Private Eye (Cyclops / 769) Unnatural Euphoria

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An enjoyable one from the Eye this issue.  A big relief from the Xmas monster

Quite a few anagrams in this puzzle but my word, there are a few absolute gems among them: I liked 29 MOTORCADE mostly clued using DEMOCRAT,  28 if your BEER IS mixed with RUM then you’re probably due to be REIMBURSEd, but capping them all is the sublime 25/27 making HAMPTON COURT from TO PUT MONARCH out.

That’s not to say some of the other clues aren’t worth mentioning.  Solving was most enjoyable and over too quickly.  (I can’t really claim any speed record or “one pass” accolade – see note about 6d below).   However doing this blog gave me a chance to appreciate some of the clues a bit more, and the mini-stories they tell.  For instance, the first clue I answered, 4A, went in quickly from a “solvers” reading – immediately thinking of PUB for Local, and dismissing the idea that this referred to one of the Presidents Bush.  Now reading it again conjurers up a vision of “W” being happy to win the mayoralty of Hicksville for the Shenandoah Residents Association.   The surface reading of many other clues also lend themselves to such musing.

I realise most of you read the Eye from cover to cover before tackling the crossword, let alone coming here to see what others made of it.  Just in case you are one of the other few, or simply don’t know, Private Eye create a podcast too.  I find it a very good way of consuming the magazine with my eyes closed.  The latest edition is well worth a listen coming as it does after the astonishing recent furore that has arisen after all these years about the Post Office Scandal.  Of course many years ago the Eye was one of the first, after Computer Weekly, to write about it.  They even brought out a special report “Justice Lost in the Post” soon after the 2019 High Court victory.  PDF Here.  So shut your eyes and have listen <podcast link here>.

I didn’t understand 6d, and still don’t, but eventually concluded the answer I give is the only word that fits.
So please can someone tell me how it works.

Across
1 CHAOS Desperate Cash circling round in disarray (5)
(CASH)* AInd: desperate, around O (round)
4 PUBIC HAIR Local Independent seat for Bush (5,4)
PUB (local) I[ndependent] CHAIR (seat). First one in – I immediately thought Pub for Local and have a shrewd idea of what Cyclops might define as “Bush”
9/22d LIFESTYLE CHOICE So I elect, chiefly, to adjust to homelessness? (9,6)
(SO I ELECT CHIEFLY)* AInd: to adjust.  Definition references Cruella B’s declaration that homelessness is a “Lifestyle choice”
10 REALM Concrete medium: Brian’s province (5)
REAL (Concrete) M[edium].  Brian is the Eye’s pet name for Prince King Charles
11 MIDRIFF Where pot may be spotted half-way through a jazz piece? (7)
MID RIFF (halfway through a jazz piece) Definition referring to a pot belly – not the other sorts of pot
12 KASHMIR King and a shrunken Rishi tangling over kingdom’s ultimate state (7)
K[ing], A, (RISH[i])* AInd: tangling, around(over) [kingdo]M
13 TAVERN Boozer‘s name on tax return (6)
N[ame] RE (on) VAT (Tax) all reversed (return)
15 UGLY MUG Glum guy turned out to be awful kisser (4,3)
(GLUM GUY)* AInd: turned out. “Mug” for face and “Ugly Mug” seems such a 60s phrase – reminds me of Steptoe & Son
19 STUCK-UP Snooty unable to shift out of bed (5-2)
STUCK (unable to shift) UP (out of bed)
20 GDANSK Port contributes to wrestling dan skills (6)
Hidden in: wrestlinG DAN SKills
23 IN TOUCH Communicating badly, chin out (2,5)
(CHIN OUT)* AInd: Badly.
25/27 HAMPTON COURT Palace to put monarch out! (7,5)
(TO PUT MONARCH)* AInd: out.  One of the best anagrams I’ve seen for a while
28 REIMBURSE Beer is drunk with rum to compensate (9)
(BEER IS + RUM)* AInd: is drunk.
29 MOTORCADE Democrat shot around mid-point of knoll procession (9)
(DEMOCRAT)* AInd: shot, around [kn]O[ll].  What a spooky clue with allusions to JFK and “The Grassy Knoll”
30 GALOP Series of steps to get Gore embraced by US Republicans (5)
AL (Gore) inside (embraced by) GOP (US Republicans – Grand Old Party)
Down
1 CALAMITY Financial quarter welcomes a pound disaster (8)
CITY (Financial quarter) around A LAM (a pound – in the thumping sense)
2 AFFIDAVIT One would swear that terribly fat diva provided backing internally (9)
(FAT DIVA)* AInd: terribly, around IF< (provided, backing)
3 SUSHI Japanese offering to set up American shut up on island (5)
US< (American, set up) SH (shut up, as in “be quiet!”) I[sland]
4 PAY-OFF Talk up Dicky’s reward (3-3)
YAP< (Talk, up) OFF (dicky, i.e. ill)
5 BREAKAGE Rage: “Bake Off’s ruined item!” (8)
(RAGE BAKE)* AInd: off.
6 CURTSEYED Formally acknowledged King Brian’s bent? (9)
Help! I simply don’t understand how this clue works
7 ALARM Labour’s top two get stuck into member as a warning (5)
LA[bour] inside ARM (member)
8 REMARK Notice spasmodic bedtime activity by crafty thing (6)
REM (spasmodic bedtime activity) ARK (crafty thing).  Last one in (ignoring 6d)
14 RECRUITER Who gets members to arrange truce, i.e. between two Republicans? (9)
(TRUCE IE)* AInd: to arrange, inside R and R (two Republicans)
16 UNNATURAL Irregular peacekeepers associating with old bastard (9)
UN (peacekeepers) NATURAL (bastard, old)
17 EUPHORIA Joy screws up a hero – one’s enthralled (8)
(UP A HERO)* AInd: screws, around (enthralling) I (one)
18 SKIN-DEEP Superficial type wants piss-up after start of summer (4-4)
KIND (type), then PEE< (piss, up), all after S[ummer]
21 SITCOM Be an MP, firm and masculine? That’s a laugh! (6)
SIT (Be an MP) CO (firm, i.e. company) M[asculine]
24 TAUNT “At uprising, Chancellor loses head” jibe (5)
AT< [h]UNT (Ref. Jeremy ‘unt, this week’s Chancellor)
26 MR BIG Crime boss’s rib cracked in car (2,3)
(RIB)* AInd: cracked, inside MG (car).  My dad’s friend “Uncle Court” (Courtney)  used to drive an MGB with his crazy mongrel dog in the passenger seat.  Recently, I saw a similar 1960s model: My god they look small now.

Rishi Sunak is keen that kids study maths to a good standard.
Happy to hear that.  I was very good a maths.  Unfortunately I failed my calculus exam.
It wasn’t my fault!   Identical twins were either side of me and it was impossible to differentiate between them.

14 comments on “Private Eye (Cyclops / 769) Unnatural Euphoria”

  1. Isn’t the first def for the DD @ 6d “Formally acknowledged King Brian” and the second “bent” (at the knee)?

    17dn, EUPHORIA: typo — you dropped the H in enthralling.

  2. CURTSEYED
    Def1: ‘Formally acknowledged King?’
    Def2: Brian’s ‘bent’?
    Is Brian an indicator of Irish or some other usage? Just guessing…

  3. Thanks for the blog, very good clues this time, perhaps not so political or smutty . I will join you in praise for HAMPTON COURT, not sure if I approve of MOTORCADE.
    Not a fan of CURTSEYED , I think Tony@1 explains it , it is almost a cryptic definition but does not really work.
    KVa@2 , Private Eye has names for all the royal family, ERII was Brenda for example, they make fun of the royals as a soap opera. Started well before my time so I do not know if there are particular reasons for each name.

  4. OK. I’ll accept that 6D is a DD. Still not sure if “Brian” should be considered to be in the first or second def.

    As Roz says, Brian is Charles, as also referenced in 10A.
    I don’t think there are many (or any?) other royals with Eye nicknames like Brenda and Brian. I can’t think of any for Anne or Edward, and when Andrew is referred to as “Randy Andy” it is hardly a nickname, more an accurate description.
    Non-royals also get the Eye treatment occasionally: Piers Moron, “Brillo pad” Niel etc.
    (Haven’t seen a Brillo pad for years, mutter, mutter)

    Typo corrected in 17D.

  5. Thanks beermagnet (and Cyclops). Unusually for me, I found this one to be a bit of a doddle and solved without too much head scratching. I’m with Tony @1 on the solution for ‘curtseyed’, though I can’t see 6d making the ‘Top Ten most cryptic clues’ list any time soon.

  8. Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I had a chuckle at a few clues and marked 4a and 11a as faves.
    I also pondered on 6d. I agree with Tony @ 1 that “bent” may well refer to the knee joint during curtseying. I just don’t get the “‘s” in Brian’s. I wonder if it is a double definition but “King Brian’s” (a possessive?) indicates it is Royal in general and therefore “King Brian’s bent” = Curtseyed (a royal bending) and “Formally acknowledged” = Curtseyed.
    In any event, just trying to give my explanation has got me chuckling again with Cyclops’s naughtiness at the core.

  9. 6d was my LOI too. I eventually arrived at the same DD parsing as TonyC, taking the ‘s as an abbreviation for “is” rather than a possessive; thus a nice peiece of misdirection. I’m still ruminating on the use of “is” as the linkword between the two definitions, and have been meaning to look through some previous puzzles here — should be easy given the standard of annotations here. Initially “D1 is D2” as a clue seems a bit odd to me, but I don’t see any strong reason for objecting to it. In fact it’s true, and in form maybe a bit bold and creative. Or maybe linkwords in DDs don’t have to be very meaningful, in which case, carry on treating it as a possessive. ATM I really don’t know, hence my need for some comparisons. I see Chambers has “A formal indication of respect (by women) made by bending the knees with one leg behind the other”. Cyclops is more or less translating this, isn’t he: “Formal ack = bent (knees)”.

  11. Thanks, lemming @9 and Tony @10. Oddly, it seems to work better with the male equivalent to bow. Bowed could be an adjective, but I’m not sure curtseyed could be. Anyway, grammar is not my strong point. I’ll ‘bow out’ now on the subject.

  12. Franko, curtseyed doesn’t need to be an adjective. It’s the past tense of curtsey (bend at the knee) and bent can be the past tense of bend, although in the surface here, it’s presumably an adjective meaning corrupt.

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