This puzzle turned into a lengthy struggle that spanned the week, as I slowly reduced the stubborn areas. While I did come up with a correct and complete solution, I still cannot parse some of … Read more “Mephisto 3162 – Paul’s right, it’s wrong!”
Author: vinyl1
Times 27943 – The devil, you say?
Time: 21 minutesMusic: Elgar, Enigma Variations, Boult/LSO. Not so easy a Monday, for a change. I made a decent time only because I biffed like mad, and only used the cryptics when needed. This setter … Read more “Times 27943 – The devil, you say?”
Mephisto 3160 – The Hight Report
Well, here’s one for Mephisto beginners – I’ve actually got a time, 48 minutes. I mostly just filled in the obvious answers, glancing at Chambers every once in a while, until I had only a … Read more “Mephisto 3160 – The Hight Report”
Times 27931 – No, not the Audiophiliac…
Time: 27 minutesMusic: Bach, Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould This was a perfectly simple Monday puzzle, and I did most of it very quickly, before slowing down at the end. There were some rather complex cryptics, … Read more “Times 27931 – No, not the Audiophiliac…”
Mephisto 3158 – The Earl of Rochester, for example
I found this one rather tough. The grid is very unfriendly to the solver, as eight of the answers have an unchecked first letter, and there are two entries where more than half of the … Read more “Mephisto 3158 – The Earl of Rochester, for example”
Times 27919 – Not for another two years!
Time: Not takenMusic: Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade, Kondrashin/LSO Yes, I forgot to note my starting time, so no time tonight. I put the record on and sat down to solve, and flipped it about 2/3 of the … Read more “Times 27919 – Not for another two years!”
Mephisto 3156 – Persistence? Determination? Resolve?
I found this one a bit on the tough side. It’s not that there were no easy clues, but they seemed to all be located on the right side of the grid. This made for … Read more “Mephisto 3156 – Persistence? Determination? Resolve?”
Times 27907 – Wilco (The Album)
Time: 16 minutesMusic: Bax, Tintagel, Boult/LPO Another easy Monday, but I biffed so many I’m going to be spending a lot of time figuring out the cryptics as I write the blog. There are also … Read more “Times 27907 – Wilco (The Album)”
Mephisto 3154 – I would have said Jeff…
This was a really classic Don Manley puzzle, with the wordplay from words you know yielding answers that you probably don’t know. This, for me, is the chief pleasure in solving these things, although as … Read more “Mephisto 3154 – I would have said Jeff…”
Times 27895 – Around here, we do study there…so to speak.
Time: 19 minutesMusic: Khachaturian, Violin Concerto, Oistrakh/Khachaturian/MRSO Another easy Monday, I would say, and so far the results in the SNITCH are confirming this. I did biff a quite a few answers, but had to … Read more “Times 27895 – Around here, we do study there…so to speak.”