iirc king/queen can also be just r for rex/regina.
― ledge, Thursday, 17 January 2013 15:31 (eleven years ago) link
guardian prize:
Buggery? It's a personal matter (7,8)
ans: nobody's business. what's it got to do with buggery?
― ledge, Monday, 28 January 2013 14:08 (eleven years ago) link
bugger all
― koogs, Monday, 28 January 2013 14:10 (eleven years ago) link
two meanings of "nobody's business"
literal - "this is nobody's business but my own"idiomatic - "he drank that pint like nobody's business"
idiomatic meaning of "nobody's business" = idiomatic meaning of "buggery"
― Hermann Hesher (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 January 2013 14:11 (eleven years ago) link
not super familiar with that idiom but i can see that.
― ledge, Monday, 28 January 2013 14:17 (eleven years ago) link
both mean "vigorously" if you look it up, cdn't think of what the equivalence was for a sec
― Hermann Hesher (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 January 2013 14:18 (eleven years ago) link
both feel like they're probably regional usages to me tho, slightly old-fashioned too
― Hermann Hesher (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 January 2013 14:19 (eleven years ago) link
Enjoyable theme in today's Guardian, actually allowed me to finish more than half of it already, a rarity!http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25860
― Neil S, Friday, 1 February 2013 11:43 (eleven years ago) link
Safeguard of present containing gold and silver hidden in vault (7)
― ledge, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 12:01 (eleven years ago) link
Finished the Guardian (Paul) pretty swiftly, after getting the theme. Moved on to the Times and managed to get one single bloody clue. Looking at all of them thinking "I just don't know where to begin".
― ledge, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 14:12 (eleven years ago) link
Theme of Grauniad of interest to ILMers btw.
― ledge, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 14:14 (eleven years ago) link
couldn't deal with the theme today, gave up as soon as i realised what it was
yesterday's grau crossword was literally impossible
enjoyed saturday's araucaria v much though
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 14:24 (eleven years ago) link
except for obscure liberian, malaysian, and shetland-isms.
― ledge, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 14:29 (eleven years ago) link
the liberian/malaysian one was hilariously obscure
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
---r-g-
― ledge, Friday, 8 February 2013 12:57 (eleven years ago) link
Storage
― ailsa, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:32 (eleven years ago) link
"or" being gold "ag" being silver, etc.
and the other 3 letters?
― koogs, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:33 (eleven years ago) link
Ach, trifling things like accuracy matter not (i.e. was skimming and not reading properly).
― ailsa, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:35 (eleven years ago) link
ah, ok, stage + or AND store = ag
― koogs, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:35 (eleven years ago) link
store + ag
yep two wordplays for price of one, this clue is value for money.
― ledge, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:36 (eleven years ago) link
"Ag" in "store", and "or" in "stage". how's that?
bah, xposts while I got my reasoning straight.
― ailsa, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:43 (eleven years ago) link
Not sure I like that very much. "Safeguard of present containing gold" would have been fine on its own. Never heard of two subsidiary indicators in one clue before.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 8 February 2013 13:45 (eleven years ago) link
it happens from time to time. i just liked the gold + silver connection although doubtless could have worded it more elegantly.
― ledge, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:50 (eleven years ago) link
oh sorry, did you make it up yourself? wouldn't have criticized it if I'd known. thought it was from a newspaper.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 8 February 2013 13:53 (eleven years ago) link
no need for kid gloves here.
― ledge, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:53 (eleven years ago) link
A bad time for gulls? (5,5,3)
Checking letters if you need them, with which I got the answer fairly easily, but I don't understand it.
― Nataly Dawn's echoey swamp sound (Dan Peterson), Friday, 8 February 2013 15:01 (eleven years ago) link
April Fool's Day. Gull = a gullible person.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 8 February 2013 15:18 (eleven years ago) link
Never heard that in my life.
― Nataly Dawn's echoey swamp sound (Dan Peterson), Friday, 8 February 2013 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
it's the dictionary definition of gull
― Stop Gerrying Me! (onimo), Friday, 8 February 2013 15:54 (eleven years ago) link
Well, yeah, I see that now and I get it, just saying a usage like "that multimillionaire is enough of a gull to believe that it's his personality that attracts women" is one that I have never encountered in a book, movie, daily conversation or crossword. Which is great; I also learned that Handel wrote oratorios based on Saul and Samson.
― Nataly Dawn's echoey swamp sound (Dan Peterson), Friday, 8 February 2013 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
Using an obscure secondary definition like that is a classic way crossword setters use to throw people off the scent.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 8 February 2013 16:10 (eleven years ago) link
christ the prize crossword today is DOING MY HEAD IN
i think i hate bonxie quite a lot
― lex pretend, Saturday, 9 February 2013 12:54 (eleven years ago) link
very enjoyable from y'day's indy crossword, which i turned to after yelling "fucking bonxie" a few too many times:
Somewhat Kiplingesque! (5)
― lex pretend, Sunday, 10 February 2013 10:30 (eleven years ago) link
What's the answer to that one then Lex?
I liked this one in today's Guardian:
1,000-1 betting slip? (7)
― Neil S, Monday, 11 February 2013 13:46 (eleven years ago) link
Slang and other names for the exclamation mark
This punctuation mark is called, in the printing world, "a screamer, a gasper, a startler, or ... a dog's cock".[11]
In hacker culture, the exclamation mark is called "bang", "shriek", or, in the British slang known as Commonwealth Hackish, "pling". For example, "Your password is em-zero-pee-aitch-pling-en-three."
― lex pretend, Monday, 11 February 2013 13:52 (eleven years ago) link
nice!
― Neil S, Monday, 11 February 2013 13:53 (eleven years ago) link
It's not easy to be mostly shy and also appealing to a small group of devotees (9)
― ledge, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 09:02 (eleven years ago) link
Hilarious friend hugging Jim Morrison's woman and half weeping at a music festival (wotd 12)
― ledge, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 09:45 (eleven years ago) link
did you get my one Ledge?
― Neil S, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:46 (eleven years ago) link
Mistake?
― ledge, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:46 (eleven years ago) link
knew you'd get it!
― Neil S, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:48 (eleven years ago) link
-----c---
--------o--a
― ledge, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 14:19 (eleven years ago) link
difficult
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:20 (eleven years ago) link
The other's Lollaplooza, right? Lol +LA + pal +ooz(ing). Or something.
― Tim, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:35 (eleven years ago) link
ooz + a, yup. and yup to difficult too.
― ledge, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:40 (eleven years ago) link
admittedly i didn't have that much time to spend on it, but yesterday's guardian crossword continued my tradition of being unable to get even one single arachne clue - think this is the 3rd arachne crossword i've tried, and the 3rd time i've been left with a completely blank grid
weirdly i really like the way her clues are written, she's just obviously way too smart for me (contra bonxie, who i don't get along with either but who just annoys me)
― lex pretend, Saturday, 16 February 2013 11:17 (eleven years ago) link
unusually I was able to do some of Arachne yesterday. I enjoyed this clue:
Spooner's to kill writer and collect £200! (4, 2)
― Neil S, Saturday, 16 February 2013 11:42 (eleven years ago) link
that was the one i felt most close to getting, but...nope, no idea
already got about a third of today's araucaria though :)
― lex pretend, Saturday, 16 February 2013 11:52 (eleven years ago) link