Mephisto 2946 – Paul McKenna – Times for The Times

My only problem with this came from writing “toke” in at 12A which made the NW corner harder than it should have been! Annoying because the correct answer is well known to me. Other than that a pleasant enough middle of the road puzzle.

Across
1	COSHED – CO-SHED;
6	SHAVER – S-HAVER; two meanings 1=boy 2=barber then is=S and hum and haw=HAVER;
11	GREMOLATA – (arm eg a lot)*;
12	ATOK – hidden (tom)ATO-K(etchup); a skunk; note “toke” also hidden by same sequence;
13	CUPOLAD – CUP-O-LAD; over=O; vaulted;
14	DOUBT – sounds like “dout”;
17	AFRAID – AFR-AID;
18	A,LEVEL – A-LEVEL; adult=A;
19	SCELERATE – S(CELER(y))ATE;
21	BREHON,LAW – (brown ale)* surrounds h=hard; old Irish laws;
25	RUBRIC – RUB-RIC(h);
27	INK-SAC – (p)INK-SAC(k); sepia fills this;
29	SMOLT – S-MOLT;
30	TO,POINT – TOP-OINT; keen on = in to then move “o” to the front;
31	URDU – (c)URD-U; see=C; but=without;
32	OPEN,SKIES – (pinko sees)*;
33	NICETY – NICE-T(r)Y;
34	CRENEL – C(RENE)L; LC=loco citato; indent;

Down
1	CHADAR – C(HAD)AR;
2	OUT,OF,TRUE – OUT-OFT-RUE;
3	SCOURGE – S-COUR(a)GE;
4	EROTIC – (I-TORE reversed)-(Bello)C;
5	DECADENCY – DEC(AD)ENCY;
7	HOPPLE – HOP-PLE(dge); plates (of meat)=feet;
8	ALONE – AL(ON)E;
9	VALI – V-ALI; reference boxer Mohammed Ali;
10	RADDLE – (showjumpe)R-ADDLE; hurdle is definition;
15	BALLISTIC – BAL(LIS)TIC; bitter=cold=BALTIC;
16	GET,LALDIE – (leg it lead)*; six of the best in Stirling;
20	ALSO,RAN – A-(losr)*-AN;
21	BRETON – BR-(NOTE reversed);
22	OIKIST – OIK-IS-(settlemen)T;
23	ANSWER – A-NSW-ER; Australian=A;
24	ACTUAL – routine=usual then replace “us” by ACT;
26	RHONE – two meanings 1=river 2=gutter in Glasgow;
28	OPEC – (h)OPE-C; about=circa=C;

4 comments on “Mephisto 2946 – Paul McKenna”

I can’t believe it, but I actually solved this; first time I’ve completed a Mephisto. Well, ‘solved’ is putting it a bit strongly; I filled the grid with the correct letters. I counted 10 words I didn’t know, but now that I’ve read Jim’s explication I can add ‘dout’, ‘plates’, and the gutter meaning of RHONE (and now I know what the hell Arbroath was doing there). I dithered forever on 12ac; ATOK seemed inevitable, but I couldn’t find it anywhere, causing me to wonder if maybe ‘atom’ (whiff?) was the answer. And where does Trudeau come in?

Edited at 2017-02-19 07:23 am (UTC)

dorsetjimbo says:

19 February 2017 at 9:06 AM

Well done Kevin

Trudeau is well known Canadian so signifies a word of Canadian/North American origin. You’ll see e.g. Sturgeon to indicate Scots by same logic

atoc/atok is in Chambers and Collins as a skunk, but it’s not in the OED and I haven’t yet found what looks like convincing confirmation (I’m excluding material on crosswords and word games as that will use “it’s in the/a dictionary” as justification). I’ve seen some material about it being Quechua for “fox”, so I begin to wonder whether it’s right. I have emailed Chambers expressing some doubt about its validity …

PS: I also put in “toke” initially

Edited at 2017-02-19 10:10 am (UTC)

It’s appeared a number of times in barred-grid puzzles that ATOK was a write-in. Rest wasn’t too difficult.

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