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

Duh, iceberg, I'm sure that's what he was going for. Dunno why that didn't occur to me. Which comes from berg = mountain anyway.

Sad news about Araucaria. Although I still don't get 90% of his clues.

yeah, was almost getting a bit weepy about that. bit pissed too, mind. felt there was a touch of larkin's going, going about it in a way. last of an old world that wasn't the horrible old ersatz tory world we seem to see being ressurected in rhetorical stone around us. he wasn't averse to unfuddyish pop culture refs either. that said, lex's want to modernise cryptic crosswords is an interesting path into

it's something i've periodically thought about, as probably anyone has who has thought like NV 'tar wtf'. so evocative of a period yet has become an abstract knowledge set. how to update? how do we define a common educated xword lexicon? with educated not being, surely, 'type of school' educated. it needs to be open to a wide set of populist and high subjects, so to take two examples - sport... um... what's 'high' but not public school these days? not classics, obv. history is surely still available. periodic table can stay (I learnt more it from crosswords than chemistry).

Pop charts would have felt fair game at a time when they were more central than they are now, but it's hard to see where pop can get a look in, unless it's pop-beyond-pop - Superbowl Beyonce level, but that's not going to provide a set of terms. other sorts of 'pop', like high-street shops maybe. modern slang could probably come in. i don't do crosswords regularly, but surely 'lol' has made an appearance.

what other new areas provide large amounts of well-known technical terms and abbreviations? (Cricket being the best example from current crosswords).

Got to go to bed. Seeing my nan in the morning, still a demon whist and crossword fiend at Araucaria age - see if she's got any ideas.

interesting path into...

um

modern stuff

One for lex in today's Guardian...

Temporary suspension gives a diva a change of heart (8)

I liked that.

Teared up at the Araucaria news too. He's one of the greatest setters, and for every clue where there's a warped surface or liberty with 'the rules', there are a dozen that are ingenious, dazzling, entertaining, unexpected, neat – he's the most fun.

He's also lured a lot of people in I think – he's the one occasional solvers remember, partly for the name, and partly for those elliptical alluring (2,3,3,4,5,6,2, 7,3,4) type clues, or the mad interlocking multiple x-ref ones. There's a real sense of accomplishment when you realise you're getting him and solving his grids - reach a point where you really look forward to his name appearing. As I've said before he (with Paul) remains my favourite Guardian setter.

It will not be the same without him, at all.

One for lex in today's Guardian...

Temporary suspension gives a diva a change of heart (8)

― jlgt, Saturday, January 12, 2013 5:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the sad thing is i still can't solve this

starts with an a

abeyance!!!!!!!

beyoncé reference! yes!

Help! Two I do not understand even when I have the answer:

Sort of this to a sort of 13, worn by some men. (7) (13 was "Flower pots tie in a better arrangement, possibly = POINSETTIA)

The answer is TIEPINS. Why?

Republicans not about to be hosts, perhaps. (10) = INNKEEPERS. How does this work?

first one is an anagram with "to a" removed, feels badly clued but i'm pretty hungover/drunk

Republicans without "about" = -re = publicans = innkeepers

is the first one "Short of this" or "sort of this"?

first one kinda works, anag of 'this to a' where 'this' = 'tiepins'. although two 'sorts' seems superfluous.

So, on the first one they're using one "sort" to mean anagram, which is common, and a second to mean discard? Which I've never seen.

i don't like the first clue at all, can't make it work properly

Second one is pretty simple when it's explained to me, but "not about" meaning there is no "RE" seems clumsy to me too. Didn't care for either of those.

you don't like that, how about this:

A pious type, Winston, fit to move the queen (10) = CHURCHGOER - winston fit = churchill - ill

(today's grauniad)

Wow, that's a stretch, and I have to admit I still dont get where GOER comes from. Move = GO and ER = ?

Elizabeth Regina, our Queen

Yeah, I just used Wiki. I've never seen that one before.

iirc king/queen can also be just r for rex/regina.

guardian prize:

Buggery? It's a personal matter (7,8)

ans: nobody's business. what's it got to do with buggery?

bugger all

two meanings of "nobody's business"

literal - "this is nobody's business but my own"
idiomatic - "he drank that pint like nobody's business"

idiomatic meaning of "nobody's business" = idiomatic meaning of "buggery"

not super familiar with that idiom but i can see that.

both mean "vigorously" if you look it up, cdn't think of what the equivalence was for a sec

both feel like they're probably regional usages to me tho, slightly old-fashioned too

Enjoyable theme in today's Guardian, actually allowed me to finish more than half of it already, a rarity!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25860

Safeguard of present containing gold and silver hidden in vault (7)

Finished the Guardian (Paul) pretty swiftly, after getting the theme. Moved on to the Times and managed to get one single bloody clue. Looking at all of them thinking "I just don't know where to begin".

Theme of Grauniad of interest to ILMers btw.

couldn't deal with the theme today, gave up as soon as i realised what it was

yesterday's grau crossword was literally impossible

enjoyed saturday's araucaria v much though

except for obscure liberian, malaysian, and shetland-isms.

the liberian/malaysian one was hilariously obscure

Safeguard of present containing gold and silver hidden in vault (7)

---r-g-

Storage

"or" being gold "ag" being silver, etc.

and the other 3 letters?

Ach, trifling things like accuracy matter not (i.e. was skimming and not reading properly).

ah, ok, stage + or AND store = ag

store + ag

yep two wordplays for price of one, this clue is value for money.

"Ag" in "store", and "or" in "stage". how's that?

bah, xposts while I got my reasoning straight.

Not sure I like that very much. "Safeguard of present containing gold" would have been fine on its own. Never heard of two subsidiary indicators in one clue before.

it happens from time to time. i just liked the gold + silver connection although doubtless could have worded it more elegantly.

oh sorry, did you make it up yourself? wouldn't have criticized it if I'd known. thought it was from a newspaper.

no need for kid gloves here.

A bad time for gulls? (5,5,3)

Checking letters if you need them, with which I got the answer fairly easily, but I don't understand it.

April Fool's Day. Gull = a gullible person.