Mephisto 3178 – Back to square one

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

I like Don Manley’s puzzles because they are so very precise.   If something seems wrong, it probably is, so you should think again.   I saw that curari was an alternate spelling of curare, and that is fit the literal and the cryptic, so confidently put it in.    It was only when I couldn’t finish that I went back to the dictionary and read the whole entry from end to end – aha, so that’s what it is.

The answers are a good mixture of words all solvers know, likely derivatives from Latin and Greek, and a few fetched fetched from the depths of the dictionary.   I don’t expect our usual crew to have much difficulty with this one.

Across
3 Worker on fire, a Belgian nationalist (10)
FLAMINGANT – FLAMING ANT.   Not surprsingly, this was originally an insulting term coined by their opponents.
11 Holy Fathers? Toads! (5)
PIPAS – PI PAS.
12 Acid in can I spilt (6)
NIACIN – Anagram of IN CAN I, one I should have seen quicker.
13 Old cleaner, ugly old woman, with yen for eating raw flesh (8)
OMOPHAGY – O MOP + HAG + Y.    I saw the phag- element right away, but didn’t know the Greek word for raw flesh.
15 A little to eat in course at Oxford — take a seat devouring it (6)
SIPPET – SI(PPE)T, our old friend Philosohy, Politics, and Economics.
16 Behaviour of clique ousting leader (6)
ACTION – [f]ACTION.
18 I have a significant nap, getting criticised endlessly (5)
PANNE –  PANNE[d], a kind of velvet.
19 Bit of cereal that is served with breakfast first? (6)
MEALIE – MEAL + I.E…..yes, it’s that simple.
20 Stimulant that’s chewed by American star (6)
SIRIUS – SIRI + US, where siri is another word to the betel nut.
21 Jolly lot with funny tale about band (6)
ARMLET – A(RM)LET, that is to say, an anagram of TALE around the abbreviation for Royal Marine.
24 Language of top commander gets kept within bounds (6)
CHADIC – C(HAD)IC, the Commander in Chief.
27 Best characters, first and last, producing a gem (5)
TOPAZ – TOP A,Z.  
30 One prominent feature introducing grand Chinese book (6, two words)
I CHING – I CHIN + G, where the definition and enumeration give it away anyway.
31 High Street activity that is limited about to come to the fore? (6)
RETAIL – RE + TAIL.
32 Small instrument hurt patient taking drug (8)
PIANETTE – Anagram of PATIENT around E, an easy biff for the creative.
33 Phone member of family being a bit “crabby”? (6)
TELSON –  TEL + SON, giving a part of the crab’s claw.
34 Plant given gold fastener (5)
ORPIN – OR + PIN, a very easy starter clue.
35 Mineral found in ditch, source of energy brought into yard (10, two words)
GREEN EARTH – G(REEN, E)ARTH, where reen and garth are both dialect words.
Down
1 An attitude taken by mum twitching is serving as a warning (10)
APOSEMATIC –  A POSE + MA + TIC, where the trick is  in the answer.
2 Figure that would be easy if one were positive (6)
SIMILE – SIM(-p,+I)LE, a reverse letter-substitution clue.
4 The French m-mate turned up in a flap once (6)
LAPPEL – LE P-PAL upside down, to give this obsolete alternate spelling.
5 A female getting compliment finally as a “dish”? (5)
ASHET – A SHE + [compliemen]T.
6 The fellow wanting original food and drink (6)
MEATHE –  MEAT + HE, a variant of mead.
7 What will appear in spring? Answer: Scottish bulbs (6)
INGANS – Hidden in [spr]ING? ANS[wer].   A Scots word for onions.
8 Black liquid in which you’ll see rodent sink after falling over (6)
GAS-TAR – RAT SAG upside-down.
9 Dietician troubled with iodine lacking as element (8)
ACTINIDE –  Anagram of D[i]ETICIAN, a compound of actinium.
10 Radioactive element that was out having been lifted (5)
NITON –  NOT IN upside down – a former name for radon.
14 Special cuisine I avoided — time for fasting — that can’t be eaten! (10)
INESCULENT –  Anagram of CU[i]SINE + LENT.
17 Home all confused — power to be installed in space where light enters (8)
LAMPHOLE – Anagram of HOME ALL + P.
22 Tirade from Scottish girl slightly confused inside (6)
LAISSE – LASSIE with the I moved forward.
23 Eating stews — this being one of them? (6)
TAGINE – Anagram of EATING.
24 Poison containing copper, mostly uncommon one (6)
CURARA – CU RAR[e] + A.
25 Suddenly no longer at rest, being agitated (6)
ASTERT –  Anagram of AT REST, easy for Faerie Queene fans.
26 I grant this eye problem could be irritating — and is! (6)
IRITIS – I + RIT + IS.
28 Boorish Aussie is scoffer putting maiden off (5)
OCKER – [m]OCKER, a word Mephisto solvers might have seen before.
29 What’s consumed by this enormous foreign gentleman (5)
SENOR –  Hidden in [thi]S ENOR[mous]

7 comments on “Mephisto 3178 – Back to square one”

  1. All but GAS-TAR; it never occurred to me that (6) could be (3-3), and I no doubt rejected GASTAR among other products of an alphabet trawl. CHADIC is a language group, like Bantu or Teutonic, and while granting Jackkt’s point (re TEUTONIC) that a language group is language (while not a language), I didn’t care for it. V, you’ve got a couple of typos: 1d +MUM –> +MA; 4d LEPPAL upside down. And you’ve forgotten some underlines: 12ac, 34, 35ac, 2d.
    1. Sorry, was quite tired. There are some who can watch the Olympics during the day, but most US and UK solvers will be bleary-eyed.
  2. ….for the language at 24A, but forgot all about it. So a DNF unfortunately.
  3. 7d was a write-in – ‘Twa hoat pehs an an ingan ane an aw,’ as you’ll hear in a Dundee bakery. And you might have your pie in an ashet, still in regular use in Scotland, and borrowed from the French ‘assiette’.

    Forgot I hadn’t done this until last night, and hurried to finish it before the football, so under half an hour, with an unfortunate FLAMINGANG.

  4. DNF. I didn’t look twice at curare even though it didn’t parse properly. That meant I was unable to get green earth, even though I got as far as finding reen.
  5. CURARA was my hold up too, promoting several unlikely solutions in place of GREEN EARTH, which might otherwise have been a write in.
    It’s worth remembering that Mephisto setters are rather more free and easy with the one can’t mean A convention, and I took a lot of convincing (and a proper look in Chambers, © Vinyl) to n be persuaded.
    36.21
  6. sounds like I had a similar experience to everyone else, with CURARI going straight in and keeping me from getting GREEN EARTH until the very end. I thought it was a step up in number of obscure words from the last few Don Manley puzzles.

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