It must be very annoying for a politically involved crossword setter when politics has times like this. Setting the puzzle must happen at least of a couple of weeks before it is published, and here I am blogging it a couple of weeks after it is published. Meantime the world has changed …
… or has it?
At time of writing “the criminal” (as John Crace calls him) is still sitting around on his £15,000 sofas inside the No. 11 flat and it seems there’s a part of him that thinks this will all blow over as usual. Anyway, back to this crossword :
I should have been in some sort of competition solving this one. I rattled through the most of the puzzle without a pause in a very short time, till I got to the long answer at 13/17/26. I knew there was a three word euphemistic phrase the Russian Gov. is using for its illegal invasion but I could not bring it to mind with just the leading S to help. When crossing letters revealed what the second word had to be I remembered in plainly, but by that time there were only a half-dozen left to solve. I found the trickiest clue was 24 SPAGHETTI. I became convinced the def. was “pet food”, some brand like “Dreamies” that I don’t know, and that “A lot of money” was 5 letters (e.g. GRAND) inside an anagram of SHIT. thus even with all crossing letters I stared at it hard before kicking self around the room when I saw what it was. The final pair were 6D VYING & 12A GRIPE. A couple of the best clues in the puzzle I thought – I ‘m nominating 6D for the top clue award.
Why is Karl Marx’s toilet so noisy?
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FOREVER | Always backing Adam’s mate (Labour right-winger) (7) FOR (backing) EVE (Adam’s mate) [labou]R . First read, first answered |
| 5 | ENVELOP | Endless resentment associated with pole dancing cover (7) ENV[y] (resentment, endless), (POLE)* AInd: dancing. |
| 9 | EASEL | Support when wife leaves sly, furtive type (5) [w]EASEL |
| 10 | CALL IT OFF | Phone sex dodgy? Cancel! (4,2,3) CALL (Phone) IT (sex) OFF (dodgy) |
| 11 | DETONATOR | One who initiates a bang – aroused, ardent too! (9) (ARDENT TOO)* AInd: aroused. |
| 12 | GRIPE | Hold on to amphetamine, bitch! (5) GRIP (hold on to) E (amphetamine, C9H13N). Last in. I could not see this till the leading G from 6d Vying made it blindingly obvious |
| 13/17/26 | SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION | Putin’s war – “anti-imperialist core ploy” – goes pear-shaped when America intervenes (7,8,9) (ANTI-IMPERIALIST CORE PLOY + A[merica])* AInd: goes pear-shaped. The clue that put a stop to my attempt at a crossword walkover. |
| 15 | EFFIGY | A burning hate for this guy? (6) Cryptic Definition for a dummy, typically incinerated, annually |
| 18 | BUY OFF | Brown accepts Hello bribe (3,3) YO (Hello) inside BUFF (Brown) |
| 20 | CHIANTI | Conservative starts to have invitations accepted – Number Ten includes drink! (7) C[onservative] then first letters of the rest of the clue, from H[ave], through to I[ncludes] |
| 22 | PILES | Fortune can be a pain in the arse (5) Double Definition. Is there a homonym with two meanings for such massively different things? |
| 24 | SPAGHETTI | A lot of money invested in processed shit pet food (9) A G (A Grand, a lot of money) inside (SHIT PET)* AInd: processed. Trickiest clue for me. |
| 27 | EXTRA | Spear-carrier in unisex trainers? (5) Hidden in unisEX TRAiners |
| 28 | DETROIT | City responsible for Heath retiring? “Having one in balls” (7) TED< (Heath, retiring, ref. Ted Heath), then I (one) in ROT (balls) |
| 29 | DESTROY | Ed’s ballsed up against Tory rabble – waste (7) (ED’S)* AInd: ballsed up, then (TORY )* AInd: rabble. I had noted this as one anagram, but had a re-think in the blog |
| Down | ||
| 1 | FIENDISH | China kicks out King and his sort – diabolical! (8) F[r]IEND (China, CRS “China plate” = “Mate” – R[ex] for King) , then (HIS)* AInd: sort. |
| 2 | RESIT | Dicky tries to engage once more in parliamentary business? (5) (TRIES)* AInd: Dicky. |
| 3 | VALENTINO | Beer name on can clutched by very old screen idol (9) ALE (Beer) N[ame] TIN (can), all inside V[ery] O[ld] |
| 4 | RECITAL | Public performance of filthy article (7) (ARTICLE)* AInd: filthy. |
| 5 | ENLARGE | Bust near leg? Pad out (7) (NEAR LEG)* AInd: bust. |
| 6 | VYING | On the way out, not dead but very striving (5) DYING (On the way out) swap D for V (D[ead] for V[ery]) |
| 7 | LOOKING ON | John, pre-eminent male, performing – or being a spectator (7,2) LOO (John) KING (pre-eminent male) ON (performing) |
| 8 | PUFFER | One who pulls plug on Brenda? (6) PUFF (plug, as in advert) ER (Brenda). Def. pulls, as in taking a drag on a cig |
| 14 | EBULLIENT | Exuberant wild teen hold balls against one (9) BULL (balls) I (one), inside (TEEN)* AInd: wild. |
| 16 | FAITHLESS | A selfish Tory leader crushed – untrustworthy (9) (A SELFISH T[ory])* AInd: crushed. |
| 19 | FASCIST | Cold inside, is fast moving far to the right (7) C[old] in (IS FAST)* AInd: moving. |
| 20 | CHAINED | ‘Gotcha!’ in editorial, somewhat restrained (7) Hidden in gotCHA IN EDitorial. |
| 21 | UPHOLD | Having an erection, Henry (advanced in years) gets support (6) UP (Having an erection) H[enry] OLD (advanced in years) |
| 23 | SHAKO | Soak pissed over hospital cap (5) H[ospital] inside (SOAK)* AInd: pissed. |
| 25 | TATER | Common vegetable – extremely tiresome when stuck into sailor (5) T[iresom]E inside TAR. Def. The potato transliterated from the vernacular |
Q. Why is Karl Marx’s toilet so noisy?
A. Because of the violins inherent in the cistern.
Sorry about that.
If you would like some proper jokes why not peruse this twitter feed: https://twitter.com/Cartoon4sale
Thanks for the blog it is strange with clues, I saw SPAGHETTI straight away but I did not have many across answers in before that unlike you. GRIPE was very misleading . Agree about VYING , there will be a lot of striving in the next few months .
For PUFFER I thought of a steam engine, not heard of pull in the smoking sense.
PUFFER: Now you’ve pointed it out, Roz, I think you are right. It is more likely Cyclops intended the “puller” to be a “Puffing Billy” steam train than a nicotine addict. There are also the Clyde Puffer steam boats that could be called Puffers, but they don’t really pull stuff so much as lug it.
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops, I also had a ciggy smoker in mind regarding 8d, but agree that Roz @1 explanation works well. Re 23d I hadn’t heard of SHAKO and had to google SHAKO CAP from the word play to confirm. 1d and 25d were my favourites. Good timing on 16d as well.
It is the word “who” in the clue for 8D that suggests a person rather than a machine.
I first came across your Karl Marx joke in a cartoon my brother-in-law cut out of the New Statesman a very long time ago (pre-1983, which was the date a collection of Martin Rowson’s NS cartoons was published under the title “Scenes From The Lives Of The Great Socialists”.
You may be correct Beermagnet. I recall many words for smoke – puff, drag, draw , toke etc but not pull. Slang does change quickly though so I may be out of date.
“Pull at” and “pull on” are commonly listed a synonyms for “puff” in the sense of smoking something like a cigarette. Railway engines are not by definition pullers (they are equally capable of pushing a train if required).
By contrast “Push-me-Pull-yous” are incapable of either pushing or pulling in one direction, for instance when harnessed in a carriage and four (even when next to unicorns) mainly because, as is well-known, they are tremendous reefer addicts
This was my first Cyclops puzzle, which Roz mentioned in one of the Guardian blogs. I’m glad she did. I was amused at the very different tone of the puzzle – an entertaining mix of spice and politics, which, as it happens, is also popular in the House of Commons 😉
It would be good to see a bang-up-to-date puzzle to reflect the current state of our country.
John Crace has, more recently, been calling the incumbent “We shall not be moved” PM, as “The Convict”. If you’re not a fan of the man, and some people still are, you may be interested in the always entertaining The Rest Is Politics podcast with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart.
Thanks Cyclops and beermagnet.
pdp @8 , glad you liked it, it is often more extreme , especially the smut . The next one may be even more topical politically? I do not know what the turnover time is.
Going to embarrass Beermagnet and mc rapper, the blogs for this are absolutely brilliant.
John Crace has never really settled on a name for the liar, unlike his MayBot.
We had the Suspect before the Convict, Bertie Booster sometimes and we now get the Rwanda Panda.
Roz at #9 – thanks for the plug (), and the recruitment drive!
And pdp11 at #8 – welcome to the wonderful one-eyed world of Cyclops…a different ‘tone’, as you say…as well as a tempting £100 prize, if that sort of thing floats your boat…
As a lifelong non-smoker, I saw ‘one who pulls’ at 8D as someone having a sneaky ‘drag’ on a ciggie…
Oops…() was meant to say ”blushes’, with ” around it, but I think it got translated as some sort of HTML tag…
Thanks mc_rapper67. I’ve always enjoyed your Guardian crossword blogs and look forward to seeing your blogs here. As Roz said during her recruitment drive, Cyclops and both you and beermagnet merit a bigger audience.
Thanks Roz for the other names of the Convict. I missed those, being an intermittent John Crace reader.