Apologies for the late post – I’m in a new play, Prairie Fire, by Ryan Madden (a local playwright) and it has been taking up a significant chunk of time, especially Saturday afternoons when I would usually write up the Mephisto blog.
I did this while proctoring an exam on Tuesday and I found it very difficult – though once I got a start in the right hand side of the grid, the answers knitted together pretty readily. There is also a pun in the top row, this time for SYMPATHISE
Away we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SIMPER: PER(a) next to (on), SIM(smart card) |
| 6 | THIGHS: ‘T, HIGHS |
| 11 | AME DAMNEE: anagram of MAN,MADE then EE (Early English) |
| 12 | UPDO: hidden in coUP D’Oeil |
| 13 | FAN BASE: FAN(kindle), BASE(support) |
| 14 | TRIAL: T(tenor) and L with AIR reversed inside – rather specific term for a singing actor |
| 17 | TONSOR: SO(just) inside an anagram of SORT |
| 18 | NEROLI: Sophia LOREN reversed, I |
| 19 | CYBERNAUT: CUT(wound) surrounding an anagram of NEARBY |
| 21 | DISORIENT: ISO(isolated relplay – place for reviewing film), RI(religious instruction) inside DENT(negative effect) |
| 25 | OTITIS: O, TIT(nag), IS |
| 27 | ZONARY: ZO(hybrid), NARY – I wasn’t aware NARY was primarily a US usage |
| 29 | TAPIR: TAP(bug, like “tap ones phone”), I, R |
| 30 |
MINICAB: reverse of BAC |
| 31 | BENI: Needed to google this one to understand it – BENI is sesame (source of Oil), and the wordplay is B(barrels), ENI(an energy company based in Italy) |
| 32 | ACUMINOUS: NOUS(intellect), after CU inside AMI |
| 33 | NYSSAS: N.Y. then SASS reversed |
| 34 | X RATED: X(kiss) then ATE inside R.D. |
| Down | |
| 1 |
SMUTTY: S&M, then |
| 2 |
IMPROBITY: IMP(rogue), ROB(mug), IT, |
| 3 | MEDINAS: ED inside MINAS |
| 4 | EMPLOY: ‘EM, P(ride) on LOY(Irish spade) |
| 5 | REFURBISH: RE(on), FUR(crust in kettles), BISH(bloomer) |
| 7 | HANKER: H then sounds like ANCHOR |
| 8 | IMBAR: remove the first letter from MIMBAR |
| 9 | GNAT: TANG reversed |
| 10 | SEE FIT: SIT outside FEE(terms) reversed |
| 15 | SNEEZE BOX: SNEEZE(explosive issue), BOX(punch) |
| 20 | ANAPEST: ANA(anecdotes), PEST(trial) – though I doubt the current president has ever used the term |
| 21 | DODMAN: DOD(haircut), MAN |
| 22 |
RICCIA: RIC |
| 23 | NOTOUR: or NOT OUR |
| 24 | MYRIAD: or MY RIAD |
| 26 | TRIMS: I by TR then M&S |
| 28 | ONUS: or ON US |
when the juniors are challenged with some, such as;
Balls trapped in underwear, they split hairs (7)
He comes second in this 8,5
Where the bereaved is also the bereavor 5,5
everyone wishes more and more and more – so less of the other stuff which is smug Oxbridge stuff which will cause cryptic crosswords to go the same way as golf clubs.
What has been called “the friendly” format is not what I prefer for three reasons…
1) It is tantamount to plagiarism to copy and paste verbatim the entirety of the setter’s work. Particularly with the Times which keeps its content behind paywalls
2) I solve the puzzle from a printout, so even if I was interested in repeating the entire clue, it would mean retyping the clue, or downloading the puzzle again
3) It is less effort to do it the way I currently do it. I think it took me about 35 minutes to write the post, it would take longer if I was copying, pasting, highlighting and underlining.
Feel free to complain higher, but if I’m forced to go to the complete reprinting of clues, it will be time to hang it up here.