Mephisto 3153 – Paul McKenna

18 comments on “Mephisto 3153 – Paul McKenna”

1. Many thanks to the setter and the blogger!
   28 ac. You have added “feet” in the explanation. I thought that it was only a reference to the scuttling of the Graf Spee in the mouth of the River Plate?
   29 d. Shouldn’t the definition be “seen in arboretum” with the cryptic being ACE + R (as the only letter repeated in arboretum)?
   1. I think it’s most probably a reference to the river. My first thought actually was to engineer Scapa Flow into an answer.
      1. Definitely the river – as well as confirmation from “Plate” with initial cap in Paul’s notes, the “site of driving” would surely be a road or golf tee rather than a car or wood. [To be fair, George probably doesn’t have terrestrial TV on which the 1956 British movie The Battle of the River Plate comes up from time to time.]

         Edited at 2021-02-07 12:59 pm (UTC)

   2. Agreed, on both counts
   3. Right on both counts I think. ACER doesn’t have the required meaning for George’s parsing according to Chambers. But I think the clue is &Lit, i.e. the definition is the whole thing.

      Edited at 2021-02-07 11:11 am (UTC)

2. Interesting parsing, but I saw it the same way as George.

   Edited at 2021-02-07 08:31 am (UTC)

   1. I saw it as an all-in-one, with wordplay of ACE plus R as the only repeated letter in arboretum.
3. I enjoyed the SOUPY FISHOIL pun. I tried to make 15A REACTOR, so fell for Paul’s misdirection there. I failed to parse NERINES and ETHE (my LOI), so thanks for that George. I liked CHARON best.
   1. I was also a fan of SOUPY FISH OIL. As George says, a difficulty upgrade from the last couple, but I got through in a single 47 minute sitting.
   2. Me too for ETHE. I knew the Goethe connection, but failed to see or remember it.
4. 1a – I think OU is used for Open University, rather than the home of lost causes.
   1. It could be either (both are in Chambers) but ‘seat’ suggests a physical place, which perhaps tallies better with Oxford.
      1. You’re right – I should have checked Chambers.
5. It’s strange how different people – many of whom are clearly experts – find differing levels of difficulty in a puzzle. Why? Is it mood? Wavelength? Knowledge?

   I went through the top half of this so swiftly that I had to check it wasn’t the Quick Cryptic. (And I normally find Paul the most obtuse of the setters) The bottom half was a bit stiffer, but that might have been a loss of impetus on my part. Yet other weeks I’ve really struggled with puzzles that others have found very straightforward.

   Weird!

   Edited at 2021-02-07 10:29 am (UTC)

   1. I think the strangeness is normality. Aside from the factors you mention, the level of success with the first few clues can make a difference (or at least change your mood), and so can the position and length of the first few answers you get.

      I can remember one regional final in the old-style Times championships where the first puzzle was a real struggle for me, and by the time I reached the ante-room where you could check your memory of the answers, there were dozens of people already there and I was about 10 minutes off the pace. Somehow I pulled it back on the remaining three and got a qualifying spot.

      1. I miss that old system where you could retire to the anteroom when you’d completed the puzzle. I made many of my long-standing friendships in there !
6. I found this about average in terms of difficulty. Loved the pun across the top — awful even by PM’s standards!
   I couldn’t figure out the wordplay for NERINES — I thought the nurse was SEN and was mystified by the rest — so thanks for explaining that one.

   Edited at 2021-02-07 10:58 am (UTC)

7. ….and I had a wrong answer in ‘interpole’, which is presumably what an interpolater does. It took a while to figure that one out, but eventually I saw the obvious canopy and corrected. I had to biff ethe, but that’s what reading The Faerie Queene will do for you.

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