Mephisto 3138 – What the bright dawn scatters

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

Here we have another fine Mephisto from Paul McKenna, with the usual groaner across the top line.   This is the first time I ever used one of these atrocious puns to come up with an answer, but even so, you’re left with the rest of the puzzle.  The vocabulary, fortunately, is not to recondite, but there are some calls upon general knowledge, which may be obscure to younger solvers.

I worked through most of the this in my US Saturday night, and finished it off on the porch next morning.   Unfortunately, it is probably getting too cold around here for porch solves, despite being pretty nice for most of the week.  However, my road and driveway were being paved, so things were a bit on the noisy side during the sunniest weather.     I am getting ready to retreat inside, as well as having to wait another hour for the puzzle, as always happens at this time of year.

Across
1 Rumpole’s one old poet, clownish chap wanting black juice (6)
HORACE – A triple cryptic, I believe, referring to Horace Rumpole, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, and some other fellow I have no idea about.  I’m sure a fellow solver will step in the an explanation.  It’s HO[b] + RACE.
5 Hamper packed with right rubbish (5)
TRUCK – T(R)UCK, a hamper usually found in English schools, guarded by Billy Bunter.
10 Fitting piece got at fare (10, two words)
COTTAGE PIE – Anagram of PIECE GOT AT.
12 Stuff which has been put away without being turned in shelf (7)
STOWAGE – W/O backwards inside STAGE.
13 Prep round opening of water pump (5)
PUPIL – LIP UP backwards, where prep can refer equally to the school or its victim.
14 No longer concerned with organ’s right to keep Albania (6)
LIENAL – LIEN + AL, pertaining to the spleen, but not any more.
16 Spinning catchword to plug lo-cal mineral (7)
LEUCITE – CUE backwards inside LITE, where classicists will recognize the Greek root meaning white.
17 Region is made by cream of Scots holding line (5)
REALM – REA(L)M, where the verb ream is a perfectly respectable English word preserved only in the North, as often happened.
19 Grapples with interminable quiet concerning time of abeyance (11, two words)
CLOSE SEASON – CLOSES EAS[y] ON.
24 Chancy games from American inhabiting minute Square (5)
MAINS – M(A)IN + S, and here I was thinking they were electrical outlets in the UK!
27 Exercises without vigour around noon making a show of affection? (7, two words)
PET NAME – PE + T(N)AME.
29 Jack placed back doll (6, two words)
TART UP – TAR + PUT backwards.
30 On the piste we go up on such runs — born for bit of exhilaration (5)
T-BARS – T(-e,+B)ARS, a simple letter-substitution cryptic.
31 Cunning Earl involved in insult (7)
SLEIGHT – SL(E)IGHT.
32 With Google I’m freely covering Republican’s scope for negotiation (10, two words)
WIGGLE ROOM – W + anagram of GOOGLE I’M around R.
33 Supplier of oil born west of Manitoba (5)
NEEMB – NEE + MB – you’d better know the two-letter abbreviations for Canadian provinces!
34 Bootlegger’s German white wine 50 per cent discounted (6)
RUNNER – The second half of [krotenb]RUNNER – looks like more than 50% to me, or maybe I’ve got the wrong wine?   Comments from experts invited.  Yes, the wine is Marcobrunner, hardly necessary to solve the clue.
Down
1 That bloke is a “star” in decline (6)
HESPER – HE’S + PER.
2 Duff up Yankee husky for a Scot (5)
ROOPY – POOR backwards + Y, helpfully checked by the across entries.
3 A fabric for whenever you wish (6, two words)
AT WILL – A TWILL, a clue that would not be out of place in the Quickie.
4 Baby bird — as some say, lift it not at the front but at the back (6)
EAGLET – A sounds like clue, but what it sounds like I have no idea – with this setter, there are too many possibilities to contemplate. It’s TEAGLE, with the IT sound moved from the front to the back.  
6 Mr Expert overturned, caught by being captured rioter? (7)
REBECCA – REB + AC(C)E backwards – Wales, 1843; you could look it up.
7 Brings together (from Spenser) fully reversed furore (7)
UPKNITS – UP + STINK backwards.
8 Quoted passages in it, OT Cain’s on the run (9)
CITATIONS – Anagram of IT OT CAIN’S.
9 Bargee who famously sat astride a chair the wrong way? (6)
KEELER – Double definition, one alluding to a famous poster feature a famous model who was part of a famous scandal…..long ago.
11 We wouldn’t be Lilliputian doctors (7, two words)
TALLMEN – Double definition, where both doctors and tallmen are slang terms for loaded dice.
15 Unfairly belie lame mistress of Macron (9, two words)
BELLE AMIE – Anagram of BELIE LAME, where the literal refers only to the French language and not an actual mistress, AFAIK.
18 Divinity encountered in stag, say (7)
DEMETER – DE(MET)ER.
20 Indignation beginning to rise in the course of power cut (7)
OUTRAGE – OUT(R[ise])AGE.   Beware of typos when announcing a scheduled outage!
21 Changing gymnast’s body with a system not often seen now? (7)
SYNTAGM – anagram of GYMNAST, which until now few people knew could be anagrammed.
22 Excited and close to time to utterly dominate dormitories (6)
UPTOWN – UP + T + OWN.
23 Unusually real about Tory, say, becoming richer (6)
AMPLER – anagram of REAL around MP.
25 Pound with a shriek of joy entered an ancient island of poets (6)
ALBION – A(L + BIO)N, also the hero of The Four Zoas, as far as anyone can tell.
26 Internal security assumed by sterling fellow (6)
SISTER – S(I.S)TER, where fellow has the sense of a match or mate of some sort.
28 Troll with inclination towards vehicle supporting dry sort? (5)
WAGON –  WAG ON, the vehicle the teetotaller is always falling off of.

12 comments on “Mephisto 3138 – What the bright dawn scatters”

  1. Many thanks as ever to setter and blogger.
    Most grateful for a little more explanation re 13 ac. I can’t find lip up in Chambers and – therefore – don’t understand the cryptic at all.
    I’d also like to understand the”black juice” part of 1 ac.
    Thanks in advance.
    Adrian Cobb
    1. I didn’t get the “black juice” part of 1A either. Nor do I understand how 4D works. I was slightly surprised by WIGGLE ROOM, as in these parts it’s the onomatopoeic “wriggle room”.

      52 minutes in two sittings.

  2. A HOB is a ‘clownish person’, from which B is removed. ‘Juice’ and RACE are both defined in Chambers as ‘piquancy’.
    The wine is Marcobrunner.
    EAGLET is TEAGLE (lift) with the T (it) at the back.
    13ac is a double: ‘water pump’ is a humorous term for the eye so ’round opening of water pump’ defines PUPIL.
    However I’m struggling a bit to explain ‘close to’ in 22dn. One definition of ‘up’ in Chambers is ‘in, near or towards arrival, overtaking or being abreast’ so perhaps it’s that.
    Moderate puzzle I thought, steady solve without particular hold-ups.

    Edited at 2020-10-25 10:29 am (UTC)

    1. You got there before me with EAGLET, HOB, RACE and the German wine. Re. 22d, I think our setter is playing fast and loose with punctuation: it could be read as “Excited and, close to time, to utterly dominate …”

      However, I’m still struggling with the last bit of 13a. Scholar and the eye bit I can see, but water pump? Not in Chambers, and Google doesn’t help.

      1. ‘Water pump’ is in Chambers, in the entry for ‘water’.
        You could be right about 13a, but it seems unusually sloppy for Mephisto.

        Edited at 2020-10-25 10:32 am (UTC)

        1. Just seen that. A new one on me. Maybe the lexicographer was showing off by describing it as ‘humorous.’
  3. Should have added that I find Paul the most opaque of the Mephisto setters. I usually save the puzzle for a Friday or Saturday evening with a glass or several of beer. Last night there was a distinct fuzziness by the time the last couple of entries went in.
  4. I think the parsing is A(LB + IO)N.

    LB is a pound avoirdupois, and Chambers says:

    io /īˈō/
    interjection
    Of invocation, or expressing joy or triumph or grief
    noun (pl īˈos)
    A cry of ‘io’

    I didn’t know the word, but there it is.

    PS: with vinyl1’s encouragement, I’ve now done 3 Mephistos in a row. No style points, though!

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