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

gold i tell ya

one from yesterday's observer:

Youth speaks about contemporary of J. Wayne? (5, 4)

Salad days but I don't get the j wayne ref...

I think it's an Alan Ladd reference. Says about A Ladd.

Never heard of him! Wonder why the clue didn't just say 'John Wayne', maybe we were meant to think John is too obvious, must be Jeff.

tim otm. and clue said 'j wayne' to match 'a ladd'.

i spent minutes trying to think of answers with 't mix' in them...

tim otm. and clue said 'j wayne' to match 'a ladd'.

d'oh.

mingled with contemporary of wayne, j (4)

Are you going for mixt?

I've certainly heard of Alan Ladd, though I couldn't name a single film of his off the top of my head, and I never would have been able to solve this without a lot of help.

This could go in the strange Wikipedia entries, just for the odd wording:

As with many Hollywood stars, Ladd is sometimes described as either a social adherent to, or member of, the gay subculture.[15]

mixt, yes. it's a word! who knew?

(contemporary might be pushing it though, earlier generation)

Inspired by walking past the 5-a-side courts to and from work every day:

Footballers cry "Lynam!" before beginning first soccer film (5,3,7)

Haha awesome. Got the first two words then had to google the film name, but that's because I am ignorant of film.

no idea

golf run, maybe 10 cricket pitches (7, wotd)

yep

no idea

man on + des + source + s

weirdly, owls become shrewd (7-4, wotd)

nice. First one in a while I've got!

Are you going for mixt?

I've certainly heard of Alan Ladd, though I couldn't name a single film of his off the top of my head

for shane, ilx, for shane.

Finds O/S (9)

The answer is discovers. I'm drawing a total blank here. What the hell is O/S?

Disc Over S ??

"O" = disc
"/" = over
"s" = s

groan...

guardian today was a bitch fyi, made worse by fifteensquared.net being all "this did not trouble me at all". punk = tinder? ok grandad.

i've half a desire to become an public official (8, wotd)

neat but very simple imo

make fake (5)

forge

model also nearly kinda sorta works.

Spectre revealed by sycophant as monster. (8) WOTD

one of my fave films :)

Nice one!

there have been some nice unclued words lately - eidolon, mawkish, loup-garou, cantrip

untearable, tricksy (7 wotd, it's right there, look)

Supreme happiness of topless dude pursuing proto hippy generation with sex appeal (9, wotd)

trademark ledge clue there...

you mean an awkwardly worded and obvious charade? ;)

lots of words chiselled into bits and reassembled.

they're the most fun to come up with imo, but i should branch out a bit.

> lots of words chiselled into bits and reassembled.

like a 1-d mosaic

hexagonal bit causes conflict (4 wotd)

(not a word i knew tbh)

Dutch rave music, unusual at first, is confusing source of irritation. (7 wotd)

oof. that's like you're double encrypting something. is a step too far.

ah, gabber. yeah indirect anagrams are a big no-no, shame as it's a really nice surface.

(fyi it's just considered unfair to expect the solver to guess a synonym and then anagrammise it.)

From today's Guardian:

Ointment for a Frenchman round the bend? (7)

one of my favourite words.

could've just put Gabber in the clue above tbh, made it a straightforward anagram.

^^^ yeah, I should've done it that way. Still learnin'.

Practice makes perf... uh, better than the last one?

Edible stem, cob lie scattered (10, wotd)

Solid.

Araucaria today, had to look up three or four (obscure queens: zenocrate, hippolyta) and look up the explanations for another four or five (odyl = a hypothetical force, who knew?)

I think this works. wotd

Ecosystem Wind Erosion: revealing, stirring speech. (4-6)