Mephisto 2639 – Paul McKenna

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
I’ve already printed out this week’s Mephisto and noticed there’s a little bit of a change – there appears to be an email for entries. I assume they’ll take a scanned grid, since they’ve taken faxed ones in the past? I’ve not ever entered a Mephisto competition before, maybe I’ll start. The setter is also not identified – might have to check with the brains trust here as to whether Jim and I will identify the setter (if indeed it stays as the same rotation).

I upped the challenge level for 2639 by printing it on a printer the omitted the left column and the first letter of many of the clues. I then took it on to a plane and tried to solve on a morning flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta. I had Bradfords, and managed to get out most of the grid. The last few (specifically 21 and 27) had to wait until I could look at the Big Red Book. Away we go…

Across
1 SCATH: CAT(man, chap) in SH, Faerie Queene there to indicate Spenserian spelling
6 M,EG,ASS: Straightforward wordplay for a new word to me, refuse used in sugar-making
12 NON-HERO: HER in NO-NO(failure)
13 ULTIMO: definition is last month, wordplay is U(sounds like you) then T in LIMO
14 CHINAR: CHINA (bark) then R(recipe). China for bark is in Bradfords, but it’s in Chambers under CINCHONA
16 S,TOTTIE
17 F,RISK: a flier is one who may run away
19 S,TELE
20 BEAT-‘EM-UP: MET reversed in BEAU,P. Computer or video games like Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, and My Little Pony Backyard Brawl
23 PANCREAS: PAN then (RACES)*
25 XOANA: OX(neat) reversed then ANA
28 BLESS ME: B then LESS ME – I liked the surface of this one, though Bart Simpson appears to have divested himself of the catchphrases “Ay, caramba”, “Eat my shorts”, and “Don’t have a cow, man”
31 EARTHY: HEARTY with the H shifted
32 V.A.,LET,A
33 MODELER: tricky wordplay – DEL(Delineavit – drew it), E in MOR
34 NA-DENE: NAD(a), ENE(flat)
35 A,DEPT(h)
 
Down
1 SNUFF,B,OX,BEAN: the last bit is (BEAN)*. Two oxen (oxii?) intersect
2 AN’T,LIA: second part is AIL reversed
3 THIRSTY: (TRY,THIS)*
4 HEME: Spenserian for HOME, hidden
5 PROSEMAN: (A,PERSON,M)* – the M coming from the start of mundanely
7 ETHOS: THO(though) in ES
8 G,AIT
9 (t)AUNTER
10 SNAIL MAIL: SN(tin), then (m)AIL(halfpenny),MAIL(rent, meaning 3 in Chambers)
11 STREETS APART: (SETTERS)*, then A(adjective),P(positive),ART
15 GREMOLATA: GR,(OATMEAL)*
18 C,UN,JE,VOI: nice clue
21 BRAW,LED
22 LAERED: ERE in LAD, a fort of wagons
24 EKUELE: (LUKE)* in E.E.
26 AS,HEN
29 S,TYE
30 D,A,DA: That last DA being the Duck’s Arse haircut

15 comments on “Mephisto 2639 – Paul McKenna”

  1. Chambers has “risky financial speculation” for “flier”, and thefreedictionary.com has “a daring venture”, although I guess “one who may run away” is similarly a risk. A moderately difficult Mephisto by recent standards. Thanks for the blog, especially the link to the Baby Boomer eMuseum, which is going to receive some more visits from me. Incidentally, I find thefreedictionary.com a useful cheat for the Mephisto, as it has “starts with” and “ends with” features; it isn’t as reliably complete as Chambers, however.
  2. Sorry – my mistake with the setter anonymity – it is definitely Paul.
    E-mail entries can be sent in any format I can read – so a scanned grid is fine, but so is a list answers, or a Word doc with a table.

    Peter Biddlecombe, ST Puzzles Editor

    1. Hi Peter, thanks for checking in,

      It was 2640 that had no setter identified (at least as of early this morning), I thought it might have been deliberate with the addition of an email for solutions so there weren’t two email addresses given.

  3. This took me a few sessions during the course of the week but I’ve had slightly more time than usual so I managed to finish it with no errors. It felt a little harder than the small number I’ve finished successfully to date so very satisfying and a distinct feeling of progress, even though I cheated a few times.
    I couldn’t figure out the wordplay for MODELER or SNAIL MAIL so thanks for the explanation.
  4. A small query on CHINAR: I got to the bark from the second definition of “china” in Chambers which points to “quina”, which is a bark and in turn points to “cinchona”. Is this how you got there? If not…. I’m seriously impressed!! As so often these things were all completely unknown to me.
    As an aside while I’m here, as I begin to get used to these infernal puzzles one of the things I’m enjoying is the use of Chambers by the setters. In this puzzle the standout example was the reference to “Hugo’s arbitrary hobby-horse”, wording lifted almost verbatim from the Chambers entry for DADA. This makes for a very satisfying Eureka! moment. I realise this isn’t news to veteran Mephisto (or indeed Club Monthly) solvers but as as newbie I’m enjoying it!
    1. Yes, the DADA clue was excellent and I like it when the odder definitions are included as well.

      I got bark = china from Bradford’s Crossword Solvers Dictonary – I have the 6th edition and it’s falling apart from overuse. That link to Peter’s recommended books on Amazon should get you to a copy. That was where I also got GAIT NA-DENE and GREMOLATA. It fits into your bag for plane rides too!

      1. Thanks. I’ll definitely get one. I travel a fair bit these days and the Big Red Book is a bit, well, big. It’s never going to work as an instrument of mass propaganda.
        I caught a break with GREMOLATA. It must be a bit obscure or it wouldn’t be in Mephisto, but it’s familiar to me because Osso Bucco alla Milanese is possibly my favourite dish in the world.
  5. I had a long flight last week and prepared myself with a few Jumbos and a couple of Mephistos (but no dictionary or ref books). I hadn’t looked at a Mephisto for ages, but surprised myself by completing the 6 February unaided. I felt that was some sort of personal achievement but was a bit deflated when I saw Jimbo’s blog noting (only too rightly) that a dictionary is hardly needed.

    This was tougher and I didn’t get time to finish it, so thank you for the blog. CUNJEVOI was first in – they are very common on New South Wales coasts. Interestingly the word is a bit of a conundrum – it is Aboriginal in origin and is also used as the name of a tree, but no-one can explain the connection.

  6. Since I can get the 2005 edition for 11p + postage on Amazon, does the 2010 version contain that many more words? Or is it a great improvement in any other way?

    As for the puzzle, much time, multiple cheats and still three wrong. Not recommended for Mephisto beginners.

  7. An enjoyable puzzle which I thought was about average difficulty.

    2640 is indeed anonymous so unless Peter tells me who the setter is I shall have to attribute Anon.

  8. Just to add that I was doing this on the plane without a dictionary and only got about halfway through.

    The effort was doomed to failure, of course, especially when I put GARBANZO BEAN at 1dn on the strength of BAN=black and ZO=yak + (BANE)*, assuming that GAR must have some relevant meaning. Alas no.

  9. It turns out that S,TIE and S,TYE both fit wordplay and definition for 29D. Both answers have been accepted. So was the very accurate solution opened with I/E in the relevant unchecked square.

    Peter Biddlecombe
    Sunday Times Puzles Editor

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