A wide variety of references from Cyclops this fortnight, from a popular 70s TV show to the current pandemic, with Trump, Johnson, Clegg and Elizabeth I getting mentions in the clues…
The TV show is Dads Army – DON’T PANIC and WE’RE ALL DOOMED both featuring in the current Eye as variations on the government’s response to the coronavirus. The use of ‘pandemic’ in the anagram for Don’t Panic was very apposite!…
NB. The intro to my blog of Cyclops 675 stated: “After a week of lockdown, and seemingly no respite in sight, it is reassuring to be able to dip into crosswords, or any other diversionary activity, to get one’s mind off things…that is until all the coronavirus-themed puzzles start popping up!” And ‘pop up’ they certainly have started doing, not just here but everywhere!… No doubt it won’t be long before the Cummings/Barnard Castle/eye-test themed puzzles also turn up… yes, I am aware of THAT anagram…)
Quite a few clues involving sex of some sort – ‘sex with politician’, ‘Elizabeth I having sex’ and ‘sex without energy’, not to mention ‘zipper thongs’ and an ‘artist being probed by a number of sailors’… is lockdown frustration getting into the Cyclops-ean psyche?…
3D isn’t necessarily a cryptic clue – it could just be a statement of fact: ‘ Trump’s way of communicating is to lose his head, babble pointlessly‘.
Thanks to Cyclops for an enjoyable puzzle – hope you all enjoyed it, and that all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 7A | TROUGH | Depression ought to be remedied around end of year! (6) | depression / T_OUGH (anag, i.e. remedied, of OUGHT) around R (end of yeaR!) |
|
| 9A | VIOLENCE | Force instrument on Trump’s powerless sidekick (8) | force / VIOL (instrument) + (P)ENCE (Mike Pence, Trump’s VP, or sidekick) |
|
| 11A | CONTACT | Get hold of jailbird – time to do something (7) | get hold of / CON (convict, jailbird) + T (time) + ACT (to do something) |
|
| 12A | TOASTIE | White wine in extremity and a snack (7) | snack / TO_E (extremity) around ASTI (white wine) |
|
| 13A | ERNST | Artist set out to be probed by a lot of sailors (5) | artist (Max) / E_ST (anag, i.e. out, of SET) around (probed by) RN (Royal Navy, a lot of sailors!) |
|
| 14A | PERSONNEL | Staff roles Penn ballsed up (9) | staff / anag, i.e. ballsed up, of ROLES PENN |
|
| 16A | DOOMED | See 6dn (6) | see 6D / see 6D |
|
| 18A | OFFEND | Bad tip: do something criminal (6) | do something criminal / OFF (bad) + END (tip) |
|
| 21A | INTERESTS | Concerns pisspoor street in Scotland’s capital (9) | concerns / INTEREST (anag, i.e. pisspor, of STREET IN) + S capital letter of Scotland) |
|
| 23A | PANIC | See 25dn (5) | see 25D / see 25D |
|
| 24A | MEDDLER | One who’d stick nose in fruity thing, it’s said (7) | one who’d stick nose in / homophone – a MEDLAR (fruity thing) could sound like a MEDDLER (nosy person) |
|
| 26A | SURFEIT | A bellyful of froth and sex without energy (7) | a bellyful / SURF (froth) + I_T (euphemism for sexual relations) around E (energy) |
|
| 27A | NON-STICK | Clegg about on street? Won’t hold! (3-5) | won’t hold / N_ICK (Clegg) around ON + ST – street) |
|
| 28A | CHASTE | Pure heroin included in order (6) | pure / C_ASTE (social order) around (including) H (heroin) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | STACKER | Time to get in someone who’ll fire supermarket employee? (7) | supermarket employee (aka essential worker!) / S_ACKER (someone who’ll fire others) around T (time) |
|
| 2D | DOWN-AND-OUT | Not working – moreover, openly gay on the street (4-3-3) | on the street / DOWN (not working, as in a computer system) + AND (moreover) + OUT (openly gay) |
|
| 3D | WITTER | Trump’s way of communicating is to lose his head, babble pointlessly (6) | babble pointlessly / ( |
|
| 4D | CLEAR OFF | Close by organ having a bad smell? Shift! (5,3) | shift! / CL (close, abbreviation, as in road name) + EAR (organ) + OFF (having a bad smell) |
|
| 5D | SNOT | Contemptible sort of drunk protecting Johnson’s butt (4) | contemptible sort / S_OT (drunkard) around (protecting) N (last letter, bottom in a Down clue, of johnsoN) |
|
| 6D | WE’RE ALL | & 16 Grim catchphrase for the times? – “The Eye had to recruit a role model, sadly” (2’2,3,6) | Grim catchphrase for the times (from Dad’s Army, of course) / WE_D (we’d, the Eye had) + RE ALL DOOME (anag, i.e. sadly, of A ROLE MODEL) |
|
| 8D | GRANT | Republican president’s ultimately jaw-dropping tirade (5) | Republican president (Ulysses S) / G (ultimate letter of jaw-droppinG) + RANT (tirade) |
|
| 10D | STUPID | Crazy lays on the rise over one day (6) | crazy / STUP (puts, or lays, on the rise) + I (one) + D (day) |
|
| 15D | NO-NONSENSE | Business-like, but lacking balls (2-8) | business-like / if ‘balls’ is taken as meaning nonsense, then if you were lacking ‘balls’ you would have NO NONSENSE! |
|
| 17D | MORALITY | Showing virtue, I’m about to entertain a sort of sex with politician – no alternative (8) | (showing) virtue / M_I (I’m, about) around (entertaining) ORAL (a sort of sex) + T(OR)Y (politician, without or – alternative) |
|
| 18D | OBSESS | Be preoccupied with love and Elizabeth I having sex (6) | be preoccupied with / O (zero, love) + B_ESS (nickname of Queen Elizabeth I) around S (sex, abbreviation) |
|
| 19D | AILMENT | Complaint: “Isn’t getting stuffed by Mel awful?” (7) | complaint / AI_NT (isn’t) around (getting stuffed by) LME (anag, i.e. awful, of MEL) |
|
| 20D | SCATTER | Animal dropping expression, endlessly broadcast (7) | broadcast / SCAT (animal dropping) + TER(M) (expression, endlessly) |
|
| 22D | STRICT | I’d backed away from neighbourhood disciplinarian (6) | disciplinarian / ( |
|
| 23D | PERTH | City partly responsible for zipper thongs (5) | (Australian or Scottish) city / hidden word in, i.e. partially responsible for, ‘zipPER THongs’ |
|
| 25D | DON’T | & 23ac. Pandemic to end badly? Deem unnecessary and keep cool (3’1,5) | keep cool (also from Dad’s Army) / subtractive anagram, i.e. badly, of PAN( |
|
Thanks mc_rapper. 1d I wasted a lot of time by slotting in cashier,which matched the sacking and supermarket worker aspects. Thankfully the crossing clues forced me to think again. Had only the vaguest idea there might be an artist named Ernst and had to google. Enjoyable all the same as you say.
Thanks for this very clear setting out of the solutions, mc_rapper. As a big HHGTTG fan I was delighted to see 25D/23A which is also a very neat clue I think. First encountered 13A on a book cover and then “The Hat Makes The Man” became one of my favourites. And I can’t think of 26A without lampreys coming to mind! Thanks Cyclops, this was very enjoyable.
I’m not hugely convinced by SNOT for contemptible sort. I was not helped because for a long time I had SNOB, which really buggered up TOASTIE…..hence last one in!!!!
Is everyone comfortable with STRICT for DISCIPLINARIAN? I’m struggling to see an adjective being equated to a noun…..and struggling more to accept disciplinarian as an adjective!
Franko – sorry to hear about your diversion with ‘cashier’ – you did ‘waste’ time, because ‘time’ was in the clue to indicate a T!
Gazzh – yes, of course, DON’T PANIC is also from the HHG…but it was originally made famous by Lance-Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army (and apparently no 3 in a survey of the nation’s most popular catch phrases, after Meldrew’s ‘I don’t believe it’ and those annoying meerkats with ‘Simples’. I believe the Dad’s Army phrase from Private Fraser was originally just ‘We’re doomed!’ – the ALL seems to have been added later – maybe for better scansion…
Winsor – Chambers (my usual source of comfort) has SNOT as a ‘nasal mucus; contemptible person’. And also has DISCIPLINARIAN as an adjective as well as a noun. So no objections from me…
mc_rapper67 @4 i completely missed that part of your blog, sorry, but do recall now the frantic pacing of Jonesy while exhorting calm – I have seen quite a lot of Dad’s Army on repeats but am of the age that first encountered many of the actors through voiceovers or appearances on Children’s TV programmes (eg Mr Men, Bod, Grandad). DA really has an extraordinary range of brilliantly portrayed characters.
Winsor@3 I don’t like to accept Chambers as ‘gospel’ and usually appreciate a real live example from the veteran contributors on here, while I am not in that class I have encountered lines like “he took a disciplinarian approach with the squad” where “strict” could easily be a straight substitute so I am also ok with it – maybe it started out purely as a noun and has migrated adjective-wards with time?
Thanks, Gazzh – as another example, I always thought ‘snotty little toerag’ (e.g. BoJo) referred to said toerag having a runny nose, but maybe it is from the second definition of ‘snot’?…
mc_rapper @4 – ha ha nicely put re time.
Thank you all, good people. I can rest easy now.
SNOT was my last one in, just for unfamiliarity. It seemed a bit like one of those slang usages that might be peculiar to a single public school. But OED has “3. dialect and slang. Applied to persons as a term of contempt or opprobrium.” with citations from 1607 to 1981, including one from Finnegans Wake.
Thanks, lemming at #9 – great research!
I had to look up SNOT, too (and ‘medlar’, which I’d only vaguely heard of).
Btw, it’s not just an anagram, it’s a whole puzzle now, and a very good one too (of course: it’s by Encota)
Re 5d, has anyone seen the letter from Max Duthie in Eye 1524?
I think his solution is most excellent.
kenmac – I hadn’t spotted that, so thanks for pointing it out. Very amusing!
CNUT would have fitted – I often use the euphemism ‘King Cnut’ when referring to people like Covid Johnson and Ronald T Dump…
kenmac@12
No. Why? What does it say? (And why do I even need to ask this question?)
Tony @12
[johnso]N inside CUT – and not mc_rapper’s spelling
Kenmac, heh heh! I’ve only heard of ‘half-cut’ to mean drunk, but I suppose ‘cut’ is the same but twice as much so.