Potter's finest work is to encourage Formosan aggression (8,5)
Confined next to a bull (5)
Writer's well after visit - Theo left to think positive (6)
Morbid fear one hates to have (6)
A singularly heavy blow given in embarrassment (4)
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:28 (thirteen years ago) link
WAIT WAIT I just got #3
Another one instead: Pillar of some mark to compositors (7)
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:32 (thirteen years ago) link
Answers in rot13:
rttfuryypuvanvaarevaxcbg (guvf vf gur bar V trg abj)cubovnbareboryvfx(translator here: http://tools.arantius.com/rot13 )
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:33 (thirteen years ago) link
ok let's get to work
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:40 (thirteen years ago) link
(Actually I'm back to not getting the third one, I get the simple definition but the cryptic bit *still* makes no sense)
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:42 (thirteen years ago) link
ettfuryypuvan spells out 'to encourage attack on state not beloved of taiwan' formosan aggression, also a delicate type of pottery
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:43 (thirteen years ago) link
vaare darts term
Confined next to a bull = inner. The inner is the ring next to the bull in archery. Presume also inner = confined, sort of. Inner rage, that sort of thing?
The rest, cannot really explain. Not even the one you worked out. Have horrible explanation for this first, but it's really bad
Xpost, yeah, like what darragh just said
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:44 (thirteen years ago) link
vaxcbg i only get the first part, the simple bit tbh
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:45 (thirteen years ago) link
the first, not this first. There's no way on God's green earth I'd have got it though, rather than just fitting an explanation to an already-solved clue.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:45 (thirteen years ago) link
'morbid fear one hates to have' is hardly cryptic at all tbh, not a good clue in that overthinking it would put you off imo
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:46 (thirteen years ago) link
singularly heavy blow- CONKERS BABY
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:47 (thirteen years ago) link
"given in embarrassment" though? These are horrible, btw.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Nice work on vaare.
rttfuryypuvan is outstanding work - how is anyone supposed to get that? I kept looking to make 'Peter Rabbit'
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:49 (thirteen years ago) link
boryvfx - term for a piece of kit one kept in the lower half of a compositors type case.
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:50 (thirteen years ago) link
(They're from the Daily Telegraph 1986 fwiw)
What is 'one hates to have' doing, though? I agree it could be nothing.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:51 (thirteen years ago) link
given the answers, and google, it's quite easy to pick these apart- but if i'd been looking at them all weekend they'd prob have driven me soft.
tho, tbh, i think i would have gotten the first one.
crosaire, btw, is doable online at www.irishtimes.com, the unmatched (imo) king of the art.
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Aye, it's a punctuation mark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography)
xposts again
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:53 (thirteen years ago) link
Wow - nice knowledge on boryvfx - I didn't even know what a compositor was.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:54 (thirteen years ago) link
one hates to have- just clumsy imo, wouldn't kill myself worrying about it once i'd filled in the letters
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:54 (thirteen years ago) link
GOOGLE mayne, google!
Are these all done apart from #3 now?
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Haha I used google on formosan aggression, then I still couldn't do it :(
Everyone agrees it's wrong to google when you're actually doing the thing, right?
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:56 (thirteen years ago) link
'given in embarrassment'
quite simply- none of my dictionaries and none of my brain cells and none of my internets can suggest even a single half-plausible explanatino for the remaining piece of this clue
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 21:58 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah googling is prob frowned upon while doing, tho perfectly acceptable after you've gotten it- else how d'you learn sure?
I really can't make #3 work, I can sort of make bits of the clue bit fit, but not the whole thing, and not convincingly.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:00 (thirteen years ago) link
i guess you must 'hate' as a necessary condition of 'having' the third one- ?
though i would be much happier with 'fear' over hate, and that's already in the clue so slapdash at best imo
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:01 (thirteen years ago) link
ie you must hate *something* to have a phobia
I have learned the word "emderatology" today though, which is nice.
xpost you can have a phobia without hatred though, so misdefinition just to give a double non-cryptic clue is totally misleading and wrong. There must be more to it than that. Where's the rest of the contributors to this thread when you need them?
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:03 (thirteen years ago) link
i google
― thomp, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:04 (thirteen years ago) link
araucaria or ximes had a quote about how the solver ought to be permitted 'a reasonable shelf of reference works'. eh. also, you know, sometimes you have PSALMANUGGLE or something and just need to go 'is this really the name of an extinct marsupial or am i wrong'
― thomp, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:05 (thirteen years ago) link
btw, cryptics are the one thing I miss since I stopped buying print newspapers, but not enough to actually buy a book of puzzles or print any off or whatever, so I do love this thread very much indeed.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:08 (thirteen years ago) link
i treat it like scrabble rules (at least the scrabble rules at my house)- it goes in, in ink, before you get to check. no further stabs if wrong, and it stands forever as admonition
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.irishtimes.com/games/crosswords/
ailsa, no excuses
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:12 (thirteen years ago) link
<3
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:31 (thirteen years ago) link
hmm wait it's asking for a login? never used to.
maybe i can get one.......
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:46 (thirteen years ago) link
ACtually, the one I'm doing is kind of shit. but thanks, is good to get the practice back in.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:47 (thirteen years ago) link
there's one you can do without logging in
well ok, but there used to be a trove. i think a mate may have a login but mods may have issues with me posting it or not?
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Off to bed now - thanks for the help! More tomorrow I fear.
Outstanding clues:
Writer's well after visit - Theo left to think positive (6)Morbid fear one hates to have (6)A singularly heavy blow given in embarrassment (4)
Answers:vaxcbgcubovnbare
rot13er: http://www.faqintosh.com/risorse/en/othutil/webapps/rot13/
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:03 (thirteen years ago) link
writer's well- obvious. theo's left to think positive- will work on this bit!
morbid fears- yeah, unsatisfactory answer but i think this is just a bad clue.
bare- the single strike (think conker here for me) is clear- i've also tried linking 'embarrassment' with the 'heavy duty' aspect of the word, but no dice there.
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:09 (thirteen years ago) link
inkpot
theo's left to think positive
th ink eo pot
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:11 (thirteen years ago) link
ok
the o's left to think positive
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:12 (thirteen years ago) link
hmm maybe something there?
i'll just get a pencil shall i? :)
I've got as far as thINKPOsitive, but it's not really working out for me much after that.
Yeah, single strike fine on those grounds, but again, not so much thereafter for me either. Can't even work out where to start.
xposts, yeah, something like that.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:14 (thirteen years ago) link
those kind of things should be kept for listener-type xwords imo. araucaria annoyed me today with a word for hartebeest which actually means wildebeest, except in some 200 year old taxonomy.
― no, you're dead right, it's a macaroon (ledge), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:30 (thirteen years ago) link
oh come on, who hasn't gotten wildebeest/hartebeest mixed up lately? hot topic imo
― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:31 (thirteen years ago) link
xxp you're forgetting the 'visit'.
― no, you're dead right, it's a macaroon (ledge), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 23:32 (thirteen years ago) link