Cyclops seems to be a bit down-in-the-dumps this fortnight…
…with lots of negative connotations EVERYWHERE – IMPERSONAL, CORRUPT, TINPOT, TORRID, HEAD-BUTT, BROWBEATEN, DIVORCEE, AGONISE, UNSWEETENED, SCAPEGOAT, WINTER OF DISCONTENT…
Or is he just reflecting the mood of the nation, as we wait for the days to lengthen and spring to, well, spring?…
The mood is lifted somewhat with some TWEE NYMPHS, and the image of a snake farting at 11A WIND, not to mention the effects of too much self-pleasuring at 3D GOBLIN!
Boris makes a comeback – hopefully that isn’t prophetic – and Trump makes two appearances, which is about two too many for my liking!…
In the previous puzzle we had RISHI SUNAK as an entry, resulting from a devious anagram and surface read. This time, he is partial anagram fodder for IRISH SEA at 2D – a reminder of an issue which may well come back to bite him, or whoever succeeds him, in the posterior…
My thanks – I think! – to Cyclops for the diversion from life’s worries, and I’ll end, as the puzzle does, with an uplifting…ONWARDS!…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 6A | UNAWARE | Ignorant piece in Sun: ‘A War Economy!’ (7)
hidden word in, i.e. piece in, ‘sUN A WAR Economy’ |
||
| 8A | CORRUPT | Blimey! Trump’s done for, millions lost – unethical (7)
COR (blimey) + RUPT (subtractive anag, i.e. done for, of TRU( |
||
| 10A | IMPERSONAL | No PM – Israel’s out cold (10)
anag, i.e. out, of NO PM ISRAEL |
||
| 11A | WIND | Snake might produce fart (4)
double defn – to snake can be to WIND; and to fart can be to produce WIND! |
||
| 12A | SHADES | Beachwear sex initiated? Hell! (6)
S (initial letter of Sex) + HADES (hell) |
||
| 14A | WINTER OF (DISCONTENT) | & 13 Not confident, writes about the UK’s current déjà-vu experience (6,2,10)
anag, i.e. about, of NOT CONFIDENT WRITES |
||
| 15A | SCAPEGOAT | Second head, an old lecher – just what a blundering government seeks? (9)
S (second) + CAPE (headland) + GOAT (an old lecher) |
||
| 19A | DIVORCEE | Who abandoned the match after cover collapsed during pass? (8)
DI_E (pass away) around VORCE (anag, i.e. collapsed, of COVER) [the ‘match’ in question being a marriage] |
||
| 21A | TINPOT | Crummy elected president in grip of drink (6)
T_OT (drink, shot) around IN (elected) + P (president) |
||
| 22A | BUTT | See 24dn. (4)
see 24D |
||
| 23A | EVERYWHERE | All possible White House sources before getting in an untidy state? (10)
EVERY (all possible) + WH (first letters, or sources, of White House) + ERE (before) [‘everywhere’ as in ‘all over the place’, untidy] |
||
| 25A | AGONISE | Suffer torment: being mature is no different inside (7)
AG_E (mature) around ONIS (anag, i.e. different, of IS NO) |
||
| 26A | ONWARDS | Forward – as nurses often are (7)
double defn. (allowing for punctuation) – ONWARDS! can be an encouragement to go forwards; and nurses are often ON WARDS |
||
| Across | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1D | TWEE | Time to piss, precious (4)
T (time) + WEE (to piss) |
||
| 2D | IRISH SEA | Perhaps Rishi Sunak’s first overturning of A&E is overlooked by Liverpool (5,3)
IRISH S (anag of RISHI and S – first letter of Sunak) + EA (A&E overturned) |
||
| 3D | GOBLIN | Almost suffer effects of excessive masturbation? That’s Sprite for you! (6)
The old myth that too much masturbation can make you GO BLIN( [I always thought it was ‘Too much mumble mumble mumble…’…’Pardon?’…’TOO MUCH W??KING CAN MAKE YOU GO DEAF!!!’… But then again, I am short -sighted AND have hearing aids…so damned either way!] |
||
| 4D | BROWBEATEN | Biden just started argument – stirred up and intimidated (10)
B (start of Biden) + ROW (argument) + BEATEN (stirred up, as in cooking) |
||
| 5D | SPONSOR | Boris and Trump finally working in this way with right, to get back (7)
SP (final letters of boriS and trumP) + ON (working) + SO (in this way) + R (right) |
||
| 7D | NYMPHS | New York politician and his heartless young women (6)
MY (New York) + MP (politician) + HS (HiS, heartless) |
||
| 9D | UNSWEETENED | We needn’t use riots as a bitter pill (11)
anag, i.e. riots, of WE NEEDNT USE |
||
| 13D | DISCONTENT | See 14ac. (10)
see 14A |
||
| 16D | OUTLYING | Detached, being a better bender of the truth (8)
of you lie, or bend the truth, better than someone else, then you might be OUT-LYING them |
||
| 17D | LITURGY | A form of service when sex is involved in unspecified disease (7)
L_URGY (unspecified disease) around (involving) IT (euphemism for , well, you know, how’s yer father, thingy…( |
||
| 18D | TORRID | Party supporter gets end away – free and very passionate (6)
TOR( |
||
| 20D | CHEESY | Cheap and unpleasant chain meeting with Eye’s abuse (6)
CH (chain) + EESY (anag, i.e. abuse, of EYES) |
||
| 24D | HEAD (BUTT) | & 22 How to effect such a strike? Use your noddle! (4-4)
in order to effect a HEAD BUTT you have to use your head, or noddle! |
||
Thanks for the blog, not much for Cyclpos to be cheerful about at the moment.
WINTER OF DISCONTENT a very neat anagram, I liked the definition for DIVORCEE . IRISH SEA is put together very well, I will be there soon.
For EVERYWHERE I find the definition a bit of a stretch, needs two stages that do not really overlap.
Thanks both for the usual fun and explanations.
This produced the odd smile and few PDMs.
There isn’t much to be cheerful about here at present either with Cyclone Gabrielle tearing things up. Not so bad where I am but others have it bad. Crosswords are therapeutic at times like this.
It’s true the content of this puzzle seemed a tad dispiriting but it was hard to refrain from smirking for long with TWEE, GOBLIN, BUTT and mental images of a flatulent asp.
I agree with Roz on the calibre of that lengthy anagram.
Thanks both.
I didn’t notice the ‘miserable’ theme, but I seldom notice themes or Ninas when they’re intended (I assume this wasn’t).
Some great clues, as usual. Really liked DIVORCEE, ONWARDS (loi), GOBLIN, OUTLYING, LITURGY.
Thanks for the comments so far – we seem to be on a slow burn this time round – no Franko, no John E, no Winsor?! (yet…)
Tony C at #4 – I think your assumption is right, I don’t think it was necessarily a conscious theme by Cyclops – more just me trying to find something to pad the blog out!