Cyclops 742 – Anecdotal Largesse

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After Saturday’s Grauniad Brummie, a Private Eye puzzle by Cyclops, his naughty alter ego – Dr Jekyll to Brummie’s Mr Hyde…

I did invite people over from the Grauniad blog, with a slight health warning to those of sensitive dispositions…and Cyclops hadn’t disappointed me, with a Dick in 1A; self-pleasure at 11A; a naughty anagram for ICE CREAM at 17A; and some ‘ORAL’ at 22A. Phew..at least most of the Downs are clean, although the surface read of 23D might induce a few winces!

As usual, Cyclops like to work a few establishment names, past and present, into his clues – so we have (Jimmy) Carter in GARTER; the (dirty) Digger (Rupert M) in MINERAL; CRESSIDA Dick at 1A; a NAME-DROPping Jeffery Archer; President BIDE(N) and TrumpistS making BIDETS; and Princess Diana as part of DI-SCHARGE.

And, seeing as this is in a satirical/political magazine, there are often references to the Conservative or Labour ‘leader’ for C or L, or their ‘right-wing’s for E or R. And quite often a Republican or Democrat for R or D.

My favourite was probably the high’ OCTANE LAD at 14D for ANECDOTAL. And I enjoyed 2D RELIANT and 6D BRAVERMAN, although I’m not completely sure how to categorise them…

 

 

All-in-all a fairly standard Cyclops puzzle, ticking most of his usual boxes…my thanks to him, and I hope all is clear below.

And just to whet the appetite of any newcomers, as well as the regulars – we are almost upon the Cyclops Xmas Special – a jumbo-sized puzzle with some sort of theme, usually based upon some of the regular content of the magazine throughout the year, with a jumbo £250 prize to match. This is usually in the Eye issue spanning the Christmas period, which will either be the next issue, or the following one if they sneak in an extra one-week issue, as they have been known to do in the past…watch that space…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1A CRESSIDA Dick garnish? Cyclops had one (8)

CRESS (salad vegetable, garnish) + ID (I’d, as in Cyclops had) + A (one

[the ‘Dick’ in question being Cressida Dick, former Met Police Commissioner]
6A BIDETS President almost gets disheartened Trumpists personal clean-up aids (6)

BIDE(N) (president, almost) + TS (disheartened TrumpistS)
9A CLERIC Minister has two Conservative leaders trapping Right in pathetic lie (6)

C_C (two leading letters of Conservative) around (trapping) LERI (R – right – in LEI – anag, i.e. pathetic, of LIE)
10A STANDARD Norm’s defiant position on publicity about Republican (8)

STAND (defiant position) + A_D (publicity) around R (Republican)
11A MASTURBATE Satisfy yourself the state’s utter crap, stifling British-American overtures (10)

MAS (Ma – Massachussets, the state – plus a contracted ‘s) + TUR_TE (anag, i.e. crap, of UTTER) around BA (first letters, or overtures, of British-American)
12A EXAM See 22ac. (4)

see 22A
13A STIGMA Mark — bastard’s turned over the old lady (6)

STIG (git’s, or bastard’s, turned over) + MA (mother, the old lady)
15A NAME-DROP Pardon me – about to do a Jeffrey Archer? (4-4)

anag, i.e. about, of PARDON ME
17A ICE CREAM Eric came over dessert (3,5)

anag, i.e. over, of ERIC CAME
20A NESTLE In earnest? Let’s cosy up (6)

hidden word in ‘earNEST LEt’s’
22A ORAL (EXAM) & 12ac. Sort of sex with old lover in the morning is a test (4,4)

ORAL (sort of sex) + EX (old lover) + AM (ante meridiem, in the morning)
24A DUNDERHEAD Stupid sort of deputy initially subordinate to principal (10)

D (initial letter of Deputy) + UNDER (subordinate to) + HEAD (principal)
26A COMPUTER Calculating type of county politician — true dud (8)

CO (county) + MP (Member of Parliament, politician) + UTER (anag, i.e. dud, of TRUE)
27A GARTER Supporter: “It’s good when ex-president loses his head” (6)

G (good) + (C)ARTER (ex-US president Jimmy, losing head, or first letter)
28A UNREAL Learn to relax after useless leader’s summing up of the recent state of British politics? (6)

U (leading letter of Useless) + NREAL (anag, i.e. to relax, of LEARN)
29A LARGESSE Charity takes Es before start of sex in grand surroundings (8)

LARG_E (grand) around (surrounding) ES (Es) + S (start of Sex)
Down
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
2D RELIANT Bit of a joke model pursuing Robin (7)

CD? The RELIANT Robin is a model of three-wheeled car, probably most famous from ‘Only Fools and Horses’, which has been the butt of many jokes over the years, for its odd looks and dubious stability?!…

[In this case, the word RELIANT is behind, or pursuing, the word Robin]
3D STRATEGIC Planned on making street lowlife, say, in charge (9)

ST (street) + RAT (lowlife) + EG (say, for example) + IC (in charge)
4D INCUR Suffer: “No space for hot dog!” (5)

IN (hot, popular) + CUR (dog), with no space between them?
5D ABSTAIN Sailors ain’t about to refrain from sex? (7)

ABS (ABs, Able Bodied seamen) + TAIN (anag, i.e. about, of AINT)
6D BRAVERMAN Minister, who (had Sunak been one) would not be back in government? (9)

CD/&lit/charade?! If Rishi Sunak had been a BRAVER MAN he would have stood up to the ERG and not reinstated Cruella BRAVERMAN as Home Sec…
7D DODGE US city scam (5)

double defn. – DODGE City is in Kansas; and a DODGE can be a scam
8D TORNADO Nasty wind brought about by rent trouble (7)

TORN (rent) + ADO (trouble)
14D ANECDOTAL High octane lad, not to be relied on (9)

anag, i.e. hight, of OCTANE LAD
16D DISCHARGE Fire former royal son and demand payment! (9)

DI (Diana, former royal) + S (son) + CHARGE (demand payment)
18D CARTOON Strip, sticking one ball in box (7)

CARTO_N (box) around O (ball)
19D MINERAL Spar perhaps with Digger, then a Labour leader (7)

MINER (digger) + A + L (leading letter of Labour)
21D LOAFERS Couch potatoes right to be put in sale of rubbish? (7)

LOAFE_S (anag, i.e. rubbish, of SALE OF) around R (right)
23D LAPSE Slap balls with end of paddle? Mistake! (5)

LAPS (anag, i.e. balls, of SLAP) + E (end letter of paddlE)
25D EAGER Impatient Conservative right wing’s unbridled rage (5)

E (rightmost letter, or right wing, of conservativE) + AGER (anag, i.e. unbridled, of RAGE)

24 comments on “Cyclops 742 – Anecdotal Largesse”

  1. Re. 2dn — the three-wheeler was the Reliant Robin, NOT the Robin Reliant, as many people (apparently including the setter) incorrectly referred to it. Automobile nomenclature always puts the manufacturer (in this case Reliant) before the model. Other Reliant models included the Scimitar and the Kitten.

    Does 11ac really need a slight health warning in the 21st century? I ask because Yahoo’s UK home page, which I traversed during the process of emailing my entry for this crossword, had a link to a long article from a women’s well-being pundit explaining the many health benefits of self-pleasure.

    A minor oversight — you have headlined your Down solutions section as “Across”.

  2. Another enjoyable Cyclops, and another minor correction to the excellent blog – the US state abbreviated MA is located a few miles south of the state of Maine (which is ME).

  3. Thanks, David L at #2 – duly corrected…US geography is not my strong point!

    John E at #1 – I think it was my parsing that was wrong on 2D – Cyclops correctly suggests that RELIANT is pursuing, or behind, Robin…have tidied that and the Across/Down headings. Thanks for these.

    As for the health warnings, you are correct, they are just words, and we are all adults, and as long as they are clued in a way that they can be solved then why should we worry?… But…we English can be a prudish lot, and Cyclops’ clue readings and solutions can sometimes be a bit risqué – not the kind of things you would see in the Telegraph or the Daily Mail! I learned to solve at my father’s knee, metaphorically speaking, and as a teenager would have found it a bit embarrassing to try to solve some of these…as it was, I think he shielded me from his Private Eye subscription and we tended to do the Grauniad…and 40 years later the roles are now reversed…he has dropped the Eye as a magazine, and even before then had stopped solving the puzzle as it was just too silly/smutty for his tastes…
    I certainly don’t think Cyclops should change his style, and his target audience isn’t the Surry blue-rinse-brigade, but I was just a bit wary of leading people here under false pretences!

  4. If we agree that the word Reliant is behind, or pursuing, the word Robin, the clue doesn’t make sense, because the “bit of a joke model” is the Robin.

  5. Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. I’m chuckling at your description of 23d surface read which I d forgotten about. I nearly went astray with 27a with GIRDER, but it just didn’t parse so got there in the end. Re 3d, I came to the same conclusion as you for “no space” which had me scratching my head a bit initially.

  6. I’m not at all keen to insert myself into the Robin/Reliant debate. I thought it was a good clue even if not correctly parsed and I got it immediately. Possibly because a work colleague of mine once referred to the said vehicle, in use by another colleague, as a ‘Plastic Pig!’ However, I did find the “No space for” completely redundant…..especially since the clue worked well (better?) if it simply said “Suffer a hot dog”.

  7. Thanks for the blog, I agree that Cyclops has its own niche and long may it continue, I am not a big fan of the smut but I accept it and I like the political clues which are only offensive about people who deserve it.
    I thought BRAVERMAN was a very clever clue, DUNDERHEAD is a great word, I will try not to use it in future.
    I am a little puzzled by the “no space” for hot dog, it is very common to replace two words by synonyms and join the replacements.

  8. I forgot to say…….I had STATESMAN for a while………using Minister as the basis. It fits the crossers even if not the whole of the clue and the actual answer.

  10. Mr Hyde was the ‘naughty’ one, i.e. Cyclops, surely?

    2dn RELIANT: “the word RELIANT is behind, or pursuing, the word Robin”. Yes: ‘Robin Reliant’, as it used widely to be said (contrary to the normal convention of make before model).

    Cruella BRAVERMAN lol

    Beermagnet@9, haha, yes, I remembered that and thought “I’ve already told him that once!”, shortly after which, I came to the conclusion it must have been someone else, and quite possibly you, here, and so it was.

    A couple of nitpicks in the parsing:

    24ac DUNDERHEAD: ‘subordinate to‘ = under

    3dn STRATEGIC = planned on

  11. Thanks, Tony Collman at #10 – forensic as ever…nits picked…
    I can’t take credit for ‘Cruella’, that has been in the Eye and the twitter-sphere generally for a while…

  12. I beg to return to my nit-picking re. 2dn. Hard fact: Robin was the name of the model, not the make. Common mistake: many people incorrectly reversed the make/model sequence for this vehicle. However, the clue specifically requires the solution to be the name of the model. Therefore the clue is wrong on a point of fact. Fortunately, this questionable clue can only have one solution (Reliant is the only word that fits the crossers).

  13. John E – I think you are going to have to let it lie! Short of Cyclops popping in and abasing himself humbly in front of you with an apology, I don’t think your protestations will get you very far here… You could write a letter to the editor – he has been known to publish letters on specific clues in the puzzle…

  14. Mc@11, haha! I nearly labelled them ‘forensics’ rather than ‘nitpicks’, knowing this is your usual response to my close textual analysis. However, I recalled that (as I was surprised to learn, in consultation with a barrister many years ago) ‘forensic’ really means “belonging to the courts of law” (Chambers) and ‘forensic science’ is science which is applicable to proceedings in the law courts. What you really mean, I fear, is not ‘forensic’ but ‘pedantic’! (I’m grateful though that you choose not to charge me thus!)

  15. I have in fact had a letter from a Private Eye reader. His letter was addressed to the magazine’s Pedantry Corner, which suggests he was was well aware of popular (if technically inaccurate) usage. I acknowledged my error, but have since wondered how many complaints I’d have got from confused (non-pedantic) solvers if I’d worded the clue the other way round!

  16. There you go, John E – I am the setter-whisperer…I rubbed the magic pedantic-lantern and the setter-genie appeared!

    Thanks, Cyclops at #15 – if the posties weren’t on strike, I might have had a chance to read said correspondence today!

    Tony Collman at #14 – one of my various eChambers gives ‘pedantic’ as ‘schoolmasterly’ – which probably sums it up…you are a diligent homework marker! My eChambersThesaurus also gives: ‘stilted, fussy, purist, perfectionist, literalist, formalist, particular, precise, exact, meticulous, punctilious, scrupulous, quibbling, finical, pompous, pretentious, academic, scholastic, intellectual, bookish, heavy, inkhorn, stuffy, erudite‘…take your pick!

  18. Failed here because, like Winsor, I put STATESMAN in for 6d (it seemed to make sort of sense) and hence was stuck trying to do things with S-D-T- for 6a. The Sue Ella answer is much much better. Thanks again, Cyclops – I do like your regular dose of way-past-the=knuckle humour.

  20. Beermagnet 19: Crossword 743 is the same physical size as last year, also 27 x 27. But .. 743 contains 79 entries, compared with only 72 last year. It took me 3 days to do it, and I’m still awaiting, with bated breath, some parsings I don’t understand .

  22. Easy, now, ladies and gentlemen – there is not supposed to be any discussion, however neutral, of ‘Live’ puzzles…please hold your thoughts until the next blog!…

  23. Sorry mc I will just thank BeerMagnet for the date of the next actual blog , you are quite right, everything else can wait until then.

  24. My subscription copy of the Christmas issue finally arrived today, and I know that I don’t live in one of the worst affected postcode areas. I think it’s very good advice to print out the relevant crossword from the Eye’s website.

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