Alan Connor finds a plethora of nerdery in his pick of the week's best – and most technical – cryptic clues
The news in clues
Unlike the other broadsheets, the Times has a strict ban on living people in its puzzles – with the exception of the Queen, who is useful for ERs and to whom normal rules don't tend to apply anyway. But how long do you need to be non-living to make it into the Thunderer?
Last Monday, that paper included a reference to a controversial figure who recently died, a role model to David Cameron and an iffy advocate of law and order:
23d Maneatingstarter for MichaelWinner (5)
Just 53 days after his death, the restaurant critic was making up part of the clue for CHAMP. Araucaria namechecked Winner back in February, but I'm not aware of a quicker cameo in the Times; perhaps you know better.
Latter patter
In Monday's Independent, Phi gave a derisive description …
2d Measure of soundenthrallinglittletechie bore? (5)
… of a DWEEB and his – for it is surely a he – disproportionate interest in technology.
The term is north American and Oxford thinks it probably comes from a similar epithet FEEB, with the DW- inspired by DWARF and the echo of WEED helping things along. Like many other insults, DWEEB has changed sense over time; Oxford's first citation is from 1982, in the New York Times:
They try to keep the kids from cut knees, from drowning, from insulting any hoseheads and dweebs on motorcycles.
A motorbike is not part of the typical kit of those we call DWEEBS nowadays, and a HOSEHEAD is something like a HOPHEAD or a BOOZEHOUND, defined in Jennifer Blowdryer's 1985 Modern English: A Trendy Slang Dictionary along with HOSER as:
A name that jocky, collegey beer drinkers call other jocky, collegey beer drinkers. 'Hey, you hoser! Bring that beer in here, Jeff!'
So the DWEEB was once a little rowdier than the little techie bore of today. Likewise another of the subgroups named by Principal Rooney's assistant Grace in Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
Well, he's very popular, Ed. The sportoes, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads: they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude.
In Cymbeline, the GEEKE is a fool; the e-less GEEK was a 20th-century carnival act who bit the head off live chickens for the entertainment of a baying crowd, and in 1965 was still scary enough to épate the bourgeois Mr Jones in Bob Dylan's Ballad of a Thin Man.
He became more of a nerd from the 1970s and developed an interest in computing in the 80s. I first heard the expression GEEK CHIC in 1994, when a costume designer was choosing the Duffer of St George shirts in which I would present items for a different kind of carnival, Channel 4's The Word. So it was a surprise to see that Oxford's first citation, in The Face three years earlier, used the term to describe football fandom in a different entity of the same name:
In the beginning was The Word, which in 1984 was not some sad pop programme but a cult rag called The End dedicated to the geek chic of terrace culture and all its trappings.
The Face deserves some credit here for recognising the nerdery of the national game, and its apparent coinage is our cluing challenge for this week. Reader, how would you clue GEEK CHIC?
Cluing competition
Thanks for your clues for STATE FUNERAL. There were some pleasingly misleading surfaces, such as andyknott's MLK allusion in "Terribly tearful, Tennessee, early April '68, as a result of King's death?", phitonelly's gastronomic "Send off for country-style salt-free tuna" and wellywearer2's, well, techie "Superior program for downloading or burning?"
The definition part of gleety's "Taxpayer-funded gravy train?" was inspired and benmoreassynt2 alluded subtly to a ding-dong in "Place (eg 'Oz') marks death with singing and giving of thanks – a suitable send-off for a formidable leader."
Of the surfaces which seemed to pass comment on current events, I enjoyed Middlebro's "Solemn thanksgiving at taxpayers' expense for unusual notables, especially royals and leading heads", yungylek's "Disraeli refused one, Di's organised without cross, hateful-hearted merriment, but we paid for it", Middlebro's "An 'Iron Lady' stature, amazingly, is insufficient to qualify Maggie for one" and newmarketsausage's "Occasion of great solemnity where public celebration revolted earl".
The runners-up are Clueso's timely, poignant "Least fortunate to lose out on this occasion" and STSahasrabudhe's deft, elusive definition "National undertaking?"; the winner is the ingenious anagram of steveran's "ASLEF-taunter's arrangement".
Kudos to steveran – please leave this week's entries and your pick of the broadsheet cryptics below.
Clue of the week
Nominated by reader Gleety, from an Independent on Sunday prize puzzle …
3d Twice leavesuniversity to find country house (7)
… a refreshing cup of clue from Klingsor for CHATEAU. Stately stuff.