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 |
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 |
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