The official bored-at-work cryptic crossword pass it on thread.

Did you guys see this one the other day:

Golden gun author? (6)

is that right?

Is what right?

Maybe it was
Gold gun author? (6)

nm i'm not even in the game lately

Austen.

:)

I get so few I have to jump in when I get one. Reminds me of when a visit to my grandparents involved a drowsy post-lunch word game of some sort - you had to get as Manu words of a type beginning with a certain letter - and when something like 'parts of the body beginning with V' came up my hitherto somnolent little brother suddenly excitedly bawled out at the top of his voice VAGINA!

'Ooh, I suppose it is, dear, yes' said my grandmother.

To be fair to him, some little thought was required before we could come up with some non-vagina parts of the body beginning with V.

vestibule

vertebrae

vulva

vagus nerve

vitreous humour

vienna sausage

I said 'ventricle' thoughtfully and took a sip of sherry iirc.

vas deferens

Gold gun author?

Sten shows up quite frequently in American crosswords; baffled the hell out of me the first few times until I realized it's one of those "Asta"-type words that setters seem to love. (See also: Snee.)

Or Smee

Bob Marley hits foot? (6)

Or:
Marley hits foot? (6)

so you might think it has something to do with Scrooge and clumsy chain-rattling specters.

legend

mythic tale of ilx poster dropping dime and losing all (6)

speaking of, quite enjoyed this lightly themed guardian a few weeks ago.

Think there was a recent one in which that ilx poster was the answer. Maybe was Independent.

Sulky quality encountered downtown? (9)

also:

Soft piece, tiny piece (8)

Cross-fills are: _A_T_C_E, which should make the solution pretty obvious, but I'm still not understanding the why.

P = Soft (music)
Article = Piece (journalism)

Wow, my brain totally did not go in either of those directions!

"Soft" clueing P is a common-ish crossword practice so I was looking for it.

Not getting this one either:

Landlord is a drag after the first (5)

struggling with that one, have you got any letters?

O_N_R, which seems obvious too, but I'm not getting the cluing.

The other, sulky, one is P_T_L_N_E which again is very apparent, but the cluing is perplexing me.

a drag = "downer", all letters after the first = "owner"

petulance dunno why yet

oh i see, it's to do with Petula Clark.

HAHA xpost:

If it somehow has something to do with Petula Clark my head will explode.

feel like it should be annoying me that, but in fact it's just making me find 'Petula' a really weird name. petula petula petula.

haha don't stare at it too long. i feel like that clue is slightly iffy, can only assume it's positing "Petula-nce" as a joke coinage

yeah, it's iffy whimsy, jocular adjective from 'petula' i think.

Sounds gynecological to me now. petula majora.

what was the clue

Sulky quality encountered downtown? (9)

lazy tbh

Yeah, Petula-nce is really horrible.

RE: "Is a drag" = downer, I've discovered I really suck at having to first think of a word and then drop letters off. I had one over the weekend:

Transported unwrapped sketch (5). The answer was ROUGH, and even after I got it through process of elimination, I didn't understand why. (BROUGHT minus B & T.) Maybe I'll get better in time, but those are my least favorite.

they are often tough i think because the clue is less tight, i couldn't get near downer/owner until you'd given me the letters.

my light is green, perhaps, when my insect is perfect (5)

i clean cut in order to instruct (9)

inculcate

ya i know

but we needed a kickstart dont u think

smart minge? i'm not being clear, it's a mixup (10)

lol i shouldn't set clues when i'm tired

Stammering?