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

Yes.

Who is Al?

A L, a learner. (Common over here, 'L' plates on cars indicate learner driver.)

Healthy, sick or broke (6)
-o---t

Smelly and amusing state (5)
--n-- (Previous hint was messed up)

Dies outside icu, sadly (7) (previous numbering was messed up)
--i----

Top monkey times (4)
--e-

Mobile man around tree (6)
----e-

Apex. A pedant writes: ape is not monkey!

I know, but I wanted to use "Monkey Time(s)"

Oh, I wondered if the N was in the wrong place. "Funky"

Suicide

Yes and yes.

Did I ever ask you this one?

Ape aches inside for beauty (5)

No I don't think so.

A propos of nothing at all, my work did a Christmas prize crossword, with some winter festival themed clues, and I can see that one of them must be Diwali but I can't figure the clue out at all, which means I don't know whether they want the W spelling or the V spelling (non-intersecting square). Bah!

Anyway, it'd be unsporting to ask you guys, but still, I thought I'd complain here where people might understand my annoyance.

Why don't you post clue?

Healthy, sick or broke (6)
ro---t

Mobile man around tree (6)
-a--e-

Ape aches inside for beauty (5)
--a--

robust!

Yes!

peach

Yup.

Mobile man around tree (6)
-a--er

Hanger?

Esoteric electronic duo confuse posh teacher (8)

Nope.

-al-er

A kiss, hugs, a wave lead to something to get down to (8)

^Greeting?

Nope.

---i----

Business? sine= wave but don't get buss = kiss.

Esoteric electronic duo confuse posh teacher (8)

--t-----

Yes. "Buss" is old word, used to be slang over here, you guys probably lost it earlier. Here's what OED says

buss /bVs/ n.2 & v.t. & i. Now arch., dial., & N. Amer. colloq.L16. [Prob. alt. of BASS n.3, v.1] (A) kiss.

Still can't get yours, sorry.

Kind of engine school gets an earful (6)

Autechre!

yup!

Damn. For some reason I kept trying to work "Pole" in their. I still don't see how it works.

Mobile man around tree (6)
-alder

anag, teacher + u (posh)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English

calder! d'oh, i even thought of his sculptures, but his name didn't spring to mind.

Kind of engine school gets an earful (6)
--a---

Races around a dictator (6)

Something following a queen and a metal-plated sun-god (5)

Races around a dictator (6)
Ceasar

yes

Something following a queen and a metal-plated sun-god (5)

Okay, I'm sure this is wrong, but I've been trying to get into cryptic crosswords for a while with limited success. Any tips on why I'm an idiot and going about it all the wrong way would be gratefully received. The only answer that I got for this that seemed vaguely plausible was 'carat'. First off, I started with the thing that seems obvious, that sun-god refers to 'ra'. I wasn't sure about the metal-plated, I thought maybe it should be a single letter, but we can relate 'carat' to gold, and gold to metal-plating, so that's where the final answer came in. The queen could be Catherine, hence 'cat' surrounding 'ra'... but the 'something following' is a mystery to me.

That's a good try emil.y, but not quite there yet. Don't feel bad about "going about it all the wrong way" - a lot of times the wrong way is the right way. I mean to say that's the kind of thinking that eventually gives you the right answer.

Train

The key to cryptic clues is that they normally consist of two parts, the definition, and a description of how to build up the word. So because there are only two parts, the definition either has to come first, i.e. at the start of the clue, or second, at the end. In this case it's the start, 'Something following a queen'. Then we get the word-play bit: sun-god is indeed 'ra', which is plated, or covered by, or inside, 'tin'.

Company member is allowed to be involved in illegal activity (9)

Actually I guess it should really be

Company member allowed to be involved in illegal activity (9)

The key to cryptic clues is that they normally consist of two parts, the definition, and a description of how to build up the word. So because there are only two parts, the definition either has to come first, i.e. at the start of the clue, or second, at the end. In this case it's the start, 'Something following a queen'. Then we get the word-play bit: sun-god is indeed 'ra', which is plated, or covered by, or inside, 'tin'.

Ah, yep, that makes much more sense. The reason why I knew my answer must be wrong is that I thought 'metal-plated' was in too strange a position to be the definition part (aside from the fact that it's not a true definition of the word I gave), but completely overlooked the fact that it could be 'something following a queen' rather than 'something following' (which made no sense to me), 'a queen', etc etc...

Yes, ledge is correct. Thing is, sometimes you can see what the answer is without fully breaking the clue down into its components. And sometimes by adjusting wrong guess you make your way to the right one. So don't get hung up about getting it wrong.

Races around a dictator (6)
Ceasar

Think this should be 'races madly around...', fwiw. Otherwise either the anagram isn't indicated, or 'around' is doing double service.

Yeah, that's better.

Also, it's spelled Caesar :-)

Am part of the way there to ledge's, but not enough to actually get an answer...

complicit

yup

Well done. I'd got comp, but was trying to work in "let" for "allowed" which was throwing me a bit.

Yes, I kept trying to get "let" in there too.

Ha, I thought it might be something to do with 'licit' straight away, but couldn't get the 'comp', kept on trying to go with 'CEO' or similar... feel a bit dumb for not automatically thinking licit -> complicit.

Nobody's gonna try this one?

Kind of engine school gets an earful (6)
--a---

I think I know how it works but can't think of any words to fit.