The news in clues
The amplifiers for the US president seem to have agreed on a strategy of describing impeachment as “boring”, but there’s an echo of their previous “fake news” line in Raich’s amusing clue …
1d False, outrageously dupe President first (7-2)
[wordplay: anagram (“outrageously”) of DUPE, preceded by (“first”) name of a president]
[EDUP preceded by TRUMP ]
[definition: false]
for TRUMPED-UP. We’ve experienced many of the meanings of “trump” in crosswords recently, from card games to bodily processes, but still new ones keep appearing, like in Vlad’s inclusion …
1ac Put in an awkward position — it’s what Trump’s good at (7)
[double definition]
… of Judd Trump, champion of SNOOKER.
Meanwhile and on this side of the water, whatever was the Telegraph setter thinking of in this clue …
28ac Reason for mischief-maker to postpone session (8)
[wordplay: synonyms for “reason for” + “mischief-maker”]
[PRO + ROGUE]
[definition: “to postpone session”]
… for PROROGUE?
Latter patter
From the department of “pleasingly surreal imagery you never thought someone would ask you to imagine” is this clue from Brummie …
16d Vegetable feature found in unknown ICU configuration (8)
[wordplay: a facial feature contained in (“found in”) maths symbol for unknown value + anagram (“configuration”) of ICU]
[CHIN in Z UCI]
[definition: vegetable]
… for ZUCCHINI. This is one of those words that is plural in Italian but singular in English. “I must remember to weigh that zucchini before the checkout” doesn’t seem to arouse the same fury as other words that work in the same way: witness the fervid edit war on Wikipedia’s panini article.
Both seem headed in the same direction as “graffiti” (“graffiti is punishable by detention”, say); certainly, I would be amazed if a language whose speakers often dodge the question of whether to pluralise Italian edibles (spaghetti and our old friend broccoli are rarely counted) ended up with utterances such as: “I forgot to weigh my zucchino so the weary cashier let me have it for free.”
On which topic: reader, how would you clue AGENDA?
Crossword competition
Thanks for your clues for CUSHTY. I enjoyed those that made explicit reference to Del Boy and/or his environs, such as Alberyalbery’s “Dandy from Peckham” and those that take us to unexpected places, such as Tomrollock’s “Wicked copper retiring: about time”, and DeetotheGee’s “Scrubs the toys regularly to make perfect!”
The audacity award goes to 10FootClaudicant for the labour-intensive: “Cooked such turkey with giblets removed -lovely jubbly!”
The runners-up are PeterMooreFuller’s plausible “Loony Sutch last in Bermondsey? Fantastic!” and GappyTooth’s crossing-letter-requiring “Banging sound”; the winner is Phitonelly’s poignant: “Beautiful city centre replaced with ramshackle huts.”
Kludos to Phitonelly: please leave entries for this fortnight’s competition and your picks from the broadsheet cryptics below.
Clue of the Fortnight
Tony Collman (AKA Whynot) nominates a Times Literary Supplement clue from Myrtilus, adding that “it’s not difficult”, though it took me a moment …
15d Some lingo freshly made (9)
[wordplay: anagram (“freshly made”) of SOMELINGO]
[definition: “some lingo freshly made”]
… to see that wordplay and definition overlap precisely to yield NEOLOGISM. On reflection, a pleasing collision of Latin in the clue (from “lingua”) and Greek in the answer (“logos”); though, would it matter if clue and answer shared a root? We should talk about that.
