A well received puzzle from our favourite one-eyed setter.
Not so many prurient references this time. Certainly enough fun to entertain the little braincells.
Thank goodness my issue of “The Eye” landed on my door mat just before I went for a long awaited medical appointment last week. The doc looked at the printout from his machine, gave it to me and told me to go immediately to A&E (“Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200”) where they would issue me with some medication. (I genuinely feel perfectly OK but apparently my heartbeats are all over the place. I must stop listening to so much free jazz.)
We all know what A&E is like these days. Yes there were many hours of waiting. The great thing is there is always someone much worse off than you are. In my case that day – I reckon everybody.
My copy of the Eye was read more completely than any previous issue ever.
Without a pen, I reckon I cold solved about half the clues. Later filling in those, and the rest from the crossers reasonably easily. I did note 20d as the Last One In but I cannot explain why I found that so tricky. 1d was also unsolved till all crossers appeared. Also unexplainable. So there were not many cases where a first letter helped.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | UPBEAT | Out of bed, whip is feeling optimistic (6) UP (Out of bed) BEAT (whip) Very difficult to whip up enthusiasm when you just get out of bed. |
| 9 | DESPATCH | Message: “Pad chest out” (8) (PAD CHEST)* AInd: out. It depends what message you want to send… |
| 11 | DIRTY WORK | Tarnished Labour’s disagreeable task (5,4) DIRTY (Tarnished) WORK (Labour) Labour? Tarnished?? Heavens to Betsy! |
| 12 | TOAST | Drink to Brown (5) Double Def. Let’s toast toast with brown ale. |
| 13/15 | WHITE SUPREMACY | The KKK is fine with this pale creamy soup cooked with nothing taken out (5,9) WHITE (pale), (CREAMY SOUP – O)* AInd: cooked. You’ve got to wear those silly hats if you’re that ugly. |
| 16 | ARREST | In particular, restrain bust (6) Hidden in particulAR RESTrain Some busts can certainly be arresting |
| 18 | TRAVEL | Journey of one who scored after midnight, finally (6) RAVEL (one who scored) after [midnigh]T Ravel travelled to tour US in 1928. His fee was $10,000 and a constant supply of Gauloises. |
| 22 | FALL APART | Trump’s third term out of consideration, causing collapse (4,5) FALL (third term, 3rd season in America) APART (out of consideration) Things do that I hear. |
| 25 | YACHT | Time to abandon stupid, chatty billionaire’s plaything? (5) (CHATTY – T)* AInd: stupid. It’s nice mucking about on the water but I don’t understand the appeal of these monsters. You can’t even tell that you’re floating. |
| 26 | PUBIC | Bush-like purge of left from the people (5) PUBLIC (the people) – L[eft] Maybe the bush is a Senna plant. |
| 27 | SLUSH FUND | South Dakota entertains profuse pleasure for Trump-style money-raising? (5,4) LUSH FUN (profuse pleasure) in S[outh] D[akota] Libellous suggestion? |
| 29 | AUDIENCE | House due a nice transformation (8) (DUE A NICE)* AInd: transformation. Audiences can be transformed by certain performances – but I did get my hearing back about 3 days after that Faces gig in 1972. |
| 30 | BREEZE | Cheese’s said to produce wind (6) “Bries” Homophone of a cheese Cheese may be one culprit but what the hell has my brother’s old dog been eating? |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SUNDOWN | Star depressed at end of day (7) SUN (star) DOWN (depressed) As the nights are drawing in time for the SAD to kick in |
| 2 | RACY | Crazy Scary Spice’s first to go “Vulgar!” (4) (SCARY – S[pice])* AInd: crazy. She was always the craziest of the quintet |
| 3 | WEAK SPOT | Vulnerability caused by degraded sulphur added to drug (4,4) WEAK (degraded) S[ulphur] POT (drug) Many drugs of many different types contain Sulfur(*) … (* Now the officially agreed scientific spelling. Yes, it still looks wrong.) |
| 4 | APOTHECARY | Chap, or a yet to be reformed old drug dealer (10) (CHAP OR A YET)* AInd: to be reformed. … and here’s someone who knew how to add Sulphur to the mix, probably when making gunpowder. |
| 5 | OTTAWA | Oakeshott, a waffler, “protecting” capital (6) Hidden in OakeshOTT, A WAffler Protecting capital by moving to Dubai |
| 6 | SHUT-EYE | Kip, put away organ! (4-3) SHUT (put away) EYE (organ) Avoid nightmares: Don’t read Private Eye at bedtime. |
| 8 | BARRIER | Wall built by Republicans that is put in check (7) RR (Republicans) IE (that is) all inside BAR (check) Have the Mexicans finished the wall yet? |
| 14 | EYEPATCHES | Our mag covers pirate wear (10) EYE (our mag) PATCHES (covers) Controversial covering: Private Eye 932 |
| 17 | TRANSACT | Aspect of LBGTQ legislation? “Carry Out!” (8) TRANS (Aspect of LBGTQ) ACT (legislation) Cyclops is behind the times. We’re up to “LGBTQIA+” these days. |
| 19 | EXCLUDE | Old lover was a crossword setter, reportedly? Leave it out! (7) EX (old lover) “Clued” (was a crossword setter, reportedly) He shouldn’t worry. I’m sure we all love Cyclops. |
| 20 | OFFPEAK | When there’s less demand from Dicky to climax (7) OFF (dicky) PEAK (climax) Last one in At my local station, “twearly” time, just before official “off peak” starts at 09:30, is remarkably empty. |
| 21 | STUDDED | Bossy, say, crazy dude with DTs (7) (DUDE + DTS)* AInd: crazy. Nothing to do with Springstein |
| 23 | LIBIDO | Sexual urge of old politician dominating one party (6) LIB (old politician) I (one) DO (party) I thought politicians are suppose to sublimate it into “public service” |
| 24 | THUG | Tough getting handjob outside hospital? (4) H[ospital] in TUG (handjob) I see Cyclops avoided referencing a small powerful boat. |
| 28/10 | HERE GOES | I’m just starting to see her go off (4,4) (SEE HER GO)* AInd: off. If it’s the QEII it’s probably pulled by a tug |
I know most of you lot already know but it’s been a long time since I last mentioned it so some of you might have missed this.
The HQ of the South Yorkshire Police is in Letsby Avenue, Tinsley, Sheffield S9 1XX.
Thanks for a great blog , hope the medication is working .
A good mix of everything in this one , APOTHECARY was very neat and I liked YACHT , I think of yachts as small with sails but I suspect the definition is wider .