Mephisto 2534 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
This is an interesting crossword, I did a lot of this on a plane with no access to dictionaries (believe it or not, I don’t take Chambers travelling, though I’ve been known to slip Bradfords into a bag if there’s room). The last few entries took a bit of hunt-and-pecking, and I’ve still got some reservations about 5 down.

Across
2 SYCOPHANTIC: Got this from the definition, it’s COP(get),HAN(d) in CITY’S reversed
11 RA,V(i)ENNA: got this from wordplay, didn’t know it was a battle in 1512
13 F,AS,C,I: another one from wordplay, a sicilian movement
15 HOA(gie): another spelling of HO
16 TOOK,AFTER: remembered Barry Took from his association with Monty Python’s Flying Circus
17 ATTORNED: TORN in (DATE)*
19 FRESHET: from definition (flood) – not sure on the wordplay, is it SERF reversed then (THE)*
20 ESOTERY: anagram of (d)ESTROYE(d)
23 DELVE: archaic term for a hollow, and DELVES is another term for DELF, charge for a sod
28 SURROGATE: anagram of (visi)TORS,ARGUE
30 SAR(k): one of those ugly three-letter fish
31 O,(b)ASES: the fruit date
33 BIG,AE(old): AE for old comes from AETATIS – a BIGAE is a two-horse carriage
34 PER(=a),PET,RA,TOR
 
Down
1 ALPAHBET SOUP: (APPEAL,TO,BUSH) – nice surface, how long are Bush and Palin going to live on in crosswords?
2 SAPOTA: A,TOP,AS reversed, make yummy milkshakes at your local Viet place
3 CUT,TO,E: a large knife
4 OPPO(site): a clue linking together two words for friend seen mostly in crosswords
5 PRION: Just saw it while writing the blog, it’s PRISON minus the S, made that harder than it should have been
6 (w)HACK,(v)ERY: I liked this clue
7 NEAFES: FE(iron) in SEAN*
8 INCEDE: sounds like IN, SEED
14 STAHLISM: Anagram of MAIL,SH(o)TS – in which every vital action is operation of the soul
19 FROG,LET: A paddock (or puddock) is a frog or toad. Wonder if Mr Moorey will get nasty letters from the French?
21 SQUAME: M for R in SQUARE. Went to Chambers to check this, and it says that the plural of SQUAMA (a scale) is SQUAMAE. Hmmm… SQUAME shows up as a legit work in Word Wizards
22 THREE,P: in Chambers under THREAP
24 ELEGIT: EG in TILE reversed, a writ where property could be transferred to a plaintiff until debt was satisfied
25 VEADAR: A,D in (RAVE)*, a month in the Jewish calendar
27 R AND R: Cute, the terms (end letters) of clear and order are both R
29 TUBA: A,B(o)UT reversed

9 comments on “Mephisto 2534 – Tim Moorey”

  1. FROG,LET: A paddock (or puddock) is a frog or toad. Wonder if Mr Moorey will get nasty letters from the French?

    ..we were lobsters, they were frogs. All named after military uniforms. I have never been able to work out why people invest nicknames with so much angst. You are a Yank, I am a Brit. Apparently we have to put up with that and smile, while most other nationalities and ethnic groups claim defamation. Should we sue?

    2. I’m sceptical about “frog” being based on a uniform. There are various suggestions, but the “diet caricature” (to match “les rosbifs”) or something to do with the shield of Paris or swampiness of its area seem more persuasive.
  2. DELVES was last in – heraldic sods indeed!

    The rest was not too demanding – most of the wordplay was fathomable. I didn’t understand 15ac – I have now looked up “submarine” (sandwich) in Wiki and had no idea there were so many alternative names for them!

    By the way I couldn’t find “hackery” in Chambers (at least not with that meaning). The answer was obvious, but am I missing something?

    1. It may be a new word in the 11th edition…

      hackery(1) – see under hack(1)

      hack(1) includes “to gain unathorized access to other computers”

  3. Sorry, pass the dunce’s cap. For some reason I was looking at the 7th edition (1988).
    1. random addendum, I have a 9th and an 11th edition (yay, home and office Chambers!), and the entry for hack and hackery are also in the 9th.
  4. An enjoyable if not too demanding puzzle. I thought 13A an excellent clue. I’ve never been called a lobster in France – the usual term of endearment is “roast beef”.

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