Cyclops on top form this fortnight…surface readings, political/establishment targets, and the usual level of schoolboy smuttery…
10A is a great surface reading and an apposite anagram…and 14A hits the spot on many levels…is 17D a bit close to the knuckle?…of course not, this is Private Eye, after all!
Tight to deadline for getting this out, so minimum spiel – hopefully I have it all covered below…
d
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 7A | CARROT | Corbyn’s just started a right load of malarkey as an “inducement” (6) | an inducement / C (starting letter of Corbyn) + A + R (right) + ROT (load of malarkey) |
|
| 8A | LOSE YOUR | & 16 Go the apparent way of Trump and Kim Jong-Un, mentally, and mislay one’s sculptures? (4,4,7) | double defn.-ish? / Trump and Kim seem to have lost their marbles; and if you mislay a set of sculptures made of marble, you might also have ‘lost your marbles’?… |
|
| 10A | IMMIGRATION | Many Brexiteers unhappy with this timing, or am I mistaken? (11) | many brexiteers unhappy with this / anag, i.e. mistaken, of TIMING OR AM I |
|
| 11A | GET | & 23 Grand, not small, testes (nuts) – prepare yourself (3,3) | prepare yourself / G (grand, as in £1000) + ET SET (anag, i.e. nuts!, of TESTE(S) excluding S (not ‘small’) |
|
| 12A | PAY DEARLY | Already pissed in the outskirts of Purley, really suffer for your actions (3,6) | really suffer for your actions / P_Y (the outskirting letters of PurleY) around AY DEARL (anag, i.e. pissed, of ALREADY) |
|
| 13A | LARGE | Generous booze shifts butt to the middle (5) | generous / LAGE(R) (booze) moving R (its back end, or butt) to its middle = LA(R)GE |
|
| 14A | JOHNSON | US president who’s a pain in the arse for May? (7) | US president (or double defn.?) / (Lyndon?) JOHNSON was an American president; (Boris) JOHNSON is a PITA for Theresa May) |
|
| 16A | MARBLES | See 8ac (7) | See 8A / See 8A |
|
| 18A | CUT IN | Interrupt Conservative leader who’s powerless (3,2) | interrupt / C (Conservative) + (P)UT IN (leader, Vladimir Putin, losing P – power) |
|
| 20A | MONOLOGUE | Tedious spiel about mug with one loo (9) | tedious spiel / anag, i.e. about, of MUG with ONE LOO |
|
| 23A | SET | See 11ac (3) | see 11A / see 11A |
|
| 24A | FIRE AND FURY | Kindle article on Democrat “vengeful figure” that doesn’t put Trump in a good light (4,3,4) | (recent book) that doesn’t put Trump in a good light / FIRE (kindle) + AN (indefinite article) + D (Democrat) + FURY (vengeful figure) |
|
| 25A | INFRADIG | If in drag, jogging is improper (8) | improper / anag, i.e jogging, of IF IN DRAG |
|
| 26A | SUNHAT | Tabloid: “Hot, advanced temperature beachwear?” (6) | beachwear / SUN (tabloid) + H (hot) + A (advanced) + T (temperature) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | CRUMMY | Conservative’s opening game is pathetic (6) | pathetic / C (Conservative’s opening letter) + RUMMY (card game) |
|
| 2D | CONGRESS | Sex: Republicans have the edge here (8) | double defn.? / CONGRESS can refer to sexual relations; and the Republicans have the edge in the US CONGRESS |
|
| 3D | POLICY | Government’s planned action: cut-back biting (6) | Government’s planned action / POL (lop, or cut, back) + ICY (biting) |
|
| 4D | REGNAL | Arsy-versy clanger Corbyn initially dropped concerning what the Queen does (6) | concerned with what the Queen does / anag, i.e. arsy-versy, of (C)LANGER, dropping C – initial letter of Corbyn) |
|
| 5D | DOGGEREL | Bad poetry and heartless drivel about poor George (8) | bad poetry / D_L (DriveL, ‘heartless) around OGGERE (anag, i.e. poor, of GEORGE) |
|
| 6D | BROTHERS | Fusses about end of Labour’s Ed and David? (8) | Ed and David (Milliband, UK politiocians) / B_OTHERS (fusses) aroundd R (end letter of labouR) |
|
| 7D | CRIMP | Tuck member under bed with no base (5) | tuck / CRI(B) (bed, with no last letter, or base) + MP (Member of Parliament) |
|
| 9D | MACRON | President Trump’s fourth out-of-control “narco” (6) | (French) president / M (fourth letter of truMp) + ACRON (anag, i.e. out-of-control, of NARCO) |
|
| 14D | JACK SHIT | Small balls bump means sod all (4,4) | sod all / JACK_S (small balls, i.e. the targets in boules or bowls) + HIT (bump) |
|
| 15D | HIT IT OFF | Success with sex turned sour? Get on (3,2,3) | get on (with) / HIT (success) + IT (euphemism for sex) + OFF (turned sour) |
|
| 16D | MANIAC | Deranged piece by Independent (state backed) (6) | deranged / MAN (piece, e.g. in chess) + I (Independent) + AC (CA, California, state, backed) |
|
| 17D | RULED OUT | Dismissed what Charles hopes his mother will be before too long? (5,3) | dismissed / If you are ‘something-ed out’ you might be tired of doing that something, so Prince Charles may be hoping his mother gets tired of ruling…or maybe is ‘ruled out’ by the inexorable progression of time and nature… |
|
| 19D | NO FEAR | Part reduction of earnings? Definitely not! (2,4) | definitely not! / hidden word, i.e. part, in ‘reductioN OF EARnings’ |
|
| 20D | MARGIN | Thatcher’s Left side accepted latitude (6) | latitude / MARG(aret) (left half of Thatcher’s first name) + IN (accepted) |
|
| 21D | GAUCHE | Inept Hague out to suppress leader of Conservatives (6) | inept / GAU_HE (anag, i.e. out, of HAGUE), around C (leading letter of Conservatives) |
|
| 22D | EGYPT | Torture in alien nation (5) | nation / E_T (the Extra Terrestrial, alien) around GYP (pain, or torture) |
|
Great, provocative crossword from Cyclops as always, but I’m glad to see they fixed their little problem regarding the last two Down clues. If there are any solvers out there who don’t know what I’m referring to, I will explain thusly: The Friday this puzzle first ran, I started to solve it and was almost done when I suddenly noticed a slight error at the end of the Down clues. The clue for GAUCHE was missing the “of Conservatives” part, and the clue for EGYPT wasn’t there at all! Good thing I had all the Across answers intersecting with EGYPT. E_Y_T is easy to get even with no clue at all! And I pretty much guessed the word “Conservative” had to be in the GAUCHE clue somewhere. Amazing to think I’d still be able to complete the puzzle with a clue missing! Needless to say EGYPT was my LOI, but I would never have guessed GYP would be a synonym for “torture”! I always thought it meant “to con someone”, or something like that. I’ll check GYP synonyms later. INFRADIG is a new word for me, but I knew by the clue it was an anagram and finally narrowed down where each letter went using the Down clues. JACKSHIT surprised me, as so many answers in this puzzle often do, and I was also surprised to see YOUR used instead of ONES in LOSEYOURMARBLES. I usually see ONE instead of YOU or, as it was, ONES instead of YOUR in phrases like that in puzzles like this. My only real error in the whole puzzle was I put JACKSON(Andrew)instead of JOHNSON(Andrew or Lyndon), thereby making 15D CUTITOFF instead of HITITOFF. I realized my mistake later. CUTITOFF didn’t really make sense, and if I’d tried to look up any British politicians named JACKSON, I probably wouldn’t have found any. I also loved the way the clue was worded once I realized what JOHNSON can also mean(hence the “Double Definition” with a question mark in the explanation above)! JOHNSON, being a euphemism for “penis”, would sort of imply that if it’s a pain in the arse(or “ass” as we say in the States, or to be more accurate, “ayus” as an Alabamian might say, though we’d more than likely say “butt”!), it would sound sexual. But then again, I wouldn’t put it past Cyclops if he did have that connotation in mind after all(LOL)! Keep up the good work, Cy, and keep your mind in the gutter!
‘Infra dig’ has always been a two-word phrase everywhere I have encountered it in print.
We have ‘infrared’ and ‘ultraviolet’, but it’s still “infra dig”, two words, in my mind and wherever I’ve checked. Many two-word phrases have made the transition, sometimes via a hyphenated form, to a single word, but I’m not sure that the like of “infra dig” and “ultra vires” will ever make it, given that they’ve not already done so. But who’s to say that Cyclops ain’t a trailblazer?
‘ultra vires’ won’t, surely, sine it a direct lift of the Latin and not a modern word constructed to reflect a modern situation. Not sure of the origin of infra dig…. but this surely does not constitute a hanging offence…unlike the other errors in some versions of this puzzle….se Patrick’s issues and mine noted in the discussion of the last puzzle.
Thanks for the various comments/feedback.
Patrick J Berry – where to start!
– I did notice the incomplete/missing clues on the website version, although I always solve from the paper copy that drops on my doormat every other Wednesday. Glad they tidied that up…(I don’t use AcrossLite, so I didn’t spot the enumeration error Winsor pointed out.)
– I can see how JACKSON might occur to an American as a 7-letter US president, especially if you had that initial J, but I suspect most Brits would have spotted (BoJo) JOHNSON as the PITA first (and no, I didn’t consider the smuttier connotations of ‘johnson’ as ‘pecker'(!) and ‘ass/butt’…)
– I did raise an eyebrow at the ‘YOUR’ in 8A – as you say, the cruciverbal convention is usually ‘ONES’ in these types of phrase, but needs must when the crossing letters are O and R? The clue included ‘one’s’, which reinforced the likelihood of the answer not containing ONE’S…
John E, lemming and Winsor – I did briefly wonder whether INFRADIG should be two words – but didn’t pause to check…seems that the two-word INFRA DIG (short for ‘infra dignitatem’, below one’s dignity) is ‘de rigueur’! One would have expected the classically-educated and much-Latin-spouting editor of Private Eye to have spotted that one?!…
Had to come here for 25a