And so to my second favourite feature of Private Eye (I will declare the Eye’s cartoons are always the first thing I consume).
Solving was yet another round of making life difficult for myself by putting in an answer without fully checking it matched the wordplay. This time it was 17a which I cheerfully wrote in as SALIVATING thus putting an N at third in 15d. Contrary to 15d’s answer this completely fooled me. I compounded the error at 15d. After staring at F?N?????F for some time I convinced myself the enumeration was wrong, (6,3) instead of (9), and FINISH OFF was likely from “topping”. Thus screwing 24a and 27a. It took getting the rest of the bottom right corner (and the rest of the puzzle) before it became clear there was a problem. There was only one president that fitted most of the letters I had for 27a (not the one implied by the surface reading). Then similarly PILGRIM was obvious for 24a once I discounted the leading S. So I had a wry smile when correcting FOOLPROOF and finding my SALIVATION.
Favourite clue: 27A – for superior smut in a surface reading that is also rock solid wordplay.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | URBANISED | Built-up city band is pissed, without energy (9) UR (city) (BAND IS)* AInd: pissed, around (about) E[nergy] |
| 6 | SOCKS | Bashes – they come in twos (5) Double Def |
| 9 | SHAMELESS | Flagrant imitation gets E- (9) SHAM (imitation) E- (E, LESS) |
| 10 | STRAP | Whip rejected members (5) PARTS< (members, rejected) |
| 11 | TRAILED | Scoffed after Tory leader held up rear (7) T[ory] RAILED (scoffed) |
| 12 | OPEN-AIR | Outside, making love, dash off with wind (4-3) O (love) PEN (dash-off) AIR (wind) |
| 13/19/14 | VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE | Dodgy convenience food of Tory leader? It could be the end of him (4,2,2,10) (CONVENIENCE FOOD OF T[ory])* AInd: Dodgy. |
| 17 | SALIVATION | Slavering Cyclops taking part in rescue (10) I (Cyclops) inside (taking part in) SALVATION (rescue). Last to be properly solved |
| 22 | IMMERSE | Claim Merseyside has swallowed Bury? (7) Hidden in claIM MERSEyside |
| 24 | PILGRIM | Tip removed from contraceptive by ghastly, devoted traveller (7) PIL[l] GRIM. Last to be filled in with something |
| 26 | UNTIE | BBC head must go – ensure no strings attached (5) [a]UNTIE |
| 27 | ROOSEVELT | President wants short jumpers on the First Lady with large opening for tits (9) ROOS (short jumpers) EVE (First Lady) L[arge] T[its] |
| 28 | ELDER | Senior, beginning to wank off metalworker (5) [w]ELDER |
| 29 | LIFESTYLE | Lefty lies about his material situation and things he likes to do? (9) (LEFTY LIES)* AInd: about. Extended definition makes me wonder |
| Down | ||
| 1 | UPSET | Pissed off over sex initiated with alien (5) UP (over) S[ex] ET (alien) |
| 2 | BLATANT | Flier guards source of lie about Brown? Glaringly obvious (7) BAT (Flier) around (guards) L[ie] then (TAN)* AInd: about. |
| 3 | NEEDLE | Prick‘s end tickled with eel (6) (END + EEL)* AInd: tickled. |
| 4 | SPEEDBOAT | Crafty thing secures drug ring in club (9) SPEED (drug) O (ring) inside BAT (club) |
| 5 | DISCO | Is Conservative leader at the heart of party music venue? (5) IS C[onservative] inside DO (party). First one in – from checking 1A ended in D and this was very obvious if starting D. |
| 6 | SUSPENDS | Brenda, out of underwear straps, is a swinger (8) SUSPENDERS (underwear straps) – ER (Brenda) |
| 7 | CERTAIN | Extreme Right Tory sources protected by killer, for sure (7) E[xtreme] R[ight] T[ory] inside CAIN (killer) |
| 8 | SUPERHERO | Who’ll save the world from the woman embraced by obnoxious poseur? (9) HER (the woman) inside (POSEUR)* AInd: obnoxious. |
| 13 | VESTIBULE | Lobby representative, finally, but lives will be ruined (9) ([representativ]E BUT LIVES)* AInd: will be ruined. |
| 15 | FOOLPROOF | Infallible buffoon wants Pence topping? (9) FOOL (buffoon) P[rince] ROOF (topping) |
| 16 | OVERHEAR | Use bugging device and experience too much audio input? (8) Double Def |
| 18 | LIMITED | Being narrow, acted like many a politician, holding back time virtually (7) LIED (acted like many a politician) around (holding) TIM[e]< |
| 20 | FORGERY | In favour of, say, turning Republican, start to yell “Fake!” (7) FOR (In favour of) EG< (say, turning) R[epublican] Y[ell] |
| 21 | PLIERS | Liberal on the inside, Morgan is a tool! (6) L[iberal] inside PIERS [Morgan] |
| 23 | ENROL | Lone Ranger’s first for screwing – put your name down! (5) (LONE R[anger])* AInd: screwing. |
| 25 | MITRE | Joint head of trust in the shit (5) T[rust] inside MIRE (the shit) |
After all the exhortations from the experts I was at my computer drafting up my will.
So I called to my partner “Darling! When I die I’m leaving everything to you”
She hollered back from the kitchen: “You do already, you lazy bastard”
Thanks for the blog, SALIVATION is very deceptive, I did ponder whether SALVATING meant to rescue but then thought better of it. It is surprising how often a mistaken entry forces us into another mistaken entry and big trouble and a messy grid later.
I agree that ROOSEVELT is the standout clue, brilliant wordplay. I also liked SHAMELESS and UNTIE.
I did a similar thing – putting in a wrong answer which fitted the clue. I was pleased to write in my solution to “6A Bashes – they come in twos (5)” as my first one in, almost instantly, as BALLS (in the sense that a “Bash” is some sort of dance or gathering). My answer was very much in Cyclops’ style, too. Caused problems for a while until I realised the correct answer.
Michael@2 I wonder how many people put BALLS at first ? It is perhaps a better answer.
As someone who has to sort out all the dried laundry, pairing the socks is the worst job ever { hint to Beermagnet after his joke } so 6Ac was fine for me.
Thanks beermagnet and commiserations on the false trail. I got there in the end but wasn’t too sure about some eg SUSPENDS and RAILED for Scoff, both of which I struggled to equate from my own vocab although I am sure they are legit. SOCKS took a while, not because of Michael John’s fine alternative, but because in our house they may enter the laundry process in pairs but don’t always leave it that way. However this can lead to serendipitous joy when a favourite, long thought lost to the Genie of the Drum, somehow returns after several weeks AWOL. Agree on the top clues mentioned with a mention for the triple entry anagram too.
Thanks Gazzh for the compliment. You know something that could be a crowning achievement for a crossword compiler – a cryptic crossword which has all the same clues, but two entire and completely valid solutions to each of the clues, making two different solutions to the crossword. I know there are many crosswords published with two sets of clues to the same solution, but I’m talking about the other way round. They could publish it without saying so, and then after the entries are in, print the two solutions and award two prizes. Anyone know if it has ever been tried, or would it be considered impossible to do?
[Michael John yes I think something like that was done for an April Fool puzzle once but before my time as a solver, hopefully one of the veteran yet remarkably youthful commentators on here can assist? maybe post it as a question in General Discussion to get a wider audience.]
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I also doff my cap to Michael John @2.
I found this a tough puzzle. On the theme of putting in an alternative answer, for10a I had PARTS which seems to be a valid solution. However a SUPERHERO on 8d came to the rescue. 21d was my favourite.
Michael @5 , my grandmother told me a story about Ximenes setting an April 1st puzzle , I think in 1961.
One quadrant had clues with two possible solutions , call them type A and type B. The A solutions all fitted together and with the rest of the puzzle giving the final correct solution . The B solutions fitted together but clashed with the rest of the puzzle at one crossing letter. No warning was given, This was discussed on General Discussion but quite a while ago.
I made this rather harder for myself with an incorrect answer for 6ac. “Bashes – they come in twos”: “aha”, I thought, this is the Private Eye and so the answer is clearly “Balls”.
Porphyro@9 – Michael John@2 had similar thinking. It does seem the perfect solution.
Porphyro @9 — Cyclops is Brummie’s alter ego, so it had to be *socks”:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2019/02/27/guardian-cryptic-27755-by-brummie/
MJ @ 5
I think it was Donk in the Indy who did a puzzle with pairs of identical clues leading to different solutions.
And possibly Soup in the graun did something similar (in a Genius?)
It’s a fair while back, but I think that’s right.
Porphyro@9, I got stuck putting ‘laces’ for 6ac which also fitted the clue nicely, but in retrospect was a less satisfying answer than either ‘socks’ or ‘balls’.
Sorry to be late. Too busy comparing our propaganda with their propaganda.
I found this took me quite a bit longer than usual. Not sure why now.
11ac, TRAILED: scoff = rail?
12ac, OPEN AIR: “dash off” for PEN was cute
22ac: I thought bury=IMMERSE was dubious, but I decided you could use either metaphorically in a sentence like “He buried/immersed himself in his work”.
26ac, UNTIE: Loved this one even though it went in very quickly
6dn Dear old ER out of her underwear straps is a difficult image!
Regarding socks that unpair in the wash, I use a launderette so there are no moments of “serendipitous joy” like gazzh’s @4. In fact, I have a large bag of of odd socks I am thinking of presenting to the owner of the launderette with a demand for either their partners or the cost of buying about fifty new pairs!
@Beermagnet, “She hollered back”. Did you pinch that joke from an American source, or have you actually adopted the very American ‘holler’? I think when English people use it, they should actually pronounce it ‘hollow’.
@TonyC I really meant “holler” – I didn’t realise some might consider that an Americanism, I certainly never say or write “hollow”.
But I did pinch the joke – from a very British chap who cleans gutters. (I’ll tell him one day – along with at least 1 other of his I’ve used).
Agree with your other stuff
For 11A Scoffed = Denigrated = Railed (against) seems OK to me.
The socks/washing issue affects me little as I have an unspecified number of precisely the same socks (who cares about left or right) except that I occasionally find a sock hiding inside a T-shirt when I try to put it on.
US solver here. Re: 6d, how does Brenda equate to ER?
Hello Patrick, it is a little Private Eye in-joke. Queen Elizabeth ( Elizabeth Regina – ER ) is always referred to as Brenda.
beermagnet@15
I think you must be a lot younger than I realised or perhaps spend far too much time immersed (buried?) in US media (hard to avoid, I know) if you didn’t know ‘holler’ was US. Collins online, in its dictionary for learners (but, admittedly, not in the main English section), has “[mainly US, informal]”. Also, (even though I was actually joking about ‘hollow’): “Word origin:
variant of C16 hollow, from holla, from French holà stop! (literally: ho there!)”. My old (1986) BRB has “(US and dial.), so maybe you actually know it from a home regional dialect?
Re ‘scoffed’, that word always seems (to me, anyway) to carry a sense of mocking, which I don’t think ‘rail’ has (and doesn’t take ‘against’ which you rightly found it necessary to supply).
Excellent sock strategy, btw.
TonyC@18
I can certainly believe “holler” is an Americanism, thanks for the detail, and making me think …
It’s certainly part of my standard vocab. Is it simply I watched too much “Deputy Dawg” as a nipper? I think it pre-dates that. Thinking about it I’m sure we used it in my family, my parents did anyway – I don’t know why.
Maybe the influence of the US soldiers billetted in the house during WWII?
I think it is used in a slightly different sense to “shout”. To me holler means raise your voice but in a friendly manner: “You’ll have to holler, she’s a bit deaf”, “The factory floor’s noisy, you must holler to be heard”
Whereas “shout” acquired an element of anger – especially getting “shouted at” as a telling off.
The long at the short of it is in the Venn diagram of meanings Shout and Holler overlap to a massive amount so Shout = Holler is fine for a clue definition.
Similarly for Scoff/Rail. I agree, “scoff” implies mockery whereas “rail” is much nastier, but the overlap of meaning is surely sufficient for Scoff/Rail to work as a definition even if it better explained via other words like denigrate, vilify, fulminate etc.
Beermagnet, interesting to hear your take on ‘holler’. I certainly associate it with cowboy films and the like. Deputy Dawg may well have been your source, if not your wartime ‘guests’ (have they moved out yet?). From what Merriam-Webster says (@2), ‘holler’ could have been a better choice than ‘scoff’ in 11ac, as I’ve understood ‘rail’.
Hello Patrick from Queens
Re Brenda and ER.
Also please note Brian aka Prince Charles / Prince of wales.
Another PE in-joke lost in the mists of time, or the 1960s …..