Mephisto 3140 – Parlez-vous francais?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

Rather an easy Mephisto, where I was only held back by not dropping wrong theories quickly enough.   Even the answers were not very startling, although I was a bit taken aback by chapess.   Anta and frab are probably the most obscure answers, and they are heavily checked, although some solvers might not recognize skeg or remember Leon Blum.  I did solve this in one sitting, but it was definitely a long one.  

Across
4 Sort to be disheartened during most skilful financial investigation (9, two words)
MEANS TEST – MEAN(S[or]T)EST.   US slang meaning of mean.
10 French revolutionaries tackling one put in order as before (8)
ENRAUNGE – ENRA(UN)GE – yes, the whole wordplay is in French!  However, the answer is in Spenser-speak.
11 Mike cut back paper (4)
EXAM – M + AXE backwards.
12 One’s grown up in prison camp with old lady (8)
STALAGMA – STALAG + MA, more often a stalagmite. 
13 Sale or return on British fruit (4)
SORB – S.O.R + B. 
14 Bill attached to papers is consumptive (5)
TABID – TAB + ID.
15 Separate term for that one flipping old dress (6)
ATTRAP –  PART TA backwards.   I’m not really sure about TA, it doesn’t seem to be a dialect form of that.
17 They’re left behind in European nations (7)
ESTATES – E STATES, a clue that would not be out of place in the cryptic.
21 Who’d help recovery from recurrent ailment in back? (7)
RALLIER –  RE(ILL)AR, all backwards, where recurrent is the reversal indicator. 
23 Musical boxes apparently for this woman (7)
CHAPESS – CH(AP)ESS.   I was hung up on Cats, which is not it at all. 
26 Mollusc caught in rough sea near dock (7)
ESCALOP – C in anagram of SEA, LOP. 
27 Smart clothing left for Mary Jane (6)
SPLIFF – SP(L)IFF, a ganja cigar. 
28 Ghost writer’s latest found in a bum novel (5)
UMBRA – anagram of [write]R + A BUM.
31 Slave trade finally cut for the most part (4)
ESNE – [trad]E + SNE[d]. 
32 Liberal into kinky sex gets warnings (8)
EXAMPLES – EX(AMPLE)S, where the outer letters are an anagram of SEX.   Awful warnings, that is.
33 Primarily something on front of keel, say? The back actually (4)
SKEG – S[omething] + K[eel] + E.G.
34 Organises anew ineptly for purges head of finance leaked (8)
REGROUPS – anagram of [f]OR PURGES.
35 Becoming hidden behind trail (9)
LATESCENT – LATE + SCENT.
Down
1 English society cracking mysteries about Roman brass (9)
SESTERCES – S(E S)TERCES, where the outer letters are SECRET backwards.
2 Tapir seen over in Indian capital, not the first (4)
ANTA – [p]ATNA backwards, the capital of Bihar, of course.
3 Worry frequently about dropping out (4)
FRAB – FR + AB[out].
4 African fellow boxing heavyweight champion (6)
MALIAN – M(ALI)AN. 
5 Rages about short line? They may do (7)
ANGLERS – Anagram of RAGES + LN.   A semi-&lit, but a bit of a stretch. 
6 Associate sharing seat in port (7)
SEATTLE – SE(A)TTLE, not the first port you may think of. 
7 Special seat around back of court providing cover for a seed (5)
TESTA – Anagram of SEAT around [cour]T.
8 Introductory exchange before men phone (8)
EXORDIAL – EX + OR + DIAL.
9 Lady by Jove running Bosnian city (8)
SARAJEVO – SARA + anagram of JOVE.
16 Camouflaged para is up for keeping section together (9, two words)
PARI PASSU – Anagram of PARA IS UP + S[ection], where together is a rather vague definition of a very specific term.
18 Marshal asks about man getting cap for lancers (8)
SCHAPSKA – S(CHAP)SKA, where the outer letters are an anagram of ASKS.
19 Line scrambled in restaurant — it’s a drag (8)
TRAILNET – TRA(anagram of LINE)T, a trattoria, that is.
20 Alludes to boarding eastern midshipmen (7)
REEFERS – RE(E)FERS.  Or what they wear, or what they smoke?
22 Behind with pay? Old-timers calm (7)
ASSWAGE – ASS + WAGE, a variant spelling of assuage. 
24 Tittle about absent politician? Minister could be choked by it (6)
JAMPOT – J(A MP)OT.   A colorful slang expression for a rather uncomfortable collar.
25 Once superior European province (5)
LIEGE – Double definition. 
29 French ex-PM wrong about focus on nationalisation? (4)
BLUM – B([nationa]L[isation])UM
30 Financial agreement made with pre-emptor ignoring the odds (4)
REPO – [p]R[e]-E[m]P[t]O[r].  A very important financial market for overnight money. 

9 comments on “Mephisto 3140 – Parlez-vous francais?”

  2. I read 15a as:
    Separate = PART; term for that = T; one = A; flipping, to reverse the lot, and give an old word meaning ‘dress’.
  3. I found this hard: over an hour of total solving time scattered through the week. It took me a particularly long time to sort out ANTA/FRAB/ENRAUNGE.
    Another encouraging example of these Mephisto words sticking in my memory occasionally though: ESNE went straight in even though I didn’t know what the word for ‘cut’ would be. It could be any of SNEB, SNED or SNEE!
    I read ATTRAP like rjcassidy above.
  4. I also found it tricky in places. Agree with the parsing for ATTRAP. In 10 ac. I think the ‘one’ is dialect, as in ‘he’s a good un’, rather than French, since I think it would have to be indicated as such.

    I’ve been doing the Listener again, after the usual break of a few years, and would point anyone interested to last week’s puzzle, Seconds Out. No origami, no word searches, no drawing butterflies – just a very clever idea well realised.

    1. You are right: Chambers has it as an English dialect word, no mention of French. I always thought it was French: you live and learn!

      Edited at 2020-11-08 05:15 pm (UTC)

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