Mephisto 2921 -Paul McKenna

Struggled a little with this one, though I think a lot of it was confidently putting in NEARNESS at 18 down. My printout still has a few question marks on it, hopefully those will be figured out as I write this up.

I hope he doesn’t mind me telling the blogiverse, but Paul McKenna assured me recently that he has a backlog of puns to go across the top row of Mephisto puzzles, and this time around we are treated to a pun on ADOLESCENCE. Speaking of which, commiserations to my friends Mark and Daniel who are hosting a teenage exchange student for a semester.

Away we go…

Across
1 ADDLE: tricky one to start with – ADDLE can describe an egg that has gone bad, and WADDLE is a fraud of the footsies – remove a W from it to get the answer
5 ESSENCE: anagram of E,SCENE’S
10 PATIO DOORS: anagram of PAIRS,TOO containing DO(ditto, the same)
11 CO,PLAN,AR: nothing difficult about the clue, but the definition is kind of literal for a Mephisto, I thought
13 AP,PAL
14 VIEWY: VIE(compete),W,Y(youth hostel)
17 DUNLIN: sounds like DONE before LIN(pool)
18 NEXTNESS: NESS(point) next to N, EXT
19 BETH: double definition based on there being two Queen Elizabeths
21 TRAD: D following ART reversed
22 PROSECCO: PROS(bona robas being prostitutes), ECCO(there in Italian)
24 FEMORA: anagram of MARE,OF
27 ANILE: A(about), NILE(river known for crocodiles)
29 RADGE: D in the middle of RAGE(row)
30 PURITIES: PURI(Indian fried cake), TIES(obliges)
31 EVEN-STEVEN: ST,EVEN(fair) after EVEN(evening, end of day)
32 TARTLET: TART(prostiture, hostess),LET(canceled served in tennis)
33 ENARM: ANE reversed, then RM
 
Down
1 AS,C,AUNT
2 DROP SERENE: anagram of NEEDS PROPER minus a P
3 LA-LAS: SALAL reversed- comp referring to an accompanist
4 ETALON: NO, LATE all reversed
5 EINE: hidden in valuE IN Exchaning
6 SO-AND-SOS: SAND(grit), containing O then SOS
7 EOSIN: anagram of ONE,IS
8 NON-ELECT: N(name),ONE(only), then LECT(or)</b>
9 EST,Y,N: Ofsted is an English education board, ESTYN is a Welsh one
12 SWITCH-GEAR: anagram of CHARGES containing WIT
15 EXAMINER: AXE(fire) reversed, then MINER(digger)
16 PERACUTE: PERAI(piranha, river fish) with the I replaced with CUTE
20 HOLESOM: HOLES(puts/pots, think pool or golf),OM(intonation)
23 SCR,I’VE
24 FACE,’T
25 OLENT: SOLENT missing S
26 OATEN: ATE(tucked in) inside ON(in addition to)
28 ARET: ARE(a) then T

One comment on “Mephisto 2921 -Paul McKenna”

  1. A steady solve for this one with no real problems but didn’t understand “crumbs” as definition for SO-AND-SO at 6D when solving. From C learned that “crumbs” (old schoolboy slang for “gosh” or “wow”) is a euphamism for “Christ” whilst SO-AND-SO (mainly used when a name can’t be remembered) is a replacement for an oath – so got there in the end by jingo!

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