Cyclops 764 – Orgasmic Cynicism

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Apologies for the lateness and the brevity of this blog…I had it all set up and nearly ready on the train up to York…and I was about to finish it off at the hotel when I got the call of ‘Pub!…’ from kenmac…and who am I to disobey our great leader…

…so in the early hours of Saturday morning, here I am struggling to remember where I was…or where I am…or indeed who I am…

There is a pleasant lack of Trump/Johnson/Putin in wordplay/solutions but, conversely, my LOI was 3D MORDAUNT, defined only as Penny… is Cyclops going early on the next Tory leader-shit contest?…

There is also an old cruciverbal chestnut with SENATOR/TREASON at 21A…and much less smuttery than usual…is Cyclops going soft on us?…

 

 

And with that, my thanks to Cyclops, and I trust all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
8A HOT-DOG The latest party gaffe: leader serves up fast food (3,3)

HOT (the latest) + DO (party) + G (leading letter of Gaffe)
9A CASTRATO Nuts to go as such a singer (8)

CD – a castrato singer would have had their testicles, or nuts, removed!
11A BLINDFOLD Eye cover showing pissed female veteran (9)

BLIND (pissed, blind drunk) + F (female) + OLD (veteran)
12A TWERP Pert bust concealing wife’s dope (5)

T_ERP (anag, i.e. bust, of PERT) around (concealing) W (wife)
13A IN TOUCH Nit’s awful painful expression, being abreast of the news (2,5)

IN_T (anag, i.e. ‘s awful, of NIT) + OUCH (painful expression)
14A ANSWERS One asserts one’s missing what’s needed as an Eye crossword solver (7)

AN (one, indefinite article) + SWE(A)RS (asserts, without A, another indefinite article, or one – one’s missing)
16A TACTICAL VOTER A toilet fitted with a CCTV on top of roof, whose main aim is to keep undesirable party out? (8,5)

TACTICAL VOTE (anag, i.e. fitted, of A TOILET + A CCTV) + R (top letter of Roof)
21A TREASON Rogue senator’s betrayal (7)

anag, i.e. rogue, of SENATOR
23A REGALIA “After knocking back drink, one needs a show of kingly status” (7)

REGAL (lager, drink, knocked back) + I (one) + A
24A MAJOR Ex-PM hurt over ‘little woman’ (5)

MA_R (damage, or hurt) around JO (one of the titlular characters in ‘Little Women’)
26A CEAUSESCU EU’s cause failed after country’s first dictator (9)

C (first letter of Country) + EAUSESCU (anag, i.e. failed, of EUS CAUSE)
27A COLLAPSE Officer’s grabbing genital area by end of the fold (8)

COL_S (Colonel, or officer, plus contractive ‘s) around (grabbing) LAP (genital area), plus E (end of thE)
28A DIGEST Think it’s cool, playing set? Think over (6)

DIG (think something is cool) + EST (anag, i.e. playing, of SET)
Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1D CHABLIS Bill Cash, left out, mixed a drink (7)

subtractive anagram, i.e. mixed, of BIL(L) CASH minus one L – left out!
2D STRIPTEASE Provocative revelation: band joined by Josh (10)

STRIP (band) + TEASE (josh)
3D MORDAUNT Penny extra almost put off (8)

MOR(E) (almost all of more, or extra) + DAUNT (discourage, put off)
4D HANDBALL Help needed with testicle – foul! (8)

HAND (help, assistance) + BALL (testicle)
5D STATUS Position with inferior goods imported by South America (6)

S_US (S – South, US – America) around (importing) TAT (inferior goods)
6D RAGE See 23dn. (4)

see 23D
7D COMPOSE Talks lovingly about politician initially eager to score (7)

CO_OS (coos, or talks lovingly) around MP (politician), plus E (initial letter of Eager)
10D NOSH Foodstuff – you surprise me, getting rid of it (4)

NO_SH(IT) – you surprise me! Getting rid of IT
15D EYEGLASSES Government head after us – misses visual aid (10)

EYE (Private Eye, us, from Cyclops’ perspective) + G (head, or first letter, of Government) + LASSES (young girls, misses)
17D CYNICISM Doubt about your first, almost pleasant, doctrine (8)

C (circa, about) + Y (first letter of Your) + NIC(E) (almost all of nice, or pleasant) + ISM (doctrine)
18D ORGASMIC Like coming from Cairo with MG crashing outside Pyramids finally (8)

ORGA_MIC (anag, i.e. crashing, of CAIRO + MG) around S (final letter of pyramidS)
19D STOMACH Caught inside, Thomas screwed bear (7)

STOMA_H (anag, i.e. crewed, of THOMAS) around C (caught, cricket scoring notation)
20D FACULTY Not right to arrest college and university staff? (7)

FA_ULTY (not right) around (arresting) C (college)
22D SCREAM Sun, low grade paper – makes you cry (6)

S (sun) + C (low grade, i.e. not A or B) + REAM (quantity of paper)
23D ROAD (RAGE) & 6 A rare dog doctored – violent argument on the way (4,4)

anag, i.e. doctored, of A RARE DOG
25D JOLT Shock scrap involving LibDem leader (4)

JO_T (scrap) around (involving) L (leading letter of Libdem)

 

19 comments on “Cyclops 764 – Orgasmic Cynicism”

  1. Thanks for the blog, I agree that we are lacking politics and smut this time to a large extent. Still a good puzzle with a lot of neat wordplay .

  4. Find this quite difficult and, in fact, didn’t get TACTICAL VOTER, even though I identified the fodder, as I decided early that the second word must be COVER. Ended up thinking it was TACTICAL COVER and the differ was wrong. (As usual, thinking the setter has made a mistake just indicates that I hadn’t understood!).

    23ac, REGALIA: what are the quotation marks there for? We they in the clue as printed? (Cba to get out my laptop to check.)

    3dn, MORDAUNT: she came to prominence as sword-holder at the Coronation (for which, iirc, she had the piss taken in PM’s WhatsApp). I think that might be where I first heard of her.

  6. I first noticed Mordaunt during the Brexit original vote campaign. Claiming Turkey was about to join the EU and the UK or any other member did not have a veto. Even when given the facts she continued to blatantly lie.

  10. Tony@9 I can’t keep them all year , I usually just ignore the perimeter in the Special, I prefer to cold-solve the clues.

  11. Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. I marked 22d as my favourite, closely followed by 9a and 18d.
    I couldn’t parse 24a= MAJOR. I was caught in a loop thinking that MAJ = little woman.
    Must admit I didn’t know the character named JO.
    Tony@9 and Roz @11, my only chance of getting my grubby little hands on the £250 Xmas prize is by keeping the old copies also.

  12. Franko@12 I wasn’t familiar with the character from the novel, but as I already had MAR I took JO as a shortened form of a woman’s name and it fit. Thanks mc_rapper67 for clarification and Cyclops for another enjoyable puzzle.

  13. TheFatController@13, yes that works.
    I missed “over” as a containment indicator and that stymied me. You live and learn!

  14. I did this whilst on holiday in Italy (Lake Garda!). Not sure why bit it took quite a few sessions and visits to my computer to resolve all clues. Not sure why in the end. Maybe a new environment or my mind was not dully engaged. However, a great puzzle, I thought and many thanks to Cyclops and mc for their involvement.
    Penny Mordaunt first cam to my attention when she did that celebrity diving programme….but how I knew about it when I don’t live in the UK nor watch such rubbish, I honestly don’t know.
    Tactical voter got me stumped for far too long. I too got locked up with cover for a while but was also running around with security gates/guard/fence in my mind for far too long!!!!

  15. Contrarily, I suggest that the speech marks in 23a were actually well motivated. Instead of what looks like a tired old one->1->I, it leaves no doubt that it’s spoken, by a personage for whom ‘one’ and ‘I’ are true synonyms. Though I hope it doesn’t get taken as an instance of lèse-majesté — wouldn’t want to see Cyclops banged up in the Tower.

  16. You’re right, Lemming: as soon as I realised I needed ‘one’ in the wordplay, I saw the clue as a quote from our new monarch.

  17. Cyclops@17, thanks for confirming lemming’s explanation. The quote rings true, as King Brian would certainly need something to re-establish decorum after “knocking back” a pint or two of lager!

  18. I found this a very tough solve compared to most Eye crosswords and was stumped by a couple.

  19. Tough for me as well – top half was still quite empty. Thanks as ever fur the blog and clear explanations.

    CEAUAUASUEUSUCUESCU – had to look it up eventually after getting all the crossers and confirming that my initial parsing was correct, just an unlikely set of too many vowels having put me off the idea of them ever forming a real name 🙂

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