This Don Manley Mephisto was not terribly difficult, but since I was tired I didn’t finish it all in one sitting, wisely breaking off and going to bed with several undone. When I came back, I found most of them rather straightforward, with only a couple need a trawl through Chambers.
Author: vinyl1
Times 28291 – The site is new, but the puzzles march on!
I found this unusually hard for a Monday, and struggled a bit. It didn’t help that I didn’t know carpet rod and sea loch. Some of the cryptics were quite obscure, and I had to resort to biffing obvious answers to finish the puzzle.
Welcome, everyone, to the new Times for The Times!
I would like to thank everyone for their patience. The grand opening of our new site is finally here, and our community on Live Journal is no more.
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!”