Another burst of salacious school days humour and political satirising to brighten our fortnight.
This time with added references to an old-time glam-rocker. It’s as if the puzzle was specifically constructed to someone in their 60s who’s been reading the Eye every isue for the last 40+ years.
I haven’t got much to say about the solve because I must’ve lost track of time. When I came to do the blog I realised I had done the puzzle already – almost as soon as this issue fell through the postbox last week. I made no notes then, and when I was elucidating the clues below I couldn’t really assess what I had found easy or hard, or indeed how I had worked through it. No matter. I know it was all good fun.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CANNIBAL | Political clique welcomes back boozer who’d have you for breakfast? (8) INN< (boozer, back) inside (welcomes / welcomed by) CABAL (Political clique) |
| 6 | SLIPPY | Ice-like, son puts on make-up (6) S[on] LIPPY (make-up) |
| 9 | SPUTUM | Phlegmatic material raises return by corporation? (6) UPS< (raises, return) TUM (corporation) |
| 10 | TREASURY | Hear about a sure disaster – Hunt’s responsibility (8) TRY (Hear, as in a trial) around (about) (A SURE)* AInd: disaster. Astonishingly, the self-defining-rhyming-slang man is now Chancellor of the Exchequer and responsible for the Treasury (whatever is left in it) |
| 11/14a | INDUSTRIAL ACTION | River Test court case much in evidence in the public sector now (10,6) INDUS (river) TRIAL (test) ACTION (court case) |
| 12 | GLAM | Gravedigger’s leader on strike – charming! (4) G[ravedigger’s] LAM (strike) |
| 13 | POPCORN | Old man goes against the grain – polished off in cinema? (7) POP (Old man) CORN (the grain) |
| 15 | ETHICS | Philosophical discipline about to get into terrible shite (6) C (about, circa) inside (SHITE)* AInd: terrible. |
| 17 | DISOBEY | So Biden possibly forgets name, having yen to ignore command (7) (SO BIDEN – N)* AInd: possibly, making DISOBE, then Y[en] |
| 19 | WOOF | Rex’s ejaculation with two balls – loud (4) W[ith] OO (two balls) F (loud) |
| 20 | SUBVERSIVE | Survive BSE after turning inflammatory (10) (SURVIVE BSE)* AInd: after turning. |
| 22 | CARDINAL | Comedian Nial mistaken for church dignitary (8) CARD (comedian) (NIAL)* AInd: mistaken. |
| 23 | INFANT | Child cooler has crinkled tin covering (6) FAN (cooler) inside (covering, covered by) (TIN)* AInd: crinkled. |
| 24 | REALLY | Well, I never drop ecstasy in demo (6) E[cstacy] inside RALLY (demo) |
| 25 | ROYALIST | One with cavalier attitude, Wood has an agenda (8) ROY (Wood, Roy Wood <wiki> leader of “The Move”, “Wizzard” and other bands) A LIST (an agenda) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ASPEN | When to write “natural vibrator” (5) AS (when) PEN (to write). Definition refers to those “quivering aspens” |
| 3 | NO-TRUMP | A game call: “Donald not wanted!” (2-5) Double Def, really – though one I suppose is cryptic |
| 4 | BUMPTIOUS | Pompous politician gets in nevertheless, having debts (9) MP (politician) inside BUT (nevertheless) IOUS (debts) |
| 5 | LATVIAN | Russian neighbour‘s valiant “Out!” (7) (VALIANT)* AInd: out. |
| 6 | SWELL | Toff‘s bulge (5) Double Def. |
| 7 | INSIGHT | Awareness of popular view (7) IN (popular) SIGHT (view) |
| 8 | PURGATORY | Getting nothing out of group therapy, a politician’s punishing situation (9) (GROUP – O (nothing))* AInd: therapy, to make PURG, then A TORY (a politician) |
| 13 | PATRONAGE | Backing Buchanan and DeSantis to get on? (9) PAT (Ref. Pat Buchanan) RON (Ref. Ron DeSantis) AGE (to get on) |
| 14 | AUSTERITY | Kinky ‘Estuary’ sex involved belt-tightening (9) (ESTUARY + IT (sex))* AInd: kinky. Not sure why this definition uses the past tense. More belt-tightening going on now than ever. Edit: The definition does not include “involved” which quashes my “past tense” quibble. Correct parsing is something like: IT (sex) inside (involved (in)) (ESTUARY)* AInd: kinky. |
| 16 | INFIDEL | One who doesn’t share your belief? Fellow should be pushed into working in deli! (7) F[ellow] inside (IN DELI)* AInd: working. |
| 17 | DABBLER | Trifling type of Democrat gets fitter on pocketing a billion (7) D[emocrat], B[illion] inside (pocketing, pocketed by) ABLER (fitter) |
| 18 | BASHFUL | Prone to retirement, party all but stuffed (7) BASH (party) FUL[l] (stuffed, all but) |
| 20 | SUNNY | Corbyn and Barclay finally united behind tabloid, that’s clear (5) [corby]N [barcla]Y after SUN (tabloid) |
| 21 | VENUS | A world in which even USA disposes of borders (5) [e]VEN US[a] |
Sad to hear Dr Evadne Hinge has died recently (or rather her human avatar George Logan) so there’s been a burst of Hinge & Bracket material on the web.
I’ll leave you with a very small “mouse” joke
Thanks for a great blog , very enjoyable puzzle, I did notice quite a lot of long definions. For
AUSTERITY I had the definition as just belt-tightening. I took the involved as IT(sex) inside the anagram of estuary , otherwise the anagram is pretty indirect. A very good clue.
I also liked PURGATORY for the group therapy and many more.
Thanks for the blog Pete.
Good fun as always and I did recall the Hunt reference in 12a – British politicians are not well known down here.
I agree with Roz on AUSTERITY.
Thanks for the fun Cyclops.
Ah! I did wonder why AUSTERITY was in the past tense, I now see I was parsing it incorrectly.
I will fix that.
Thanks Roz.
As for Mystogre:- I’m not Pete – You’ve just been reading the FT blog haven’t you
Very enjoyable. I liked the deception in River Test in 11/14. For some reason it took me a while to get ACTION, even after cracking INDUSTRIAL.
Had to check LIPPY for 6ac, though it did come to mind, so I must have heard it somewhere.
I found 19ac WOOF amusing.
The mention of Dr Roy in 25ac made me want to learn more about his career and so, as well watching some of his greatest hits, I ended up watching a short docu about him presented by none other than Noddy Holder.
I thought the clue for 5dn LATVIAN was clever.
I never really became aware of Hinge and Bracket and it’s sad to learn of this great comic double act after they’ve both passed on. Loved the mouse joke but wouldn’t a video featuring Hinge have been more appropriate?
Tony@4 try Bllackberry Way , (The Move) very melancholy, it is on Sounds of the Sixties so must be available.
WOOF is rather funny, if Cyclops knows the current slang usage of ” woof woof ” it is even better.
[Roz, yes, Blackberry Way was one of the oldies I listened to, asking with Fire Brigade and others. As you might not know they’re all available to listen to for free (with advertising first, usually) on YouTube and other internet platforms. Not quite sure what you mean by ‘available on Sounds of the Sixties’. Are you referring to the BBC R2 show hosted by Tony Blackburn? Coincidentally, the first track ever played on BBC Radio One was the Move’s Flowers in the Rain, presented by Tony Blackburn.]
[*along with Fire Brigade*
Oh, you didn’t say ‘available on Sounds of the Sixties’, just ‘on Sounds of the Sixties’. Still don’t understand.
Btw, I’d be surprised if Cyclops wasn’t aware of the exclamation ‘woof, woof!’ as a show of appreciation for something sexually attractive. Probably illegal to say out loud, now.]
[Tony@6 – Sounds of the Sixties a BBC series (from the 90s) showing a compilation of original performances from The Beat Room , Ready Steady Go etc . One legendary Hendrix performance from The Lulu Show of all places . Many episodes often shown on the Yesterday channel, our TV box has it on series record . Fire Brigade is in there somewhere . There is an equivalent Sounds of the 70s. ]
[ Tony@7 woof woof has evolved somewhat and been reclaimed by the superior half of humanity , a bit like Doc Martens really ]
[Roz, I haven’t got TV, but it’s easy to find clips from old shows on YouTube. There’s a 4’52” video on YouTube about Hendrix on Lulu’s show when he stopped playing the hit Hey Joe as contracted and launched a “tribute to Cream” in the form of Sunshine of Your Love … and gets the plug pulled. I’m sure I’ve seen the actual clip in full before, but it doesn’t seem to be there now.
So what is your half of humanity using ‘woof woof’ to mean?