1 down is topical given that as I type this counting is still going on for the local elections. Lots of talk about swinging and most, like Jenrick, swinging to the right as if they are on an out of control anticlockwise merry-go-round. So many defective, sorry defecting, ex-Cons like him. I’ll say no more here – it’s all too depressing.
Anyway another great crossword from our one-eyed friend. I notice he will soon be starring in Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster epic: “The Odyssey” trailer
Solving started quickly with 1 down and 20 down going in quickly to provide lots of first letters. But slowed when I couldn’t get anything from those besides 30 across right at the bottom.
Then I had a go at the longish multiple light answers 3/29 and 5/18 in an attempt to seed other areas of the grid and was happy enough to get the excellent VEGAN MEAT MUM / MAGA MOVEMENT anagram, but 3/29 was too tricky and resisted until it was the penultimate clue solved.
No chance of a single pass solve this time, though only a handful left at the end: The crossing 8 down and 2 across, which got resolved when I realised the definition for STIGMA was Shame – I’d been trying to think of a state or country ending in ___GIA. Then the U from EAT OUT made FULL STOP visible. Finally the (in my opinion) very difficult HOLLOW. The whole thing took more than 30 mins.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | EAT OUT | Earl joins a profiteer to go to The Ritz? (3,3) E[arl] A TOUT (a profiteer) Looks like you have to be a profiteer to go to The Ritz (Menu pdf) |
| 9 | TREASURE | Darling‘s rate change, yes? (8) (RATE)* AInd: change, then SURE (yes) This “Darling” is more to do with “Sweetheart” than “The Treasury”, but the allusion to Alistair Darling was nice. He had strong opinions on the mayhem wrought by the Tories by the 1990 entry into, and forced withdrawal (on Black Wednesday 1992) from, the European ERM (Exchange Rate Mechanism). |
| 11 | REGULARLY | Loyal customer has bonk – gutted quite often (9) REGULAR (loyal customer) L[a]Y (bonk, gutted) I dispute something that happens regularly happens quite often. The Earth’s magnetic poles regularly switch – about every 400,000 years. |
| 12 | ABHOR | House caught between American-British hate (5) HO[use] between A BR (A[merican]-BR[itish]) Hate? Everyone either side of the pond loves House |
| 13 | CRASS | Unrefined social group must change its direction (5) CLASS (social group) swap L for R (L[eft] for R[ight], change its direction) It could be argued that CRⒶSS were a punk group requiring a refined taste. |
| 15 | TORY PARTY | Sadly, try to pray for politicians on the way out? (4,5) (TRY TO PRAY)* AInd: Sadly. Tory Party will need some prayers Will they remember to turn the lights out and close the door? |
| 17 | AMERICAN DREAM | It’s been perverted by Trump – “Liberal cameraman DIRE!” (8,5) (CAMERAMAN DIRE)* AInd: liberal. Like everything he touches (reverse-Midas?) |
| 22 | HAVE A GO AT | Try to engage in bestiality (4,1,2,2) Def. with subordinate definition referencing “Have a goat” We’re talking about Trump still, are we? |
| 24 | SIREN | Alarm: sailor’s downfall (5) Double Def. “Tie me to the mast. I’ll be back for breakfast!” |
| 26 | LIMBS | Politicians briefly grabbing male members (5) LIBS (Liberals, Politicians, briefly) around M[ale] I cannot help suspecting many would be happy for the attention. |
| 28 | FACE-SAVER | Dial conservative type that’s desperately needed by Trump? (4-5) FACE (Dial) SAVER (Conservative type) It is beyond saving |
| 30 | RUN SHORT | Become exhausted by Trots, Roth novel (3,5) RUNS (Trots, aka diarrhoea, not Trotskyists) (ROTH)* AInd: novel. Stockpiling for Covid will look like peanuts compared to the stockpiling needed when the world’s supply lines seize up. (NB: Peanuts are probably worth stockpiling.) |
| 31 | HOLLOW | Depressed, hard to be a supporter? F-off! (6) H[ard] [f]OLLOW (to be a supporter, -F (F-off)) Last One In. I found it hard to ignore the psychological meaning of depressed and see the physical meaning. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | JENRICK | Political defector: “Nicer, perhaps, being between two cards” (7) (NICER)* AInd: perhaps, between J[ack] and K[ing] (two cards). First one in. Nothing shouts “Chancer” more than being in the Shadow Cabinet, and almost leader of a party, then swapping to another that happens to be doing better in the polls. |
| 2 | STIGMA | Shame bastards backed by state (6) GITS< (bastards, backed) MA (state, which one is this … Massachusetts ) I get mixed up with the several US States starting with M |
| 3/29 | FULL STOP | Dot‘s loaded, having turned over a lot of money (4,4) FULL (loaded) POTS< (a lot of money, turned over) I don’t think the clue was referring to Dot Cotton |
| 4 | PRAYER | Settler welcomes Republican Hegseth’s fake one? (6) R[epublican] in PAYER (Settler, as in settling bills) This must’ve been a late addition to the puzzle. The Hegseth “Bible-gate” incident was very recent. Likely he has done the same earlier. |
| 5/18 | MAGA MOVEMENT | Trump supporters beat up vegan meat mom (4,8) (VEGAN MEAT MOM)* AInd: beat up. Oh dear. (Good anagram) |
| 6 | EUPHORIA | Joy‘s energy up with hair twisted and ring inserted (8) E[nergy] UP (HAIR)* AInd: twisted, around O (ring inserted) Surface reading conjures images that are very inappropriate, particularly if you know someone called Joy. |
| 7 | BETRAYS | Crosses from bishop with elasticated opening on drawers (7) B[ishop] E[lasticated] TRAYS (drawers) Is a drawer a tray? Morphologically similar, I grant. |
| 10 | EROTIC | Lustful? Immerse balls in crushed ice (6) ROT (balls, i.e. rubbish) in (ICE)* AInd: crushed !! Top clue. (I say no more) |
| 14 | SYRIA | Middle Eastern country‘s mood lifted with empty agreement (5) AIR (mood) Y[e]S (agreement, empty) all reversed (lifted) Well constructed wordplay |
| 16 | PARIS | City person Helen was quite taken by (5) Double def. Not really recent news though is it. |
| 19 | NOTICE | Mark‘s about to enter without item of formal attire (6) C (about) inside NO TIE (without item of formal attire) I found that tricky to solve, i.e. need all the crossers, and longer to understand the wordplay |
| 20 | CHOLERA | Complaint when Clare tears round House (7) (CLARE)* AInd: tears, around HO[use] “Complaint” does not seem strong enough to describe cholera. |
| 21 | IN CROWD | Crown, embarrassed to be caught by Cyclops had to get top people (2-5) (CROWN)* AInd: embarrassed, inside (caught by) I’D (Cyclops had) Implies our setter has a side-hustle blackmailing Brian |
| 23 | OXFORD | City‘s open source vote in favour of Democrat (6) O[pen] X (vote) FOR (in favour of) D[emocrat] I’m sure the voters of Oxford concur. |
| 25 | REVOLT | Lover’s disgusting technique initially causes outrage (6) (LOVER)* AInd: disgusting, T[echnique] Somehow reminded me of Chiang Kai-Shek’s assessment of the French Revolution (“Too early to tell”) |
| 27 | SOHO | Seedy place? I say “Outstanding, on the up!” (4) OH (Oh! I say!) OS (outstanding) all reversed. Is it still seedy in Soho? Last time I was there (years ago now) there was a lot of refurbishment going on. |
I have been more adventurous with my cooking lately and I had some people round for dinner the other day.
I tried out a sauce recipe using vodka, gravy and nitrous oxide. Unfortunately all I did was make myself an absolut laughing stock.
Thanks for the blog and the vodka groaner beermagnet, and Cyclops for the puzzle. My favourites were the very funny 22a and 30a. But couldn’t 400,000 years be considered ‘quite often’ in cosmic timescales, though?
Thanks for a great blog , we do have a couple of Odyssey references with PARIS and SIREN . HAVE A GO AT is brilliant . For REGULARLY the sun orbits the centre of the galaxy about every 235 million years , is this quite often ?
BETRAYS , at work we have lots of cabinets containing thick plastic trays holding apparatus , the trays do function as drawers .
Oh dear -this was a DNF for me as I had a wrong answer for 2D-shame means I cannot divulge my answer. Gits=bastards?
I do like Cyclops puzzles – I can pretty much guarantee to finish one in a reasonable amount of time, but they’re never write-ins. And the amusing topical clues are a bonus.
REGULARLY surely has at least two separate but related meanings: ‘at fixed intervals’ which could be very long, or indeed very short; and ‘quite often’, as defined here. (The OED online gives 7 separate meanings of the word, of which #6 is ‘At fixed times or uniform intervals; repeatedly, without interruption; frequently, often’.)
Thanks Cyclops and beermagnet.