Mephisto 2554 – Mike Laws

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Mephisto
A pretty easy Mephisto, taking me about 35 minutes, but with an added bit of fun – the COUNTDOWN answer to 1A is an introduction to the theme – all the numbers from ten down to one appear in the grid, eight of them in phrase answers – I guess it’s just not quite possible to find five phrases with two different numbers each. Ideally this theme would hook up to the puzzle number, but Mephisto 3210 is a long way off! To help fit one theme answer in, we have the minor novelty of a couple of two-letter answers.

Across
1 COUNTDOWN – double def – for overseas solvers, the TV show is here
8 A’S=”one that’s”,A=it (as well as he, she and they according to C)
11 VI,ROSE – virose is “poisonous, foul” in C
12 AGO,N
13 T(H)REED – to tree is to corner – thematic answer
14 F(A1)ENCE – faience is fine tin-glazed pottery like this, named after Faenza in Italy.
16 EY=ye rev.,AS – eyas = a young hawk = a barred-grid favourite
17 OS,MOSE=some*
19 NOT=ton rev.,ATE=worried
20 UV(e)A – uva = grape (Lat.)
21 TENT,(b)OONE – thematic answer
23 I(R)ONS,AND – defined by “particles”
25 CUE – double def
26 BROW=gallery (coalmining),NE=”not old” – I nearly had to ask for help with this, but eventually saw ne=not. This seems to confirm that this Browne fits “physician and author”, but there may be another.
28 SECERN = (Cr., seen)*
30 Y,OOF – oof = money is one of my favourite Chambers entries, as I may have said before – one to look up if you don’t know it
32/10D A,TSIXES=sexist rev.,AND=with,SEVENS=Rugby – thematic answer
34 TO(NI=in rev.)SH
35 D,YAK
37 HO(SI=is rev.)ER
38 OAR – A=amateur replacing centre of “over”
39 EIGHTS,(h)OME – the “reel” def is maybe a nod to the “eightsome reels” Azed special puzzle style – thematic answer
 
Down
1 CH.=China,A=”tea at last” – a charade &lit
2 OFGAS = “old watchdog” – but I don’t understand the “rejected tea that’s fine for consumption” wordplay – neither OGAS nor SAGO seem to have definitions allowing O(F)GAS to make sense. See jerrywh’s comment below.
3/21/31 NINE TO FIVE – two defs, one referring back to 1A – thematic answer
4 TRANSENNA = (Anne’s,N,art) rev. – a transenna is a screen enclosing a shrine
5 DOUC,E
6 OSTENT – hidden word
7 NARE – move the E in NEAR
8 A,BEY,AN,CE
9 SWEAT = (a stew)*
14 FOUR BY TWO = eight = “a cube” – thematic answer
15 DOONE’S BIT = “part for Lorna” – referring to this book
18 M(AR.)OONER
22 OD – double def., one relating to the abbreviation for overdrawn
24 S(EA)HOG
27 R.(OO)S.A. – “pair” here = a duck in each innings of a test match, hence OO
28 ST.,ASH
29 REAR,M
33 (w)IDES – more cricket!
36 (s)KYE

11 comments on “Mephisto 2554 – Mike Laws”

  1. A very similar experience – quite easy but fun. You’ll be delighted to learn that I knew of COUNTDOWN.

    Every day since last Sunday I’ve spent a small amount of time trying to fathom OFGAS. I can find a tea=sage with f=fine “consumed” but no way of switching “e” to “o” or any meaning of sago that equates to tea in any of its meanings. Very puzzling!

  2. I thought this might be an easy one, because i finished it. Have struggled over the year and had stopped doing them for a while, only starting again with this. Will reapply myself again as this is only the third out of around ten that i have finished, and felt pleased with myself for having done so, even if it was on the easy side.

    Enjoyed it enormously as each session enabled me to move on from the previous session, and used Chambers mostly for confirming definitions rather than an aimless trawl through possible words. Did not know oof or eyas or a number of others.

    Reached critical mass with ‘at sixes and sevens’did not understand wordplay but went with checking letters and the number theme and sevens for rugby (presumably MCP means male chauvinist pig)which is where the sexist comes in. Threed was the last to go in as I thought (wrongly) that it would be two words.

    Thanks for explanation , and can you tell me why tent=wine? This seems to crop up a lot.

  3. This was very easy: I completed it in 38 minutes. Fastest ever!

    Some time ago I briefly discussed with Jimbo whether the Mephisto was being “dumbed down”. I firmly believe that it has become much easier in the last year than in the previous fifteen. And I don’t think that’s because I’m suddenly improving!

    JamesM

    1. I don’t have enough long-term Mephisto experience to comment on the level of difficulty, but my impression is that just like Azed, Mephisto can vary pretty widely in difficulty, which makes trends very hard to detect.
      1. I’d agree with that. I think dumbing down is too strong. I think there are more puzzles that are a little on the easier side, probably to encourage new solvers but the overall standard remains high – apart from the clue typos of which we have yet another here. Since I’ve been blogging these puzzles there has been a steady trickle of them and they are very frustrating.
  4. Maybe, but Chambers doesn’t seem to know about it.
    Bubble Tea is pretty much unknown in the UK, I think.
  5. I emailed Mike Laws about “OFGAS.” His response is:

    A transcription error, I’m afraid. My original pencilled clue had “cereal” – how I keyed that in as “tea” is a mystery, but I obviously did! Apologies, and all the best…

    .. so now we know!

  6. Actually that raises another question. Chambers defines SAGO as “a cereal substance produced from the pith of the sago palm”. But it also defines CEREAL as “relating to edible grain” (eg wheat barley oats), which raises the question as to why sago should be called cereal. Mike Laws’ clue would have been justified by the definition of SAGO, but there seems to be an inconsistency between the Chambers definitions.
    1. Chambers does have a bit of a reputation for scientific/logical fallibility – I suspect a polite e-mail to Chambers would result in a change of one of the def’s – e.g. to “a cereal-like substance …” for sago.

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