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

but the clue says acceptance of sweet talk, so it's the everywhere/anywhere thing

yes but the letter count is the thing

In terms of usage, not in terms of it being the answer!

This is why I have problems doing the UK puzzles, these clues that some people think are really clever and that others just groan at.

Hilarious, I lifted it from elsewhere...they obviously lifted it from the Radio Times.
I am shocked and scandalised by this sign depravity in the cryptic crossword industry.

In terms of usage, not in terms of it being the answer!

Ailsa otm - I got it from the letter count but thought it was a sucky clue as "everywhere" is by far the more common usage.

The Radio Times is (or was, when I was still living with my parents and reading their copy every week) about the only crossword I stand a chance of completing, sadly. Sent it off every week for a couple of years but never won anything - guess that's one publication whose stereotypical readership would include a lot of active crossword-completers...

I used to do OK with some of the setters at the Independent too but I wouldn't pay money for an Indy these days so this thread is pretty much my only source of crosswords. Sometimes sneak a look at the Graun website crossword at work but they look too unlike work for extended contemplation.

I would never have got that Araucaria in a million years, still not entirely sure which bits are which even now it's been explained. And yeah, put me down in the camp which has always heard "everywhere".

"Tyre problem - the same by Shakespeare (I'm amazed at your boast!) when year off - brings humourous acceptance of sweet talk (8, 4, 3, 3, 8)"

"tyre problem" - I think "problem" is being used twice, to indicate a problem with the tyre (it's flat) and to indicate an anagram of flat tyre = flattery

the same by - no idea what this bit does

Shakespeare = will

(I'm amazed at your boast!) = get you!

when year off - anagram of "when year" = anywhere

humourous acceptance of sweet talk = Flattery will get you everywhere (doh!)

Oh! Thanks onimo. I didn't get the "get you", but now I do indeed get you. Might otherwise have got "when year off" if I hadn't been too bewildered by the rest of the clue to get there.

From above posts, "tyre problem - the same" is supposed to unpack to "tyre problem = flat, tyre problem -> tyre, anag" but my hat is off to anyone who actually worked that out from the clue.

I used to do OK with some of the setters at the Independent too but I wouldn't pay money for an Indy these days

I guess you wouldn't stoop to The Telegraph either, but theirs is pretty easy these days. They often seem to be based around a particular clue type - an excess of anagrams, or hidden words, or first/last letter clues.

I had a cheerful lunchtime a while ago with a pub copy of the Telegraph, going "if THIS was the right answer it'd be a bit of a shit clue, but it fits, so I'm putting it down!" with the first word to spring to mind for each clue, and then finding that after 20 of these everything actually still fitted together and therefore presumably was right (or I was even more pissed than I thought)

Played in the round = Music of the Spheres.

I've never tried cluing, so will also pass, or postpone.

New to this thread. I've given up almost all crosswords now (I sometimes do Azed, just because I like the insane vocab/nicely clued way it works) but used to try the Guardian most days. I enjoyed its wild variability in difficulty. Just spending hours with a friend staring at Enigmatist clues, crawling towards some kind of answer.

Love Araucaria (between him and Paul for my favourite setter), but the surface sense of that clue is hideous, and the phrase in my head would be 'get you everywhere'.

Spacecadet otm with the Telegraph solving experience.

Yes, "Music of the Spheres".

Yes, love Araucaria and the mechanics of the clue are excellent but strained surface sense = bad clue.

Telegraph has always been the easiest broadsheet as far as I remember, tho the early weekdays in the Graun used to be pretty dull too.

"tyre problem - the same" = tyre problem tyre problem = flat tery = flattery

i.e. I took "the same" to mean "tyre problem" is repeated, the first time as flat the second as an anagram of tyre.

i missed that detail krakow, nice one.

ailsa i was close to agreeing with you, but it didn't sound right with 'everywhere'

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,360,000 for flattery will get you anywhere
Results 1 - 10 of about 219,000 for flattery will get you everywhere

Is that different from what I posted because you didn't use quote marks, therefore not searching for the quote? Which was by Mae West, and quite famous?

could be. i didn't use quotes and my browser fills up with suggestions along the way. everywhere comes in way below anywhere. but 'everything' comes in at only slightly less than anywhere.

didn't know it was a mae west quote.

Should read your google results then :-)

(also where I mentioned it already upthread)

I think we're getting bogged down with this and need to move on. More clues!

Detective without hesitation takes a year to find moneylender (7)

investor

sorry, that's totally wrong, isn't it

you didn't think it through

Shylock

ok if that's right i'm completely nonplussed.

sherlock less 'er' plus y

i was too hung up on trying to make investigator -> investor work : |

One day i'll write a tough clue.

is mine so bad no one's going to attempt it? :(

repost pls thomp

single father (spooner's) used to be horse made of fruitcake (4,3,1,6,5)

jeez sorry i asked

papa was a rollin stone, on a whim

yerp

BUT I DON'T KNOW WHY

it's stollen roan, isn't it

o_O

:D

yeah sometimes genius is very close to just bein a smartarse imo, so there.

you are both correct. whose turn is it?

Sold stolen goods electronically around protection system (7)

defence? e-fenced?

got as far as fence.

defence is correct - anagram of e-fenced. Figured you could say electronically and add an e onto any transaction in this day and age.

yeah no problem with that.

Connected to onimo's, from Azed on Sunday:

Abandoned electrical equipment sat decomposing in sheep's gut (1-5)

e-haggis

First letter CORRECT

derren brown method is working

e-waste

i should give more azeds a go but they always look so daunting.

E-waste correct.

Azed isn't as hard as it looks. I mean some part of it tends to involve sitting around making up words ('rusa?') and then looking them up in the dictionary ('It is a horse!'), but this is pretty much my ideal bedtime activity tbh.

It's v. fairly clued. The barred grid is a bit of a psychological obstacle at first, but it means you get masses of checked letters to make up for the obscure words.

just looking at this weeks, first three (and others) are all 'unclued answer', thanks a bunch.