My fellow Cyclops blogger beermagnet kindly ‘took one for the team’ and allowed me to have the Xmas special this year, even though it fell on his shift. Much appreciated…
This is the one Cyclops a year that usually has a preamble, and this year it stated that:
Running clockwise around the shaded squares, starting top left, is a question (slightly reduced to fit the grid) and the contestant’s two-word answer, as featured in DUMB BRITAIN in 2017. The 52 letters of the quote not intersecting with clue answers are:
AAAAAA B C DDD E F GG HHHHHH IIIIII LLL M NNNN OOO RRRRR SSS TTT U WW
So obviously some diving in needed here, to solve enough crossing letters to start to work out the not-quite-perimeter quotation. I pressed on, methodically running through all Across and then all Down in order (something I am not usually disciplined enough to do!), to see how I got on.
After the first pass through of Across clues I had exactly half – 17 of 34 – solved, and did even better on the Downs – 23 of 36. A pretty good ratio of return for me on any puzzle – a combination of this maybe being a slightly easier Xmas special than usual, and/or me just being on the setter’s wavelength from the off…
I then continued, in the spirit of 27D (DENY ONESELF), to work through the Across-es and Downs in strict order and rotation – resisting the temptation to flit around, or to start looking at the quotation – until, after several iterations, I had all but 4d – my LOI – done.
Thankfully the quotation was ‘enumerated’/delineated with thick bars for word breaks and, with almost all the crossers now there, I managed to pencil in SECOND WORLD WAR, ADOLF HITLER, DANGEROUS WOMAN and MARGARET THATCHER…and further spade-work and some cross-referencing with the preamble led to the following:
Q. ‘DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR, WHICH BRIT DID ADOLF HITLER CALL THE MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN IN BRITAIN’
A. ‘MARGARET THATCHER’ (!)
An impressive feat of grid construction, from Cyclops, and thanks from me for an enjoyable solve (although a bit of a slog to blog, as I rarely have to blog more than 15×15’s!). Fingers crossed for that prize draw!…
(Apologies that my grid above doesn’t have the clue numbers in it – I normally use a simple Excel spreadsheet to do this, and on the normal-sized grids the lack of numbering doesn’t really detract, but I probably need to look at finding a better way to present them…)
Overall I didn’t find this particularly harder than a ‘standard’ Cyclops, just about 2-and-a-half times as long! The usual mix of political targets, Trump-ian references and schoolboy smuttiness – either in clue readings or solutions, or both…
I enjoyed some of the longer anagrams – SWISS ARMY KNIFE, TUMESCENCE, GUNPOWDER PLOT. And, whilst I did seem to be typing ‘anag’ a lot in my parsings below, there was a good mix of other clue types – and the surface reading of 35A – ‘Stuck up Irish leader: “Time to oust English“‘ stands out for special mention, as does the Scandi-noir SERIAL KILLER at 32A. 64A was a LOL moment! 66A was more poignant…
NB. Whilst filling out the grid for the blog, I noticed the juxtaposition of SWAN and SONG, bang in the middle of the grid – I trust this was a coincidence, and not a subliminal message?…
(One slight quibble – ‘ACTS UP’ at 15A also made an appearance in the last Cyclops, 614, with a similar reference to ‘pain in the arse’…I guess this special had a longer gestation period and was written at a completely different time to 614, but maybe a slight editorial slip-up to have the same solution/references in adjacent puzzles?
Also – and not a criticism of Cyclops or this puzzle – I have to admit that ‘Dumb Britain’ is one of my least favourite bits of Private Eye. I’m sure most of these people aren’t necessarily ‘dumb’, they are probably nervous under the lights-camera-action of being on TV/radio, and may not hear/absorb the question fully, or may just panic-blurt out the answer under time pressure. So it seems a little churlish to compound their embarrassment by re-printing it for us to laugh/sneer at them.
As a long-term pub-quiz-league captain myself, I have often been in the position of not being sure of an answer, or having two-or-three waved under my nose by my team mates, and having to make a quick decision – which often leaves egg on my face.
How many of you solvers actually know the correct answer to this question without resort to Professor Go-Ogle? I certainly don’t… I might hazard a guess at ‘Lady Astor’ – was she something during the war? Or ‘one of the Mitfords’ – they mingled with the higher echelons about that time? Or maybe Mrs Churchill herself (if there was a Mrs Churchill?). I can hear the QI klaxons going off behind my head as I type…maybe I should have paid more attention during history at skool, or watched a few more WWII documentaries…)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 12A | DERMATITIS | Boob caught in cocked sidearm, which is irritating (10) | (something) which is irritating / DERMA__IS (anag, i.e. cocked, of SIDEARM) around TIT (boob) |
|
| 13A | ROLLS | By which the rich get around revolutions (5) | double defn. / a ROLLS Royce might be a way that rich people get around; and a ROLL can be a revolution, or spin |
|
| 14A | TUMESCENCE | Congress after this state cements EU break-up (Conservative leader involved) ? (10) | (sexual) congress (sometimes follows!) after this state / TUMESCEN_E (anag, i.e. break-up, of CEMENTS EU) around (involving) C (leading letter of Conservative) |
|
| 15A | ACTS UP | Behaves like a luvvie elevated – is a pain in the arse (4,2) | is a pain in the arse / ACTS (behaves like a luvvie) + UP (elevated) |
|
| 17A | SPONSOR | Relative welcomes Trump’s end – therefore Republican angel! (7) | angel (financial backer) / S_ON (relative) around (welcoming) P (end of trumP) + SO (therefore) + R (Republican) |
|
| 18A | NATIONAL DEBT | Not available, Ian bottled out – a big burden to us (8,4) | a big burden to us / NA (not available) + TIONAL DEBT (anag, i.e. out, of IAN BOTTLED) |
|
| 19A | MARSUPIAL | Joey hurts, having an erection – “Ail badly!” (9) | joey / MARS (damages, hurts) + UP (having an erection) + IAL (anag, i.e/ badly, of AIL) |
|
| 21A | CAMILLA | Royal consort gets a crowd in a state (7) | royal consort / C_A (California,a state) around A + MILL (crowd) |
|
| 23A | CLIMACTIC | As an orgasm is to do with temperature, etc., cocaine having been taken (9) | as an orgasm is / CLIMA_TIC (to do with temperature, etc.) around (taking) C (cocaine) |
|
| 28A | TIRADES | Rants and tries wrongfully to incarcerate a Democrat (7) | rants / TIR_ES (anag, i.e. wrongfully, of TRIES) around (incarcerating) A + D (Democrat) |
|
| 29A | PORTMANTEAU | Drink, mister and, it’s said, pull a bag (11) | a bag / PORT (drink) + MAN (mister) + TEAU (homophone, i.e. it’s said, of TOW, or pull) |
|
| 31A | KNEADS | Massages – “danke, Dotty” – before sex (6) | massages / KNEAD (anag, i.e. dotty, of DANKE) + S (sex) |
|
| 32A | SERIAL KILLER | Scandi noir villain who’d put paid to episodic TV adaptation? (6,6) | scandi noir villain / a SERIAL KILLER might kill (put paid to) a serial (episodic TV adaptation) |
|
| 33A | TODAY | Brown-noser slightly shuffled old paper (5) | old (news)paper / TOADY (brown-noser) with the A ‘shuffling along’ slightly can become TODAY (UK newspaper from ’80s/’90s?) |
|
| 34A | GLISSADE | Legs said to be bandy for ballet step (8) | ballet step / anag, i.e. bandy, of LEGS SAID |
|
| 35A | HAUGHTY | Stuck up Irish leader: “Time to oust English” (7) | stuck up / (Charles) HAUGHEY (former Irish Taoiseach, or leader) with E (English) ousted and T (time) replacing it becomes HAUGHTY (stuck up) |
|
| 37A | SONG | See 38ac. (4) | see 38A / see 38A |
|
| 38A | SWAN | & 37 Final act: Shakespearean lead, washed out, needs a lay (4,4) | final act / S (leading letter of Shakespeare) + WAN (washed out, pale) + SONG (lay) |
|
| 40A | LE MONDE | One must quit drink daily (2,5) | daily (newspaper, in France) / LEMONADE (drink) with the A quitting, becomes LE MONDE (French daily paper) |
|
| 45A | GRANDEUR | Lot of dosh put before EU – end of Her Majesty (8) | majesty / GRAND (£1000, lot of dosh) + EU + R (ending letter of heR) |
|
| 47A | EAGER | Panting, agree to get screwed? (5) | panting / anag, i.e. screwed, of AGREE |
|
| 49A | ASSAULT RIFLE | Falsies, ultra-wobbly – what a terrorist wants his hand on? (7,5) | what a terrorist wants his hands on / anag, i.e. wobbly, of FALSIES ULTRA |
|
| 51A | SMITER | Killer spider carried by Southern Region (6) | killer / S_R (Southern Region) around (carrying) MITE (Arachnid, possibly a spider) |
|
| 52A | JACK RUSSELL | Cur: Kennedy Brand? (4,7) | cur (dog) / JACK (Kennedy, US politician) + RUSSELL (Brand, UK comedian) |
|
| 53A | PAY CASH | Get deserved punishment by Conservative ‘Remains’ – hand over the readies! (3,4) | hand over the readies! / PAY (get deserved punishment) + C (Conservative) + ASH (remains) |
|
| 54A | LIMOUSINE | Cyclops is on oxygen, next to American, in queue for Trump-style transport? (9) | Trump-style transport / L__INE (queue) around IM (I’m…, or Cyclops is,…) + O (oxygen) + US (American) |
|
| 55A | CALYPSO | Wretched Cyclops gives head for a song (7) | song / anag, i.e. wretched, of ( |
|
| 57A | TWO HEARTS | Which could be throbbing as one nerdy swot receiving earth-moving penetration? (3,6) | which could be throbbing as one / TWO_S (anag, i.e. nerdy, of SWOT) around (penetrated by) HEART (anag, i.e. moving, of EARTH) |
|
| 59A | STATEN ISLAND | Say “at last, Republican Islamic State gains ground – it’s a part of New York” (6,6) | it’s a part of New Yotk / STATE (say) + N (last letter of republicaN) + IS (Islamic State) + LAND (ground) |
|
| 63A | SOLUBLE | “Sun corruptly blue”: that’s how a clue should be! (7) | how a clue should be! / SOL (sun) + UBLE (anag, i.e. corruptly, of BLUE) |
|
| 64A | PATTEN | Ex-Tory chairman – cow shit figure? (6) | ex-Tory (party) chairman / PAT (cow shit) + TEN (figure) |
|
| 66A | CREMATORIA | The very last places that would get people fired up (10) | &lit-ish/CD? / A CREMATORIUM is indeed the ‘last’ place one might get ‘fired’ up! |
|
| 67A | SCOTS | Piss artists recruiting Conservative nationals (5) | nationals / S_OTS (piss artists) around (recruiting) C (Conservative) |
|
| 68A | EXPERIENCE | Once Trump’s no. 2 is filled with misplaced ire, suffer! (10) | suffer / EX (once, former) + PE_NCE (Trump’s vice president, or No 2) around ERI (anag, i.e. misplaced, of IRE) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | TRUMPS | The president’s old farts? (6) | double defn. / to TRUMP is a slightly old fashioned euphemism for fart; and of course, TRUMP is the POTUS (but only for another 3 years or so, sigh…) |
|
| 2D | KNOT | See 69dn. (4) | see 69D / see 69D |
|
| 3D | STATESMANSHIP | American’s (as it might be put) ‘with it’ – not the sort of presidential quality Trump’s displaying? (13) | not the sort of presidential quality Trump’s displaying / STATESMAN (an American might be referred to as a STATES MAN) + S (possessive S) + HIP (with it) |
|
| 4D | PENSION | Board to get penis turning over (7) | board / PENSI (anag, i.e. turning, of PENIS) + ON (over) |
|
| 5D | NEBRASKA | State taken by Trump supporter in sneak turnabout (8) | state, taken by Trump (in presidential election) / NE_SKA (anag, i.e. turnabout, of SNEAK) around BRA (supporter) |
|
| 6D | COOLER | Fan, one who murmurs softly about ‘Merkel’s end’ (6) | fan / COO_ER (one who coos, or murmurs softly) around L (end letter of merkeL) |
|
| 7D | TOMTIT | ‘Pussy and boob’ sort of bird (6) | sort of bird / TOM (cat, or pussy) + TIT (boob, agaiin!) |
|
| 8D | SWISS ARMY KNIFE | If wankers miss twisting round end of willy, it has multiple uses (5,4,5) | it has multiple uses / SWISS ARM_ KNIFE (anag, i.e. twisting, of IF WANKERS MISS) around Y (end letter of willY) |
|
| 9D | FRIEND | Mate with devil, suppressing resistance (6) | mate / F_IEND (devil) around (suppressing) R (resistance) |
|
| 10D | DISINCLINED | Reluctant car crash victim’s listed (11) | reluctant / DI (Diana, Princess of Wales, car crash victim) + S (possessive S) + INCLINED (leaned, or listed) |
|
| 11D | LIMBO | Branch wants Corbyn’s number two’s oblivion (5) | oblivion / LIMB (branch, of a tree, say) + O (second letter of cOrbyn) |
|
| 16D | POP IDOL | Reality TV father with blue-eyed boy (3,4) | reality TV (show) / POP (father) + IDOL (blue-eyed boy) |
|
| 20D | SURFING | Making use of the remote rigs – fun to go crazy (7) | making use of the (TV) remote / anag, i.e. to go crazy, of RIGS FUN |
|
| 22D | INMATE | Prisoner’s familiar, but not getting it up (6) | prisoner / IN( |
|
| 24D | LOUNGE | Idle Donald’s second to enter dive (6) | idle / L_UNGE (dive) around (entered by) O (second letter of dOnald) |
|
| 25D | CRESS | Element of Dacre’s sleazy plant (5) | plant / hidden letter in, i.e. element of, ‘daCRE’S Sleazy’ |
|
| 26D | OPALESCENCE | Rogue cop scene covering up booze’s milkiness (11) | milkiness / OP_SCENCE (anag, i.e. rogue, of COP SCENE) around ALE (booze) |
|
| 27D | DENY ONESELF | Disown your impish character – be spartan (4,7) | be spartan / DENY (disown) + ONES (your) + ELF (impish character) |
|
| 30D | RERUN | Some Twitterer, unapologetic, put it out again (5) | put it out again / hidden word, i.e. some, in ‘twitteRER UNapologetic’ |
|
| 36D | THE PRESENT TIME | These days of Brexit and Trump? Christmas you might say (3,7,4) | these days, of Brexit and Trump? / Apart from being a religious festival, for many Christmas is THE PRESENT TIME! |
|
| 39D | WEAVE | The Eye has reported spin (5) | spin / homophone, i.e. reported, of WE’VE (the Eye has…) |
|
| 41D | OKINAWA | Pacific island oxygen needed before one gets into handjob in reverse (7) | Pacific island / O (oxygen) + K_NAWA (handjob, or ‘a wank’, in reverse) around I (one) |
|
| 42D | TROJAN | Hard worker wants jar – not pissed (6) | hard worker / anag, i.e. pissed, of JAR NOT |
|
| 43D | TRASHY | Crap keeps one quiet in Test (6) | crap / TRY (test) around (keeping) A (one) + SH (quiet!) |
|
| 44D | GUNPOWDER PLOT | Reg wouldn’t pop out: parliament was not elevated by this (9,4) | parliament was not elevated by this / anag, i.e. out, of REG WOULDN’T POP |
|
| 46D | NOT SO | Snot dripping onto ring – that’s wrong (3,2) | that’s wrong / NOT S (anag, i.e. dropping, of SNOT) + O (ring) |
|
| 48D | GORMANDISER | Old-fashioned sort of Michael Winner: “Mad goer, ruined with sin, right?” (11) | old fashioned sort of Michael Winner (a famous gourmand/restaurant critic) / anag, i.e. ruined, of MAD GOER + SIN + R (right) |
|
| 50D | TOYSHOP | Model screwing Posh, which attracts the kids (7) | (something) which attracts the kids / TOY (model) + SHOP (anag, i.e. screwing, of POSH) |
|
| 56D | SALESMAN | Representative of second piss on Southern male (8) | representative / S (second) + ALE (beer, piss) + S (southern) + MAN (male) |
|
| 58D | OBJECT | Job etc: tweaking thingy (6) | thingy / anag, i.e. tweaking, of JOB ETC |
|
| 60D | TIMING | Checking the duration of perverted sex on Dynasty (6) | checking the duration of / TI (‘it’, or sex, upside down, or perverted) + MING (Chinese dynasty) |
|
| 61D | STREW | Tartan trousers back to front – scatter! (5) | scatter / TREWS (Scottish, i.e. tartan, trousers) with the back (S) moving to the front gives STREW (scatter!) |
|
| 62D | ABACUS | You can count on it ruining USA, holding back transport (6) | you can count on it / A_US (anag, i.e. ruining, of USA) around (holding) BAC (cab, or transport, back) |
|
| 63D | SPONGY | Soft and wet, producing stink in outskirts of Salisbury (6) | soft and wet / S_Y (outskirts of SalisburY) around PONG (stink) |
|
| 65D | TWEETS | Trump’s means of communicating Wossy’s indulgences? (6) | Trump’s means of communication / Jonathan Ross (UK TV figure) has a speech impediment whereby he pwonounces his R’s as W’s, so he is called ‘Wossy’, and he would pronounce TREATS, indulgences, as TWEETS |
|
| 69D | REEF | & 2dn. Loopy thing madly keen to take top of fork in balls (4,4) | loopy thing / R_OT (bunkum, balls!) around EEF KN (anag, i.e. madly, of KEEN, around F – top letter of Fork) |
|
Completely agree with mc_rapper67 about the Dumb Britain feature in The Eye.
It’s nice to have a bigger prize than usual (for whoever wins it) but why not offer more than one prize per fortnight? The magazine can afford it!
Thanks to 67 for complicated and thoughtful blog, and to the indefatigable Cyclops.
I agree – on some of these quizzes, a victim who has no idea about the answer is not given the option of passing, but is commanded to give some sort of reply, which they would know to be completely wrong, so should be stigmatised.
By the way, I’ve looked up the correct answer, which was the Queen.
I don’t agree, contestants have applied to go on these quizzes, so should accept the consequences-
back to the crossword, I found this to be one of the easier Christmas puzzles of recent years, I did spend two days, though, on 40. (peterM, I assume that you mean the Queen Mother)
The dangerous woman was the wife of the king (George VI), but the majority of the citations I have come across refer to Europe rather than to Britain. I got stuck into this crossword as soon as the magazine arrived and polished the whole thing off with unexpected ease — anything to postpone the last-minute Christmas shopping for one more day!
It was a lot of work trying to solve this one. This and the Everyman Christmas jumbo really kept me busy over the holidays. Not one to normally check anything else in Private Eye besides the crossword, I actually had to look up previous “Dumb Britain” transcripts to find the interchange going around the grid. No such luck. But since I did manage to decipher SECOND WORLD WAR, ADOLF HITLER, and MARGARET THATCHER, I eventually put two and two together. I was almost thrown off by the fact some of the quote was going backwards at the bottom of the grid. You don’t normally find the word “woman” in reverse in a crossword, cryptic or regular. Also, I was surprised to find among the British quiz show moments a few from Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” segment! Do they also get Jimmy Kimmel in Britain too? His “Lie Witness News” segments would be good to use as well! Slightly different, but just as funny! Back to the puzzle, I almost didn’t get ADOLF HITLER, and I had the first L and the H and T showing! How quickly we forget! Felt like a dummy! I spent most of the Friday the puzzle came out doing it, and I still had a few other puzzles and a podcast that night! We usually eat out on Friday nights, but after my nephew’s untimely death last October, my brother and sister-in-law haven’t been wanting to go. So lately I’d been getting everything accomplished earlier on Friday nights. This puzzle was tricky at times. I’d never heard of the phrase GUNPOWDER PLOT before, or for that matter GORMANDISER(British spelling, right?), but my LOI would have to be CAMILLA. Took me a while. I also didn’t think of LE MONDE until later, and that was one of the foreign newspapers they had at my college library! I should have known, being an amateur cryptic setter, as I had thought about the LE MONDE/LEMONADE connection before. All in all, it was definitely one of the best jumbo crosswords I’ve done since the London Times ones in college, or the Sunday NYT ones. Well done, Cyclops!
I am much slower than you guys since it took some days to complete. I DID get the quote much earlier than that though. I tend to guess individual words and fit the spare ones in as I go. This got me in trouble this time though since the penultimate ‘u’ had me running away with wonderful, beautiful and one other (I can’t remember) that all would have resulted in MT being a bad answer!!!! And then I got Hitler somehow and it started to fit. Even then, my guesswork went awry as I tried to use ‘heir’ instead of ‘brit’ since I had decided the answer was the-then Princess Elisabeth.
All in all, most enjoyable and a wonderful way to spend time over the festive period.
I managed to enter the quote before starting on the crossword itself. We were told that the last two words are the answer, and it happens that there was only the one Dumb Britain question in 2017 that had an 8, 8 answer. It was just a question of editing the question to fit the rest and checking off the non-intersecting letters.
I always save the year’s worth of Private Eyes in readiness of the Xmas crossword – now I can free up that shelf space, ready for this year’s mags.
BTW mc_rapper67, great job on the multicolored lighting for the Dumb Britain quote! Looks cool! And then MARGARET THATCHER is in blue. Clever!
Thanks for the various comments/feedback – apologies for the late response…busy week.
Re. the quotation, most references I have seen mention Europe rather than Britain, but the preamble did say it had been slightly altered to fit. In fact it said ‘shortened’, but the word BRITAIN is longer than EUROPE…maybe the ‘BRIT’ in the middle is the shortened bit, and maybe BRITAIN was easier to set around than Europe. And yes, it does seem to have been the wife of the then King George VI, who went onto become the Queen Mother…
PD at #7 – impressed by your approach! I did have a pile of old Eyes for most of 2017, which I usually save up for when my expat brother comes to visit or someone goes to see him, but I didn’t have the patience to dig through them all on the off chance of finding the question in question…
Patrick j Berry at #5 and #8 – your extraordinary missive deserves its own comment back!
Thanks for your detailed exposition of your solving process – nice to hear of a cryptic-loving soul from across the pond, as I understand ‘American’ crosswords are a very different proposition (but not something I have much experience of).
As almost all the major UK newspaper crossword series are online these days, geography is pretty much taken out of the equation…except for those papers that still insist on postal submissions for prize puzzles! You can get the Times weekly Jumbos on their online site – although there is a charge – and they have online submission for prize puzzles, so who knows. The Guardian is free, and they take faxed entries – I know faxes are soooo last century, but they do the job and are quicker than snail mail! The Telegraph charges as well, and they take scanned/e-mailed entries.
The animated grid is something fellow blogger kenmac showed us all how to do a few years ago. Very simple technology – an Excel spreadsheet for the different versions of the grid, then Microsoft ‘Paint’ and Microsoft ‘GIF Animator’ – both ancient programs which somehow still seem to work with the latest versions of Windoze. The blue shading for Maggie was deliberate!
The (Royal) blue would have worked for the actual answer too.