Cyclops 756 – Redundant Manifesto

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Another fortnight, another Cyclops, and another mix of politicians and celebs (sub-lebs?) in Cyclops’ sights…although, thinking about it, how does a one-eyed giant use a gun-sight…surely binocular vision is de rigueur for that?…

Anyway, this didn’t disappoint – ’empty promises’ for ELECTION MANIFESTO; ‘rocket man’ for (Elon) MUSK; SUPREMO from ‘corrupt’ Euro MPs; some maybe slightly libellous inference involving Mike PENCE and a MINOR to make PROMINENCE.

My favourite was probably SMACKER, with the allegedly ‘unsuitable’ child worker anonymised with an X.

 

 

Brevity is Cyclops’ watchword this time round, with two 3-word clues; five of 4 words; and five of just 5 words (by my hurried counting…).

There were a couple of indirect references to wordplay parts – ‘pop singer’ -> LULU for the bottom half as LU; and ‘gutted Conservative’ needing TorY to be gutted to give TY. These may upset the purists, but didn’t worry me, or hold me up for too long.

And a relative sparsity of proper Cyclops-ean smuttery/innuendo – just some ‘Balls’ and ‘bonkers’, and an ‘erotic novel’.

Anyway – ‘such fun’, as Patricia Hodge as Miranda’s mother would say – my thanks to Cyclops, and I trust all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1A OVERAWE To intimidate Balls, one needs Private Eye (7)

OVER (balls, 6, in cricket) + A (one) + WE (Private Eye, from Cyclops’ point of view)
5A SMACKER X, an unsuitable child worker (7)

double def’n – X can indicate a kiss, or a SMACKER; and a SMACKER would be unsuitable as a worker with children
9A CLAD Dressed as a Young Conservative? (4)

a young man, or LAD who identifies as a Conservative, C, could be a C LAD!
10A SHOCK WAVES Hair rollers producing explosive results? (5,5)

SHOCK (hair) + WAVES (rollers)
12A MANIFESTO See 8dn. (9)

see 8D
13A GUTS Bottle internal organs (4)

double def’n – GUTS can mean bottle, as in nerve; and GUTS can refer to internal organs
14A PALLOR ‘Whiteness‘ spin by a political leader rebounded (6)

ROLL (spin) + A + P (leading letter of Political), all rebounded gives PALLOR
15A TIPTOP Drug depression’s over – super! (6)

POT (drug) + PIT (depression), all over gives TIPTOP
18A INSTEP Arch is complying with party whip’s orders? (6)

double def’n. (allowing for punctuation!) – the arch of the foot can also be the INSTEP; and if one is in line with party whips’ orders one is IN STEP
20A CASTRO Former leader thrown out – right has ball (6)

CAST (thrown out) + R (right) + O (round item, ball)
23A LEFT Party faction abandoned (4)

double def’n – a political party might have a LEFT faction; and abandoned can mean LEFT
25A RAINPROOF Such gear needed by ‘wets’ for pain or distress (9)

anag, i.e. distress, of FOR PAIN OR
26A PROMINENCE Ex-Trump sidekick kidnaps minor – perversely to achieve celebrity status (10)

P_ENCE (Mike Pence, ex-Trump vice president, or sidekick) around ROMIN (anag, i.e. perversely, of MINOR)
27A MUSK Rocket man’s particular odour? (4)

double def’n – Elon MUSK could be described as a rocket man; and MUSK can be a particular odour
28A PLAYERS Prince bonkers for luvvies? (7)

P (prince) + LAYERS (people laying, or bonking, other people)
29A CO-WRITE Have help being creative with entry in erotic novel (2-5)

CO_RITE (anag, i.e. novel, of EROTIC) around (entered by) W (with)
Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
2D VOLUME Book showing pop singer’s bottom half in dancing move (6)

VO_ME (anag, i.e. dancing, of MOVE) around LU (bottom, or top, half of LULU, pop singer!)
3D REDUNDANT Suspect ranted about Brown having being dismissed? (9)

RE_DANT (anag, i.e. suspect, of RANTED) around DUN (brown)
4D WISHFUL Sort of thinking “Wife is hard and not quite satisfied” (7)

W (wife) + IS + H (hard) + FUL(L) (not quite full, or satisfied)
6D MAKE OUT Get laid – and be discerning! (4,3)

double def’n – to get laid can be to MAKE OUT; and to discern something can be to MAKE OUT what it is
7D CLANG Big noise‘s family money (5)

CLAN (family) + G (grand, £1000, money)
8D ELECTION (MANIFESTO) & 12ac. Choice show-ring? Empty promises no doubt (8,9)

ELECTION (choice) + MANIFEST (show) + O (round thing, ring)
11D OBSTRUCTION Bar causes stink over street disturbance (11)

OB (BO, bodily odour, stink, over) + ST (street) + RUCTION (disturbance)
16D PERFORMER Right way of going about interrupting Lords member who’s putting on an act (9)

PE_ER (member of the House of Lords) around (interrupted by) R (right) + FORM (way of going about)
17D INTEGRAL Part of the whole embarrassment of ‘relating’ (8)

anag, i.e. embarrassment, of RELATING
19D PARTNER Mate’s scrap with inept type getting end away (7)

PART (scrap, or fragment) + NER(D) (inept type, losing last letter, or getting end away)
21D SUPREMO Chief corruption of Euro MPs (7)

anag, i.e. corruption, of EURO MPS
22D OFFSET Neutralise Dicky with fix (6)

OFF (dicky, ill) + SET (fix)
24D TUMMY “Gutted” Conservative keeping mum about corporation (5)

T_Y (TorY, or Conservative, gutted) around (keeping) UMM (anag, i.e. about, of MUM)

10 comments on “Cyclops 756 – Redundant Manifesto”

  1. Thanks for a great blog, I agree that the smut is toned down a bit this week but I also thought the politics was as well . A lot of very fine clues and as you say a number of them brief which I like .
    No problems with luLU or TorY, indirectness is only frowned upon when it forms part of an anagram. MUSK is topical , the Falcon rocket being used to launch Euclid, now safely on the way to L2.
    I know nothing about guns, but surely using a sight you close one eye and use the other, so Cyclops at an advantage ?

  2. For some reason I found it harder than usual, and some rubbing was needed to get it done. I think my brain was still in holiday mode from last week’s trip to The Highlands. Thanks for the explanations mc_rapper67. My favourite was 2d for the Lulu reference, and 27a made me chuckle.

  3. Some very clever cluing here and it did take me longer than usual. Agree with Roz that operations other than anagrammatizing can take indirect operands.

    Don’t understand the point about punctuation in 18ac, INSTEP. The QM at the end is because “complying with party whip’s orders” is just an example of being in step. Was there something else?

    10ac, SHOCK WAVES = hair rollers was a terrific find.

    Could quibble about “out” in 20ac, CASTRO: thrown = cast, thrown out = cast out? (Similar to last edition’s point on “skeptical about”).

    21dn: SUPREMO is a classic Eye tabloid parody and it’s great it turns out to be a “corruption” of Euro MPs.

  4. Thanks mc_rapper67 for an entertaining summary and of course the analysis of solutions. Like the fatcontroller and Tony, I found it a bit tougher than usual. I greatly enjoyed it all the same and my favourites have already been mentioned above. Great work Cyclops!

  5. I too found this a bit tougher…but all the better for that. The fun lasted longer.
    I’ like Roz, would close one eye (the left one!) to look down sights of a gun.
    @Tony…I wonder of the comment came form the fact that there is not one whip but more of them and the grammar nazis might prefer whips’?
    My fave was WISHFUL!
    I struggled with PARTNER for a long time (couldn’t see how ‘mari’ was ‘scrap’ but getting INSTEP put me back on the correct tack!!!!
    Many thanks to all!!!!

  6. @Winsor, I think you’re right about the plurality of the whips and I now notice that, in explaining the clue, mc writes: “if one is in line with party whips’ orders one is IN STEP”. I would, though, describe those approving mc’s remark as “those who prefer correct punctuation” rather than “grammar Nazis”. Perhaps beermagnet can add something following last week’s discussion with his greengrocer ??

    Regarding the one eye or two debate, see https://www.therange702.com/blog/shooting-with-one-eye-open-or-two/

  8. Thanks for the various comments so far…

    Good points re. the use of one eye when using a gun sight! I had had a couple of glasses of red wine on Friday evening while writing up the blog…maybe I was thinking that it would be harder to use the gun sight when one’s only eye is in the middle of one’s forehead, rather using one over to one side of the face…

    On the INSTEP/IN STEP double defn., I merely meant that the enumeration was (6), so technically speaking it probably isn’t a double defn., as the second definition leads to (2, 4). Maybe it is a ‘definition by example’ as the wordplay in the second half of the clue…?

    beer’magnet at #7 – quite agree with you’re point of view here!

  9. Late to this, my thanks to mc_rapper67 and to Cyclops! I thought SHOCK WAVES was masterful. Couldn’t twig SAMCKER, thought it was something to do with unsuitable children and was getting a bit worried. Loved the cynical ELECTION MANIFESTO.
    I came here today because I just saw the same clue for 3D in today ‘s Brummie in the Guardian # 29125, 27across… unfortunate timing.

  10. jvector at #9 – better late than never!…
    Interesting spot on those two clues for REDUNDANT…almost verbatim…I presume you know that Brummie = Cyclops, so a sneaky bit of recycling there from him!

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