Yet again the very first clue attempted is the last to be solved.
There seems to be a feature in our brains (well, mine anyway) which we must overcome to be better solvers.
Just because it failed at an earlier attempt it thinks it can’t do something and switches off. It takes an effort to re-think a problem, think about it from a different angle, or force yourself to ignore the fact that the last try failed.
This was starkly shown by my failings around 1 Down.
In the cold light of day it isn’t a terribly hard clue. But after leaving it at the start, and re-trying each time a crossing letter appeared, it still ended up being the last written in even after UPGRADE was seen as the only word that could fit because I couldn’t get the wordplay for a while.
It’s like having a blind spot.
Anyway, the rest of the puzzle slotted in very quickly by comparison with only 6 left unsolved after the first pass.
The usual topical references that we know and love, and also what feels like stuff from my youth.
I wonder if Cyclops also used to hang around the King’s Road in the early 70s? 2D “Nellie Dean” certainly evokes memories of “The World’s End” pub where the old boy on the piano led the assembled customers in mass singing of songs like this. (The out and out leader was of course “Blue is the Colour”.)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | PUPPET | Place storing PPE that’s under another state’s control (6) PPE inside PUT (place) |
| 9 | PROROGUE | Put off, Boris-style (no amateur villain)? (8) PRO (no amateur) ROGUE (villain). Referencing this government’s illegal proroguing of parliament |
| 11 | REBEL | Revolting type puts Biden’s head in spin (5) B[iden] in REEL (spin) |
| 12 | EMPOWERED | Sanctioned English politician to admit looking angry (9) E[nglish] MP (politician) OWE (to admit) RED (looking angry) |
| 13 | DECREASE | Slash end holding todger’s tip? (8) [todge]R in DECEASE (end) |
| 14 | SPLEEN | Observed hiding panties and lingerie tops for spite (6) P[anties] L[ingerie] in SEEN (observed) |
| 17/23 | SUPERSPREADER EVENT | These days, a packed out pop concert, say, with high volume of transmitters? (13,5) Topical Double Def, one cryptic |
| 21 | RESENT | Missing out on Trump’s end, now feel bitter (6) [p]RESENT |
| 22 | BUM STEER | Tum’s churning in bitter deception? (3,5) (TUMS)* AInd: churning, inside BEER (bitter) |
| 25 | DEATH WISH | We had this strange desire to croak (5,4) (WE HAD THIS)* AInd: strange |
| 27 | AHEAD | Rather forward, one particular sex act (5) A (one) HEAD (particular sex act) |
| 28 | TALK INTO | Sway, sporting a kilt – not! (4,4) (A KILT NOT)* AInd: sporting |
| 29 | BEATEN | Little Beatrice, given Boris’s number, gets hammered (6) BEA[trice] TEN (Boris’s number) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | UPGRADE | Promote revolting degree student with bad mark (7) UP (revolting) GRAD (degree student) E (bad mark). First read, last answered |
| 2 | NELLIE DEAN | “Need ale – and nil spilt!” as the old drunk vocalised? (6,4) (NEED ALE NIL) AInd: spilt. Memories of “The World’s End” pub in 1970s Kings Road |
| 3 | GROPE | Feel grand next to Hitch (5) G[rand] ROPE (hitch) |
| 4 | BREW | Potion causes brother to mount farm animal, getting end away (4) BR[other] EW[e] |
| 5 | AGGRIEVE | Distress of reckless giver in decline (8) (GIVER)* AInd: reckless, inside AGE (decline) |
| 6 | PENDANT | Stop during heavy breathing – it’s hanging down! (7) END (stop) inside PANT (heavy breathing) |
| 8/26 | PUBIC HAIR | The people left out – shock! – Bush (5,4) PUB[l]IC (The people, left out) HAIR (shock) |
| 10 | PERSIST | Soldier on it is involved with press (7) (IT PRESS)* AInd: involved |
| 15 | PEAR-SHAPED | How modelling career went, having developed big hips? (4-6) Cryptic Def. |
| 16 | DROUGHT | In outskirts of Detroit, a hooligan shortage (7) ROUGH (hooligan) in D[etroi]T |
| 18 | UNSTABLE | Sun’s contrived list – shaky (8) (SUN)* AInd: contrived, TABLE (list) |
| 19 | ERUDITE | It’s clever having ecstasy and sex in coarse embrace (7) E (ecstasy), IT (sex) inside RUDE (coarse) |
| 20 | PRUDENT | Vigilant prig with news Trump leads (7) PRUDE (prig) N[ews] T[rump] |
| 24 | WITTY | Comic professor currently in the spotlight – hot to trot (5) W[h]ITTY Ref. Chris Whitty who is even more in the spotlight this week given his treatment by certain moronic ignoramuses |
I asked my girlfriend how I compared to her previous boyfriends.
She said I was the only one she had ever been with …
… all the others had been eights and nines.
Thanks beermagnet, I had exactly the same struggle with UPGRADE (I am still a little dubious about GRAD = degree student, as in my mind once you become a grad you stop being a degree student/undergrad but never mind).
I had similar problems with ERUDITE and especially AGGRIEVE where I knew exactly what to do with GIVEN but assumed that it used the G from PROROGUE and couldn’t think of any combo that made sense – classic case of stubborn brain failing to recall the Sherlockian principle of rejecting the impossible.
I don’t necessarily think this fixation on what turns out to be a wrong idea is a bad thing (some degree of persistence is necessary as sometimes we do have the right idea first up, but can’t quite see how/why until we have thought about it a while), as long as we are able to have a cuppa/go for a stroll etc and return with a new mindset.
I was very happy when NELLIE DEAN leapt out of the letter heap and have no idea how I knew it as I don’t remember ever hearing the actual song in a pub or anywhere else. Brains are remarkable and mysterious things!
Weirdly, UPGRADE was my first in, which helped me do the top left corner fairly quickly for me. I did like the PUBIC HAIR clue, generating a wry smile when I got it. RESENT took me a while as I was trying to parse it as ‘missing out’, my own blind spot in this one.
I used to work in software support and the typical call would start off with the customer trying to take me down the path they had followed to solve their issue. I would try to explain to them that the fact they were calling me meant that path had not led to the solution so maybe we should start again from the top. I also agree that a grad is not a degree student. I struggled with this puzzle, going well into the second week before finishing.
This was a difficult one and took several sittings. I really enjoyed wrestling with it. There is such a sense of achievement on finishing a difficult Cyclops puzzle. Thank you very much. 17 puzzled me the most as I took the reference to transmitters to mean the answer was about being streamed! I was emailing my son to see if the word ‘superstreamed’ actually existed when the answer struck me!
Thank you again.
Ah, dammit Cyclops: defeated once more by Cockney culture. 😉
I’ve never heard of ‘Nellie Dean’ – whether sung in pub or elsewhere. I guess it wasn’t a hit in Geordieland…
Clanger@5 — Cyclops’s crosswording alter ego is Brummie. Nellie Dean is an American song (pre-WW1), first popularised in British music halls by a singer from the Midlands. It was sung around pub pianos all over the country.
There’s an old mill by the stream, Nellie Dean…..all together now!!!!
I like the comment describing moronic ignoramuses (24d).
Reminded me of my english teacher at school who called us microcephalic turds.
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I found this one tougher than usual. The top left hand corner in particular was a struggle. For some reason 7a was a block but seemed obvious when I got there. Old Nellie Dean was a vague recollection after all crossing lettters. I had to youtube it, and it then sparked a glimmer of beer sodden memories. 22a, 8/26 and 15d were my faves.
Thought there must be a reversal in 11ac, but no.
What are the two defs in 17/23 SUPERSPREADER EVENT? I thought it was just a single CD.
15dn, PEAR-SHAPED, though, I didsee as a double def: when a woman’s hips are large compared to her breasts, that ‘s described as pear-shaped. When things take a turn for the worse, they are said to ‘go pear-shaped‘. Things would presumably take a turn for the worse for a model whose hourglass figure went pear-shaped.
Gazzh @1 mentions the Sherlockian principle that (in full) “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”. This is in fact is a lot of tosh which just shows that Holmes should have eased up on the coke (and the black tobacco, probably): when you have eliminated the impossible, what remains is not the truth but merely the possible. That’s elementary, isn’t it?
Tony @3, surely the typical call to software support starts like this?
Given that Cyclops is known elsewhere as ‘Brummie’, I rather fancy that if he did hang around in pubs as a youth (and, let’s face it, who didn’t?), it won’t have been in the Kings Road. I seem to remember Andy Capp used to sing Nellie Dean on the way home when he was one over the eight.
I think the noun from prorogue is normally prorogation, although in Johnson’s case, proroguery would seem apter.
What a sourpuss Chriss Whitty is. Surely anyone else would have laughed off a couple of drunks goofing around like that?
@Tony ha my stint in software support was back in the days when a single computer cost upwards of half a million quid. Turning it off and on was not an option! I agree about the Holmes quotation. As a big Sherlock fan I was disappointed to hear him say that as it goes against all his other principles about deriving theory from solid data.