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

Laughed out loud at this one in the Guardian:

Home with red exterior? Blow me! (8)

Novel end for festival with electronic beams wrapping displays up (3,10)

please to explain. 'end of festival' is l, 'electronic' is e, 'beams' is in there as well, but the rest of it?

"displays up" = serab = "bares" up, beams = smiles. It's pretty tortuous but I think it works?

i hope it was a down not an across clue...

This was a good one from Saturday's Guardian:

Children's book in minor novel (3, 5)

Bewildered risible shits (7, 5)

lol

invisiturds

*applause*

Guardian Cryptic crossword No 27,595, 17 Down: Jimmy Carr, with offshore banking, primarily fiddled (7)

I think I get it but I don't know how. Is it a word that could be split in two to form a verb?

Not sure I know what you mean. It’s a verb, one word, you could split it into two words but then it wouldn’t be a verb

like 'X is going to .... ...'

No sorry idgi

I think I done it wrong, will think on

i done got it, it's good. don't think it's strictly ximenean though, apologies for nit-picking. it's good, it's fun, that's all that matters \o/

presumably summat to do with first violin

there was another great clue in today's Graun:

Let's take most of Harrison Ford's fantastic film (7, 2, 3, 4, 3)

I don’t think I’ll ever understand what ximenean means because I don’t see anything remotely cheaty about the jimmy carr clue

I looked up the Jimmy Carr one. I'll forever be a newb at these but what part hints at the meaning of the answer?

I was doing what i always do which is madly guessing the word then trying to retcon the clue.

oh nm I see it now

one day i will understand a single cryptic crossword clue

> I looked up the Jimmy Carr one. I'll forever be a newb at these but what part hints at the meaning of the answer?

SPOILERS

With the Jimmy Carr one, "Carr with offshore banking" contribute letters to the answer and "primarily fiddled" tells you how to get and what to do with those letters which leaves "Jimmy" as the definition. Then you just have to rely on your knowledge of Victorian criminal slang 8)

I don’t think I’ll ever understand what ximenean means because I don’t see anything remotely cheaty about the jimmy carr clue

Well it's the worst kind of old-fashioned prescriptivist pedanticism which even i rmde at; but although the words are in the right order, Carr, with offshore banking, primarily can't really mean carr & wob. The second comma is the problem - Carr, with offshore banking primarily, would be ok, and more or less leave the surface reading intact.

Let's take most of Harrison Ford's fantastic film (7, 2, 3, 4, 3)

some kind of anag, 'something of the something something', need letters!

ok duh

p great I think

agreed!

is it not just the name of a very famous movie he was in

i mean

It's an anagram tho

is it?

of what

and i mean i can see it kinda is if you dont mind it kinda being one

but i mean rly

sorry for disappointing clue

SPOILER

let's take harriso ford

It's a cryptic clue. If the clue was just "Harrison Ford film" then it would be a quick clue. The clever thing is that the definition is just "film"

its imo a copout clue

(i know what a cryptic clue is btw)

It’s perfectly cromulent and very good

in what way is it a copout?

xp

some of, part of, most of are lazy anagrams

nb yes i recognise the irony here

koogs yeah I got everything on that one except Jimmy being the definition. It did dawn on me eventually.

“Most of” to mean “all but the last letter” is standard wordplay that nobody would balk at if it were just part of the construction of the word, using it to get anagram fodder is acceptable because you can have more than one kind of wordplay in a cryptic clue.

Also if you see that you can get “raiders of the lost ark” from “let’s take Harrison Ford” with the simple addition of the word “most”, you take the damn shot; that’s not lazy, that’s elegant

one of my objections is that the clue is a simplex one, the anagram (or if i prefer, pseudoanagram) is mere reverse-engineering merely to suit requirements

lookit thats long enough on the subject im glad everyone else enjoyed it

Fuck usefulness - what’s the use in it? (8)

i have no idea where to begin, but, letters?

futility

all the letters, sure, that'll do.

inspired by real life events:

Place where they stockpile organs (9)

(spoilers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder_Hey_organs_scandal although it's in the news again today)

cold

lol

This week’s prize had “dollar” as a clue for the letter S which doesn’t seem quite kosher but whatever

Mainly I came here to note that the wasteperson who’s doing the Monday xwords lately is fucking dreadful and almost makes me pine for rufus RIP. Just a load of dumb pure cryptic clues (or whatever they’re called) that are both basic and sloppy - there was one that was “put a sock in it (4)” and the answer was SHOE. That’s like a “cryptic clue” a 10 year old would come up with!

Why would 'Slaughter in the theatre' be "BLOODSHED"?

operating theatre? pretty weak.