Mephisto 2625 – Paul McKenna

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
The top half of this was done on a plane between Sydney and Melbourne with Bradfords but no other aids, so came together pretty easily. I found the bottom half of this one really challenging and was leafing (well I was using the online version… full text searching?) through Chambers to get the Florida corner, which was the last to fall. Didn’t help things by putting in SWAN rather confidently at 30 down. Paul McKenna has a knack of sticking in a few one or two letter wordplay elements that I just can’t see at the time, and the same is true here (particularly in that bottom half) so hopefully we can sort those out in comments. And in trepidation of the second day of the Boxing Day Test, away we go…

Across
4 ISMAILISM: I’S MAIL(protection),IS,M(from My)
11 MOE,RA: MOE is a wry face, and the first two letters from RAy-bans
12 CR,AMBO: AMBO is the pulpit thankfully in Bradfords to finish this off
13 INCA,V,O
14 TIN,POT: TINA is street name for crystal meth (which those hep cats at Chambers have jumped all over and is in the most recent edition). I hear it being called T a lot, so I’m still waiting for the single letter wordplay to appear somewhere
16 WOO,DRAT: also known as a pack-rat – he does have a long tail!
17 EPAULE: PAUL in two E’s PAUL/PAWL is a catch on a ratcheted wheel
20 DINMONT: MON(mouthshirt) in DINT
21 (w)EAVES
22 GET BY: B for T in J-P GETTY
24 KIR,MESS: a fair
28 MANITO: IT in MANO(a tool for grinding)
29 COP,IOUS: overflowing is one of the definitions given for COPIOUS in the big red book
31 A,UP,AIR: I think the first A is coming from GIRL(she in Chambers), this clue really tickled me
32 AIDING: add PL to get PLAIDING. PL for Poet Laureate has appeared in a few puzzles this month
33 TELNET: TEN,LET reversed. Old protocol for opening remote connections with computers and servers, now replaced with ssh
34 HENGE: HEN for our faint-hearted chicken, then EG reversed
35 THE,OMANI,A: digging down to definition 10(!) of THE in Chambers
 
Down
1 SMILED: SM, then (IDLE)* – fourth definition of SMILE in Chambers
2 BONSPIEL: SNOB reversed then PIE,L(eague)
3 RECKAN: variant of RACKED – K(end of JACK) in R,(CANE)*
5 SAVE,L,OYS: when I lived in Tasmania, small sausages were always called SAVELOYS, as opposed to in Victoria where they were franks or coctail franks, and now in the US where frank rules the waves
6 MEOW: O in MEW – fight cattiness with cattiness
7 A,C,TOUT
8 LANDDAMNE: L,AND then M in DANE
9 IMP,ROV(e): I’ll admit, it’s a lazy form of comedy, but horribly lucrative. Come see my improv group, the Oxymorons every other Monday at Broadway’s bar
10 MOTTO: TT (from the middle of ribaTTutas) in MOO
15 DUMB PIANO: (PUB,MAID,ON)*
18 TER,A,KI(t),HI: a morwong, whatever one of those is
19 J,E,STINGS: and if you enjoyed the improv, stay for the sketch comedy
23 TIPPLE: double definition (the first being a drunk)
24 K,HURT,A: another sneaky bit of wordplay to get an A in
25 EIKING: hidden
26 SOOGEE: from the definition, but is this SO(pretty much), GEE(get) with O(on)?
27 SCATT: also from definition (tax paid in Orkney), but I can’t pierce the cryptic, is it CA,T in ST?
30 SAWN: W in SAN

3 comments on “Mephisto 2625 – Paul McKenna”

  1. Agreed, a puzzle of two halves with an easy top leading one to a false sense of security. The southern half was tougher.

    At 31A the first A comes from “it” (see a-2 in C) in “it-out of bed-bearing”

    At 27D there are 2 meanings. 1=tax in Orkney 2=a blow in Devon and Cornwall (see scat-6 in C)

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