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

Nice one!

there have been some nice unclued words lately - eidolon, mawkish, loup-garou, cantrip

untearable, tricksy (7 wotd, it's right there, look)

Supreme happiness of topless dude pursuing proto hippy generation with sex appeal (9, wotd)

trademark ledge clue there...

you mean an awkwardly worded and obvious charade? ;)

lots of words chiselled into bits and reassembled.

they're the most fun to come up with imo, but i should branch out a bit.

> lots of words chiselled into bits and reassembled.

like a 1-d mosaic

hexagonal bit causes conflict (4 wotd)

(not a word i knew tbh)

Dutch rave music, unusual at first, is confusing source of irritation. (7 wotd)

oof. that's like you're double encrypting something. is a step too far.

ah, gabber. yeah indirect anagrams are a big no-no, shame as it's a really nice surface.

(fyi it's just considered unfair to expect the solver to guess a synonym and then anagrammise it.)

From today's Guardian:

Ointment for a Frenchman round the bend? (7)

one of my favourite words.

could've just put Gabber in the clue above tbh, made it a straightforward anagram.

^^^ yeah, I should've done it that way. Still learnin'.

Practice makes perf... uh, better than the last one?

Edible stem, cob lie scattered (10, wotd)

Solid.

Araucaria today, had to look up three or four (obscure queens: zenocrate, hippolyta) and look up the explanations for another four or five (odyl = a hypothetical force, who knew?)

I think this works. wotd

Ecosystem Wind Erosion: revealing, stirring speech. (4-6)

(fyi it's just considered unfair to expect the solver to guess a synonym and then anagrammise it.)

― itt: 'splaining men (ledge), Tuesday, 6 November 2012 13:31 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i swear the guardian setters do this all the time

Nah man I do the grauniad every fucking day and if they pulled that shit i would fucking do one.

yeah you can turn 90 degrees once and once only imo

(fyi it's just considered unfair to expect the solver to guess a synonym and then anagrammise it.)

Not synonym exactly, but this one from The Nation is kinda in that ballpark:

Sort of where the partridge was at Christmas? That's clever! (8)

i think if you can work them out (repartee, right?) and understand how you've worked them out then they're at least technically legit

Yeah. You guys are better at these than I am, and I guess there's only one obvious answer for this (peartree) vs. Dutch rave music, but I stared at this for a long time before I figured out it was a solve and then anagram clue.

tbh Dutch rave music only ever equalled Gabber to me when i read yr clue

lols at today's words of the day...

maybe try to combine them somehow...

could you re-up the links for word of the day? i never know where i'm looking

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday

http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

this also useful:
http://wordsmith.org/anagram/

ta

reveal breasts after attractive woman goes bottomless (wotd 7)

er i mean (8)

Confess hell rests on boobs (8)

grauniad is getting more and more risque btw:

Bird gets to lick syrup around man's rear (7)

Bird's vitals gets ILB all aflutter. (7 wotd)

mmmmmm

Ok ok, should've thought a bit longer.

Swift's contents gets ILB all aflutter

got it, nice! One for the US people this week...

I liked this one in today's Guardian:

Painter of some force? (9)

yeah we enjoyed that one.

I've actually nearly managed to finish today's, which I'm pretty pleased about, even if Rufus' puzzles tend to be easier than those set by say Araucaria.

From one I just completed:

In a very short time, it may be this month. (7)

The answer is instant, because according to internet research "we received your letter of the 10th instant" was actually a thing that could be typed in a business letter in, oh, say 1865...

stuffy busy guys will still use "of the 1st inst." occassionally i believe

stuffy business guys i meant :p

it's a usage i suspect most Brits wdn't know either

There are also 'ultimo' and 'proximo!' Almost every example I can find seems antiquated as all hell. Might lawyers still use this, maybe? I learn something new every day.

“Besides the loss which he sustained on the night of the 23d ultimo, which is estimated at 400, he cannot have suffered less between that period and the morning of the 18th instant than 3000; having, within that time, been repulsed in two general attempts to drive us from our position, and there having been continual cannonading and skirmishing during the whole of it.”
The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876

I think ultimo or proximo might have the odd xword appearance over here, i remember my solving companions talking about them a little while back.

I think "inst." and "ult" are more a Civil Service kind of thing than a business thing, I used to see them from time to time when I worked in the Civil Service.