A couple of weeks ago an anonymous blogger asked if we thought Mephisto was being dumbed down. We said we didn’t think so but to try to get a feel for the situation I timed myself doing this one and 2555 as well as the two Azed plain puzzles published on the same days. When I first started doing bar crosswords it used to take me from Sunday until Thursday to complete both of them but these days 40 to 60 minutes is my normal time for a plain puzzle. I completed each one of the four puzzles within that time span, one in a garage waiting for my car, one in a doctor’s waiting room waiting for my wife and two at home. From this admittedly small sample I conclude that Mephisto and Azed are still much about the same standard and that neither are being dumbed down. I think our anonymous blogger should consider the possibility that he/she is improving (aided possibly by this site).
I enjoyed this puzzle of average difficulty which contains a number of good clues and no quibbles or queries.
For new solvers (C) = Chambers used to verify part of a clue (S) = starter clue (see memories/solving tips at the top of the page)
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TAMALE – TAMA(b)LE; b=start to burn; hopefully not the source of the Aztec two-step; C; |
| 6 | FISGIG – F-IS-GIG; F=fine; GIG=fun (in dialect=for some); lovely word – Mary Pickford, presumably; C; |
| 12 | ADAMANTINE – ADAM-AN-TINE; ADAM=the gaoler in Waggledagger’s Comedy of Errors; TINE-2=teen; description of a fisgig; C; |
| 13 | AIRT – AIR-T; warm and dry=AIR; temperature=T; gae west Jock; C; |
| 14 | MANUMIT – MAN-U-MIT; Red Devils=Manchester United Football Club=MAN-U; MIT=with in Berlin; what Abu Bakr did for Ammar bin Yasir; C; |
| 15 | PARSNEP – PENS-RAP all reversed; PENS=swans; RAP-4=snatch; a root vegetable delicious roasted but don’t go picking wild ones – they look just like hemlock!; |
| 18 | PSORA – P-SORA; P=Pee; SORA=the rail (a bird); yuck=itch=PSORA; nice clue; C; |
| 20 | TREIF – hidden word (phil)TRE I F(ilched); nosh that’s not kosher, schlock oy vey (see tref in C); S; |
| 22 | DROP,AWAY – D-(YAW APOR(t) all reversed); YAW=zigzag in a boat; APOR(t)=to the left in a boat; D=delta; to disappear (in the Bermuda Triangle perhaps); |
| 24 | LIFEHOLD – (holyfield without Y)*; KO=anagrind; Y=Yankee (phoentic alphabet); held throughout life; |
| 25 | CLASP – C-L-ASP; C=top of Cleopatra; bosom=CLASP; nice clue; C; S; |
| 27 | SEPIA – SEP-I-A; SEP=separate; a mollusc of which Sepia Apama is the largest; S; |
| 30 | EXODERM – EX-(ROME + D)*; EX=direct from as in ex-stock; D=a speck of D(ust); tissue (see ectoderm in C); |
| 32 | KALOOKI – hidden word (snea)K A LOOK I(n); rummy (the card game not Kenny MacAskill); C; S; |
| 33 | KNOB – K-NOB; K=a thousand; NOB=head; a small group of wildfowl (how many knobs to a flock?); C; |
| 34 | TRANSITIVE – TRANSIT-I(V)E; TRANSIT=commercial van driven predominantly by lunatics; V=Vatican City; |
| 35 | ASLEEP – AS-(PEEL reversed); PEEL-1=plunder; C; |
| 36 | YARROW – YARR-O-W; YARR=the corn spurrey; O=old; W=the fisgig that landed her man; multi-purpose plant; C; |
| Down | |
| 2 | ALIAS – ALI-AS; ALI=sublime (see names at back of C); either Yusuf Islam or Cat Stevens perhaps; |
| 3 | MARROWFAT – MARROW-F(lourish)-AT; MARROW-2=one of a pair; the Dutch Admiral pea; C; |
| 4 | LAWN – LAW-N; N=noon; LAW-2=score; LAWN-2=linen; C; |
| 5 | EMMETROPE – EMMET-ROPE; EMMET=Cornish tourist (called Grockles in Dorset); one with normal vision; C; |
| 7 | INNIT – IN-NIT; IN=by; easy, innit?; S; |
| 8 | STUPRATE – (PUTS reversed)-RATE; PUTS=sets; RATE=standard; rape and pillage = an outrage (unless you’re a Viking); C; |
| 9 | INITIAL – (LATIN + I + I=end of (Volsc)I)*; original is the definition; S; |
| 10 | GETA – GET-A; sandals; C; S; |
| 11 | RAPPEL – R-APPEL; R=take; APPEL=Cyrano de Bergerac stamping his foot; abseiling; C; |
| 16 | PROLIXITY – P(ROL(e)-I-X)ITY; shame=PITY; role=list; see Jimmy Stewart in Mr Smith Goes To Washington; |
| 17 | PEWOPENER – (pope + newer)*; church usher; |
| 19 | ROESTONE – ROES-TONE; ROES sounds like rose=advanced; TONE-1=Gregorian psalm tune; Oolite; C; |
| 21 | PILLARS – (pairs)* surrounds LL=lines; as seen guarding the Strait of Gibraltar; S; |
| 23 | YNAMBU – (MANY reversed)-BU(t); MANY=company according to Spenser; a large South American partridge; C; |
| 26 | PROSE – PROS-E; E=social/economic category for those dependent upon state handouts; more prolixity; |
| 28 | IROKO – I-ROK-O; ROK=roc; O=on; teak substitute; C; |
| 29 | OKTA – OK-TA; OK=sure; TA=cheers; one eighth of the sky – a measure used to describe cloud cover over airports (I knew that military training would prove useful one day); |
| 31 | OBIA – O-BIA(s); plural of obi, witchcraft in the West Indies; nice clue; C; |
JamesM