Some of you may have been looking for this blog this time last week.
The last Private Eye covered 3 weeks and it was very clear in the printed Crossword that entries could arrive up to yesterday (Friday 4th Sep), but I see no-one told the website which has been saying “no longer accepting entries” for the past week. Ho hum.
While blogging I noticed this grid design has 18 down lights – that is not a record for a 15×15 grid but I reckon it is quite unusual, and I’m happy to see it did not involve any 3 letter lights. Always a bugbear of mine.
I am stuck into my regime of firstly attempting to cold solve all the clues without reference to the grid and crossing letters. Score this time 13/30.
I am happy with that. I find I get a get a much higher cold solve score on the Eye than the Graun or the Indy.
Then when putting them in the grid not all crossing letters agreed! For 11a I had LIBEL CASE which did not fit with 10d TUSSLE. I had not properly parsed 11a and assumed it would eventually become clear. It was quickly corrected but I suppose that means I should downgrade my score to 12/30.
The second pass with the benefit of the crossing letters on the grid saw most of the rest put in till I came to the last four. One of these was the longish light 5d where I had a lot of crossing letters but simply could not see anything that would fit. After a while I realised 12 had been written in as RIGHT instead of SIGHT. I know I solved that clue as SIGHT and intended to write that in, so I didn’t think it was my brain that was at fault. Where was the problem?
May be it was my hand. I tested that and everything seemed to be working fine. I tested the pen – again it traced the intended letters. Finally I tasted the ink – it was off. My conclusion is: It was the geriatric ink that couldn’t spell. So I gave it the appropriate send-off (down the plug hole) and refilled my inkpot with juvenile ink.
So with Prospero tucked up in his Prosperous cavern there were only three linked lights to go: 22a, 23d, 29a
These took a very long time to properly get. I do not think of a SHRED as a “piece”. Obviously it is. But to me a thing is made up of a few pieces, whereas a thing can be shredded into thousands of “very tiny pieces”.
For 29a the answer had to be OCULAR but I could not understand the parsing for the longest time. Eventually I saw [j]OCULAR. I count that as very hard. It also gets my award for best clue of the puzzle as a result.
So 23d, RONALD (not Donald), was officially the last, but the answer was pretty obvious with the 3 crossers.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | VISUAL | Eye-related American reversal in medication aid? (6) US< (American, reversal) inside VIAL (medication aid) Not much medication aid heading to stop the Ebola outbreak in DRC since Trump cancelled the US Aid budget. Worrying. |
| 9 | NARRATOR | Teller‘s list Republican managed to overturn (8) ROTA (list) R[epublican] RAN (managed) all reversed (to overturn). First one solved. Excellent surface reading suggesting shady electoral practices. |
| 11 | LIBEL SUIT | Private Eye would rather not have one be ill dancing at clubs (5,4) LIBEL (BE ILL)* AInd: dancing, SUIT (clubs) Over the years you might get the impression the Eye relishes Libel Cases. The editor might disagree |
| 12 | SIGHT | This is about grabbing money – which makes sense (5) (THIS)* AInd: is about, around (grabbing) G[rand] (money) The billionaires mantra |
| 13/15/17 | FIRST SECRETARY OF STATE | Yet forecast starts off with “fire Burnham’s close colleague!” (5,9,2,5) (YET FORECAST STARTS + FIRE)* AInd: off. Currently this state office is occupied by Louise Haigh, who is effectively Burnham’s deputy as he hasn’t explicitly named a Deputy PM after David Lammy got the big E. |
| 19 | BROCADE | Material of robe forced round arse (7) (ROBE)* AInd: forced, around CAD (arse) Cad/Rotter/Arse is one of Cyclops’s favourite allusions. |
| 20 | RECESSION | When MPs break Mone’s heart about PPI’s ultimate decline (9) RECESS (When MPs break) and [m]ON[e] around [pp]I Yes. When will MPs break Mone’s heart and get our purloined millions back? |
| 22 | SHRED | Quiet, extreme leftwinger’s piece (5) SH (quiet) RED (extreme left winger) I found this a little tricky |
| 24 | GARBO | Old Hollywood star‘s flipping tabloid stink (5) RAG< (tabloid, flipping) BO (stink) In retrospect I was disappointed I did not cold solve this one. She is, after all, the quintessential Hollywood star |
| 25 | VIGILANTE | A living ruined by the heartless anti-migrant activist? (9) (A LIVING)* AInd: ruined, T[h]E “?” shows other forms of vigilantism are available. |
| 28 | MUTILATE | Butcher‘s dog cut one on behind (8) MUT[t] (dog, cut) I (one) LATE (behind) I spent some time this was a CRS (Cockney Rhyming Slang) allusion to “Butcher’s Hook” / Look. Coincidentally I was in the “Butcher Hook & Cleaver” at Smithfield rotunda a couple of mights ago where they had a very nice Real Ale IPA on tap marked as Vegan. How times have changed – for the better! |
| 29 | OCULAR | Eye’s description of comical leader given the boot (6) [j]OCULAR (comical, leader given the boot) See earlier chat. Jocular/comical is perfectly fair but tough to see. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | OVAL | Office of the President, where a load of balls may be witnessed (4) Double Def. One in the White House. One near Vauxhall. A load of balls can be seen and heard in both. |
| 2 | ISOBAR | One very contorted bra’s pressure line (6) I (one) SO (very) (BRA)* AInd: contorted. An ill-fitting bra makes me queasy though I’ve never worn one (yet – never say never). |
| 3 | WAIL | Cry: “Women are sick!” (4) W[omen] AIL (are sick) And children. |
| 4 | BALTIC | Indian cookery clubs of Estonia? (6) BALTI (Indian cookery) C[lubs] I’m tempted to Google Estonian cookery clubs to see if they have any Balti recipes. |
| 5 | PROSPEROUS | Wealthy American goes after Will’s character (10) US (American) after PROSPERO (Will’s character, from The Tempest) Images of Trump saying “That Prospero. Very bad man” |
| 6 | STIGMATA | Marks and Spencer’s chief at AGM – it’s chaotic (8) (S[pencer] AT AGM IT)* AInd: chaotic. Almost gave this the “Top Clue” accolade for the misdirection, but I did spot it on the cold solve pass, so gave myself a pat on the back instead. (And now I’ve put my shoulder out) |
| 7 | TROT | Balls after tense jog (4) T[ense] ROT (balls) One of those tiny answers that I did not get till having both crossing letters. |
| 10 | TUSSLE | Our ex-PM “right off the French” – scrap (6) T[r]USS (our ex-PM, right off) LE (the, en Francais) This Liz will never be forgotten, unfortunately. |
| 13 | FLOOR | Base weakness of speaker (5) Homophone of “Flaw” (weakness) HInd: of speaker. Only one homophone in this puzzle. Thank goodness. |
| 14 | TOADSTOOLS | They could well be toxic, contemptible types and dicks (10) TOADS (contemptible types) TOOLS (dicks) As I understand it, in France they have a wonderful system where the local pharmacist can tell if the fungi you have gleaned from the woods is edible. |
| 16 | YIELD | Tory ultimately lied about produce (5) [tor]Y (LIED)* AInd: about. Another clue about PPE? |
| 18 | SECURITY | Dodgy cures and IT associated with Kennedy’s “ultimate protection” (8) (CURES)* AInd: dodgy, IT, [Kenned]Y Whatever happened in the Kennedy family that we end up with the current anti-vax idiot in charge of US Health? |
| 19 | BENIGN | Charitable African country protecting government leader (6) G[overnment] in BENIN (African country) I hear it is a very good place to get bronzed. |
| 21 | INVITE | Prompt Victor to usurp Charlie’s request (6) INCITE (prompt) swap C for V (C[harlie] for V[ictor]) For me there seems a big leap from Incite to Prompt. |
| 23 | RONALD | Old president Trump needs to change party (6) As in Reagan. DONALD (Trump) swap D for R (change party, i.e. D[emocrat] for R[epublican]). Last one solved. Trump changes his ‘party’ every day, or more often. Every time he says whatever rubbish runs through his bonce. |
| 24 | GAME | MAGA means suppressing contest (4) Hidden in MAGA MEans Yep. No chance of a fair game. |
| 26 | LICE | US enforcers going after “Liberal lousy things” (4) ICE (US enforcers) after L[iberal] A good definition of one of the few parts of the US state that seem to have limitless funds. |
| 27 | EARL | All but advanced peer (4) EARL[y] (advanced, all but) Read early, solved late. |
I have a graceless friend who has just got his PhD in palindromes.
He can now call himself Dr Awkward.
Personal note: The day before this blog appears is my last day at paid work. After too many decades I have retired because I am so creakingly old.
You might think that will give me more time to do puzzles.
But it means I will have no good excuse to do all the things that need doing in the mess this house has become – starting with about 2 years worth of ironing.
Thanks for a great blog , I always cold-solve first for this and the Guardian , I think you get to appreciate the clues more . Usual high quality , OCULAR was very neat with the misleading Eye and the fake capital hidden at the front .
Enjoy your retirement , be careful with the ironing , my husband actually likes to iron but every time the phone rings he burns his ear .