Given that this is Cyclops #666, and it was published in the issue dated Friday 13th, I expected something a bit, well, ‘beastlier’…but, apart from several mentions of Trump and Boris (and one each for Farage and Corbyn) in the clues, I can’t see anything particularly Mephistophelean or Beelzebub-ian…maybe if I put it on a turntable and play it backwards there might be a devilish message…
We have EERIE RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE in a PRESIDENCY, and a POLARISED REFERENDUM, plus a RABBI showing no RETICENCE and plenty of MALICE in putting his SLANT on the recent election with a PRESS RELEASE…was it him WHODUNNIT for Labour’s chances? The EARNEST new Members of Parliament will plant their PAPMPERED BACKSIDEs on their respective benches, get TANKED on CLARET in the House of Commons bar, and RATTLE on via the BUSH TELEGRAPH, while Boris tries to KEEP IT UP in No 10!
I think I’ll AESOP there, as this is all a bit too jOCULAR, and is not at all a-MUESLI-ing…
Some nice anagrams and surface reads – SPOILER AD for POLARISED at 11A; SINNER + USER INTERFACE for RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE at 13A/7D; Corbyn’s ‘catastrophic dip’ in votes at the final count at 10A; party political leaders following exercise with a ‘rough stimulant’ at 16A; to name but a few…
All good fun, and light relief from the more serious matters of last week – and to come…thanks to Cyclops for this and the previous 665, and here’s to many more to come.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 6A | PRESIDENCY | Trump’s final official abode and term of office (10) | term of office / P (trumP’s final letter) + RESIDENCY (official abode) |
|
| 8A | BUSH | & 14 US president, daily rumour-spreader (4,9) | rumour-spreader / BUSH (US President – one of two, in fact) + TELEGRAPH (daily paper) |
|
| 10A | SLANT | Corbyn’s end in last catastrophic dip (5) | dip / SLA_T (anag, i.e. catastrophic, of LAST) around N (corbyN’s end letter) |
|
| 11A | POLARISED | Spoiler ad about what British politics has become? (9) | what British politics has become / anag, i.e. about, of SPOILER AD |
|
| 12A | CLARET | Declare Trump to some extent a red! (6) | a red! / hidden word, i.e. to some extent, in ‘deCLARE Trump’ |
|
| 13A | RUSSIAN | & 7 Sinner messed around with user interface, which gave Trump an advantage? (7,12) | (something) which gave Trump an advantage? / anag, i.e. messed around, of SINNER with USER INTERFACE |
|
| 15A | EERIE | Powerless Lords member? That is sinister (5) | sinister / ( |
|
| 16A | PEP | & 27 Exercise by party political leaders followed by rough stimulant (3,4) | stimulant / PE (exercise) + P P (leading letters of Party Political) + ILL (rough) |
|
| 18A | RABBI | Jewish leader’s talk – take time off (5) | Jewish leader / RABBI( |
|
| 20A | EARNEST | Arse whipped with net – very serious (7) | very serious / anag, i.e. whipped, of ARSE with NET |
|
| 23A | MALICE | Commons staff guzzling large one for spite (6) | spite / MA_CE (ceremonial staff, in the House of Commons) around (guzzling) L (large) + I (one) |
|
| 25A | RETICENCE | Not a Boris-like quality, taking refreshment in centre ground (9) | not a Boris-like quality / RET_NCE (anag, i.e. ground, of CENTRE) around (taking) ICE (ice-cream, refreshment) |
|
| 26A | AESOP | Knocking back the drink, work as a writer of tales (5) | a writer of tales / AES (the SEA, or drink, knocked back) + OP (opus, work) |
|
| 27A | PILL | See 16ac (4) | see 16A / see 16A |
|
| 28A | REFERENDUM | Ned free to wallow in booze – the first step to Brexit? (10) | the first step to Brexit? / R_UM (booze) around EFEREND (anag, i.e. wallowing, of NED FREE) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | RETAILER | Extreme Tory starts interrupting complainant, a dealer (8) | a dealer / R_AILER (complainant) around (interrupted by) ET (starting letters of Extreme Tory) |
|
| 2D | KEEP IT UP | To maintain an erection, be persistent (4,2,2) | be persistent / or should this be a double defn.? Self-explanatory, anyway! |
|
| 3D | OCULAR | Eye-related article, in colour, about ditching Boris’s no. 2 (6) | eye-related / OCUL_R (anag, i.e. about, of COL( |
|
| 4D | MUESLI | Dish up, um … foul lies (6) | (breakfast) dish / MU (um, up) + ESLI (anag, i.e. foul. of LIES) |
|
| 5D | WHODUNNIT | How to turn Brown with mug’s story (9) | story / WHO (anag, i.e. to turn, of HOW) + DUN (grey-ish brown) + NIT (mug, fool) |
|
| 6D | PUSH | Press turn up, say nothing (4) | press / PU (turn ‘up’) + SH (interjection, be quiet! say nothing!) |
|
| 7D | INTERFERENCE | See 13ac (12) | see 13A / see 13A |
|
| 9D | PRESS RELEASE | “Crowd let loose” communiqué (5,7) | communiqué / PRESS (crowd) + RELEASE (let loose) |
|
| 14D | TELEGRAPH | See 8ac (9) | see 8A / see 8A |
|
| 17D | PAMPERED | Spoilt politician, before entering House (8) | spoilt / PA_D (house) around (entered by) MP (politician) + ERE (before) |
|
| 19D | BACKSIDE | Sick, bad Farage finally lost seat (8) | seat / anag, i.e. lost, of SICK + BAD + E (final letter of faragE) |
|
| 21D | RATTLE | Arse let mobile be a source of empty talk (6) | be a source of empty talk / RAT (cad, rotter, arse) + TLE (anag, i.e. mobile, of LET) |
|
| 22D | TANKED | Incapable Brown kick-started Miliband? (6) | incapable (drunk) / TAN (brown) + K (starting letter of Kick) + ED (Ed Miliband, British Labour politician) |
|
| 24D | SPAM | Second one to intercept Boris’s junk email (4) | junk e-mail / S (second) + P_M (Prime Minister, Boris – at the time of setting, and still, at the time of blogging!) around (intercepting) A (one) |
|
I got there in the end….but had put Commit for Claret (it works rather well too) and so struggled very much with the crossers. Merry Christmas to all.
Winsor, I guess you were thinking “to some extent a red” = COMMI[e]? Then just jumped? Happy Christmas.
I looked up the definition of ‘junk mail’ and ‘spam’ only recently. Apparently spam is electronic junk mail, which is pretty much exactly Cyclops’ definition!