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

is that wasps as in WASPs? Can think of an answer but can't really justify it.

No

There's a bit of misdirection in this one

Quite clever misdirection imo.

I just did an Everyman with what must be a record (for me) number of words I had never heard of, or usages I had never seen:

Guncotton
Auster (for South wind)
Snaffle
E'er (for always)
Lay (for a song)
Rum (for unusual)

Russian opera reportedly runs with blood online? (6,4)

Not sure I'm getting this. It's Prince Igor. Runs = prints, and gore = blood. Is the "online" making it "E"-gore?

Good grief...

Yeah a bit of a stretch.

Had to cheat for psst *hangs head in shame* - it's a pretty straight clue, the lesson for me is to examine my preconceptions. I was so sure 'wasps sting' couldn't harbour any hidden words that I didn't even look. Gave it to some friends yesterday, they didn't get it either. Then we had a long discussion about the similarity or otherwise of psst and yo and the likelihood of us using either of them.

That's what's good about it, it's deceptive (& the solution being vowelless helps w that)

yo & psst aren't exactly synonymous but they can both be used to mean "listen up" so it works imo

also:

Rum (for unusual)

(Guardian prize spoiler warning) apparently a lustrum is a period of five years. Who knew.

I made this one up today:

Found during warmup: pet sheep, pig and frog, for example. (7)

nice :)

ty! One of the things I've discovered since getting addicted to cryptics is that every word I see I compulsively deconstruct in my head.

Me too, although it rarely leads to a well defined clue. Here's one I struggled to fashion last night, somewhat lacking in finesse as usual:

Verbally introduced to a champagne socialist, primarily in charge within department for investigating the fundamental nature of things (11)

tl;dr

the rufus version: philosophy squared up to a science (11)

zrgnculfvpf, i am guessing. "met a" and then some handwaving.

Ha I like "champagne socialist" there but I don't think it quite works

Male, brother of Rodney, and a boy for Champagne Socialist (9)

Sorry for British

xp met a phys sounds like fizz, socialist primarily = S, IC within. is how i break it down to an extent. i think it's sound...

xp should've got that quicker, suppose i should be grateful it took a while to drag him from memory.

hah apologies again

Here's my (super simple) made up one for today:

Urinate in South Dakota, go quickly! (5)

SPEED

Suggestion of pain in arse leads to arguing (6)

Rowing

Sorry I don't have any clues to hand, will try to find something in tmrws paper

> tmrws

got it! "tomorrow's"

Lol

Wait, I've got one, it's my first go at a clue so be easy on me

Picture from the mad sight, get kicks (3,3,4)

Ah shit excitement got the better of me, that should be (3,3,5)

Brit not quite overcome by a task all too tricky for Li Na? (6,6)

:D

^^^ I glanced at that, and the rest of that puzzle. Gave up after 5 minutes, way too tough. I didn't get this one even looking at the answer:

Film notice written by pundits about that year’s output? (1,3,2,3,5)

An envelope (‘about’) of AYATTHER, an anagram (‘output’) of ‘that year’ in AD (‘notice’) plus ACES (‘pundits’), for the Marx Brothers film.

clear as mud eh. 'output' as anag indicator is weak, and 'aces' for 'pundits' hardly squares with most of the rentagobs you get on tv.

qiqing's has me stumped i'm afraid.

wth is ayatther?

it's all there...

Wait, what? I can't find this via Google or dictionary. Is this one of those that's too British for me?

an anagram (‘output’) of ‘that year’

But doesn't ayatther have to be a real word? Sorry, I'm completely not getting this.

the clue says "write 'ad' and 'aces' about an anagram of 'that year'", the anag doesn't have be a word. it's sound, but it's probably not fair, if you've got no hint as to what the anag should be.

Thanks! I have never seen one where the anagram is not a real word. Good example of why I could not do this puzzle.

I'm not sure it's that unfair actually, there is a hint for the "word" you need, it's the one that will complete the clue to make the name of a film. And I thought "film" was a bit of a thin definition but "marx bros film" would be too easy, and lots of people at fifteensquared.net got it from the letter count. I think it's a bit of a setter's fave due to its length and being full of common letters, pretty sure I've seen it before.

also worth pointing out that the setter of that clue was Enigmatist whose puzzles are always some of the hardest to solve

Yup that too.

Last ever Araucaria today, finished by Philistine. Might have enjoyed it (or been hugely frustrated) if I hadn't spoiled the key clue by skimming the article about it, just like it warned me not to.

Puzzle:
http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26427
Article:
http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2014/nov/25/unexpected-treat-fans-araucaria-guardian-crossword-setter

I suppose enough time has passed for revelation

ledge mine upthread is The Red Shoes

enjoyed that posthumous Araucaria, thanks ledge. Liked the theme a lot though it took me a while to get it.

I didn't understand how some of the ones at the bottom worked, even after I filled them in according to what fitted or the magic of the Cheat button, so I went to fifteensquared to look. The one I was particularly puzzled by was 2 alternative definitions and 4 wordplays in one clue! Completely didn't notice that, I had no idea what any of the clue except the theme indicator/first def and final wordplay were doing in the clue. (smacks forehead)

Also for ILXy lols I got the last letter of 23D wrong (still fitting the def) and tried to convince myself it might be a reference to Manda Rin of Glaswegian 90s indie combo being a bit annoying.

Porcine life form found in craft trapped in white hole at first, then zero gravity (7)

nice

i liked these from the everyman this week

Rim around gold dish (5)

'Stub' - no clue for it, cryptically (11)

xp But not taxing, clearly. I'm destined to be a Rufus.

the zero gravity bit at the end gave it away

^^^ yeah I worked backwards too. Here's an easy one I made up:

Singer staples most of map and half of visa. (5)

Ah, crap, make that 'most of map and most of visa.'

nice def. 'most' tends to be frowned upon, too vague (not really a problem in this case but...) - you could go for last letter deletion instead, incomplete visa or something.

I was happy to work this one out in today's Grauniad

Weapon offering promise of American woman? (10)