Mephisto 2472 – Chris Feetenby

Author   the_odPosted on Categories Mephisto
Solving time: 37:22                                  

I usually manage to find a few things to quibble about in a Chris Feetenby puzzle, but not much in this one!  I found it a little harder than the average CF, with some clever cluing that led me astray at times.  There is one clue that I am not sure about – 22D – any alternative thoughts anyone?

Across

1

URBAN MYTHS (UR + BAN + MY + TopHatS) – “there” is referring back to the word “city”, and “buy” = believe.

11

MIAOU (MA + IOU “securing” the first letter) – nice clue.  Good definition and unusual wordplay.

12

SEA-BEAT (ABE in SEAT) – of course there are those that would say that “Lincoln” does not equal ABE.  A reference to the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

16

DRY RUN (DRY + RUN) – another “back-reference”.  “Run” is a feature of a Test (match).

18

LILY (sLILY) – looked at this the wrong way round for a while – I was trying to take a head off a flower.

19

OSTEOGENIC (EGO rev. in SECTION*) – more barking up the wrong tree here.  I spent time looking for I’LLrev ersed in an anagram of SECTION.

26

ITALIA (ITA + AIL rev.) – “going West” jumps out as a reversal indicator for acrosses.

27

NACKET (C in TAKEN*) – neat clue, with the anagram not obvious and neither is the abbreviation being used.

31

CRIME (aMERICa*) – yet more BUTWT (see 19A) – I was looking for CA (Central America) + a 3-letter word for “punished”.

32

YANKEEFIED (I + FEE rev. in YANKED)

 

Down

1

OMNIPOTENTLY (OM + IN rev. + TENT in POLY) – took me a good while to spot the wordplay here!

2

DIESIS (DIES + IS) – DIES being the Latin for DAY, hence “one in seven”.

5

BUSS (BUS + S) – I was wondering why I had not heard of the conductor Buss – there isn’t one!  It would appear that although Chambers refers to BUSS being obsolete usage, the intention is as used in electrical conductors or data transmission.  In addition Wikipedia gives this spelling of buss as actually incorrect.  S = strangeness is a strange abbreviation too.

6

NEEDLE TIME (DELETE MINE*) – easy enough to work out, but I was fascinated by the meaning of this phrase!

10

STONY-HEARTED – I think the idea here is that if you were STON(E)Y- HEARTED you would be carrying a stone (14 pounds) at heart (essentially).

20

ARANEA (E in ARAN + A) – unlike the clue below, I can see what “are” is here – it equals A.

22

AREOLE (ARE + OLE?) – I cannot really see how “something superficial” = ARE.  I did wonder whether it was referring to the fact that the word “are” is immediately above in clue (20D), but “superficial” does not really mean “above” does it?

 

 

2 comments on “Mephisto 2472 – Chris Feetenby”

  1. ARE is “superficial” as it is “the unit of metric land measure (100 sq m)” (Ch.)
    Thanks for the prompt post.

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