Mephisto 2799 – Don Manley

Posted on Categories Mephisto
Most of this went in very quickly, but then I hit a few strange words with general knowledge wordplay, and after finding them from the definition in the dictionary, I had to do a bit of online gumshoeing to figure out what was going on.

I can’t seem to find the answer to 12 (Edit: I meant 17) in my 12th edition Chambers, though I think I recall seeing it in another puzzle.

Away we go…

Across
1 DREAMCATCHER: (CHARMER,ACTED)*
9 (charte)R,OUNCE
11 BHOONA: BONA(latin plural for “good”) outside HO
12 AUNTS: SAUNT with the S moved to the end
13 TRENISE: NIS(friendly spirit) in TREE(Box – definition by example indicated by the question mark)
14 SPIRACLE: (PARCEL,IS)*
15 HEAPY: take T, and R separately out of THERAPY
16 SKAT(e): animal dropping, in Chambers under SCAT
17 MOTHERESE: (THREESOME)*
21 ODD-LOTTER: L, OTT(excessively) in ODDER
25 (g)REEN: looking green is good if you’re a plant, bad if you’re on a boat
27 QUEME: hidden
29 PSALMIST: PSST surrounding A,L,M1
30 STEMBOK: I think this is STEM for breast as in confront, then B,OK
31 CONIA: ON(as in “I’m on it”) in CIA
32 CRAWLY: RAW(naked) surrounded by CRY(rob)
33 EXSERT: sounds like EX,CERT
34 HARVEST-GEESE: (GREEN,SHEAVES)*
 
Down
1 DRACHMA: A,M,H,CARD all reversed
2 ROULE: O in RULE
3 ANTIPHON: anagram of H,IN,PANTO
4 CET. PAR.: (CARPET)* – ceteris pariens
5 ABRIN: A BRINE without E
6 THERMS: THE ROOMS without either O
7 HOICKS: I(institute) in HOCKS(joints of meat)
8 ENSLAVE: LAV(gents) inside (SEEN)*
10 UNIAT: A in UNIT
16 SET,(yo)U,LOSE
18 OLESTRA: (A,STEROL)*
19 PRELATE: because if you’re there early or on time you’re PRE-LATE
20 SEA EAR: AE(water) in SEAR
22 DIMBLE: got this from the definition – wordplay is DIMBLEBY without BY(times, mathematical) – there’s been a few of them working at the BBC apparently, not sure if they are known outside the UK
23 LASKET: another one from definition and it took a bit of googling to find the BLASKETS, which can have the beginning and end removed to make the answer. I tried FLASKETS, PLASKETS and CLASKETS before finding the correct islands
24 TENNE(r)
26 PIOYS: take PLOYS and remove the L for an I
28 MUIRS: IR in SUM reversed

16 comments on “Mephisto 2799 – Don Manley”

  1. I also found this easy (today’s is tougher)

    At 12A SAUNT is in C George as a Scots version of “saint”

    I thought 22D was a bit obscure. “Media dynasty” is a bit strong for a few TV hacks who are most unlikely to be known outside certain sections of the UK population. The original Richard was probably best known in his time but will be unknown today to most people. The younger ones are just “me too” presenters/journos

    1. “certain sections of the UK population” being those who have a TV set and use it to watch current affairs shows sometimes? Wikipedia tells me that David D has anchored the BBC’s coverage of every general election since 1979, as well as presenting Panorama in the past and hosting Question Time for the last 20 years. His brother’s entry is much the same.

      Edited at 2014-04-28 08:27 am (UTC)

      1. Yes, but that doesn’t make them a dynasty – just good survivors who do what many others also do

        A dynasty is a ruling family. The word conjures up Ming, Romanov, Bourbon, Stuart and Windsor. The Dimblebores don’t rule anything and a father plus two sons hardly qualifies in terms of handing the baton on down the generations.

        1. Well according to a certain dictionary, “a succession … of members of any powerful family” count, and a [Dimbleby dynasty] Google search confirms that this description is not simply in the imagination of a crossword setter.
  2. This wasn’t difficult but I was a bit puzzled by MOTHERESE, which isn’t in Chambers, and STEMBOK, where I can’t see how STEM means ‘breast’. If it’s confront, which seems the most likely explanation, it seems unusually loose.
    1. C has under STEM-2 “to make way against, breast”

      I couldn’t find MOTHERESE either but given the anagram plus checkers and context didn’t look too hard!

      1. So it does! I wonder how I managed to miss that. Thanks.
        I agree MOTHERESE was straightforward but I hesitated because I thought everything had to be in Chambers. Perhaps Don (and Peter) didn’t bother checking as it’s hardly the most obscure word ever seen in these puzzles.
        1. Peter did check, but was happy that (a) this word deserves to be in Chambers as much as the weird and sometimes wonderful Spenserian spellings, and (b) as both “mother” and the “-ese” suffix are everyday material, it should be possible to combine them to get the answer. When we describe Chambers as the “primary reference”, the intention is to hint that others may be used occasionally.
          1. Thank you Peter. I didn’t mean to cast aspersions on your thoroughness! This is useful to know: I have always assumed ‘primary reference’ was a euphemism for ‘bible’. 😉
            1. No offence taken, but we try to keep that “you need not mean what you say” idea to the clues.
              1. I did mean what I said, which was just that I wouldn’t expect you to confirm the existence of every word in Chambers if you already know it. Clearly you are more thorough than I would be!
  3. Thanks George, hadn’t heard of looking green, so couldn’t parse 25ac. Nice puzzle, struggling more with today’s.
  4. Thanks for the blog, George. MOTHERESE was in a Guardian puzzle last month but I hadn’t encountered it before then. Chambers has 4D as short for ceteris paribus.
  5. We’ve everything (including Chambers) in boxes in preparation for a temporary move, so perhaps someone could explain roule.

Comments are closed.