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

grauniad going for the web developer audience: <span>Minister from cabinet </span><i>almost</i><span> right about several bits of information </span> (9)

^ That confused me a lot because I thought your formatting error was part of the clue!

It's hardly obscure though? I'm far from a web developer and I got it, the computery bit of the clue is a p common word

the tags were included in the clue as printed

Oh haha

(They aren't on the app version)

It almost sounds like John Connor and Kyle Reese avoid Sinatra's regrets (3,3,2,7)

don't get why the setter would want to italicize "almost" anyway

also "press" for cabinet is v obscure

xp I could give this a more contemporary spin:

It almost sounds like Mad Max and Immortan Joe avoid Sinatra's regrets (3,3,2,7)

c.mon, with the letter count it's a gimme

too few to mention

but i don't get why. i recognise the terminator references and the mad max reference but...

i think last week's everyman is languishing in my bag with 0 (zero) clues done. 8(

two future men shun?

would not have got there without letter count (also, while reconstructing the pun got stuck on "Menschen" for a while, and now I'm trying to think of a not completely tortuous context where that could work... afraid I didn't like the "future"/"few to" part so much)

two future men shun?

groans, tortuously constructed ♥️♥️♥️

afraid I didn't like the "future"/"few to" part so much

i'd certainly have been cursing the compiler if i'd seen in a real crossword. even with the 'almost'.

^this post is a clue btw xp

aw

It was a cult AND a sincere post! thats why it's so clever.

*clue ffs

Two points in dog delight (7)

Made me laugh out loud on the train this morning.

still working on it...

grauniand puzzle after lex's heart today, but i struggled.

yeah it's a toughie. Got the long anagram, scratching my head over the rest

Tuesday's Guardian had Eric Clapton as an anagram of Narcoleptic, which was pretty good.

So I finished the prize crossword yesterday, but I can't for the life of me parse this clue:

Guardian Prize crossword No 26,615, 18 Down: President might introduce ads to create trends or reach family men? (4)

I have the answer but don't see how "create trends" fits in? The clue would work without it, so it must mean something, but what?

I can't solve the clue but I think trends = fads

ok that makes no sense to me still. The answer is ford (for dads), I think you're right that fads fits in somehow but I can't make it work. Seems an overstuffed clue to me but maybe it all works lovely once you can see it idk

ah then it's "might introduce ads to create trends" = F + OR + "[might introduce ads to] reach family men" = D

Oh yeah lol

Having no preference in bedroom, police enter here, finding killer in bed (9)

maybe cheeky, maybe offensive, who can say

Seems like setters are really into clueing "bi" recently

first time i've noticed it but i've not been doing crosswords very often lately

One was like "fan of guys and dolls" something something

surely time for setters to start incorporating "cis" into their work

*writes letter to editor*

just seems a handy 3 letter block

Hard to clue for in a non-obvious but non-offensive way prob

didn't stop them with "bi"

Ha true, it's just I can't even think of a way to clue that without adding like a sentence to the clue

It's not sufficiently clear or accurate ("having no preference in bedroom" is obv super-accurate) but the first thing that came to mind was e.g.

Pope's father gets first point as assigned (7)

(I'm not verr good at these; mostly do quicks/GKs these days tbh, over booze w/a cryptic-hating companion)

that's nice. the SJW crossword movement proceeds apace

Annoying one in front of king and son in capital city (7)

i had I _ K _ O _ _ and really wanted this to be INKTOMI but it wasn't to be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iktomi

that must've been irritating ;)

The answer looks really obvious but I can't parse the capital city part?

somewhere in Italy

yes indeed

did all but one of that one on the train on sunday with an eyebrow pencil. left with 'Overall employment system', N_T_O_K, I daresay it will come to me five seconds after typing this...

nope.

cheated. kicking myself. not sure about 'overall' though - seems like exactly the opposite?

I think it works

overall
adjective
ˈəʊvərɔːl/
1.
taking everything into account.

I agree with ledge, it's hard to see the relationship between 'overall' and the answer

on the earlier one, d'oh. I was thinking of R as 'king' and trying to work around that.

Net = taking everything into account, it's like a straight definition

yeah that's fine IMO