Mephisto 2562 – Paul McKenna

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Mephisto
Not too difficult – finished in 43:25, with Chambers used for about the last dozen answers, which I think were – 1A, 21, 10, 14, 6, 29, 23, 22, 27, 24, 32 (correcting the last letter of 22), 12. Any offers for wordplay at 27 or 5? Definition numbers are from the 2006 Chambers just in case there’s any discrepancy in the new version.

Across
1 EP.,I,G(ouge),RAP,HY – rap4 is to praise highly. Epigraphy is making inscriptions on buildings, so this is an &lit/all-iin-one
12 T(o)ENAIL – to toenail is to join pieces of wood with oblique nails, and a tenail(le) is a bit of fortification earthworks.
13 BOOT=profit (vb.),H
14 GURDWARA = a Sikh temple – there’s a sign for one somewhere before Hangar Lane on the A40 into London. rev. of A,RAW,DRUG=drudge
15 ANALGESIC = (glance is a)*
16 DECEIT = fraud – EC=Exec. Cttee in TIED = united
17 EMIT=time rev.,TED=”dandyish lout”. We had discussions in response to some daily clues recently on whether teddy boys were really as black as they’re painted in xwd clues
18 ETHYNE – hidden word – another name for acetylene
21 S,MOYLE = mule – smoyle is an old form of smile
23 CHAP=crack (e.g. lips),EAU = ea = Fenland drainage channel. “noodles” are heads
25 COE,VA(i)L – Sebastian Coe as a former runner, vail3 = dole
27 ANTIPASTI = carpaccio and caponata. Can’t see how the rest (“on it in places one by one”) provides the wordplay.
30 ABS= muscles,O=on,LUTE2 = seal (cement etc.)
30 FELON – two defs, both new to me
31 ANTIAR = (v)ariant* – the latex of the famously poisonous upas tree
32 PANT=long (vb.),E(schew)
 
Down
2 PEN,(fi)NE
3 IN,(cran)IA – an &lit/all-in-one which I like much more than 1A
4 GALLEY=kitchen,PROOF=demonstration – setters should get the chance to check a galley proof or its modern equivalent
5 RING IN = to call the tardy to church. I can’t see how “Bark undendigly and start” provides the wordplay. I wondered about bark=(f)RING(e) plus IN = start, but can’t justify the latter and the former looks shaky
6 PAUSE BUTTON – P=quiet,(about tunes)*
7 H,AR.,I’M – a variant of harem – watch out for -eem and -am too
8 DOWN TO EARTH – 2 defs, one a bit whimsical
9 T(O)ASTY
10 STR.=straight,EEL=grig. streel= to wander (Irish)
11 CHANDELIER = (cleaner hid) – when a corona is not a cigar, it can be a chandelier
12 TRADE=count (vb.),C,RAFT=large number – tradecraft is skill in the exercise ofa trade, esp. that of espionage
19 T(HIB)ET – HIB = Haemophilus influenza type B – causes pneumonia and meningitis in small children. Now almost eradicated by the Hib vaccine given at three months of age. Information courtesy of our local immunologist who says that Tet=tetanus is also related to infant diseases (though sadly not recorded in C so a doubly medical clue isn’t on). Tet as in “Tet offensive” is the Vietnamese new year.
20 HA(S=son,S=succeeded)LE
22 MO=second (noun),PAN=face,I=in – I had PANE=face for the alternative spelling of the tree
24 ANURA = (a run,A(ct)) all rev. – paddock3 is a Scots toad or frog, i.e. a member of the Anura genus
26 A,TLAS = salt rev. – atlas2 = Asian satin
28 SKI(do)O

7 comments on “Mephisto 2562 – Paul McKenna”

  1. I thought rind=bark without the d, and begin without the be. Even if it is wrong, it got me there!
  2. All the letters are available in that second bit if you can use them more than once, if that is significant, but like you I was at a loss for the exact working of it.
  4. There was a similar clueing in the Listener, remember those teeny tiny words

    AN’T (on it), I (one), PAST (by), I (one)

    I enjoyed this, about half of it before Chambers and Bradfords, and the rest in one fairly short sitting. I like familiar words clued using obscure definitions (FELON), the wordplay and surface for CHAPEAU, and modern definitions (PAUSE BUTTON).

    Last in was GURDWARA – needed Bradfords to get the DRUG part, and since it doesn’t appear on word wizards, I suspect it’s a recent addition to Chambers (only got 11th ed here, 8th ed is at my day job).

  5. I swear Gurdwara came up in another crossword quite recently. Is there any way to search this blog, to see if it’s there in a previous entry?

    I had trouble with two clues, having first written mopane and spending ages looking for pantehose etc before finally discovering pan=face.

    Also, how can “down-to-earth” possibly be construed as one 11 letter word? In Chambers hyphens are used.. is it permissible to just ignore such separators? I have seen 4-2-5 used elsewhere in such circumstances, which seem fairer to me. Down to earth simply is NOT one word.

    1. There are ways of searching the blog, but because of notation like “GURD=drug rev.,WAR,A” it can be very hard to find the puzzle with a particular answer.

      The general rule in barred-grid puzzles is that hyphenation is ignored and only answers normally printed with spaces are shown as multiple words. (And multiple words are just shown as (e.g.) “(11, 2 words)”.

      Solvers from the US might remind us that their standard puzzles like the New York Times show no enumerations at all.

  6. Agreed, not too difficult and a similar time to Peter but more difficult than 2563 – another very easy one. I rather liked the construction of ANTIPASTI and am waiting for the an’t contraction in one of its forms to appear in the daily puzzle. I forget if somebody else has mentioned it but if not, at 5D GIN-5 means “start”

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