At the start of solving this I was absolutely racing through, slapping in answer after answer covering top left down to bottom right. Then I slowed right down and had to grind out the answers – the last few after a lot of thought. I tried to trip myself up by putting ODDBALL in at 28, but that was soon corrected. I had more success at self-blocking in the top right corner where for 14/11/26 I had made the classic error of putting ‘ones’ instead of ‘your’ – I should remember the Eye is not as formal as most papers. Thus Skydiving had to wait, and 8D COUNTY gave me a particular run around, so I must nominate that as best clue.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ISOTOPE | An atomic variant, I thus get pissed regularly (7) I SO (thus) TOPE (get pissed regularly – and often). Flying start – 1st read and answered |
| 5 | COSSACK | Belligerent Russian, strutting male, holding dick that’s ‘on the turn’ (7) COCK (strutting male) around ASS< (dick that’s ‘on the turn’) This was the last I answered – I needed the penultimate C to make my brain gears click to the right setting |
| 9 | CHAMBER POT | Peer aims to get in this legislative assembly corporation (7,3) CHAMBER (legislative assembly) POT (corporation – tum) |
| 12 | BARSAC | Drink set bra on fire almost (6) BRA* AInd; set, SAC[k] (fire, almost) |
| 13 | EAT DIRT | Tired out, undergoing a tense penetration, humble yourself (3,4) A T[ense] inside TIRED* AInd: out |
| 14/11/26 | OPEN YOUR EYES | Spread our pages, readers, and accept how bad things really are! (4,4,4) CD/DD The first Cryptic Def. referring to Eyes as periodicals |
| 16 | INSOMNIA | Inability to get off when one tinkered with onanism (8) I (one), (ONANISM)* AInd: tinkered with |
| 19 | VERY SOON | Pissed over Sony in no time at all (4,4) (OVER SONY)* AInd: Pissed |
| 20/3 | GOOD TIMES | Sentimentality associated with Democrat ‘X’ is what Osborne would love to promise (4,5) GOO (Sentimentality) D[emocrat] TIMES (‘X’) |
| 22 | BACKLOG | Support Clegg’s no. 2? Move over, there’s work still to be done! (7) BACK (support) [c]L[egg] GO< (move, over) |
| 24 | FLABBY | Sagging pop foursome releases one in hurry (6) ABB[a] (pop foursome, releases one) inside FLY (hurry) |
| 27 | WINDSCREEN | Front-of-vehicle feature that masks flatulence? (10) DD/CD WIND SCREEN (geddit!) |
| 28 | ODDSORT | Freak rum rots nuts (3,4) ODD (rum) ROTS* AInd: nuts. I initially wrote in Oddball – soon sorted (no excuses) |
| 29 | GODDESS | Rejected Miliband pointer, perhaps, on ‘fascist organisation’ Nike? (7) ED [Miliband] DOG (pointer) all reversed, then SS (fascist organisation). Def. by example thus the ‘?’ |
| Down | ||
| 2 | SCHNAPPS | Breaks, as the piss artist said, for a drink? (8) Homophone snaps (breaks) – when said when you’ve had a few. This seemed very familiar and the search facility soon found a very similar clue in Eye 470, nearly 2 years ago |
| 4 | PREACHIFY | Be a moralizing sort of chap – i.e. Fry broadcasting (9) (CHAP I.E. FRY)* AInd: Broadcasting |
| 6 | OCTET | Band taking month putting on extra tight tops (5) OCT (month) E[xtra] T[ight] |
| 7 | SKYDIVING | Broadcaster going under – the downfall of high fliers (9) SKY (broadcaster) DIVING (going under) |
| 8 | COUNTY | Limerick about Tony desperate to rope in UKIP leader? (6) C (about), (TONY U[kip])* AInd: desperate. The clue that gave me the most trouble -well mislead into thinking about Our Nige, Blair and poems. Another Def. by example but as the ‘?’ is at the other end of the clue from the def. it makes it much trickier. |
| 10 | PIERS MORGAN | Sacked TV host‘s broadcast looks at “male member” (5,6) Homophone Peers (looks) HInd: broadcast, then M[ale] ORGAN (member) |
| 15 | NO EXCUSES | Explanations unacceptable once sex is cleaned up across America (2,7) US (America) inside (ONCE SEX)* AInd: cleaned up |
| 17 | MANIFESTO | Show-ring election promises? (9) MANIFEST (show) O (ring) |
| 18 | GOEBBELS | German minister doctored Beeb’s log (8) (BEEB’S LOG)* AInd: doctored |
| 21 | OBEYED | Feature of slob Eye derided didn’t break the rules (6) Hidden in slOB EYE Derided |
| 23 | LOWER | A cow, Balls at heart, he admits? (5) [ba]L[ls] OWER (someone who owes / admits?) |
| 25 | ACRID | Tart offers resistance when collared by a team of cops (5) R[esistence] inside A CID (a team of cops) |
Instead of a joke here is a youtube minute of video from the dashboard of a car in Russia – Ghost Car – Spooky!
Thanks Cyclops! Re 9 across – I was confused re “Pot” is related to “corporation – turn”. Just looked up in the Oxford Dictionary of English and there is a [dated, humorous] meaning of corporation = a paunch. Is that the sense of the clue?
Oops! I meant to type thanks beermagnet not Cyclops which looks like a bit of unintended sarcasm.
Franko: Yes. Corporation = Paunch = Stomach = Tummy = Tum = Pot belly = Pot
That’s TUM not TURN in lowercase ‘m’ looks ever so much like ‘rn’ in this font
Many thanks beermagnet. I need to clean my glasses as well as my grey matter. Hadn’t come across that use of the word corporation before.
It’s colloquial and vulgar in OED’s eyes, and literary and dated in mine, though none the worse for that. Eg,from OED: 1849 C. Brontë Shirley II. v. 128 Looming large in full canonicals..with the dignity of an ample corporation.
Something completely different:
Clue: They’re semantically very similar — even each having only a single pair of prime factors — but they’re not the same. What’s the question, and why? You don’t have to go far.
Thanks lemming for further explanation. Regarding your Clue -I don’t want to make a ‘spectacle’ of myself but suspect this is something to do with a pair of glasses/spectacles however can’t get any closer to ‘framing’ the question. lame puns intended. Am I in the ballpark?
Nah, it’s a ridiculously roundabout hint to beermagnet about an anomaly that mars his otherwise excellent page. I didn’t need my glasses to spot it.
lemming You’ve got me stumped. I can’t see what you’re alluding to.
Is it something to do with my “ones/your” or “Oddball/oddsort” mistakes?
Reading through, I wondered if it is something to do with 18D GOEBBELS and ‘doctored’ as an anagram indicator. As far as I’m aware from the song he had nothing to doctor in the first place.
It’s more obvious on this page: http://www.fifteensquared.net/category/private-eyecyclops/.
Oh good grief I’ve done that have I – let’s see if I can correct it …
… Yep. Thanks lemmming
For those reading later the problem was 3*173=11*47+2 and I forgot the +2
For 5a I first had bolshie. When 7d meant that couldn’t be correct, I had ?o?s??? so I thought Tolstoy might be a belligerent Russian so tried that . Got it right at the third attempt.