Another year has flown by, and another 26 issues** of the Eye have landed on my doormat…and we have another Jumbo Cyclops special to while away some of the festive season…
…**well, not quite 26, as pandemic-related postal issues meant that I missed out on a couple this year (;+<)
The preamble/instructions tell us:
“Running clockwise around the shaded squares, starting top left, is an extract (with a minor change) from our regular feature, Nursery Times in 2021. [Hint: it has a minor theme]. The 52 letters of this entry not crossing with normal solutions are:
AA BBB CCC DD EEEEEEE G HHH II K LL M NNN OOO P RRRRR SSS TTTT UU V W YY
Entries should show the answers to the clues, plus the shaded squares quotation.”
Mathematically speaking, a 27 x 27 puzzle is about three times the size of a 15 x 15 (729 / 225 = 3.24), although that quotation takes up quite a bit of space, so probably less than three times the clue-solving effort of a normal Cyclops. Which is still a fair old effort!
I pressed on with solving what I could, to try and get as many shaded crossers as I could. And after what felt like at least three times as long as a normal Cyclops, I felt I was almost there and could start thinking about the next stage.
The top row looked like it started with THE ?A?Y (LADY?) ?H? (WHO?) FEATURED IN THE…; the right-hand side seemed to contain SUCCESSFUL and ?O?K?N?; the bottom row was not very obvious at all, not helped by having to read along backwards!; and the left-hand side, reading upwards, seemed to end in OF THE H?T LULLABY. Which didn’t make much sense at all yet, except that lullaby and nursery – and the references to ‘minor’ in the preamble – all seemed to tie in together.
I had hit a bit of a buffer at 44A. The printed clue was ‘Afraid of a ragged broadcast (6)’, and the crossers I had were ?F?A?D, if the shaded squares spelled out ‘…OF THE…’ at that point. To which the only answer I could come up with was AFRAID (A + FRAYED/FRAID). But the clue included the word AFRAID. I tried pattern-matching, and got AFEARD, which could be related to AFRAID as a definition, but didn’t really fit the wordplay. I guessed it was a typo/editorial mistake, and decided to enter AFRAID.
Around this point my mind turned to getting the blog started, and I went to the Eye Crossword page to copy/paste the clues into my blogging spreadsheet, and made two interesting discoveries… On the website, 44A had changed to ‘Fearful of a ragged broadcast (6)’, which justified ‘AFRAID’ as the answer…and the submission instructions were slightly different: ‘NB. Entries should be a list of answers to the clues, plus the shaded squares quotation.‘
(This last nuance is significant, for me at least, as for the last few years I have been sending my fortnightly e-mailed entries in as scanned copies of the solved puzzle, rather than lists of answers. This may explain my lack of prize wins recently!)
As I have explained here in previous Xmas Special blogs, most years I parcel up my stack of Eyes and send them off to my brother, who lives overseas. And this year was no different – around mid-August I sent the latest batch off to Paris, where he was passing through. And as usual I regretted this when it got to the Xmas special, as I only had 3-4 months’ worth of back issues to scan through to help get the theme!
Luckily for me, it turns out the relevant item was from a September issue, and is an Eye-style take off of a ‘news’ story around that time. The man who was the baby featured on the cover of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind‘ album had sued the band for ‘sexual exploitation’. I vaguely remembered seeing it at the time, but not being a particular fan or familiar with the album I didn’t give it a moment’s thought, apart from thinking he was maybe biting the band that had fed him with his 15 minutes of fame?
Anyway, there in the ‘Nursery Times’ of issue 1555 was our quotation:
“THE BABY WHO FEATURED IN THE HUGELY (VERY) SUCCESSFUL ROCKING ANTHEM ‘ROCK-A-BYE-BABY’ IS SUING THE PRODUCERS OF THE HIT LULLABY.”
With the ‘minor change’ being VERY instead of HUGELY – which could be confirmed by checking off the 52 unchecked letters:
And there we have it – another marathon effort from Cyclops, and the usual mind-boggling from your blogger as to how he decided to use that particular phrase and how he managed to work it all into the puzzle.
There are so many clues I can’t begin to do any detailed analysis here, suffice to mention that:
- I did have a chuckle at seeing the old Britney Spear(s) / PRESBYTERIAN(s) anagram at 56A – an ancient well-worn cruciverbal 18A (CHESTNUT) if ever there was one!
- I also enjoyed the idea of the editor telling Cyclops to CLUE LESS at 54A…
- there did seem to be an inordinate number of (partial- and full-) anagrams – I think I counted 29? – but as a non-setter myself, I’m not sure I can sit here and quibble about that
- I’m not 100% happy with how I have explained 4D EFFIGY or 22D PIECE
- and I hope not too many of you were stymied by the editorial slip at 44A?
Anyway, I’m sure commenters below will tell us of their particular favourites – and will pick up on anything I have missed or mis-parsed in my own marathon effort below.
Many thanks to Cyclops, for this and for another year of entertaining puzzles.
(NB. On a technical note, I have experimented below with dropping a column and putting the ‘clue/definition/parsing’ as three separate lines in the third column, whereas I used to have the clue in its own column. This is in response to comments on my Grauniad blog that people were finding it hard to see the fourth column when reading the blog on a mobile phone. I’d be grateful for any feedback as to the general readability, and whether this is an improvement… One thing I have discovered is that on my phone browser I can go into a ‘settings’ option and choose ‘desktop version’, or something similar, which displays the blog as on the website, rather than in the ‘mobile version’. I find this sometimes makes it easier to scroll around and zoom in-and-out-of a blog.)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue / Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 12A | BRAWL | Altercation from much-reduced Brown – boring thing (5) / altercation / BR( |
| 13A | ARCHITECTURAL | Related to an erection produced by devious theatrical cur (13) / related to an erection (as in a building!) / anag, i.e. devious, of THEATRICAL CUR |
| 14A | POPEYE | Strongman has crack at viewer (6) / strongman / POP (crack, try) + EYE (viewer) |
| 15A | BLOODTHIRSTY | As Dracula stuffed B-list Dorothy? (12) / as Dracula / anag, i.e. stuffed, of B-LIST DOROTHY |
| 16A | TASTY | A way to cut Tory extremes that’s palatable (5) / palatable / T_Y (extreme letters of TorY), around (cut into by) A + ST (street, way) |
| 18A | CHESTNUT | Old joke boobs and testicle (8) / old joke / CHEST (boobs) + NUT (testicle, singular) |
| 19A | GUT-ROT | Pull back balls to reveal cheap drink (3-3) / cheap drink / GUT (tug, or pull, back) + ROT (balls, rubbish) |
| 21A | EYE-OPENER | Organ associated with cricketing no. 1, say, is quite something (3-6) / quite something / EYE (bodily organ, or Private Eye, printed organ) + OPENER (cricketing No. 1, say) |
| 23A | RELUCTANCE | Trace uncle’s potty aversion (10) / aversion / anag, i.e. potty, of TRACE UNCLE |
| 25A | STUD | Boss learning to get end away (4) / boss / STUD( |
| 26A | REHASHED | Given a makeover, the woman’s backed against tree by press boss (8) / given a makeover / REH (her, the woman, backed) + ASH (tree) + ED (press boss) |
| 28A | GOOD | & 41 Praise for boxer possibly involves sentimentality, knocking back rum, and a lot of money (4,3) / praise for boxer (of the canine variety!) / GOO (sentimentality) + D_DO (odd, or rum, knocked back) + G (grand, £1k, a lot of money) |
| 29A | CONVERSE | Talk of political party lines (8) / talk / CON (Conservative, political party) + VERSE (lines, of poetry) |
| 30A | CHOSEN | Elected some macho senator (6) / elected / hidden word in, i.e. ‘some’ of, ‘maCHO SENator’ |
| 32A | LOITERS | Delays getting large with Tories around (7) / delays / L (large) + OITERS (anag, i.e. around, TORIES) |
| 35A | FINAL | Fail miserably to secure Biden’s ultimate end (5) / end / FI_AL (anag, i.e. miserably, of FAIL) around (securing) N (bideN’s ultimate letter) |
| 36A | NOTIFY | Tell if Tony is devious (6) / tell / anag, i.e. is devious, of IF TONY |
| 38A | SHRUG OFF | Casually dismiss senior with hot toupee – sick (5,3) / casually dismiss / S (senior) + H (hot) + RUG (toupee) + OFF (sick) |
| 39A | ENCIRCLED | Beset by ring stuck in rear (9) / beset by / EN_D (rear) around CIRCLE (ring) |
| 42A | UMBRELLA | Wobbly bum all, er, inverted as protection against a fall (8) / inverted as protection against a (rain)fall / anag, i.e. wobbly, of BUM ALL ER |
| 44A | AFRAID | Fearful of a ragged broadcast (6) / fearful / A + FRAID (homophone – FRAID can sound like FRAYED, ragged) |
| 46A | RECAP | To sum up: frontrunner goes arse over tip (5) / to sum up / PACER (front-runner) going arse-over-tip = RECAP! |
| 48A | ANTIGUA | Island’s giant balls-up against united African leaders (7) / island / ANTIG (anag, i.e. balls-up, of GIANT) + UA (leading letters of United African) |
| 50A | ON SHOW | Concerning who’s getting screwed and publicly visible (2,4) / publicly visible / ON (concerning) + SHOW (anag, i.e. getting screwed, of WHOS) |
| 51A | ASTONISH | Floor has a second turning, no shit! (8) / floor / A + S (second) + TONISH (anag, i.e. turning, of NO SHIT!) |
| 53A | SUIT | White-collar manager’s diamonds? (4) / double defn. / a white collar manager can be a SUIT; and in cards, diamonds are a SUIT |
| 54A | CLUELESS | Stupid order to Cyclops to cut down on the crossword stuff (8) / stupid / The Eye editor (or your blogger, on this puzzle!) might ask Cyclops to CLUE LESS, i.e. to cut down on the crossword stuff! |
| 56A | SAKE | Milk bar item, not hot alcoholic drink (4) / (Japanese) alcoholic drink / S( |
| 58A | WEST INDIES | Private Eye insisted on breaking up cricket team? (4,6) / cricket team? / WE (Private Eye) + ST INDIES (anag, i.e. breaking up, of INSISTED) |
| 60A | CLEOPATRA | Conservative sign blasted apart for the queen (9) / queen / C (Conservative) + LEO (zodiacal sign) + PATRA (anag, i.e. blasted, of APART) |
| 62A | REFUND | Give back, er, going over on romp with date (6) / give back / RE (er, going over) + FUN (romp) + D (date) |
| 63A | RUN FOR IT | What Trump intends to do about 2024 presidency? Get the hell out! (3,3,2) / get the hell out! / (or even a double defn.?) Heaven forbid that Ronald T Dump decides, of the 2024 presidency, that he wants to RUN FOR IT! |
| 65A | PROOF | Good evidence academic accepts nothing (5) / good evidence / PRO_F (professor, academic) around (accepting) O (zero, nothing) |
| 66A | PRESBYTERIAN | Britney Spears almost screwed church member (12) / church member / anag, i.e. screwed, of almost all of BRITNEY SPEAR( |
| 68A | MOTION | Crap subject for parliamentary debate? (6) / double defn. / a MOTION can be faecal matter, or crap; and a MOTION can be a subject for parliamentary debate |
| 69A | ELECTROCUTION | Republican ring getting hack to intervene in voting process – a shocking departure (13) / a shocking departure! / ELECT_ION (voting process) around (intervened in by) R (Republican) + O (ring) + CUT (hack) |
| 71A | INPUT | Contribution from Putin somewhat misplaced? (5) / contribution / PUTIN with the IN moved to the front, so somewhat displaced = INPUT |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue / Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | BELABOURED | Last of the political party stuck in river bottom – discussed at great length (10) / discussed at great length / B_ED (river bottom) around E (last letter of thE) + LABOUR (political party) |
| 2D | BALLOT | Internet searcher conceals the total votes cast (6) / votes cast / B_OT (internet search programme) around (concealing) ALL (the total) |
| 3D | DYNAMITE | Blow up Democrat? Anytime, maybe (8) / blow up / D (Democrat) + YNAMITE (anag, i.e. maybe, of ANYTIME) |
| 4D | EFFIGY | Some guy inflamed by extremist angry mob? (6) / CD? / an EFFIGY is a ‘guy’ (Fawkes) set on fire, historically, by an angry mob?. These days, for the amusement of sugar-fuelled firework-watching children… |
| 5D | PARENTING | State split on gin concoction for raising kids (9) / raising kids / PA (Pennsylvania, US state) + RENT (split) + ING (anag, i.e. concoction, of GIN) |
| 6D | JUST | Engage in combat – nothing to be lost for right? (4) / right? / J( |
| 7D | BETRAY | Biden started getting awfully teary – and cross (6) / cross / B (starting letter of Biden) + ETRAY (anag, i.e. awfully, of TEARY) |
| 8D | BIBLICAL | Incompetent, corrupt leaders in Lib-Lab arrangement, according to the book (8) / according to ‘the’ book / BIBL_AL (anag, i.e. arrangement, of LIB-LAB) around IC (leading letters of Incompetent Corrupt) |
| 9D | STAPLE | In jest, a pledge to hold things together (6) / to hold things together / hidden word in ‘jeST A PLEdge’ |
| 10D | PERPETUATE | Getting screwed up tree (held by head) – keep going! (10) / keep going! / P_ATE (head) around (holding) ERPETU (anag, i.e. screwed, of UP TREE) |
| 11D | HUCKSTERS | She struck off aggressive traders (9) / aggressive traders / anag, i.e. off, of SHE STRUCK |
| 17D | SORROWFUL | Censor row: Fulham housing in a sad state (9) / in a sad state / hidden word in, i.e. housed by, ‘cenSOR ROW FULham’ |
| 20D | TORONTO | City used by senator on tour (7) / city / hidden word in, i.e. used by, ‘senaTOR ON TOur’ |
| 22D | PIECE | Right away, stick something in member! (5) / member (part of the body) / PIE( |
| 23D | RODIN | Bar elected sculptor (5) / sculptor, Auguste / ROD (bar) + IN (elected) |
| 24D | CANON | Prison: no backing rule (5) / rule / CAN (prison) + ON (no, backing) |
| 27D | HOLD FORTH | Declaim: “Maintain river” (4,5) / declaim / HOLD (maintain) + FORTH (river, in Scotland) |
| 29D | CALCULATE | A terrible cull involved in Blanchett’s work out (9) / work out / C_ATE (Cate Blanchette, actress) around A + LCUL (anag, i.e. terrible, of CULL) |
| 31D | SAUNA | Starts to screw an unconcerned navvy at steamy place (5) / steamy place / first letters, or starts, of ‘Screw An Unconcerned Navvy At” |
| 33D | ICE | See 70dn. (3) / see 70D / see 70D |
| 34D | SYRIA | Is a revolution choking your small country? (5) / country / S_IA (anag, i.e. revolution, of IS A) around (choking) YR (abbreviation, or small, of your) |
| 37D | TRESS | Lock up dessert – Ed’s done a runner! (5) / lock (of hair) / ( |
| 40D | CAPRICCIO | Composition of Italian island, Io, visited by Conservative leader, twice (9) / (musical) composition / CAPRI (Italian island) + CC (leading letter of Conservative, twice) = IO |
| 41D | DOG | See 28ac. (3) / see 28A / see 28A |
| 43D | BROWSER | One just looking right into emergency fuel container? (7) / one just looking / B_OWSER (fuel tanker for aircraft an military vehicles – and emergency service vehicles?) around R (right) |
| 45D | DEIGN | Lower yourself, stuff one thousand dollars in hole (5) / lower yourself / DE_N (hole, lair) around (stuffed by) I (one) + G (grand, a thousand dollars) |
| 47D | COSTS | Civil Service absorbing drunken sot’s expenses (5) / expenses / C_S (Civil Service) around (absorbing) OST (anag, i.e. drunken, of SOT) |
| 49D | TULIP | Not large? Pull it off, flower! (5) / flower / anag, i.e. off, of PUL(L) IT, without L (not large) |
| 52D | OUT OF SIGHT | Kinky outfit – gosh, marvellous! (3,2,5) / marvellous! / anag, i.e. kinky, of OUTFIT GOSH |
| 55D | EXTREMITY | Next remit yields housing tip (9) / tip / hidden word in, i.e. housed by, ‘nEXT REMIT Yields’ |
| 56D | SAFARI PARK | Beastly place to flash, outside a fair ground (6,4) / beastly place / S_PARK (flash) around (outside of) AFARI (anag, i.e. ground, of A FAIR) |
| 57D | SELF-DOUBT | Reserve party gripped by flu, best dismantled (4-5) / reserve / SELF_UBT (anag, i.e. dismantled, of FLU BEST) around (gripping) DO (party, or business meeting involving wine and cheese) |
| 59D | IN THE AIR | Vague, as jet-setters often are (2,3,3) / vague / (or even a double defn.?) Jet-setters are often up IN THE AIR |
| 61D | ALBANIAN | Sugar spread over bar by one European? (8) / European / AL_AN (Alan Sugar, businessman and reality TV star) around (spread over) BAN (bar) + I (one) |
| 64D | RENEGE | Welsh recycling green energy (6) / welsh / RENEG (anag, i.e. recycling, of GREEN) + E (energy) |
| 65D | PLEASE | Asleep, being screwed, if you don’t mind! (6) / if you don’t mind / anag, i.e. being screwed, of ASLEEP |
| 66D | PLUMBS | Finds bottom excellent; bollocks quite empty (6) / finds bottom (of water) / PLUM (excellent) + BS (BollockS, quite empty!) |
| 67D | TWITCH | Jerk’s tot spiked by wife (6) / jerk / T_ITCH (small child, or tot) around (spiked by) W (wife) |
| 70D | THIN | & 33 Hint: processed diamonds, hardly your most secure means of support (4,3) / hardly your most secure means of support / THIN (anag, i.e. processed, of HINT) + ICE (diamonds, slang) |
Thanks Cyclops for the festive fun, and thanks mc for the very thorough blog – and the explanation of 44a. I assumed it had to be AFRAID, as in the clue, but only after much frustrated head-scratching. Didn’t think to look on the website.
I parsed EFFIGY the same as you and was similarly less than satisfied with it. Can’t help feeling I’m missing something there.
Luckily I kept all my back issues so checking the quote was easy enough, though it was pretty much gettable from the crossing letters anyway.
Thanks for a great blog and grid , an awful lot of work for this size. I am no help with feedback, this Chrome book is fine for both methods and I do not have a phone.
AFRAID – I just put it in , no means of checking and assumed just a glitch.
EFFIGY – suspect more but can’t see it. Maybe a reference to Lewes bonfire night celebrations.
PIECE – agree with you and do not see any problem.
UMBRELLA – had it slightly different, ALL ER inverted ( backwards ) not sure now.
Agree there were many anagrams which suited me for a large puzzle because I get them quickly. Will just pick ELECTROCUTION as a favourite and PRESBYTERIAN was worth another outing.
Thank you very much to Cyclops and your good self MC.
I love this puzzle because it lasts longer although I had much greater success this year…..finishing in one day after starting about lunchtime…a record for me!!!!!
I dispose of my old copies almost immediately so always have to use guess power to solve the final grey boxes….but the PE tone always helps. The big help this year was ‘SUCCESSFUL;………and I was able to get my last few clues from working backwards form the text to give me some more crossers!!!
@MC I am intrigued/impressed that you assume your lack of prizes is due to your not submitting correctly!! I have no expectations of prizes at all…..assuming mistakes and a plethora of other submissions will get in the way, such that seeing my name in the mag remains on my bucket list.
Did you not also find that there were word separators in the online version, mc? There must have been, because I had them in my Crossword-Compiler-produced copy of the grid. For some time now (since my printer broke) this is how I have done Cyclops and usually I create a PDF of the solution at the press of a button or two and attach that to an email by way of entry, so it felt a bit of an unnecessary slog to have to write a list of all the answers. Presumably, that format is easier to check, though, so mustn’t grumble. I’d be very much obliged (and presumably you would, too, mc) if someone would let us know whether attaching a representation of the filled grid is acceptable normally.
I don’t take the magazine, so had to just work out the quote from filling the grid and seeing where the extra letters might go. I had all the answers except 56ac and 6dn when I started that process, using a notepad doc with the quote template filled with my crossers and the list of spare letters written above, which I substituted in for the blanks where I could. Getting the K of ROCKING actually ave me what I needed for SAKE and the U of FEATURED helped me get JUST. I had expected it to be taken from a real story documenting a nursery scandal, so was a bit puzzled at first, but gradually came round to realising it was a spoof and then started to retrieve a vague memory of the Nevada story, so it all fell into place.
Like Roz, I agree with your parsing for PIECE and don’t see a problem. EFFIGY did seem awkward. Looking again now, I wonder if it’s a sort of double definition meaning that ‘an EFFIGY may be a guy, and is (generally) something set on fire by angry extremist mobs’?
Very much liked CLUELESS and, of course, ‘my’ clue at 36ac.
Nirvana, not Nevada
I always look forward to these annual puzzles as providing several days of holiday fun.
While this was just as much fun as in previous years, to my surprise I completed it at one sitting of under two hours. This included the quote, which I deduced without using the 52 letters, and then Googled the entire quote to confirm from the original article, and not vice versa.
If only there was a jumbo puzzle providing this much entertainment every two weeks, without having to wait a whole year ……
A marathon puzzle and I was just beaten by one clue.
In my (magazine) copy of the puzzle I do have bold lines to show the words in the missing phrase so it’s odd that you (@MC) didn’t.
I’ll share my failure: 4d for which I had the edgy, but believable from Private Eye “c*nt”. Stretching engage to become count, and right BLANK to give a right c*nt. Meant I couldn’t leave the mag lying around the house!
Thanks for the great blog and sharing how it filled apparently as much of your holiday break as it did of mine!
Thanks for the various comments and feedback – much appreciated, as usual – and HNY to all!
Tony Collman and George Dawes – I have deleted the paragraph about enumeration/bold lines – they were there in both versions – good job I am off to the optician’s this month – must get the reading correction in my varifocals strengthened!
Seems like most agreed with my parsings of EFFIGY and PIECE – thanks to those who have commented.
Winsor at #3 – I am a self-confessed prize puzzle tart – I probably send in 10-15 per week to various papers/websites, and have had a reasonable return over the years – book tokens, dictionaries, cash, bottles of champagne, etc. – including a couple of Eye prizes, but not for a good while. This was all triggered by winning the Grauniad Saturday prize puzzle back in the mid 90s (which p*ssed my Dad off no end, as he had been sending it in unsuccessfully for years, and got me in to solving in the first place!).
rodshaw at #6 – glad to hear you enjoyed it so much. Not sure Cyclops would be too pleased with having to produce one of these every fortnight! (Not sure I’d want to blog one every month, either…)
George Dawes at #7 – I think that would be a bit ‘edgy’ even for the Eye! There was an asterisked c**t in a clue in Eye 664, and an indirect reference to a ‘taboo word’ in wordplay for UNCUT in Eye 363, but I don’t recall the word appearing as a solution in its own right.
Meanwhile, back in the nursery:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/04/nirvana-nevermind-baby-cover-artwork-lawsuit-dismissed
[Nice one, John. The Graun forgot to mention media reaction:
https://www.spin.com/2021/10/bill-maher-nevermind-baby-lawsuit-reaction/ ]
And Cyclops has responded to a reader’s letter in the current edition of the Eye to apologise for the error at 44 across. The error was spotted before going to press but sadly didn’t make it into the published magazine.
Thanks for the update, bridgesong at #11 – the latest issue hasn’t dropped onto my doorstep yet… Hopefully they were forgiving of any error at 44A when picking the winning entry out of the hat.
Many thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops for some mammoth pieces of work. Thanks also to John E who gave a tip in the previous blog for the errant 44a. This saved me a lot of grief on 44a where I initially went for AFEARD. I couldn’t parse GOOD DOG for 28a/41d after slotting it in (I just didn’t see GOO = SENTIMENTALITY)
Re 53a – for a while I went for STUD with its connection to shirt collar management and stud diamonds but it had already appeared in 25a, but it does seem a reasonable alternative to SUIT.