Mephisto 2828 by Paul McKenna – We Will Remember Them

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Mephisto
This puzzle appeared on Rememberance Sunday 9th November and has an appropriate theme that I have endeavoured to reflect in the blog.

This was not a difficult puzzle but I have two unparsed lights at 16A and 27D

Across
1 PIED – two meanings 1=made a mess 2=like madge (=the magpie);
4 SWISHEST – S(WISHES)T; Regimental Dress Uniform;
10 EFFEMINANCY – (fine my face)*; limpness of wrist=camp posture; a possible characteristic of Seigfried Sassoon;
11 RAT,RUNS – RAT(e)-RUNS;
13 HEMP – HE(M)P; M from (crea)M; tea=slang for cannabis=HEMP;
15 SOFAS – SO-FAS(t);
16 PAPAVER – PAP-AVER; I can’t see “business learner”=PAP (app for apprentice, yes); the poppy genus and our first overt reference to Rememberance Sunday. Rhoeas Papaver is the Flanders Poppy that flowered so red in Belgium in Spring 1915;
17 BURR – RUB reversed-R=take;
19 INCUBATOR – IN-CUBA-(ROT reversed); a business that supports start-up companies;
22 ALPINISTS – (list pains)*; British troops at Asiago, Northern Italy, November 1918 – see 29A;
23 EGAD – EG-AD; Gadzooks!;
24 PONCEAU – P(ONCE)AL(L); PAUL from McKenna; French for “poppy coloured” and our second Rememberance Sunday reference;
26 TALON – T(AL)ON; stock is definition;
29 ARMS – (h)ARMS; Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms covers the Italian Campaign of WW1;
30 ATHIRST – (h+traits)*; Ice Cold In Alex!;
31 ETERNALISE – (earnest lie)*; what Rememberance Day does for the sacrifices made by our armed forces;
32 TENON,SAW – NONET reversed – SAW;
33 LOAD – L(O)AD;
 
Down
1 PERSPIRE – PER-SPIRE; a=PER; Ice Cold In Alex again!;
2 EFTS – E-F(i)TS;
3 DERMA – hidden (pow)DER-MA(gazine);
4 SMUG – GUMS reversed; Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup assessment of British Armed Forces 2009;
5 INSERTION – IN(S)ERT-ION; air assault by the paras;
6 SASSOON – S(ASS)OON; Seigfried Sassoon MC 1886-1967 anti-war poet and writer, our third Rememberance Sunday reference;
7 EYEFULS – E-YE(FUL)S; FUL from full=clear but cut to give FUL; not in 1914 what they are in 2014;
8 SAMARITANS – (smart asians)*; Chad Varah’s charity created in 1952 to assist the suicidal;
9 TAPS – two meanings 1=bugle call to sound lights out 2=pierces;
12 AVANT-GARDE – (advantage+r)*; r from R(amadi); Ramadi in Iraq was scene of a battle in Spring 2004 – Rimini would have been more in keeping with the theme, where the battle of 1944 was another bloody affair for the 8th Army on the road to Rome;
14 REAPPEARS – REAP-PEARS;
18 RESULTED – R(USE reversed)-LT)ED; I’m guessing The Red Squadron is a reference to the Tuskegee African-American airmen of WW2 known as the Red Tail Squadron;
20 COALMEN – CO-A(L)MEN; I have youthful memories of the coal being delivered in sacks on a horse-draw cart;
21 BLUNDEN – BL-UNDE(r)-N; Edmund Blunden MC 1896-1974 friend of Sasoon and Graves, our fourth Rememberance Sunday referernce;
25 CHILL – C-HILL; man=HILL:
26 TAUT – TAU-(valian)T;
27 SHAW – I don’t see “Is blinking film”; the definition is “making an appearance in Craiglockhart” ie a Scots word for making an
appearance. Craiglockhart was the hospital in Edinburgh where Seigfried Sassoon was sent;
28 BRIO – BR(I)O; BRO=dialect for a nostalgic place;

6 comments on “Mephisto 2828 by Paul McKenna – We Will Remember Them”

  1. I didn’t bother to parse this at the time but I see that one definition of HAW in Chambers is ‘nictitating membrane’.

    Edited at 2014-11-16 08:29 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for that. No, I didn’t bother at the time either and then when I came to write the blog just couldn’t see it – must be getting old!

      Edited at 2014-11-16 09:18 am (UTC)

    1. Many thanks – was clearly one degree under when I wrote this blog!

      Edited at 2014-11-16 10:30 am (UTC)

  3. Thanks for the write-up.
    Interested solvers may like to chase up the ref to the Battle of Ramadi… there is a WW1 angle. It has been a tinderbox for ages, and was still one when I was in the area last year.
    HMS Valiant also has a relevance

    Paul McK

    1. My pleasure – nice puzzle

      Yes, I’d forgotten General Brooking and the dummy bridge at Ramadi – just looked it up. Aplogies for missing HMS Valiant.

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