This was not a terribly difficult puzzle, although some of the cryptics were obscure. Since I had decided to solve the puzzle as fast as possible, and then blog it as fast as possible, I pushed ahead. Obvious answers were entered without parsing, so I had quite a few biffs by the end of my solve – these are noted in italic type.
Author: vinyl1
Mephisto 3300 – Four horsemen and it’s going to be us!
This one wasn’t too bad, but there was a burst of obscurity in the NE. I did about 2/3 of it on Saturday night, and finished most of it up on Sunday morning.
Times 28771 – Nope, he’s still at his post!
I thought this was going to be an easy Monday when I saw a number of answers as the puzzle came out of the printer, but the some of the remaining clues proved rather formidable.
Mephisto 3298 – To suck eggs, presumably
I did not find this too bad, but I was tired last Saturday and put it aside half-finished to go to bed. The next morning, I finished fairly easily, but I was a bit concerned about one biff I couldn’t justify.
Quick announcement
We recently had a bot attack that created new accounts on TftT, but did not reply to the email for account confirmation. Johninterred has fixed that problem, but we were left with a large number of inactive accounts, including genuine attempts dating back to May of 2022.
Since these accounts are not confirmed, they are not of any use to anyone. Accordingly, I have cleaned up our user accounts, and deleted all unconfirmed accounts created prior to November 1, 2023. No one with a valid account should be impacted.
Times 28759 – On The Shore
I don’t think there will be much to slow down the top solvers here, no strange vocabulary, and relatively straightforward cryptics.
Mephisto 3296 – I get by with a little help from my friends!
I thought this was going to be hard at first, but it turned out otherwise. I had to check a few things in Chambers, but at least they turned out to exist when I looked them up.
Times 28747 – Actually, mine is a bit of a square…..
I thought this was going to be difficult, as I only got four or five across answers on my first run-through, but the downs proved much easier, and I found a lot of gimmes.
Mephisto 3294 – The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, etc, etc.
This was a rather moderate Mephisto from Paul McKenna, with very little in the way of esoteric vocabulary.
Times 28735 – Fearful symmetry?
Well, easy Monday is back, and I don’t have much to say. If you are an experienced solver, you won’t find much to delay you here, and even novices may do well.