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

> 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-

some dodgy stuff in that gordius (emi = musical?) but the following got a grin:

Induct Roger to such knowledge (6)

i have no idea how to parse the violet elizabeth one, i think i have the answer but why????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_William

Other recurring characters include Violet Elizabeth Bott, lisping spoiled daughter of the local nouveau riche millionaire (whose companionship William reluctantly endures, to prevent her carrying out her threat "I'll thcream and thcream 'till I'm thick")

fyi i read these timeless classics in the eighties

Violet Elizabeth Bott is a character in the Just William stories who famously has a lisp

i know who violet elizabeth is, i don't understand what she has to do with the answer...

pronounce a county with a strong lisp?

i realised as soon as i posted my last post. aaaaghhhhhh

hah yeah either you get it or not I suppose

Doesn't stand up imo as she'd lisp on the X too.

you don't lisp on an x/ck sound do you?

I think lispers would have trouble with both sibilants and pronounce it ethicth.

Mr. Botts's was an Earthworm (7)

I am absolutely astounded I got this one. Just seeing if anyone else knows the obscure reference.

no.

http://www.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/The-Natural-Born-Salesman.aspx

clue a bit lacking imo.

Agree. Frank W. Lewis (The Nation has a lot of those purely cryptic clues that aren't anagrams or other wordplay, they're just arcane references to things. I guessed this one only because I had spotted the movie title Earthworm Tractors in Leonard Maltin's guide. (Joe E. Brown, 1936. I've never seen it.)

Took my own stab at it. Don't know if this exactly works, but I think so?

Model T, cart or farm vehicle. (7)

Flurry of penetrating rain washed away camping equipment (4,3)

you got it?

yeah

arachne is vg today

i did yesterday's online and it took less than 10 mins. arachne is pretty good as i remember

One for the lex from today's grauniad:

Going further shaking bottom, extremely cute singer (7)

And I wouldn't have got this if I didn't watch Family Guy:

Clam — 50p with a pig? (6)

And this neologism:

One following chatter incessantly, partial to rubbish, their characters limited (10)

Ha nice!

I liked this one from today as well:

14d Like this clue: "Bowel disorder" — its location? (4,5)

i liked the beyoncé one obv but this was my favourite clue in that crossword:

Change of heart in a little Australian prayer (5)

yesterday's enigmatist prize crossword was actually impossible beyond three obvious ones. completely stumped otherwise.

Today's Guardian:

Coldplay's latest hit (newer compilation) (3,7,4)