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Author: vinyl1
Mephisto 3218 – Churchill’s Island
Although I finished in one sitting of about two hours, I found this pretty tricky. There are a few places where you have to cross-reference variable spellings among different words – for example, stanyel might be staniel or stannel, so you have to go see whether a meadow can be a ley, a len, or a lei. What fun! And just when you think it’s all obscure archaic words from Chambers, the setter throws in Neil Diamond.
Times 28279 – Slow-motion solving, or….
This was a not-so-mild puzzle for a Monday, that took a little doing. I got off on the wrong foot almost immediately, looking at the first clue and thinking: is the magazine Life, or Look? Fortunately, I managed to get a toehold with a few of the across clues, got a few of the downs, and was off. The vocabulary is just a bit outside the usual: marlinspike, intendant, psychodrama, Afrikaans – I don’t think we see these very often.
Mephisto 3216 – ….Soldier, Spy
Although some of the cryptics are a bit strange, the answers were mostly evident, and the vocabulary was pretty simple for Mephisto. If you biffed Festschrift, as I did, you should be right on the … Read more “Mephisto 3216 – ….Soldier, Spy”
Times 28267 – Dumbo, perhaps?
Music: Old Blind Dogs, New TricksTime: 20 minutes The cryptics here are very simple, but I biffed my way around anyway. Didn’t parse unicellular, pittance, melting pot, and marital, all the evident answer once you … Read more “Times 28267 – Dumbo, perhaps?”
Times 28265 – Normal service now resumed.
Sorry for the late blog. Across 1 For example, cat catching small rat? (4) PEST – PE(S)T. 3 Be dynamite, writhing between the sheets here? (7,3) AMENITY BED – Anagram of BE DYNAMITE. An NHS … Read more “Times 28265 – Normal service now resumed.”
Mephisto 3214 – Now the AT&T, sorry about that, Mr Crosby!
Like most Don Manley puzzles, this was pretty straightforward, and I managed to solve it in one sitting. Most of the answers are not too obscure, and some of the cryptics are quite easy. Stahlhelmist … Read more “Mephisto 3214 – Now the AT&T, sorry about that, Mr Crosby!”
Times 28255 – Print users gobsmacked!
Music: Shostakovich, Symphony 10, Karajan/BPOTime: 40 minutes Perhaps my time was not great, but I have a pretty good excuse. I was about ten minutes into my solve when I noticed my printout had no … Read more “Times 28255 – Print users gobsmacked!”
Mephisto 3212 – Don’t sit on my Jimmy Shands!
This one was not terribly difficult, and I made good progress by starting at the bottom and working my way up. Most of the cryptics were quite simple, with only two elements, and the answers … Read more “Mephisto 3212 – Don’t sit on my Jimmy Shands!”
Times 28243 – Monday, Monday, Part II
Time: 23 minutesMusic, Dvorak, Symphony 8, Dorati/LSO Here we have another fairly standard Monday puzzle that will put up little resistance to skilled solvers. I just got hung up at the end for a bit … Read more “Times 28243 – Monday, Monday, Part II”