This was not very difficult, although I had a hard time getting started, and had to open up operations in the southeast corner of the grid. But as usually happens in Mephisto, once you have a few crossing letters, more answers become obvious and you can expand around the grid.
Author: vinyl1
Times 29239 – Here come the Tornados!
These grids with many longer words are often associated with the difficult Friday puzzles, but this is definitely a Monday one. After getting a few answers, I started to work from the literals and got most of it done very quickly.
Times 29233 – “…and the Spiders from Mars!”
I found the puzzle a bit strange, as it is an admixture of clues suitable for the Quickie with a few that are very convoluted. If you just put in the obvious answers, you’ll finish, but you may want to know why the answers are the answers.
Mephisto 3376 – “To ourselves…..new paganism…..”
I found this surprisingly easy for a Robert Teuton, but I was still left with a few to finish up the next day. For one, there were a surprising number of answers that I had heard of, which is always helpful.
Times 29227 – An Other Monday?
This was not quite a standard Monday puzzle, although the highly skilled solvers p0lished it off easily enough. The answers were not obscure, but some of the cryptics required specific knowledge that not everyone might have.
Mephisto 3374 – A versatile marsupial!
I thought this was rather mild for John Grimshaw, as there were a number of answers I actually knew.
Times 29215 – To be continued…..
I didn’t find this puzzle particularly difficult, as the correct answers were usually evident, but blogging it is another matter. I have had to correct several misapprehensions while writing the blog.
Mephisto 3372 – I saw that!
This one was not too difficult, and for the first time Paul’s pun proved useful in getting started.
Times 29203 – No, he never won it
I thought this was going to be very difficult, as I struggled to find a clue I could solve. My second entry into the grid was wrong, so I was not off to a great start.
Mephisto 3370 – …or the Mad Hatter’s tea party!
I have to admit I found this rather tricky. Unusual vocabulary and tough wordplay combine to make this one difficult to finish….