An irreverent Cyclopsean bimble through the corridors of power and a smattering of Lower 6th Common Room smuttery…all is well with the world!…
Bit of a rush to get this out due to having had to work all weekend, at short notice – from what I remember it was an enjoyable, if not too taxing solve, until I hit the buffers on 6D and couldn’t parse the wordplay (or whatever type of clue it is) for toffee. It had to be PARAPET from the overall reading and crossers, but couldn’t make had nor tail of it – answers on a postcard, or a comment below!
(Update – see comment #1 below)
Trump, Brenda, Corbyn, the Lords, Simon and Garfunkel and US multi-national APPLE all make appearances – no Boris to be seen – but there was a Doris (Day). And the Eye’s own STROBES gets a mention as well!
Thanks to Cyclops, and hopefully all is clear below – apart from 6D!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | LEADERSHIP | & 13 Editorial by Sun on joint scam probe as a result of Corbyn’s election failure (10,7) | result of Corbyn’s election failure / LEADER (editorial) + S (sun) + HIP (joint) + CON (scam) + TEST (probe) |
|
| 7A | FILL | See 28ac (4) | see 28A / see 28A |
|
| 9A | TREACLY | Lace comes undone in Test – rather tacky (7) | rather tacky / TR_Y (test) around EACL (anag, i.e. comes undone, of LACE) |
|
| 10A | RARITY | Republican with desperate air and vacuous Trumpery that’s seldom met (6) | (something) that’s seldom met / R (Republican) + ARI (anag, i.e. desperate, of AIR) + TY (vacuous TrumperY) |
|
| 11A | EMERGE | Issue of ending of strike by Unite (6) | issue / E (ending of striikE) + MERGE (unite) |
|
| 12A | APPLAUSE | USA about to be swallowed by multinational company – cheers! (8) | cheers! / APPL_E (multinational company) around (swallowing) AUS (anag, i.e. about, of USA) |
|
| 13A | CONTEST | See 1ac (7) | see 1A / see 1A |
|
| 15A | STROBES | Gnome’s inferior, second best or shattered (7) | (Lord) Gnome’s inferior / S (second) + TROBES (anag, i.e. shattered, of BEST OR) |
|
| 17A | RETRACT | Trump primarily involved in Carter’s conversion? Issue a disclaimer! (7) | issue a disclaimer / RE_RACT (anag, i.e. conversion, of CARTER) around (involving) T (primary letter of Trump) |
|
| 19A | ASHTRAY | Where your butt might get scrunched, end of street, between tree and beam (7) | where your butt might get scrunched! / ASH (tree) + T (end letter of streeT) + RAY (beam) |
|
| 22A | FALSETTO | Wrong two times, love – rather strained (8) | rather strained (vocally) / FALSE (wrong) + TT (two Ts, or times) + O (zero, love) |
|
| 24A | RUSTLE | With leader gone, count on the French to take stock (6) | take stock (cattle) / ( |
|
| 26A | UPROAR | Having an erection, shout “Hullabaloo!” (6) | hullabaloo / UP (having an erection) + ROAR (shout) |
|
| 27A | AILMENT | Complaint about Democrat backing out of a ‘train crash’ (7) | (medical) complaint / (DER)AILMENT – train crash, without DER (RE – about – plus D – Democract – backing) |
|
| 28A | LAND | & 7 Refuse to be buried in this country stuff (8) | refuse to be buried in this / LAND (country) + FILL (stuff) |
|
| 29A | EASY STREET | Star, eyes rolling, appears in blockbuster film to attain comfortable affluence (4,6) | comfortable affluence / E_T (blockbuster film) around ASY STREE (anag, i.e. rolling, of STAR EYES) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | EXTEMPORE | Old lover wants casual alternative, essentially sex that’s spontaneous (9) | spontaneous / EX (old lover) + TEMP (casual employee) + OR (alternative) + E (middle, or essential, letter of sEx) |
|
| 3D | DREAR | Depressed day nurse (5) | depressed / D (day) + REAR (tend, nurse) |
|
| 4D | RICKETS | Topless sport, son? It might give you bow legs (7) | it might give you bow legs / ( |
|
| 5D | HEYDAY | Prime suspect, yeh, Doris (6) | prime (of one’s life) / HEY (anag, i.e. suspect, of YEH) + DAY (Doris Day, actress) |
|
| 6D | PARAPET | Head is safer with full protection from this (7) | this? / see comment #1 below (CD, or charade?…) |
|
| 7D | FART ABOUT | To idly pass the time, female partner of Paul has a bit of wrestling? (4,5) | to idly pass time / F (female) + ART (Art Garfunkel, musical partner of Paul Simon) + A + BOUT (wrestling match) |
|
| 8D | LOTUS | Piles covering inside of bum, flower? (5) | flower? / LOT_S (piles) around (covering) U (inside letter of bUm) |
|
| 14D | THRESHOLD | The Lords to be disbanded around end of March – at which point, expect to pay tax? (9) | at which point expect to pay tax / THRES_OLD (anag, i.e. disbanded, of THE LORDS) around H (end letter of marcH) |
|
| 16D | EPAULETTE | Exercise to reverse EU involvement with latte adornment (9) | (sartorial) adornment / EP (PE, exercise, reversed) + AULETTE (anag, i.e. involvement, of EU + LATTE) |
|
| 18D | COTERIE | Bed Brenda? That is a secretive association (7) | secretive association / COT (bed) + ER (Elizabeth Regina – Brenda to the Eye) + IE (id est, that is) |
|
| 20D | SURPLUS | American backed end of year bonus – it’s too much (7) | it’s too much / SU (US, American, backed) + R (end letter of yeaR) + PLUS (bonus) |
|
| 21D | MORASS | Slough artist covered in green stuff (6) | slough / MO_SS (green stuff) around (covering) RA (Royal Academician, artist) |
|
| 23D | ALPHA | Character in denial, phallus-wise (5) | (Greek) character / hidden word in ‘deniAL PHAllus-wise’ |
|
| 25D | SMEAR | Defame male drowned in burn (5) | defame / S_EAR (burn) around (drowning) M (male) |
|
To show one’s head above the parapet (literally or metaphorically) is to make oneself a target.
@John…thank you very much. I saw that the parapet is supposed to protect the roof and took this as the ‘head’…or also the parapet stops things falling off the roof onto one’s head….but your explanation is so much better and obviously correct.
Thanks, John E – head above the parapet…obvious when someone points it out!… My favourite parapet is the one in MP and the HG, with the French Taunter…
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/405988-reaction-images
Thanks mc_rapper I couldnt fully parse 27a and had left a note on my copy ” DER = Democrat?”. I had similar reasoning to Winsor for 6d and also give thanks to JohnE.
For 2d, Just curious if others had seen this use of essentially before in crosswords. It took me a while to spot that’s where the e came from and thought it was quite novel.
Franko @5 — If you do a fifteensquared site search for ‘essentially’, you will get a very long list of examples of setters using this standard clueing device (this is the tenth time it has turned up in 2020). The blogger for Independent 10364 says that it applies to the middle letter of a word. The setter for Guardian 28028 demonstrates very neatly that it applies to the middle letters of word.
Re. ‘essentially’, I’m sure, as John E has researched – that it is fairly common. I take it as meaning the ‘essence’, or core, of the word…so the middle letter(s)…
Thanks JohnE@6, that’s a useful tip re site search. Thanks also mc_rapper@7, I had eventually thought along the lines of essentially corresponding to at the core.
Would any of you folk recommend another crossword puzzle at perhaps the same level as cyclops? I am currently only doing private eye and feel i could squeeze in another puzzle. Not daily though as it generally takes me a number of days to solve in short bursts.
Franko — Have you tried Everyman? It is a bit of an acquired taste, but quite enjoyable once you’re familiar with the setter’s habits.
Franko @ 8: you could also check who sets the Guardian puzzle each day, and if it’s Brummie have a go at that. It’s Cyclops under another name.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen both RUSTLE and EPAULETTE in other puzzles recently, coincidentally, but can’t remember where. Perhaps RUSTLE was a recent Graun Prize? I think it was ‘take stock’ as definition there, too.
Re 5d, Wednesday’s Daily Dose of Gary Larson’s Far Side shows what else causes bow legs.
Am I alone in thinking 6D is not Cyclops’ finest clue? Even with the explanation I’m thinking ‘Meh?’
Barrie….got to say I’m not hugely enamoured either.
Barrie/Winsor – I’m not sticking my head above the parapet on that one! (;+>)
Franko – the Guardian site is free – https://www.theguardian.com/crossword – and you can find the Everyman there, as well as dabbling in any daily cryptic puzzles that catch your eye. The Indy’s puzzles are also free, although the site is a bit fiddly…https://puzzles.independent.co.uk…again, it is daily, but you don’t need to solve every day – and they both have archives, so you can travel back in time as well! The Grauniad site has ‘annotated solutions’ for some puzzles. The Indy site has a ‘reveal’ function, so you can check/cheat if needed…and of course if you pick up an old puzzle it should have been blogged somewhere on this site!
The Telegraph and Times are both subscription-only – the Telegraph puzzle site costs about £35(?) a year, but with the Times you have to subscribe to one of their main newspaper packages, so more like £100+ a year… You pays yer money (or not!) and you takes yer choice… Hope you have an enjoyable time expanding your cruciverbal horizons…
Frank, the Guardian daily cryptics also have ‘reveal’ (but not the Saturday Prize while the comp is live, obviously). The Graun also has the entry-level Quiptic series, btw, which might be solvable at a single sitting, even for someone who does Cyclops over a few.
John, Simon, Tony and mc_rapper many thanks for your advice on other crosswords. Lots for me to look into.