Mephisto 2560 Mike Laws

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Mephisto
A short while ago we had a brief discussion about whether Mephisto is being dumbed down. If we had seen this puzzle at that time we might have reached a different conclusion. This is indeed a dumbed down Mephisto that appeared on the same day as a very easy AZED. The argument about helping new solvers is well rehearsed but I would query if this puzzle really fits that bill. I think it is too easy and rather than helping new solvers simply misleads them.

Across
1 SOPRANO – SO-P(RAN)O; very=SO; stolid=PO; was recording=RAN; my daughter Julie perhaps;
6 TACOS – (a)T-A-COS(t); Mexican pancakes;
10 IDEA – IDEA(l); too easy;
11 GEARCASE – GEAR-CASE; clothes=GEAR; (law) suit=CASE; a casing to protect gears; too easy;
12 DOT,MATRIX – DOT-MAT-RIX; reference trouser-less Brian Rix of Whitehall Theatre farces fame;
14 ISOCHOR – I’S(O)CHOR(e); curve of pressure by temperature at constant volume;
15 ETHANE – ETHAN-E; ETHAN=solid (see names section in C); or E-THANE where a thane was a solid friend; and nearly CO-GENT where CO=carbon monoxide is a gas burned for energy;
16 DHOLE – D(H)OLE; small portion=DOLE; H=henry (physics); an Indian wild dog;
18 WOORARA – WOO-RARA; court=WOO; skirt (that is not good for old men)=RARA; curare plant;
22 ONSHORE – ON-(horse)*; riding=ON; frisky=anagrind;
23 EATEN – EA-TEN; each=EA; too easy;
24 ORANGE – ORANG-E(at); too easy;
27 RUFIYAA – (fairy + au=gold)*; currency in the Maldives;
29 SWUNG,DASH – S-W((GNU reversed)+D(rought))ASH; second=S; marsh=WASH; ~;
30 ALLIANCE – (d)ALLIANCE; daughter=D; too easy;
31 ERSE – (t)ERSE; too easy;
32 SILKY – two meanings; 1=smooth; 2=type of seal;
33 TWEETER – T(W)EETER; too easy;
 
Down
1 SIDLE – slip=slide then move the “l” to give SIDLE;
2 ODONTOMA – (to do moan)*; tumour associated with the teeth;
3 RAMPART – RAM-PART; sign=aries=RAM; role=PART; too easy;
4 AGAIN – AGA-IN; chief officer=AGA; popular=IN;
5 OARSMAN – (ransom)* surrounds A=American;
6 TRIODE – (editors without “e”)*; old valve (vacuum tube);
7 CACHOLONG – CACH(e)-(o)OLONG; almost hide=CACH; tea=oolong; O=Oscar (phoenetic alphabet); milky coloured opal;
8 OSLO – (g)O-SLO(w); too easy;
9 SECRETE – SE-CRETE; Kent=SE county of UK; too easy;
13 SHORTFALL – (sally forth without “y”)*;
17 LARGESSE – (regales)* surrounds S=son; too easy;
18 WHEREAS – W(HERE)AS; used to be=WAS; present=HERE; “welcome” = containment indicator;
19 ROMAUNT – ROM-AUNT; old word for a romance;
20 CHALDEE – CHAL-DEE; gypsy=romany=CHAL; rare word for a soothsayer;
21 ANYWAY – A(NY)WAY; on holiday=AWAY; eastern state=NY; too easy;
25 RAGEE – RAGE-E; european=E; millet;
26 ESHER – (fr)ESHER; fr=father; home to Royal Holloway College LU, where my daughter Sam graduated;
28 UGLI – (guile without “e”)*; a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine;

10 comments on “Mephisto 2560 Mike Laws”

  1. I agree – one of the easiest I’ve seen. As a relative newcomer to the Mephisto, I don’t think this level of difficulty makes it attractive to tyros – we need to feel we’ve slaved over a hot Chambers to achieve a solution.
  2. While I found it easy (not many Sunday’s I’ve finished Mephisto and Azed over a single pot of coffee), I’m not sure this is dumbed down. There’s a lot of words in there that are not in common parlance, and need to be obtained from wordplay. The wordplay is pretty familiar, and does not stretch too far beyond that required of the dailies (I don’t recall seeing Mike Laws set compound anagrams, for instance). So if you know your wordplay, this is easy. If you’re relying on familiar words from definitions and not so much the wordplay, you could get stuck here.
  3. I usually solve Mephistos using all the technology available to me. I had not got around to doing this one but I noticed Jimbo’s preamble and so I had a go at it using a minimum of technology. I managed it in an entertaining hour. As George suggests, many of the clues were of the standard you expect in the dailies. There were still 10 words that were new to me(fewer than usual). I would not be dismissive of this as a beginners’ puzzle. It is possible that, for some people, this is the first Mephisto they have ever solved and it may be a stepping-stone to a lifelong obsession
    1. Thanks for an interesting contribution. I find it difficult to relate to completely new solvers partly because I’ve been solving bar crosswords since the early 1960s and partly because when I was learning there were no aids apart from C and a thesaurus. I don’t actually remember Ximenes ever setting an easy puzzle nor Mephisto for that matter but that may be my selective memory.

      In those days learning meant waiting for the solution to be printed and then going through clue by clue trying to work it all out – a long and at times frustrating process. So if I’m not always as sympathetic as perhaps I should be I hope new solvers will forgive me.

  4. Jimbo: just to continue our discussions a little further, would you now at least agree that “easy” Mephistos appear with far greater frequency than they used to?

    When one can solve some of them in 45 minutes, hardly using C, there sems, as you say, little point in bothering!

    JamesM

    1. I’m a retired statistician so I’m wary of phrases like “far greater frequency” because I know how fallible and selective the memory is. However I’m having some doubts. I was I confess quite surprised by this puzzle which I finished faster than say an Anax daily cryptic and that can’t be right. The one that followed this one is thankfully more difficult but I’m minded to keep a proper watch on things for the next few weeks.
  5. Well, this is incontrovertibly an easyish Mephisto. Like Jimbo I have been solving the Mephisto since the 1960s and like him I’m dashed if I can remember much about what they were like in those days. The variation in quality seems more pronounced now than then, but I couldn’t swear to it.

    I have a great respect for the ability of the Mephisto to have maintained a good level of quality and accuracy across the years, in stark contrast to the ST cryptic, and will soldier on regardless. As for Ximenes, comparing one of his hand-crafted offerings with most of the modern puzzles, barred or not, is like comparing a Ferrari with a Ford Cortina. I don’t suppose he even had an editor as such, never mind needing one for correction of errors.

    1. As a matter of interest the modern Mephisto setters don’t submit via an editor. I know this because of discussions I’ve had with a couple of them when mistakes have appeared in the clues. They do use other people to supposedly check the puzzles and on at least one occasion the checker has blogged in here to admit to making a mistake.

      The only “mistake” I recall X making was the infamous prize puzzle in which for the NW corner clues all but one had two possible solutions, one easy one obscure. If you followed the easy path you ended up with one unsolvable clue. About 75% of the much reduced number of people who submitted answers didn’t even mention the device and so had probably not even spotted it. Many had just given up. He vowed never to do it again!

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