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

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)

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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'))

got it, i had the wrong duck at first and couldn't make it work

lol yeah i was wrestling with muscovy

Good clue, I got it instantly but I've never heard of a muscovy!

ah

still haven't got the capsule one. think it's an anagram of capsule. but 'upscale' doesn't fit the clue (or does it?)

Specula.

damn

internet anagram server in doesn't know the word 'specula' shocker.

The duck one is mallard right?

correct

also liked this, from the same crossword:

Nancy’s first person with second person’s servant (6)

got it fairly swiftly (we had all the other letters) but struggled to parse it for ages UNTIL i remembered some obscure geography

Guardian, today, I suspect non-Britishers need not apply:

Morals in Violet Elizabeth's county (6)

lol nice one

ha nice

Think I've got this one but would appreciate a hand...

Player of loud music told to get packing (6), R _ _ _ E _

sounds like WR---E-