool around – tool cut by date, twice (6) FILE (tool) around (cut by) DD (date, twice). I’m not sure the definition quite fits |
| 4 | CENSUS | Uses cooks around North after cold count (6) C[old], (USES + N[orth])* AInd: cooks. |
| 5 | CONCERTO | Composition of party foregone conclusion – zilch! (8) CON (party) CERT (foregone conclusion) O (zilch) |
| 6 | STARRY-EYED | Sun: hollow rivalry with our mag – ultimately absurd and unrealistic (6-4) STAR (Sun) R[ivalr]Y EYE (our mag) [absur]D |
| 7 | PRAYERS | Appeals of actors experiencing change of political allegiance? (7) PLAYERS (actors) with R/L swapped (change of political allegiance) Last one in. |
| 10 | TRADER | Wheeler-dealer lifted old Communist paintings (6) RED (old Communist) ART (paintings) all reversed, Rev Ind: lifted |
| 14 | PROMONTORY | Marketing video going to new politician’s head (10) PROMO (marketing video) N[ew] TORY (politician) |
| 17 | SERGEANT | Rank material by TV presenter (8) SERGE (material) ANT (TV presenter) {the one on the left} |
| 18 | ASYLUM | Say mule ditching drug possibly gets state protection (6) (SAY MULE – E)* AInd: possibly. |
| 19 | UPSTAGE | Raise leg to get an advantage on the boards (7) UP (raise) STAGE (leg) with an extended definition, or possibly 2 definitions? |
| 20 | PRETEND | Fake, artificially pert rear (7) (PERT)* AInd: artifically, END (rear). Another minimal anagram |
| 22 | EXHUME | During sex, hum ‘Emotion’ and move the body (6) Hidden in sEX HUM Emotion |
| 23 | UNEVEN | Rough venue, kinky name (6) (VENUE)* AInd: kinky, N[ame] |
To people putting up Christmas lights in your gardens.
Can you please avoid anything that has bright blue flashing lights.
When I come around the corner, I think it is the police and I have a panic attack.
I have to screw the top back on the whisky bottle and chuck it in the glove box, stub out my reefer, put my mobile in my pocket, do up the seatbelt, and kick my gun under the seat, all while trying to drive.
This is all just too much – even for Christmas.
Thank you for your understanding.
24 Across prompted me to dig out this review (from the letterboxd.com site) of an old Jane Russell movie.
It was most unexpected to find the blog on a Saturday morning. Thanks Beermagnet, and for the untangling.
I also wondered about the definition for FIDDLE and finally decided that “fool around” was the same as “play around” so decided the definition was just “fool”. But it feels uncomfortable.
Living on the other side of the world, I had to consult Google for a list of Midland towns and the a smile when I realised which it was. Yes, it was my last in as well but that is understandable.
The rest seemed to be fine so thanks for the fun Cyclops.
Thanks for the blog, very surprising on a Friday. I see what you mean about some of the anagrams, it is still an anagram but usually setters do something else when , in effect, just one letter is moving.
Perhaps FIDDLE can mean mess around which then intersects with fool around .
I thought PRAYERS was very deceptive.
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. Re 23/26 -I didn’t know what “BIFD” meant ,but a bit of googling revealed “Bunged in From Definition?”. Initailly, I didn’t recognise GROUND as an anagram indicator but saw it in the end. A neat clue!
My take on FIDDLE (3d) was similar to Roz @ 2 e.g. someone fiddling, repairing or playing with something in a casual way. PRAYERS (7d) are quite often deceptive.
Mystogre@1 – Despite living in England, I also googled CORBY. I had a vague recollection of the name but had to check.
Best wishes for festive season and thanks to beermagnet, mc_rapper67, Cyclops and fellow Private Eye crossword fans.
Given Cyclops’ nature I am rather disappointed that the – albeit clever – clue for Corby involved neither trousers nor presses.
As you, I couldn’t really parse Fiddle, so came here. Thanks as always for the blog.
Thanks beermagnet. Strange how quickly CORBYN has faded from many of our minds as I also took a while over it, but at least knew Corby from school days as an industrial town (Steel I think) that had suffered in the 80s and had an unemployment problem – though why I would have studied that in what must have been Geography GCSE escapes me. Roz@2 surprised you have not complained that we were not explicitly told which of the Rs in “prayers” needed to change, or are you going soft now it’s nearly Christmas? Speaking of which – Happy Festivus everyone.
Gazzh @5 it is PLAYERS that need to change so we get PLAYELS or PRAYERS,
Do not think I have seen the R/L swap for political reasons before ??
I of course celebrate the Solstice, tomorrow at 4PM but the term does loosely mean the whole day.
You are correct , Corby was a very important steel town ruined by Thatcher.
I think I went to Corby once, to pick up a car. Still took me a while. I was embarrassed at how easily Corbyn had slipped from consciousness.
13ac, LAPSE was good. You don’t immediately think of the lap as “the genital area”, do you, but it is.
Yes, I liked 23/26 UNDER OATH, too. Anagrams with little words like ‘the’ in the fodder are difficult to spot, I find.
Didn’t like the anagram in 1d? Here, have a homophone:
Support from outspoken left-wing novelist?
Is I the abbreviation for independence? (27ac GERONIMO). I’ve seen ‘independent’ for I before (and consulting Collins, that’s only in America according to them) but not ‘independence’.
In 10dn, TRADER, I wondered why the Communist paintings were old?
Roz@6, I was going to ask an astronomer friend tomorrow exactly when the Solstice occurred, but now I know. What exactly will you do at 4pm to celebrate?
Outlaw poster caption competition? “Look out! She’s going for a concealed bazooka!”
Tony it is 15.59 GMT to be precise but the whole day has come to be known as the Solstice. I will celebrate in traditional fashion of course.
[Roz, surely only precise to the nearest minute? I would have expected at least the seconds from you!
Traditional fashion? I take it you won’t be singing any carols? Maybe like:
“Celtic druids would mark the winter solstice with the cutting of mistletoe and lighting a ‘yule log’, believed to banish darkness and evil spirits.”
https://inews.co.uk/news/winter-solstice-2021-meaning-what-the-shortest-day-of-the-year-means-and-stonehenge-celebrations-explained-1362710
?
Whatever. Happy Solstice to you and all!]
[ Tony @9 the druids are a bit too serious for my liking, the Romans had the right idea, apart from the sacrifices of course. }
The Christmas crossword has just been published on the Private Eye website. It differs from the version originally printed in issue 1563, which had a daft error in one of the clues. The website does not mention that this clue has been changed. I emailed the Eye on December 19 pointing out the error in the printed version but they did not reply to my email.
Thanks for the tipoff, John E. Btw, further to the recently raised question of what form email entries should take, I note there are specific instructions for the Christmas special:
NB. Entries should be a list of answers to the clues, plus the shaded squares quotation.
… which is a shame in a way, as (following guidance helpfully provided last year by Cyclops) I have used Crossword Compiler to create an exact copy of the grid, complete with unnumbered, yellow squares for the quotation. Assuming I manage to finish it (by no means certain, especially as I’m online-only and Nursery Times, afaik, only appears in print), I won’t be able to just order a pdf of the solution with a couple of clicks and attach it to an email as is my usual practice. Hopefully it’s only this outsized puzzle where those instructions needto be followed, or I’ve been wasting my time entering by email with pdfs for quite some time!
@Tony….I guess the DER bit refers to RED as Old Communists…….not sure what current communists are called…..then again, they are Der Linke in Germany.
Winsor, my point was, I don’t think ‘red’ has stopped being associated with Communism, even to the extent of standing for ‘Communist’, so I think “Communist paintings” would have done for RED ART without the “old” and I don’t see what that word added to the clue. Perhaps it just makes them more appealing to a wheeler-dealer?
Not sure about 9A: in an across clue ‘on’ generally indicates the fodder follows the words before it, hence this clues PORTERRE.
Barrie, it’s not that unusual for ‘on’ to signal attachment at either end in an across clue. In a down clue, however, it would always indicate ‘before’, due to the spatial nature of ‘on’ considered in the vertical dimension.
Tony, I agree re Down clues but in Across ones certainly the Times and others like it to be an afterwards positionicator.
The trailer is on (and therefore behind) the car.
It would be nice to have some consistency.
Barrie:
What the Times does is up to the Times.
Here in Eye-land the rules are quite severe. Cyclops is fiercely Ximenean and additionally strives towards the rudest, most prurient clues. (That’s what I call consistency.)
Within that, the status of “on” as a positionicator (I like it! – maybe PInd? Nah, no need) is a minor point. Others might find it lax but we must live with it.
I’m afraid context is everything and your motorcar example can easily be disabused:
A trailer naturally trails so it is naturally behind, whereas e.g. headlights on a car will be at the front.
Mind you, film trailers occur at the front of a showing, so not all trailers are equal!
Barrie, The Times has a lot of rules, some of which can seem quite arbitrary. Is the handle on the door at the front or the back? What about the handle on the other side of the door?
I don’t see why Private Eye’s setter should knuckle under and make his practice consistent with The Times’ editor’s diktats.
Btw, Beermagnet, it’s the person who’s disabused of the idea, isn’t it, rather than the idea itself being disabused? Maybe ‘contradicted’ was the word you were looking for?
Btw, Beermagnet, it’s the person who’s disabused of the idea, isn’t it, rather than the idea itself being disbursed? Maybe ‘contradicted’ was the word you were looking for?