Mephisto 3348 – No Agony, it Fits!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

After a difficult week, we are back to normal.   I solved this one in a single two-hour session, and only had to check something in Chambers a few times.   Writing up the blog, I only had to parse needed, which was an obvious biff during my solve.    Most of the answers were known words, which certainly makes things easier.

The only thing I couldn’t figure out was the pun – I would imagine it’s absolutely dreadful.

 

1 Obstinate duchess distressed when divorced from husband (6)
CUSSED – Anagram of DUC[h]ESS.
6 Victor behind one in grip of strong hint (6)
SAVOUR –  S(A,V)OUR.   I can’t find V for victor in Chambers, but strong for sour is there.
11 Colouring toon art in a new way (7)
ARNOTTO – Anagram of TOON ART – an orange colour.
12 From the right, hence a monster (4)
OGRE – ERGO reversed.
13 Jack leans here to face banter (8)
HEADRAIL – HEAD + RAIL.    Head and face as verbs, rail and banter as verbs.
14 Supply person with bucket for quarried material (12, two words)
PURBECK STONE – Anagram of PERSON +  BUCKET.
15 Excess food storage? Fine to be ripped off (4)
LAKE – [f]LAKE.   This is flake(2), a place for drying or storing food.
17 Frame longshoremen concealing shared issue (5)
MELON – Hidden in [fra]ME LON[gshoremen].    Melon defined as profits to be divided among shareholders.
19 European goody-goody, god, accepted bottom feeders? (8)
EPIFAUNA – E + PI + FAUN + A.   A faun is a very minor god indeed.
22 Complex NT tongue not learned? (8)
UNGOTTEN – Anagram of NT TONGUE.
24 Waffle about central heating being dry (5)
PARCH – RAP backwards + C.H.   Dry and parch as verbs.   Both rap and waffle can mean to talk aimlessly.
26 Take on viva voce exam for Scots (4)
HIRE – Sounds like higher, a school exam in Scotland.
27 Insect is bound to scuttle (12, two words)
SPRING BEETLE – SPRING + BEETLE as a verb.
30 Anthony Eden’s first to stir up a socialist worker (8, two words)
HONEY ANT – Anagram of ANTHONY E.
31 Flipping eye of God (4)
ODIN – NID O’ backwards.
32 Pâté, say, is mistake in point (7)
TERRINE – T(ERR)INE.
33 Fly one replaced by northern escorts in Unite (6)
TSETSE – T(-i,+SETS)E, a very clever substitutions clue.  I’m not sure about escort and set being equivalent – to start along a course or direction?
34 Crib near one’s own bed that’s pressed in service? (6)
KEYPAD – KEY + PAD, crib in the sense of a cheat sheet.
Down
1 Old dispute affected Labour’s leader over symbolic field strength? (6)
CAMPLE – CAMP + L + E.    From an obsolete form of football.
2 Plonker dismissing new upper-class language (4)
URDU –  [n]URD + U.
3 Fabulous beast that is right to be comparatively short (8)
SNARKIER – SNARK + I.E. + R, Short is probably used metaphorically, in the sense of rude or sarcastic.
4 This would soak up cans of beer I spilt over time (12)
SORBEFACIENT – Anagram of CANS OF BEER I + T.
5 Under British Left this gas could make you a sweetie-wife (5)
ETHER – [b.l.]ETHER, a rare middle literal, with a sort of reversed clue.    A sweetie-wife and a blether are both scandal-mongers.
6 Dips of a similar sort in goss that’s upsetting (8)
SOAKINGS – SO(AKIN)GS, where the outer letters are an anagram of GOSS.
7 Trailers carrying current benefits (4)
AIDS – A(I)DS, an escapee from the Quickie, not unwelcome.
8 Early atomic idea is farcically extrovert and, oh, unknown (12, two words)
VORTEX THEORY – Anagram of EXTROVERT + OH + X.
9 Like wee hot iron in service (7)
URINOSE – U(anagram of IRON)SE.
10 Soften school scripture fast (6)
RELENT – R.E. + LENT.   Religious education is explicitly defined here.
16 Spoke about getting accepted annoyed apostate (8)
RUNAGATE –  RUN(A)G + ATE.   An alternate spelling from the 16th century.
18 Check one on run? OK, go on recklessly (8, three words)
LET IT RIP – LET + I + TRIP.
20 Cases of pedestrians bagging apparently nothing (7)
PEAPODS – PE(AP,O)DS.   A concatenation of obscure abbreviations, all found in Chambers.
21 Quietly claim university raised result (6)
UPSHOT – P + SHOUT, with U moved to the front.
23 Called for northern adult section to disappear (6)
NEEDED –  N + [s]EEDED.   Adult as in a mature plant, with S as a valid abbreviation for section.
25 In general, poetry primarily made to be used by the French (5)
METRE –  M[ade] + ETRE.    We don’t often get French infinitives, but there you go.
28 Last of tradesmen roughly hoisted an old form of hawk (4)
NYAS – [tradesme]N + SAY upside-down.   An eyas was originally a nyas – both referring to unfledged hawks.
29 Heartless cashier set up American flier? (4)
LUNA –  AN[n]UL upside-down.    I didn’t know the luna moth was found only in North America.

13 comments on “Mephisto 3348 – No Agony, it Fits!”

  1. Thanks Vynil1. I see now that Chambers has “escort” as the 41st meaning of “set”.

    1. And qualified as ‘Scot and N Eng dialect’, hence ‘northern’ in the clue. The parsing of this one defeated me so thanks vinyl.

  4. Thanks Vinyl1 and Paul- a relief after last week’s puzzle. V for Victor is from the phonetic alphabet.

  7. A blessed relief after last week’s!
    I’m a bit puzzled by ‘OK’ in 18dn. I think it must be part of the definition, which is an instruction.

  8. “In general, poetry” seemed a bit lacking as a definition for METRE, but there wasn’t room for “metric”! (And this is scarcely true anymore.)

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