I have one of two solving patterns for the Mephisto. If I’m awake and feel like being lazy on Sunday morning, I grab the dictionaries and try to do it in one sitting. However on weeks like last week, when I know I have a few tedious tasks that require minimal supervision, I do it in dribs and drabs. This was one of the latter types, solved in about four sessions and then a peek at the dictionaries after each session. The long words came quite readily from the wordplay, but there was some hunt and pecking involved particularly on the 4-letter words.
| Across |
| 1 |
OLIVE BRANCH: LIVE in OB (Outside Broadcase) then RANCH. Got this from the wordplay, then confirmed with Chambers – the definition refers to Psalm 128
|
| 11 |
LOLOG: LO in LOG – a logarithm of a logarithm, used for when you logarithms are too large to comprehend |
| 12 |
(re)VEAL: one of those four-letter ones that took me until I had all the checking letters |
| 14 |
STIRRA: (ARTIST)* – according to Chambers a corruption of SIRRAH applied to both sexes |
| 15 |
MESODERM: (SOME)* on DERM(ot) |
| 16 |
UNITIZE: I,TIZ(z) in UNE – TIZZ is in Chambers as an alternative to TIZZY |
| 18 |
IGNORE: My favorite bit of wordplay – O REIGN, wrapped around starting at the I |
| 20 |
R.I.,ALTO: R.I. is the Republic of Indonesia, RIALTO is part of Venice |
| 21 |
DEMIES: ‘EM in DIES – holders of scholarships in Magdalen College, Oxford |
| 27 |
CHAL,AZA(n): one of the chords that holds the yolk sac in position in an egg. The wordplay came when looking through Chambers, just above it is CHAL – a Romany person, followed by AZAN (the Muslim call to prayer) without the final N |
| 28 |
MU,LE D,EER |
| 30 |
BHAJAN: BAN (Governor) about HAJ |
| 31 |
CRONE,T: easy wordplay, but did a double take as to whether this was really a word – it is indeed the hair growing over a horse’s hoof |
| 32 |
(j)AUNT |
| 33 |
TO,AZE(d): a hat tip in the direction of another popular Sunday barred-grid puzzle |
| 34 |
ROOT CLIMBER: R, then LIM(e) in (OCTOBER)* – got the answer well before seeing all the wordplay |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
(g)LOSS |
| 3 |
ILORIN: hidden in BrazIL OR INdia – capital of Kwara State in Nigeria |
| 4 |
VOLUTOID: (LOUT)* in VOID |
| 6 |
(c)ROSSER: I had something else written in this entry originally and can’t read what it was now. Alternative spelling of ROZZER, apparently |
| 7 |
ANTONIO: ON in ANTI,O – the character from “The Merchant of Venice” appeared in another barred-grid puzzle recently |
| 9 |
HA(RR)Y: I was never a fan, but this clip raised a smile |
| 10 |
FLAM,BOY,ANTE: a tropical tree |
| 11 |
LIQUIDAMBAR: QUID in LIAM on BAR, another tropical tree! |
| 19 |
READ,APT |
| 22 |
MILANO: AN in MILO (a sorghum variety) |
| 24 |
THECAL: (CHEAT)*,L |
| 25 |
ZA,Y,NAB: A name found in the very back of Chambers. Not the last name, that would be Zuleika, which maybe we’ll see soon |
| 26 |
S,UHUR(u): a meal before sunrise on Ramadan. UHURU is freedom from slavery |
| 29 |
ZEZE: ZEE about Z, an african stringed instrument |
I haven’t noted when I finished but I am sure this was a one-day puzzle, so not so hard.
I didn’t fully parse 1ac – I assume that “child reading prayer book” is the definition and LIVE = “last”. Tricky.
Chambers says RR=Right Reverend. It doesn’t give RR=Rolls-Royce. It contains Rolls-Royce and the two legitimate abbreviations Rolls and Roller all as separate entries. It does contain plenty of other company names in abbreviated form (BA,BP,BMW,BMX, etc) so if RR was valid I think it would be in the dictionary.
The only place I can find RR is on the company logo and I recall it is used in the London Stock Exchange. I don’t think either of these is a valid reason to include RR in the Mephisto.
Surely there should have been another comma after ‘finally’ for answer to be ZAYNAB?
I feel I can’t quite trust Mike Laws now!
That poor proof-reader/editor’s slipped up again with the answers today, giving an added ‘T’ at the end of 29d!
Verity