bit perplexed by 'fancifully speaking'
― ledge, Thursday, 22 October 2015 14:31 (eight years ago) link
fancifully speaking = sounds like. seems pretty necessary to me.
― koogs, Thursday, 22 October 2015 14:37 (eight years ago) link
yeah I think so too
― Neil S, Thursday, 22 October 2015 15:02 (eight years ago) link
fancifully, though? maybe he favours the la-di-da french pronunciation.
― ledge, Thursday, 22 October 2015 15:06 (eight years ago) link
Yeah fancifully has no purpose there
ilx would crucify woman in conversation as a means of keeping out unwanted intruders (10)
― hasid matzos temple (wins), Saturday, 24 October 2015 10:02 (eight years ago) link
Fanciful, I think, In that there's no such thing as B Day, it's made up for the sake of the pun. I never would have gotten that one.
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Saturday, 24 October 2015 15:04 (eight years ago) link
I figured this one out by process of elimination, but I have never heard the idiom "thin on the ground" in my life.
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 27 October 2015 16:56 (eight years ago) link
Britishism perhaps
― Neil S, Tuesday, 27 October 2015 22:36 (eight years ago) link
Unsettled night last night, every time I half woke up I tried in my semi-conscious state to write a sounds-like clue for the middle row of a qwerty keyboard, 'acid if jekyll'. Except a) I thought this was the start of the alphabet, not the middle of a keyboard; ii) I forgot about g and h; and 3) 'acid if jekyll' wtf.
is this still up for grabs? i don't have a scooby.
― ledge, Monday, 9 November 2015 12:48 (eight years ago) link
haha
I can start revealing letters if ppl want, it's maybe not amazingly formed
― Tell The BTLs to Fuck Off (wins), Monday, 9 November 2015 14:17 (eight years ago) link
i'm thinking we/us/forum + sounds like woman's name + an x in there somewhere (crucify = hang on or nail to a cross, don't really know what to do with that), = portcullis or drawbridge or something. but yeah, letters.
― ledge, Monday, 9 November 2015 15:00 (eight years ago) link
-e---i--e-
― Tell The BTLs to Fuck Off (wins), Monday, 9 November 2015 15:03 (eight years ago) link
-ee--i--e-
btw had to share this from earlier in the week:
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 26,727, 17 Down: Fifty-fifty to catch Frisbee when laughing out loud (3)
Is this the most pathetic clue of all time?
― Amblyomma_americanum_tick.jpg (wins), Sunday, 15 November 2015 08:27 (eight years ago) link
very poor
― John Dope Assos (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 15 November 2015 09:26 (eight years ago) link
just got yours btw, i like the definition
― John Dope Assos (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 15 November 2015 09:29 (eight years ago) link
thx, I think I might get a telling off from ledge for one element but I was going for the laugh
I hate everything about that Frisbee clue but actually using "laughing out loud" as the definition is appalling. It's like having idk "shortening of the hooter for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (4)". Sackable imo
― Amblyomma_americanum_tick.jpg (wins), Sunday, 15 November 2015 10:11 (eight years ago) link
thx, I think I might get a telling off from ledge for one element
Seems terribly corny and perfectly fine to me.
― ledge, Sunday, 15 November 2015 17:15 (eight years ago) link
too much time on ilx
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 26,734, 22 Across: Entertaining female describing athlete's foot, perhaps? (6)
― noe love derp wev (wins), Friday, 20 November 2015 17:38 (eight years ago) link
"Chinese Leaves" showed up in the Everyman recently. Is that really what Britishes call bok choy? I'd never heard that one.
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Friday, 20 November 2015 19:55 (eight years ago) link
We call bok choy bok choy (or pak choy), Chinese leaf is something else (sometimes called Chinese cabbage). Not sure what the "proper" name is
― noe love derp wev (wins), Friday, 20 November 2015 19:59 (eight years ago) link
Google clarifies: napa cabbage
― noe love derp wev (wins), Friday, 20 November 2015 20:00 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, GIS gave me one image that was napa cabbage, another that was baby bok choy,
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Friday, 20 November 2015 20:02 (eight years ago) link
xxxp lol good clue
― Neil S, Saturday, 21 November 2015 10:44 (eight years ago) link
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 26,766, 24 Down: Plan polkaing periodically (4)
― curvy coombian coiffe (wins), Tuesday, 29 December 2015 13:26 (eight years ago) link
Whoops
― Coombesbat 18 (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 29 December 2015 13:32 (eight years ago) link
yeah I was wondering about that clue.
Did anyone have luck with the Graun Xmas monster jigsaw one?
― The Male Gaz Coombes (Neil S), Tuesday, 29 December 2015 14:00 (eight years ago) link
so the setter posted on fifteensquared:
Arachne says: December 29th, 2015 at 12:21 pmMany thanks to Eileen for the blog, and to everyone for taking the trouble to comment not just on this, but on all puzzles through the year. Thanks, too, to the indefatigable Gaufrid for all his hard work.
24dn – aargh. This was submitted as “Propose polkaing periodically”.
Warmest wishes for 2016 to all of you, my friends.
Love and hugs,
Arachne
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Tuesday, 29 December 2015 14:04 (eight years ago) link
xp Didn't see that, those never show up on the app. Might print it out & take a look.
Latest prize was a bastard, got down to 4 clues & gave up
― curvy coombian coiffe (wins), Tuesday, 29 December 2015 14:08 (eight years ago) link
my GF (much better than me at crosswords) nearly finished it bar a couple. Once you get the theme it is possible to at least answer a large number of clues.
― The Male Gaz Coombes (Neil S), Tuesday, 29 December 2015 15:30 (eight years ago) link
Parents and I finished the big Xmas one. We had a lot of answers but were stuck putting them into the grid, just had to sit down and be painstakingly analytical about it, sudoku style.
― ledge, Saturday, 2 January 2016 13:56 (eight years ago) link
Yesterday's was the easiest prize I can recall - had to get a lot of checking letters before I cracked the theme but most of the non themed clues were v straightforward. I had to cheat minorly to get the final clue though :(
― ledge, Sunday, 3 January 2016 14:16 (eight years ago) link
Hello to Spooner's straight guy (4,6,4,3)
― ledge, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 13:44 (eight years ago) link
I know you just *love* these tortured and unguessable spoonerisms.
Pompous hello to Spooner's very straight man (4,6,4,3)
― ledge, Thursday, 11 February 2016 09:10 (eight years ago) link
I think I have the answer, but I can't parse the surface at all?
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 11 February 2016 15:04 (eight years ago) link
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/het
― koogs, Thursday, 11 February 2016 15:10 (eight years ago) link
Okay, if that works the way I think it does,it relies on a synonym for "very" that we Yanks don't use.
And also, ouch.
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 11 February 2016 15:40 (eight years ago) link
i thought it was well wicked.
― koogs, Thursday, 11 February 2016 15:49 (eight years ago) link
lol
― offshore syntax maven (wins), Thursday, 11 February 2016 16:14 (eight years ago) link
Scrambling on crag's rim - here? (10)
Oh sure, there, says the befuddled American...
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 24 February 2016 21:17 (eight years ago) link
I have scrambled there, maybe not quite on a crag's rim.
― ledge, Thursday, 25 February 2016 09:07 (eight years ago) link
relatively straightforward I would think? at least in the UK a well-known mountain range
― Gaz upon my works ye mighty, and despair (Neil S), Thursday, 25 February 2016 09:11 (eight years ago) link
have i mentioned before how much i love arachne? from the other day alone
Czech barman and I entranced by Stan Wawrinka's bottom (7)
Iron Lady contrarily embracing little in the women's movement (8)
Those prophesying doom of Corbyn back off, beginning to admire his alternative (9)
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 25 February 2016 11:50 (eight years ago) link
today's Graun is a Maskarade, who usually only appears at Bank Holidays to confound with those jigsaw puzzles. Here's a clue I liked:
Rival of S. Ovett? Get away! (5)
― Gaz upon my works ye mighty, and despair (Neil S), Wednesday, 9 March 2016 12:40 (eight years ago) link
General knowledge rather than cryptic but this was still a bit o_O in the guardian today:
Dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury (10, 3)
― koogs, Saturday, 19 March 2016 12:47 (eight years ago) link
The middle of the 3 was the end of this clue:
Political movement founded by Yanis Varoufakis (6)
(The one below that was BREXIT)
― koogs, Saturday, 19 March 2016 12:49 (eight years ago) link
My brain hurts trying to fit my first-choice answers for those two together and as yet I haven't found any more plausibly intersecting answers, but I'm going to assume I'm just being very stupid.
Does the Graun have a GK crossword on Saturdays, or indeed ever? I did not know this!
(I never buy it on Saturdays - too expensive and I feel overwhelmed and wasteful when a heap of supplements flops out onto the floor never to be read - but I do enjoy occasionally stealing the jumbo GK crossword from the local pub's Telegraph at the weekends.)
― a passing spacecadet, Saturday, 19 March 2016 14:19 (eight years ago) link
the GK one is in the magazine.
― koogs, Saturday, 19 March 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/yanis-varoufakis-launches-pan-european-leftwing-movement-diem25
― koogs, Saturday, 19 March 2016 14:34 (eight years ago) link
So I've had enough boy = RON or lad = TED clues to see them coming and anticipate a name going in there. Is the idea behind this that Ron and Ted are youthful names, and adults would be Ronald and Theodore? They're usually short or nicknames. Or are boy and lad just signifying male? Just curious about the convention.
― Double Nickels on the Pecunidigm (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 19 April 2016 16:22 (eight years ago) link
i think you could well be right about the short form signifying youthfulness, but i also feel like that connotation has almost disappeared from conscious thinking maybe and become simply conventional
― some men just want to watch the world Bern (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 19 April 2016 16:25 (eight years ago) link