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

sealskin
vg

Pale imitation amongst performers at z-list event. (6)

nice

Oh Haha I just got it, duh. I kept seeing the hidden word "steven" which threw me off.

I have to confess I needed the answer key for 'sealskin'; I had 2 of the checking letters wrong. Sometimes the punniness is too much for me.

'Pale imitation' one is great.

someone put me out of my misery

/shoots ledge

...ers at z...

fuck it i had ersatz and cdn't figure out why

hidden word clues are the lowest of the low

shit! (not the clue, i thought wins' post meant it wasn't a hidden word.)

hidden word clues are only bad because they make you feel like an idiot for not spotting them.

exactly

I like them as the foot-in-the-door for barred grids - initial taste of hope in impossible crossword.

can admire showy ones too

What's in Latin sign, if I can translate, is of no importance (13)

(reading draft of friend's crossword book, took that from there).

also nice!

From today's Guardian:

Fickle Charlie Clark ingesting drug? (10)

nice

Siamese twin taken in by audible element of debt scam (11)

Man, I just went to The Guardian to see the answer for Fickle Charlie Clark and my brain exploded, not only from that one but TAPSTER? COURGETTE?

Never in a month of Sundays would I come up with CHAN and GABLE from Charlie Clark.

Glad I'm not the only one!

yeah but changeable was pretty obvious from the get go, then you work backwards

I actually tried to think of Charlies and Clarks, managed Chan and Gable, from there it was easy.

Courgette is the British word for zucchini, and is pretty common.

Fish can do on lines (4, 4) (observer yesterday)

A sailor tours museum for manifestation of a god (6)

Guardian, today. Thinking on yours koogs!

I had to get most of the checking letters before I got the fish. Nicely misleading (although the 'lines' should give it away really).

yeah, i had 1st and 3rd letters of both words. was the euphemisms for 'toilet' thing that i liked.

A sailor tours museum for manifestation of a god (6)

Avatar

Can't get the fish lines one

yes! and neither can I on the fish lines clue.

lines = railway = ry...

it's an obscure fish. think nemo's friend. (although it turns out she's a blue tang, despite her name)

clue is an odd mix of synonyms, literals and abbreviations.

i often find myself wishing setters would use slang that people actually use. who has said "tar" for sailor in the past 30 years?

got it!

lex, I agree that "tar" is not widely used IRL but it's a fairly standard use for "sailor" I think?

in crosswords that is...

many of the cryptic standards are kinda dissatisfying (esp all the nautical ones), there are surely other options

a john dory is not really obscure if you like fisheses

xp part of the fun though? Cracking archaic codes and all that. There are of course more self-consciously modern setters who don't use those older conventions.

crossword abbreviations are pretty much their own language now, am sure most setters aren't averse to modern abbrevations but stopping using archaic ones would be getting rid of a handy tool.

> a john dory is not really obscure if you like fisheses

if...

(i probably didn't mean obscure. it's an odd name for a fish, sound's more like a human name)

i get your point but it's quite a common fish

Plastic capsule, which may be inserted into orifices (7)

From today's grauniad. I can usually get about ten guardian clues on Monday and a few on Tuesday. After that it's just too hard for me

i liked this from last week:

Mussels and lychees for starters at The Fat Duck? (7)

nice!

brilliant

hint?

for starters = first letters of...

(stumbled on answer whilst looking up how to spell muscovy and it's obvious when you see it. (it's not 'muscovy'))