Private Eye ( Cyclops / 761) Optimal Disinformation

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I thought I would be tackling this puzzle while resting up after getting a new hip.

But it didn’t happen, again.
The last time it didn’t happen in July was down to hospital equipment failure.  They called to cancel the day before it was scheduled.  These things happen.
This time it got very close to happening.  I still have the indelible black marker pen the surgeon immediately put on my shin saying something like “THIS ONE!” and a big arrow pointing up to my hip.  Got to get the right leg.  But the anaesthetist and senior nurse put the kibosh on proceedings due to my swollen legs which means a greater risk of post-op infection.  They were on the side of caution.  These things happen.
Now I’ve got to have a vascular specialist find out why they are swollen and get me sorted.  Which will take another few months.  Looks like I won’t be walking again this side of Xmas.

At least I had Private Eye to cheer me up.

I didn’t break any records solving this but it didn’t take too long, about 40 mins.  I didn’t get really stuck on any, and only had 4 left after the first pass.  Nothing a few crossing letters couldn’t help with, or all of them in the case of 4d which was my last one in and by dint of being fully mislead by that clue it gets my favourite clue accolade.
So again we must thank Cyclops for the fun.

Across
1 DODDERER Consuming more rum, English doctor’s a feeble sort (8)
ODDER (more rum) + E[nglish] in DR (doctor)
First read, next to last solved
5 SHUCKS Is not good to frame House leader? How disappointing! (6)
H[ouse] inside SUCKS (is not good)  First one in but needed subsequent crossing downs to satisfy myself it was indeed the intended word.
First one in – though I wasn’t 100% sure till I got a couple of linked downs
9 WASTE Looked back on gutless Trumpite’s “Kill!” (5)
SAW< T[rumpit]E  Definition in a slangy sense – has Cyclops been watching those old gangster movies?
10 REBELLION Nellie’s heart put into collapsing boner – ‘revolting thing!’ (9)
[n]ELLI[e] in (BONER)* AInd: collapsing.
12 SWEETLY ‘Kindly piss in street,’ put heartlessly (7)
WEE (piss) in ST[reet], then L[a]Y
13 EMBRACE Dash! Underwear can’t expand openings for intimate contact (7)
EM (Dash) BRA (underwear) C[an’t] E[xpand]
14 DISINFORMATION Fake news: ‘HELL LINED UP!’ (14)
DIS (hell) IN FORMATION (lined up)
18 BLOCKING MOTION Political delaying tactic is frustrating shitty act (8,6)
BLOCKING (frustrating) MOTION (shitty act)
22 INHERIT Come by getting accepted by the woman before sexual activity (7)
IN (getting accepted) HER (the woman) IT (sexual activity)
24 RAT RACE Relentless striving produces nation of arses (3,4)
The excellent wordplay “nation of arses” delivers “race of rats”
25 PARAMEDIC Penny has date in America, screwing member of ambulance crew (9)
P[enny], D[ate] in (AMERICA)* AInd: screwing.
26 MOCHA Brown‘s disapproving cry on getting in a state (5)
OCH (disapproving cry) inside MA (a state, Massachusetts) “Och” is an expression a Scotsman might use, such as Gordon Brown(?)
27 ROYALS King Brian and family impress greatly – gold all round! (6)
SLAY (impress greatly) OR (gold) all reversed
28 ANALYSIS Like a bum unknown character having relative breakdown (8)
ANAL (Like a bum) Y (unknown character) SIS (relative)
Down
1 DOWNSIDE No advantage to be seen in Blue Team (8)
DOWN (blue) SIDE (team)
2 DISPERSAL A spreading of legs on vacation ruined with despair (9)
(L[eg]S + DESPAIR)* AInd: ruined.
3 EVERTON Bunch of footballers still gaining weight (7)
EVER (still) TON (weight)
4 EARLY As an aristocrat might be advanced (5)
Double Def.  EARL-Y (an aristocrat might be, cryptically) i.e. like an Earl
Last one in
6 HALIBUT A one-time politician opens shelter – that’s fishy (7)
A LIB ( a one-time politician) inside (opens) HUT (shelter)
7 CHINA Intimate feature on top of abdomen (5)
CHIN (feature) A[bdomen] Intimate as in friend from Cockney Rhyming Slang: China plate / Mate
8 SONNET Starmer’s intitial backing of No. 10 uprising is something out of Shakespeare? (6)
S[tarmer] ON< (backing of NO) TEN< (ten uprising)
Other sonnet writing poets are available.
11 BEER MUG Toby gets wallop on face (4,3)
BEER (wallop) MUG (face) A toby is a jug, which I nearly wrote in, until I realised a jug is not a face, it is something else.
15 OMITTED Ignored love wearing gloves (7)
O (love) MITTED (wearing gloves)  Top Clue
16 OLIGARCHS Crude oil money given to crafty southern Russians? (9)
(OIL)* AInd: crude, G (money) ARCH (crafty) S[outhern]
17 KNEE-PADS They protect members apt to be bent and keep working on head of state (4-4)
(AND KEEP)* AInd: working, S[tate]
19 CARAMEL Mascara melted essentially, sweet (7)
Hidden in masCARA MELted
20 OPTIMAL Best to limp off when shafted by one (7)
(TO LIMP)* AInd: off, around (shafted by) A (one)
21 SIMPER Politician Pence’s right to interrupt gentleman and smirk (6)
MP (politician) [penc]E inside (interrupting) SIR (gentleman)
23 HORNY Really keen for it to be like part of the brass section? (5)
Double Def.
24 RICIN Nixon ‘hard going’ on getting elected? Don’t swallow that! (5)
RIC[hard] (Ref. R Nixon, aka Tricky Dicky) IN (elected)
It is generally agreed best avoid this particular lectin: Ricin wiki

I’ve been meaning to recommend @christhebarker on twitter for some time.
He produces an annual Peter Blake-style “Sgt Pepper” picture populated with people who’ve pegged it in the year, and parodies of famous artists crossed with popular TV themes.

This one’s called: “The Two Renés”

A link to more of his work  Chris Barker at Redbubble.com

12 comments on “Private Eye ( Cyclops / 761) Optimal Disinformation”

  1. Thanks for the blog , really hope you get sorted out soon, people I know who have had hip replacements rave about how wonderful they are . Good things come eventually to those who wait.
    Very typical Cyclops but perhaps not quite so topical politically. DISINFORMATION was very neat and just beat the RAT RACE.

  2. Sorry to hear about your medical tribulations, beermagnet. Luckily, you can solve (and blog) crosswords sitting down!

    24ac RAT RACE: personally, I wouldn’t call a RAT (traitor) an arse, but I remembered that Cyclops does.

    26ac, MOCHA: I think you’re right about the allusion to Gordon.

    17ac, KNEE-PADS: I entered KNEE-CAPS and wondered why I couldn’t seem to parse the clue. That should have been enough to make me think again, but it was the last one and I’d run out of patience.

    19dn, CARAMEL: not just hidden in “mascara melted”, but the central letters of that phrase (“essentially”).

    Thanks for ‘The Two Renés’. (Twitter? No such thing!)

  3. Loved the ‘Deux Renés’…and sorry to hear of your delays – my sister in law had just reached the front of the list when Covid struck, and she had to wait a further 18+ months…but the end result was life-changing/enhancing. Hope you get sorted soon.

    Like Tony Collman, I initially entered KNEE CAPS, only for the parsing to niggle away at the back of my mind, and I corrected it before submitting…

  4. Thanks beermagnet, I hope your hip is resolved sooner rather than later. It certainly took me longer than 40 minutes to solve but I found the puzzle tough but fair with the usual sprinkling of Cylops’ humour.
    I remember it took me a while to see the 2d word play of “legs on vacation”= LS.
    Just curious if this is often used.
    Hope all goes well for John E @1 also.

  5. Best wishes to beermagnet from me too.
    2 answers I didn’t quite understand:
    26A – I get that “OCH” means “(Gordon) Brown’s disapproving cry”, but in that case where is the main reading meaning “MOCHA”? And if “OCH” is simply “disapproving cry”, and the main reading is “Brown”, how does that mean “MOCHA”? Is is simply that mocha coffee is a brown colour? In that case the colour of anything could be used as a main reading for its name.
    24D – Does RIC mean hard? I thought the parsing was Rich (short for Richard Nixon), with H (for hard) removed.

  7. For 26a MOCHA the definition is just “Brown”, and OCH is derived from “disapproving cry”.
    Now because “Och!” is best known for being used in Scotland it makes us think of Scottish Browns, of which Gordon often appears in the Eye puzzle.
    The clue is very misleading because it can also be read as “Brown’s disapproving cry” delivering OCH, but then as you have found, by the (unwritten?) rules of cryptic clueing the definition has apparently gone missing.
    In my opinion, this makes it an excellent clue.

    Thank you to everyone for the good wishes. I’m sure I’ll be back on my pins in the end.

  8. Franko@5, I believe that ‘on vacation’ to indicate the first and last letters is a relatively new device but is quite often used now. Certainly, I’ve seen it a fair bit in recent times. One to look out for.

  9. Also very sorry to hear of your woes, Beermagnet. May you be up and about asap. My cousin has had both done recently…in France of all places.
    I had knee caps too…and couldn’t parse.
    Why is dash em?
    @MichaelJohn…….I see it as Richard minus hard?

  11. Thanks Tony @9.
    Winsor@10 on first glance at comments I thought you had had your knee caps replaced. I’m not ‘knocking’ your knee caps comment just chuckling at my initial misunderstanding.

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