Cyclops 550: Shrink Rap

by

Huge apologies for the laptop failure and consequent lateness. Back in my office now, with what I hope is a reliable computer, trying to get this finished as quickly as possible. So it will be a bit terse.

Across
1 SHRINK Fail to keep it up as a maligned therapist
Double definition
4 UPSTAGE How to annoy a luvvie: lift leg
UP = lift; STAGE = leg
9 INNUENDO Liberal undone, having first accepted sly suggestion
IN = accepted; *(undone)
10/2 MOULIN ROUGE Nigel and two Ukip leaders going mad with room for foreign cabaret
*(Nigel UU room)
11 APPEAR Show up a Speaker’s Lords member?
Sounds like (‘speaker’s’) “a peer”
12 KNIGHTED Dubbed King Miliband after dark?
K= king; NIGHT = dark; ED = Miliband
13 RESIGNATIONS Many followed the 2015 Election, seeing Labour’s end and Nige’s breaking with nameless countries (12)
R = Labour’s end; *(Nige); [N]ATIONS = nameless (minus N) countries
17 PARTY POOPERS Could be Labour’s got shit on Brenda? Sun: “Killjoys!”
PARTY = Could be Labour; POOP = shit; ER = Brenda (the Queen); S = sun
21 DON’T KNOW Indecisive voter’s refrain: “Ukip’s second today”
DON’T = refrain; K = Ukip’s second [letter]; NOW = today
23 GLOVES Left crushed by cabinet minister’s mitts
L = left; GOVE’S = cabinet minister’s (you don’t really want a link to him, do you?)
25 UNSEEN Provoked, Sun gets even — not very well hidden
(*sun), with ‘provoked’ as the anagram indicator; EEN = ‘even’ minus V (very)
26 TENTACLE Appendage cover with fancy lace
TENT = cover; *(lace)
27 ORATION Love quota delivered by speechifier
O = love; RATION = quota
5 SCYTHE A quarter Scottish, they recklessly make cuts
SC = a quarter of the letters of ‘Scottish’; *(they)
Down
1 SYNAPSES Nervous sort of brainy networkers
Cryptic definition
Synapse
3 NON-IRON Unlike Thatcher’s “No” to the French press?
NON = “No” to the French; IRON = press
The Iron Lady
5 PIMLICO Cameron crushes independent oil development around Conservative London area
PM = Cameron; containing *(I oil) and C = Conservative
6 TOUCHES UP Makes contact between members?
A bit of a non-clue, I think
7 GLIDER Craft of King George entertaining idle bastard
GR = King George; containing (‘entertaining’) *(idle), with ‘bastard’ as the anagram indicator
8/24 WORK OF ART Maybe stony David puts round into Labour worthless sort
WORK = labour; O = round; FART = worthless sort
14 IN-PATIENT Hospital visitor’s pain aggravated by small measure in jug
*(pain); EN = small measure; in TIT = jug
15/22 TOY WITH Conservative Right abandoned humour and heart for a start — don’t take seriously
TO[R]Y = Conservative [with] Right abandoned; WIT = humour; H = heart for a start
16 TRUE BLUE Right low-spirited like the party faithful
TRUE = Right; BLUE = low-spirited
18 RUN INTO Nick to cause a bit of a car crash?
RUN IN = nick; TO
19 ORGANIC Natural penis with electronic component?
ORGAN = penis; IC = electronic component (integrated circuit)
20 DOWNER Drink, um, is a depressant
DOWN = drink; ER = um

white

I leave you with this link to an article that really did make me laugh out loud: Age of Innocence

 

9 comments on “Cyclops 550: Shrink Rap”

  1. You can’t get the staff these days 😉

    Which version of Windows? Have you tried a System Restore or if W8x the Reset function?

  2. Hi Sidey. It’s Windows 7 Professional, and I have done countless System Restores… as well as trying just about everything else (getting rid of things that launch on Start, changing the Windows profile, etc, etc.). Either a complete reinstall of Windows or a new laptop seem the only options left to me.

    I thought it might have gone into Sleep mode, which always slows it down to a painful crawl when it wakes up (what does it do in Sleep mode, FFS?), so I attempted to restart it. Which is when Microsoft chose to load and implement 11 updates… which took nearly 3 hours, during which there was nothing I could do!

  3. Thanks Cyclops and jetdoc

    You can tell windoze just to notify you that new updates are available, and you then choose the time to download & install. It’s in Control Panel > System And Security > Windows Update.

    hth

    PS Surely any mention of W8x should be prefixed by ‘the dread’ ?

  4. Hopefully you will find these helpful (I’ve tried to use bold and strikethrough for clarity):

    11.
    [K][NIGHT][ED]

    13.
    RESIGNATIONS
    R = Labour’s end; *(Niges); [N]ATIONS = nameless countries

    28.
    SCYTHE

    Can anyone explain “RUN IN = Nick” to me? I went with it to finish the grid but still don’t get it.

  5. Will @ 4

    It’s a colloquialism for arrest (Chambers), ie the police nick / run in the villains

    hth

  8. Thanks, everyone. I hope I have now corrected omissions which were due to extreme haste.

    Also thanks for all your suggestions on the laptop front.

    Believe me, I have tried just about every tactic available (including those mentioned above) to sort out a laptop which started life running beautifully and has gradually become painfully moribund. Yes, I should have turned off the automatic installation of Windows updates, but they shouldn’t take so long. I don’t use my laptop very often, so a new machine isn’t really justified. But I do need to rely on it when I am away from the desktops, so maybe it’s the complete strip-out-and-start-again route for me and my laptop.

    … and I wouldn’t touch Windows 8 with a bargepole.

  9. jetdoc says:
    July 7th, 2015 at 8:46 pm

    Thanks, everyone. I hope I have now corrected omissions which were due to extreme haste.

    Almost. 😉

    ’28’ (clue number) shown as ‘5’
    ‘s’ to be added to ‘*(Nige)’ in 13

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