Mephisto 2599: Not Paul McKenna, nor Pual McKenna but Mike Laws

Well it looks like both the online and Paper Times had a pretty decent bungle. Printed this off and thought it was still last weeks when I saw “by Paul McKenna”. Looked at the clues, no, it’s a new one. But I think it should be Mike Laws this time around. Email off to both Paul and Mike – Paul confirms it is not his, and Mike confirms it was his, but also told me that the paper version was misattributed, and to a new setter Pual McKenna. What a mess! Don’t know if there was anything printed as a retraction/apology or the like, but the online version still has Paul’s name and (old) email address.

I think Mike went a little easy on us this week, there was the trademark obscure bit of biology, but I got through all of this in one session and only needed Chambers to confirm some of the wordplay.

Across
1	FIDDLE,Y: an iron framework
6	MUSIC: double deffish – the graces would be muse-ic
10	EGREGIOUS: E.G. then O in REGIOUS
11	TRICOLOR: COL in TRIOR (a peer as a judge)
12	BUHL: HUB reversed then L – got this from the wordplay
14	DIHEDRAL: H,(RED)* in DIAL – also known as a torsional angle, the angle between two intersecting planes
15	LORE,L
18	BLEACH: L in BEACH. Reminds me of a pet favorite joke – what does Snoop Dogg wash his whites in? BLEA-YOTCH (you have to say it out loud, or just forget you read this)
19	OSIRIS: IS after O,SIR – confirmed by googling, not great on my mythology
20	AYESHA: (YES,HAS) – favorite wife of Mohammad
22	ENSATE: sword-shaped leaves, but I can’t see all of the wordplay. ATE for tolerated in diet, but can’t get ENS from nuts?
24	SALARIED: R, I.E. in SALAD
28	OMIT: TIMO(n) reversed
29	OMNIVORE: (MOVE IN OR)*
30	ZOOKEEPER: OKE in ZOE then PER (at least I think that’s the wordplay)
31	NATAL: “like a seat” coming from NATES
32	VIOLATE: (ALIVE TO)*
Down
1	FETAL: F, then LATE rev
2	DRIB: BIRD reversed
3	DECREASE: AS in DECREE
4	EILIDH: LIE reversed, then (HID)* – a quick trip to the back of Chambers to make sure
5	YOO(f),HOO(k): over here it’s a pretty gross chocolate milky drink
6	MUREX: RUM reversed, then EX
7	SAURURAE: (AURA SURE)*
8	INHABITER: I in (THIN BEAR)*
9	CEL(l)LOSE: that’s always struck me as odd wordplay, to lose the last letter of one word and have the next component of the wordplay start with the same letter so it looks to me like the first word is intact
13	POLY,GAM,IA: last part is A1 reversed. Not the study of mormon sects
16	REEN,LIST
17	DISH,EVEL: LEVE reversed is the last part, new to me, same as LIEF for a loved one
18	BAS,SOON
21	AS,I,MOV(e): read a lot of him on trains to and from university
22	EVEN,KI(t)
23	DR,OOL: last part is LOO reversed
25	THERE: double def
27	DOP(e),A: I was once playing scrabble in Canada with a couple of fellow geeks. The word MINE was on the board, which grew to DOPAMINE. When the biologist put an L at the top of DOPAMINE ee gave up. I think I’d made the word CAT