Mephisto 2464

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
It appears the_od is having problems with his network so I’ll jump in with a blog for the Mephisto. Net well soon, the_od!

I don’t habitually keep solving times for Mephisto, I enjoy the puzzles very much, and learn a lot of new words from the clever wordplay. This one took me one long sitting, and one short sitting, with a little help from Chambers.

Across
1 WYCHERLEY – William Wycherley is a Restoration-Era playwright, WYCH(=tree)+ER(=king Edward I, presumably)+LEY(=meadow)
2 DOT – TOD(-ivy)<=
11 MYS+TER(r)Y – Dame Ellen Terry
12 L+AND+FORCE – I liked this construction
13 MILLIONARY – (pap)ILLION in MARY
18 CASE+O+US – I liked this construction too, caseous meaning cheeselike
21 MEN+THOL
25 ON(Vi)AGRA – laughed out loud at this one
27 AGA(=commander)+PAN(=face)+THUS(=so)
28 OSTEOTOME – OST is East in German, OT is Off-Track betting. Got the answer before fitting the wordplay. An osteotome is a particularly painful-looking dental instrument.
30 ROYAL – two meanings
31 YO+D – Yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew language
32 HAYMARKET – (KARMA+THEY)*
 
Down
1 WILL+I AM – William Rufus the Red was new to this Aussie, but straightforward wordplay
3 HADITH – AIDT(=passage in a mine) in H+H(=very hard). Arabic body of tradition.
4 ENFLESH – N+SELF<= in EH. Got the word before the wordplay here.
7 DEM+AGOG – DEM being MED backwards, and the American spelling of DEMAGOGUE being used.
8 ORARIUM – a Catholic stole
9 TYIYN – boy do you learn some obscure currencies if you try Mephistos and Listeners
16 HEIGH(t)HO
18 COUNT+RY – I think this was the easy one to get the SE corner started
19 SEN+HORA – time to brush up on my Portuguese
20 SEA BELT – ABEL in SET
22 FAU(l)T+OR – a patron
23 WAR(T)Y – the T coming from the middle of creaTures
26 RIMAE – rimae are lava tracks, in the open “pot” of a volcano

3 comments on “Mephisto 2464”

  1. (The real 24D)

    I couldn’t understand this. Dough is pasta and Australian is presumably A, but how is needed = past?

    When writing a blog one never knows which clues to leave out, and usually ends up omitting those that seem so obvious that there’s no point in mentioning them. So probably there is something very simple going on here.

    1. My thinking was that past came from “by”. And thanks for correcting me on the numbering. In paltry defense, when the Mephisto prints electronically, the numbers are so tiny in the squares it’s difficult to see which number is which. I’ve edited the entry to show that RIMAE was actually 26D.

      I forgot to mention I was held up in the lower part by boldly placing the utterly incorrect “ASTROLABE” as 28 ac, thanks to having the -st-o—e. Nice one, Mike Laws.

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