Mephisto 3026 by Tim Moorey with appearances by George and Jim

Posted on Categories Mephisto
Unless you’re very experienced you are unlikely to solve a Mephisto without using Chambers. The idea is that you use the precise wordplay to derive an answer that you then verify in the dictionary. 4A is a perfect example.

This was a very pleasant middle-of-the-road puzzle. There’s one questionable definition at 6D. In the clues definitions are underlined. Wordplay explanation is followed by very helpful comments.

ACROSS

1 Energy is absorbed by lucky chap (4)
JISM: JI(‘S)M; reference book and film “Lucky Jim” – nothing to do with me;  American word for energy or force;
4 Close to fibula, peasant hurt foot (8)
ANAPAEST: (fibul)A-(peasant )*; 2 short syllables followed by 1 long one;
10 Labour paranoid enthralling House — it’s all the same to ministers (10)
ADIAPHORON: (paranoid)* surrounds ho=house; an ethical matter of indifference;
12 No dope taking ecstasy about to get reward (7)
GUERDON: NO-DR(E)UG all reversed; a reward;
13 Immature Edward holding duck and carp (7)
NONAGED: N(O-NAG)ED;
14 Lodgings in square, behind European river (4)
INNS: INN-S; the INN is a river that runs through Switzerland, Austria and Germany; S=square;
15 Neat round window? Elliptical actually (5)
OX-EYE: OX-EYE; neat=OX; round window=EYE; an elliptical dormer window;
16 With churchman away, boy shows contempt in tirades (7)
LAISSES: LA(D-D)ISSES; tirades;
18 Summons succeeded for lady about town (6)
CITESS: CITES-S; American contraction used in preference to citizeness
22 Southern whisky in coloured glasses (6)
SMALTI: S-MALT-I’;
23 Supplier of shade and quiet, say (7)
SHUTTER: SH-UTTER;
24 Boil / fish of the cod family (5)
BLAIN: two meanings;
25 Polled in part of central England almost entirely (4)
NOTT: NOTT(s); short for Nottinghamshire;
26 Hypothetical matter reportedly somehow missing red (7)
PROTYLE: (reportedly – red)*; Crookes’ name for a hypothetical base substance from which all chemical elements were believed to have been made
28 Wormwood used in labs in Thailand (7)
ABSINTH: hidden (l)abs-in-th(ailand);
29 Go away packing cold ready-cooked chicken (10)
SCARED-Y-CAT: S(C-(ready)*)-CAT; go away=SCAT; childish word for a coward=chicken;
30 Files circulating were located in place (8, two words)
DATA,SETS: STE(SAT)AD all reversed;
31 Guy’s theatrical? Not good (4)
STAY: STA(g)Y;

DOWN

1 Straightforward southern or northern bread (8)
JANNOCKS: JANNOCK-S; straightforward=JANNOCK; plain bread loaves in Lancashire
2 Heard swans and seals (7)
SIGNETS: sounds like “cygnets”; nothing to do with our blogger George;
3 Month with a person from Central America (4)
MAYA: MAY-A;
4 Adult writings with anecdotes needed on Sabbath? Leave Mephisto! (12, two words)
APAGE, SATANAS: A-PAGES-AT-ANAS; Latin for get behind me Satan;
5 American fathers’ holding out mostly for some wild sheep (7)
AOUDADS: A-OU(t)-DAD’S; the North African Barbary sheep
6 Modern pubs I’m running as investments (12, two words)
PREMIUM,BONDS: (modern pubs I’m)*; Premium Bonds are a savings account you can put money into (and take out when you want), where the interest paid is decided by a monthly prize draw (so the norm is zero interest). They are not an investment.
7 In Paris love oddly is tense — as is this (6)
AORIST: A(m)O(u)R-IS-T; a tense in Greek;
8 Inactive rock group with a kind of rock (10)
STONESTILL; STONES-TILL; TILL=shale;
9 One rejected Mediterranean port wine casks (4)
TUNS: TUN(i)S;
11 Hop it with box on fire close to Iowa, showing fear of dangerous stuff (10)
TOXIPHOBIA: (hop it box)*-IA; Iowa=IA;
17 Frank according to Will entertains with plonk in place of debauchery (8)
SWINESTY: S(WINES)TY; Waggle-Dagger’s pigsty (see frank-2 in C);
19 Respect is high for royal staff (7)
SCEPTRE: (respect)*;
20 Pretend agreement covers sleeping partner (7)
PLAYACT: P(LAY)ACT;
21 Room high up overlooking a Greek region (6)
ATTICA: ATTIC-A;
25 Weed over in ditch I extracted (4)
NARD: DRA(i)N reversed;
27 Turn over case of yoghurts and trifles (4)
TOYS: TO-Y(oghurt)S; TO=Turn Over (accountancy);

13 comments on “Mephisto 3026 by Tim Moorey with appearances by George and Jim”

  1. I was pleased to get most of this without having to look anything up, though it took the best part of an hour. The one I (very slowly) finished on (once I checked that the plural of SMALT was not smalts and in any case it was the plural of smalto) was SWINESTY, because I didn’t think to look up Upstart Crow’s other use of the word frank. In the end I decided the definition was “place of debauchery” and the rest of the clue could be ignored
    Thanks Jim for dedication to duty.
    1. ….and luckilly NOTT a NARD one !

      Spread through three or four sessions during the week, and with fairly liberal use of aids, I reckon I spent around an hour in all.

      Since all investments carry a risk, and few guarantees, I’m not quibbling over PREMIUM BONDS.

      My sole biff was LAISSES where I couldn’t see the churchman due to parsing “hisses” rather than “disses”.

      APAGE SATANAS caused me the most trouble.

      BLAIN added to my liberal collection of fish, but my favourite clue was PLAYACT.

      1. Welcome Philip

        An investment is a monetary asset purchased either to provide income in the future or to be sold later at a higher price for a profit. Premium Bonds don’t meet either of those criteria.

        They also carry no risk. They do guarantee the return of the original deposit whose purchasing power has been diminished by inflation.

        1. A former landlord and pal of mine used to call his bets at the local bookies “investments”. They were money spent in the hope of making more money, as are premium bonds. The precision of Jimbo’s description is not matched by dictionary definitions, so I was happy with “investment” as a definition for a premium bond. There is always the question, with points like this, of what the alternative “better” definition would be.

          Edited at 2018-09-02 10:38 am (UTC)

            1. Well, “Modern pubs I’m running as government securities” is a disappointing surface meaning. Maybe there is a possible clue with “government securities” and a better surface meaning, but I can’t see it. I do ask for changes to definitions if I think they are clearly wrong, but that does not apply here.

              1. Quite. I wasn’t thinking of a direct substitution. How about: Government security requires regular payment to spy.

  2. I was extremely reluctant to put this in, although it seemed inevitable: for this American, at least, and all the others of my generation that I’ve known, the word is an obscene one meaning ‘semen’. For what it’s worth–I’m not going to look further–that’s the one definition given in ODE. No doubt Chambers has something else.

    Edited at 2018-09-03 05:02 am (UTC)

    1. I’d never come across the word before Kevin and simply derived it and looked it up in C. Never occurred to me that it could cause offence

      We don’t use the word over here but have a similar piece of slang for semen “spunk”. The word actually means “guts, heart, pluck, etc”

      1. I actually did later go to Chambers, and evidently the ‘energy/force’ meaning was earlier, whereas I believe the history of ‘spunk’ is the reverse (by chance I was re-reading ‘Ulysses’ at about that time, and Molly remarks on how much spunk Boylan had produced). But I’d bet big bucks that no one in the US would recognize the energy meaning; for that matter, I think the word with its semen meaning was already passing out of use (including its more common form) when I first heard it as a child. I wasn’t myself offended, mind you; but really, really surprised.
  3. Very late to the comment party. I wonder if Tim Moorey put us in there deliberately, which would be rather nice. Not a lot to say about the puzzle, but if I can pronounce it, I’d really love to use ADIAPHORON somewhere.

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