Mephisto 3190 – “Only the Esquimaux in his skin canoe….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

I wanted to do this in one sitting, and I did.   It was a rather long one, and my errroneous anoa made it even longer.   Fortunately, I had heard of most of the words, but not bacca, panisc, and rother.   I even biffed liard, so I must be turning into a hardened Mephisto solver.     Since there were quite a few entries that were quite easy, and the vocabulary was not that hard, I would say that this is only a moderate example of Mephisto, but really quite enjoyable.

Across
1 Monastic hour’s brought back inaudible prayer (6)
SECRET – TERCES backwards.
5 Harry once being funny person celebrating (6)
LAUDER – A reference to Harry LAUDER, a Scottish music-hall performer, whom I didn’t know.
11 Sheepish noise by this maiden offering Arab ideology (8)
BAATHISM – BAA + THIS + M.
12 Risky game when rat’s destroyed berry (5)
BACCA – BACCA[rat].
14 Glutton hugged by drunkard? This could stop booze flowing (6)
SPIGOT – S(PIG)OT.
15 Hate sound of a tedious person with additional aspiration (5)
ABHOR – Sounds like A B(H)ORE
16 Where we all live? Absolutely! (7, two words)
ON EARTH –  Double definition, as in there’s no reason on earth why….
20 What animal painlessly changes into a monster? (7)
TANIWHA – Anagram of WHAT ANI[mal].
21 You’re no good, in retrospect, but not entirely a hopeless case (5)
GONER –  Backward hidden in [you’]RE NO G[ood].
22 Greek character stuck in mine, rolling around in muck (5)
GUNGE – EG(NU)G backwards, where egg is a slang term for the  kind of mine that is used to sink ships.
23 Biological unit has new green identity (7)
ENERGID – Anagram of GREEN  + ID.
27 Classical scholar establishing camp outside home after time (7)
LATINER –  LA(T,IN)ER.
29 Everyone needing extra energy for walk (5)
ALLEE – ALL + E + E.
30 Conservative facing endless peril is in desperately tricky situation (6)
CRISIS – C + RIS[k] + IS.
31 Grey piece of lead tossed back (5)
LIARD – DRAIL backwards – it’s a bit of fishing gear.
32 Soldiers fuss about officer turning traitor (8)
RENEGADO –  RE +GEN backwards + ADO
33 Lesser god has society gripped by fear (6)
PANISC –  PANI(S)C, an unlikely word that must be the answer.
34 Legislative assembly needs to be reformed by Democrat (6)
SENEDD – Anagram of NEEDS + D – you don’t have to be told, this must be in Wales.
Down
1 Get worked up or withdraw when losing heart (6)
SUBACT – SUB[tr]ACT.
2 A prominent feature in cold country brings a lot of laughter (12)
CACHINNATION – C + A CHIN + NATION.
3 Only half of story-tellers used a communications device (5)
RACON – RACON[teurs].
4 Underweight? Hope somehow lies within this chemical compound (8)
THIOPHEN – THI(anagram of HOPE)N.
6 Psychiatrist harsh once, European fellow to be ignored (8)
ASPERGER – ASPER + GER[man]. I was thinking this was a syndrome, but then I realized it was probably named after someone.
7 Lost during war when in country boat (5)
UMIAK – U(MIA)K – missing in action.
8 Old dear ageing, somehow avoiding a sudden decline (12)
DEGRINGOLADE – Anagram of OLD DEAR AGEING.
9 You headed up round tip of the island (4)
EYOT –  YE backwards + O + T[he]….I think.
10 Cow in Yorkshire location yielding meat (6)
ROTHER – ROTHER[ham].   A town of some notoriety recently, I would point out.
13 Vocal phenomenon of a baa, say, outside university (6)
ABLAUT – A BLA(U)T, an obvious biff for philologists.
17 Awfully sweet and nice? Not college maids (8)
TWEENIES – Anagram of SWEET + NI[c]E….or so their parents hope!.
18 Fliers have the ability to go above the stars! (8)
CANARIES – CAN + ARIES, a great lift and separate.
19 Old resident left on mountain (6)
LEIGER –  L + EIGER.
22 Flowering plant — plucking it’s bad — awful stink emerges (6)
GILCUP –  Subtracative anagram of PLUCKING IT’S – STINK.
24 Three journalists (one is upset) being transferred in America (6)
DEEDED – DE + ED + ED.
25 Jewish period that is ritualistic to some extent (5)
TISRI – Hidden in [tha]T IS RI[tualistic].
26 Ancient city’s in Mafia territory? Not so (5)
ILIAN –  [sic]ILIAN.   I biffed this and then saw how it works.
28 Buffaloes are in short supply over North America (4)
ARNA –  AR[e] + NA.   I had first put anoa, which kind of works – there’s are, over, and North America in the clue.   Bad mistake!

7 comments on “Mephisto 3190 – “Only the Esquimaux in his skin canoe….”

  1. ….on the news opening the SENEDD it was a shoo-in. Nothing here to cause serious problems. My time shows as 56:36, but I was watching a football match at the same time, so would probably have broken half an hour under exam room conditions.
    1. Much the same here, though, since I’d never heard of the word, it would have been impossible for me to confirm the order of the vowels in 8d, without consulting Chambers. (At a guess, I’d have reversed the O and the I.)
  2. impressed by the number of words you have heard of, Vinyl .. taniwha, racon, thiophen, degringolade?!

    Indeed Asberger’s Syndrome is named after a clinician – with an *extremely* shady background. To give you a flavour, he is quoted as saying “I was moulded by the spirit of the German youth movement, which was one of the noblest blossoms of the German spirit.” ’nuff said.
    we are not supposed to use the term any more, I suspect partly for that reason. Instead, what I have is apparently now called ASD, a useless term that seems to cover most of the population to a greater or lesser degree.

  3. Meant to ask – which version of Lord Franklin are we going for? Martin Carthy or John Renbourn?
  4. Fun puzzle, did most of it without Chambers but had notes next to them to lookup PANISC and TWEEINES – though at a first stab I came up with GENERID as the biological unit.

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