Mephisto 2849 – Paul McKenna

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Despite a generous grid (look at those fully-checked three letter lights and all the six-letter lights with only one unchecked letter), I made a real mess of this one and it took a lot of trips to Chambers to eventually scrabble together a grid.

In the end I think I have everything except for one stray letter and a definition I can’t seem to find in Chambers. I don’t yet have the most recent edition of Chambers (it is meant to be in the mail) so I may be missing a recent addition of an abbreviation.

Away we go…

Across
1 EASTER: S in EATER – the puzzle appeared on Easter Sunday, which nearly appears in the top row
6 SUNDAE: anagram of NUTS and then DATE, both missing T
10 CAN OF WORMS: (COWS,ON,FARM)*
11 CRINGE: RING(round) in CE
14 HON(term of endearment),G
15 A,MA,BILE: humour being bodily fluid
16 PRIMA FACIE: Pretty sure this is right from the definition, but I can’t seem to find PRIM=quaint anywhere, even with the Spenser ref. The rest is A(about), and FACILE missing the L
17 DATA SET: TAD reversed then ASSET missing an S
20 HAM: CHAM(autocrat) missing C(compliance)
21 ET,S(panish)
23 COLOGNE: LOG(verb form of fine) in CONE
25 NITWITTERY: WITTER in (TINY)*
26 JOURNAL: double definition, I was completely unaware of it meaning an axle in a bearing
28 WONS: SNOW reversed
29 ARANEA: A(are), then RANA(frog genus) surrounding E
30 MISERICORD: DIM(not hopeful) reversed around (CROSIER)*
31 B FLATS: another name for bedbugs – BF(bloody fool and the sort of abbreviation that makes me happy), then (SALT)*
32 END,O,SS(elite force)
 
Down
1 ETCHED: WRETCHED missing W(with) and (ca)R
2 AB(road),ROGATION(asking)
3 TANG,RAM
4 ENGLISHING: another from definition – and I see E,N and IS,H in LING, but I don’t see where the other G comes from, unless NG is an abbreviation for “News gathering”
5 ROE: starters of RAW and EGGS with 0 in the middle
6 SFUMATO: (OAF,MUST)*
7 NOOB: BOON reversed. If U don’t nO this u s0 lamz0r jeje
8 DROICH: O for E in DREICH
9 ESTEEM: E and then MEETS reversed
12 WAFFLE,IRON
13 PLIANTNESS: (SET,IN,PLANES)*
18 (s)ECT,AS IS
19 FORWARD: WAR in Henry FORD
21 ENJAMB: E, then JAM containing NB
22 STUNS,(vesse)L
24 ESSAYS: S,S(saints) in (EASY)*
27 RHEA: HEAR cycling (ie moving the end of the front)
29 ACE: take P and L out of PLACE

5 comments on “Mephisto 2849 – Paul McKenna”

  1. Re 4dn: ENG is in Chambers as an abbr. for Electronic News Gathering
    re 16ac: prim is in the OED as a (rare) abbreviation for primitive which equates to quaint; but it’s not in my (12th ed.) Chambers
  2. Look under “quaint” and you’ll see “affectedly fastidious or prim (Spenser)”. A bit vague as it could mean the def should have been ”affectedly prim”, but house rules are that when Chambers is vague and the right version is not common knowledge, the ambiguity can be exploited to the setter’s advantage.

    Edited at 2015-04-12 07:52 am (UTC)

  3. No trouble with this one. I presumed 6A started off as SUNDAY but something went wrong along the setting way requiring a change to SUNDAE. BFLATS reminded me of my grandmother
  4. Nope, no change of anything. EASTER SUNDAE were the first two words to be put n the grid.

    Paul McK

  5. Late comment, because I only finished this yesterday.
    I have been too busy for these (or Azed) in the last few months so got completely out of the habit, and it’s amazing how you (or at least I) lose the knack. I got almost nowhere in my first few attempts at this, or last week’s Azed. Then yesterday I somehow, and quite suddenly, rediscovered the wavelength and finished both puzzles quite quickly. Strange!

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