There are a couple of questions arising in the chat below that I’d be obliged if someone can answer.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SPACED AC inside SPED Yet again 1A is the last I fill in though it was not a dreadfully hard clue |
| 5 | POWERGEN (PEER NOW G)* Anagrind: out |
| 9 | MANACLES (CAN)< inside MALES |
| 10 | EUROPE fEUd ROPE |
| 11/23 | WEAK SPOT W “dubya” (TO SPEAK)* Anagrind: out |
| 12 | BACKHANDER BACKHAND, ER |
| 13 | DELOUSED DEED outside (SOUL)* Anagrind: sad |
| 15 | MOONIE MOON I.E |
| 17 | UPENDS DD |
| 19 | LEAD-FREE One of those CD/DD clues where half is a CD (as in “no lead in his pencil”) and the other a much more straight def. Full clue: Unable to have an erection? Get it out of the pump! (4-4) |
| 21 | PROSECUTOR (SO E[nron])< inside (CORRUPT)* Anagrind: fancy |
| 25 | ZAGREB (E.G. BRA [si]Z[e])* Anagrind: sporting |
| 26 | EYEBALLS EYE Magazine, BALLS nuts |
| 27 | HERALDRY ER Brenda inside (HARDLY)* Anagrind: aroused |
| 28 | DRESSY Hidden anDRE’S SYphilitic |
| Down | |
| 2 | PEACE “piece” Queen as in chess |
| 3 | CRACKDOWN CRACK fanny DOWN blue |
| 4 | DELIBES DELI shop BES[t] Famous footballer Def: He scored |
| 5 | POSTCODE LOTTERY (PRESCOTT OLD YET O)* Anagrind: striken I went for this long answer first and the anagram tumbled out nicely. In fact, this was a cracking clue to start with and gets my favourite clue sticker: Prescott old yet stricken with love – does it mean we’re not all treated the same? (8,7) |
| 6 | WREXHAM “Wrecks” HAM |
| 7 | RERUN Hidden adulteRER UNmasked |
| 8 | EXPLETIVE EX P[resident] LET permit I’VE Cyclops has – so the construction is pretty solid, but I don’t understand the definition: “one of Nixon’s?” Full clue: Former president’s first permit – Cyclops has one of Nixon’s? (9) |
| 14 | EXPURGATE X Kiss inside (PURE)* Anagrind: excitement GATE opening |
| 16 | OBFUSCATE One of my favourite words (O[asis] B[ollocksed] F[eeble] USA ETC)* Anagrind: touring |
| 18 | SICKBED SICK Dicky BED to screw |
| 20 | AIRHEAD AIR broadcast, HEAD supremo |
| 22 | SYRIA (AIRYS)< possibly, but why? Full clue: Country is utter wind up – one pisses off (5) |
| 24 | OGLES (GOES L[arge])* Anagrind: squidgy |
8dn: the transcriptions of tapes of Nixon’s conversations in the White House released as a result of the Watergate investigation famously had lots of instances of the expression “[expletive deleted]” – the written equivalent of a bleep.
22d: SAY (=utter) + AIR<, with the first A (=one) pissing ooff..
Thanks Andrew, I didn’t know Tricky Dicky was so well known for his [expletive deleted]. And S[a]Y (AIR)< was a bit too tricky for me too.
Did this one, and like others had to look at the SYRIA clue for a good while after filling in the answer.
It sure is SaY/ RIA <, but two things annoyed me: first it doesn’t say which of the ‘ones’ – and there are three, either of the As or the I, which seemed the more likely in terms of common SI parlance – is to ‘piss off’, and second, the ‘pisses off’ I thought gratuitous, even in the wilfully smutty Eye.