You haven’t fallen asleep and woken up on Monday. From now on the Eye blog will now appear on Saturday.
One of those that I thought was going to be a doddle, then found I had trouble finishing.
And as usual now I have analysed all the wordplay I cannot see what gave me such hassle.
There seem to be a lot of anagrams, or partial anagrams which should mark it down as on the easy side. However my notes tell me it took the best part of an hour. Even the last two I got – Embassy and Organism – are the kind of clues I’ve seen before.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | OPTIMUM | The best possible pot turns Cyclops dumb (7) (POT)* AInd: turns, I’M UM (Cyclops, dumb) |
| 5 | CAUTION | Wrongly out one in prison, as the police might do (7) (OUT + I (one))* AInd: Wrongly, inside CAN (prison) |
| 9/26 | GOLD RING | Maybe union band girl doing twirls without identical top? (4,4) (GIRL DOING – I[dentical])* AInd: twirls. |
| 10 | IN BAD TASTE | Abstained, stupidly taking Truss’s lead – improper (2,3,5) T[russ] inside (ABSTAINED)* AInd: stupidly. |
| 12 | REAGAN | President‘s uncontrolled anger about agency head (6) A[gency] inside (ANGER)* AInd: uncontrolled. |
| 13 | TACTLESS | Indiscreet, tense? Go easy on the theatrical stuff (8) T[ense] ACT LESS (Go easy on the theatrical stuff) |
| 14 | PAUNCH | Strike broken by a corporation (6) A (a) inside PUNCH (strike) |
| 16 | INSULT | Slight bust, until silicone initially implanted (6) S[ilicone] inside (UNTIL)* AInd: bust. |
| 19 | ORATOR | Sitting in for a Tory speechifier (6) Hidden inside fOR A TORy Hidden Ind: Sitting in, |
| 20 | SENSOR | Feeling not quite optimistic, Rishi starts producing a device (6) SENS[e] (feeling, not quite) O[ptimistic] R[ishi] |
| 22 | BACKSIDE | Lapse – left’s lost seat (8) BACKS[l]IDE : L[eft] “lost” from BACKSLIDE (lapse) |
| 24 | MANTRA | Male member twisting right, a possible feature of meditation (6) MAN RT< A MAN (Male member) RT< (Right, twisting) A |
| 25 | DISRESPECT | Sceptred Isle’s first half is garbled – impudence! (10) (SCEPTERED + IS[le])* AInd: is garbled. |
| 27 | EMBASSY | Mission statement somehow starts cutting into working, maybe (7) S[tatement] S[omehow] in (MAYBE)* AInd: working. |
| 28 | RECLUSE | Loner about to get Conservative and Labour leaders employment (7) RE (about) C[onservative] L[abour] USE (employment) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | PHONEY | Not what he seems, Pence, dear (6) P[ence] HONEY (dear) |
| 3 | INDIGNANT | Mad hot and casually into inappropriate dating (9) IN (hot) ‘N’ (and, casually) inside (DATING)* AInd: inappropriate. |
| 4 | UNION | A lay association (5) Double Def. (one slang) |
| 6 | ADDICTION | In a manner of speaking, date’s chief craving (9) D[ate] in A DICTION (a manner of speaking) |
| 7 | TRAWL | Look for origin of the Republican law breaking (5) T[he] R[epublican] (LAW)* AInd: breaking. |
| 8 | OBTUSELY | Blunt-like subtle activity apparent in heartless objectivity (8) (SUBTLE)* AInd: activity, inside O…Y from O[bectivit]Y |
| 11 | BUTCH | Nevertheless, going to church is not queen-like (5) BUT (nevertheless) CH[urch] |
| 15 | NARCISSUS | Self-regarding character about to be enrolled by forlorn Russians (9) C (about) inside (RUSSIANS)* AInd: forlorn. |
| 17 | SCOUNDREL | US clone rudely grabbing doctor’s arse (9) DR (doctor) inside (US CLONE)* AInd: rudely. |
| 18 | ORGANISM | Creature, in getting erection, is overwhelmed by climax (8) IN< (in, getting erection) inside (is overwhelmed by) ORGASM (climax) |
| 20 | SIEVE | Strain is overturning First Lady (5) IS< (is, overturning) EVE (first lady) |
| 21 | URANUS | “World: you finally managed to take on America” (6) [yo]U (you, finally) RAN (managed) US (America) |
| 23 | KARMA | Member crushed by small car – that’s your fate (5) ARM (member) inside KA (small car, made by Ford, useful to crossword compilers) |
| 24 | METRE | Unit takes police force on (5) MET (police force) RE (on) |
Just a parrot joke from the much missed Barry Cryer
It's Barry Cryer's birthday, which can mean only one thing. This is the first joke he ever told me. And the last, come to think of it.
Happy birthday Baz x pic.twitter.com/MdYYAY1JhI
— James Hogg (@JamesAHogg2) March 23, 2023
I parsed IMUM in 1ac as I (Cyclops), MUM (silent).
Thanks for the blog, the switch to Saturday seems much better as long as you and MC do not mind. I thought this was very good , a lot of anagrams as you say, quite restrained really both politically and with the smut. Even REAGAN is only called president and URANUS is just a straight clue. INSULT and TACTLESS both pretty clever.
I forgot to say only CAUTION received a severe Paddington stare.
Thanks for the blog!
I parsed I, MUM similarly to John E @1 – but only after a long struggle trying to justify OPTIMAL instead!
Think my brain is addling. Spotted the anagrams for REAGAN and DISRESPECTED on my first read through, but took me until the end of the week and most of the crossers to unscramble them. DNF in any case as I had MeNoRa as a question-marked “feature of meditation” @24a – so thanks for setting me straight on that one. I wasn’t happy with the definition but couldn’t see any other word that fit.
Thanks beermagnet ‘n Cyclops. I found this tough, ‘n my last one in was 27a Embassy. I couldn’t parse 3d INDIGNANT as I missed And (casually) being N. So I would have to include 3d as one of my favourites along with 11d, 18d ‘n 22a.
Thanks beermagnet, i have missed the last few and took a while to get back on the wavelength eg 18d i ran through a few possible synonyms for “climax” before remembering it was Cyclops and the answer, er, popped out. Trickier than I remember, not helped by convincing myself that 1A had to involve TOP, and might still have been pondering 9/26a if the UNION hadn’t appeared in 4d to set me on the right lines. Thought def of 20A very vague but overall remain highly impressed that Cyclops can create so many good clues in the ‘house style’ and encompass satirical comment along the way.
Thanks very much for the comments and. of course, the puzzle and blog. I struggled tog et a start and then had to revisit the following day to finish off. I enjoyed BUTCH, GOLD RING and RECULSE. BACKSIDE took some parsing since I could not see why BACK was a lapse and what SIDE had to to do with losing left….other than left is a side of one!!!! It took some time for the penny to drop. Similarly, the extra N took some time to find.
I tried for hours to find out how a PLOVER could be ‘not what he seems’! Lots of little diversions this fortnight.
Last pone in was SIEVE…….I had thought of sift but couldn’t make it fit and only the E from BACKSIDE helped me get it……after trying a long time to think what Joe Biden’s wife is called.
18D. Creature, in getting erection, is overwhelmed by climax (8)
I had the crossing letters _R_A_I_M and due to the clue I must have spent an hour trying to work out how the word play could produce PRIAPISM.
John K @8….that’s the advantage of having a limited vocabulary!!!!
Agree with John E and Saaam re 1ac. Don’t really understand “I’m um”.
In 5ac, I thought “out” was a typo for ‘put’ till I solved it: makes a better surface!
13ac: I liked ‘act less’.
15ac: Is Navalny going to sign up with Wagner?
Re the new publication time, it doesn’t help me get to it any earlier, but Friday at noon might.
15dn, not ac (obvs)
@Tony I think the time is for blog publication and not the puzzle.
Winsor, yes, I meant blog publication. The deadline for entries is noon on the Friday in the week following publication, so any time after that is fair game for the blog.
Publishing the blog on Friday afternoon would mean one could have a regular Friday afternoon slot dedicated to Cyclops: one week the puzzle and the next, the blog.
Of course, I don’t know how that would suit beermagnet and mc …
So, will Cyclops 751 be published w/e 21 April, with all the schedules shifting by one week?
750 is what we’re waiting for – Answers in by Friday Apr 14 (despite what it says on https://www.private-eye.co.uk/crossword, clearly no-one told the IT man it was a 3 week issue) – Blog published Sat Apr 15.
Cyclops 751 will be in Issue #1595 (Nominally Apr21 – May 4) which will probably be available online from 2023-04-19 if you look in https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/crossword/download/ where it appears as a nnn.puz to download slightly before the crossword page itself is updated. Blog published Sat Apr 29.
Yes. Everything has shifted by 1 week.
We didn’t think of Friday afternoon when it was suggested shuffling the blog back to Saturday. I wouldn’t mind except I’m typically in no state to reply to comments on a Friday afternoon.
I think you mean we’re waiting for the blog of 750 (not 750 itself, for which I sent in the answers on 31 Mar).
I was expecting to see 751 appear on the crossword page (from where I transfer it to Crossword Compiler) on Fri 14 Apr, but I understand I have to wait till 21 for my next serving of Cyclops and the blog for that will be out on Saturday 6 May.
Hope I’ve got it all right now. Thanks for letting us know.
Good point about your likely (un)fitness to blog coherently just as the weekend starts, btw. I’ll just have to get to it when I can.