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

Happy to give a pass sometimes e.g. for the ungrammatical solution to araucaria's "a y is one also" (axis) because lol cuet. But not here.

groan

21 US president, a two-dimensional pussy (8)

a couple of nice ones in today's Graun:

Stage a coup? Balls might (9)
Tree-hugger repeatedly getting Sturgeon's vote? (3-3)

more cheating for ledge to enjoy:

December 25th but not April 5th or July 3rd? (4)

it's taken me two days to think of two four letter words for christmas, one of them is more promising than the other but i can't justify it, cheating or otherwise.

Noel. No-el.

Don't fight it.

Shoots self

Right? That question mark is being made to work overtime. "L" rendered as a word is "ell"! Any dictionary will tell you that.

That doesn't bother me next to my inability to think of three four letter words for Christmas.

my objection to that is, why is "l" clued twice? why do we need july 3rd there at all? i dislike inefficient cluing almost as much as archaic slang.

This one, for being an Everyman, I could not parse for the life of me, even after I figured out the answer:

Doctor with obligations guarding against inducements (7)

inducements are IOUs

docious? doesn't really mean what the clue says tho

If you want hints, it involves a medical abbreviation I've never seen before, and another for "against" that I have seen but it just wasn't registering.

drivers?

MOTIVES

yeah, you see MO for doctor occasionally, short for "medical officer" iirc

MO was new to me, and I just wasn't getting the V either. Totally fair once I saw the solution, though.

Speaking of Everyman, the new one is vexing me greatly. I just can't parse most of these, I only have one answer so far. 13 and 14 letter words, really?

On 3578 I got one 3-letter word.

Doing slightly better this week, but only slightly.

I finished 3578, although didn't understand the MOTIVES clue above. 3579 is the one I'm on, and I only have 9 down. I think I read they changed setters?

idk I just loaded it up on my phone to see what a difficult Everyman looks like & I'm getting thru it at the normal rate, not seen anything that's made me go "oh c'mon!". It helps that I got three of the long clues almost instantly. Having said that I'm sure I'll hit a wall now

Yeah, this isn't as hard as I first thought, I just think the cluing and my brain are not quite on the same wavelength sometimes. I'm about halfway in.

Finally finished, with a bit on online research. These are examples of "harder than past Everyman puzzles" imo:

14 King with work in store around westward citadel
ACROPOLIS

24 Capital account without pound in it is abandoned
TBILISI

Although this one I liked a lot!

27 Employ glam rock band with energy coming back
EXERT

Yeah that was nice.

Not really enjoying cryptics all that much at the mo. Probably because since moving jobs I'm doing them on my own, where before I'd do them with a couple of colleagues every lunchtime. Maybe because I'm doing them at my desk, instead of in the pub. Perhaps because I'm no longer having a pint alongside.

all that stuff takes the shine off, true

Yeah those are the best contexts

Been doing crosswords at work with the deputy lab manager - not my boss, but my immediate superior. He's a novice so still learning the conventions/frustrations. It's been fun, yesterday we had like half an hour longer for break cause he wanted to finish it!

Been meaning to ask: why are setters always using "rejected" to mean backwards/inverted? It's one of those things you just accept but I'm not convinced it actually makes sense.

Is the thinking "rejected"="sent back"?

that wd be my guess. it's not the best but so much of cryptics is learning the jargon

Cryptics are a solo experience for me (being American, anyone I've ever showed them to reacts like I'm explaining quantum physics.) No pubs either, puzzles are mainly for my train ride to/from work. Although I've taken long car trips with my parents and had them read the clues out loud, and I solve them in my head as I drive.

Was anyone able to solve this one in the Everyman unaided?

Flower in good composition held by small child (10)

my botanical knowledge would have to be a hell of a lot better to get that unaided.

in the grauniad today "up the eiffel tower" indicates a french word. "in paris" or similar is common enough and i guess i don't mind setters getting a bit more florid if it leads to a nice surface. that wasn't the case here.

is there a list of French indicators anywhere?

Yeah that was awful even if he did question-mark it. Liked the grid on the whole though - nice and easy!

In general I think "in [place in france]" or "for [french person]" is acceptable, there's nothing wrong with "the Eiffel Tower" per se except it's awkward & feels like he's going for some weak euphemism w "poked my darling up the Eiffel Tower"

Flower in good composition held by small child = Mignonette, by the way, which I'd never heard of. Add in that "composition" = nonet and "small child" = mite, and I couldn't get this even with all the crossers.

yeah that's v tough for everyman. still at least it was an actual flower, not a river. (flower = thing that flows, if you haven't come across that delightful construction before.)

I have come across that so many times I usually think of it *before* I think of an actual flower.

Me too!

Detective wearing singlet on air got rattled (12)

Easy enough clue in today's Everyman, but one element I could see upsetting people (not me tho, I like stuff like that)

grauniad going for the web developer audience: <span>Minister from cabinet </span><i>almost</i><span> right about several bits of information </span> (9)

^ That confused me a lot because I thought your formatting error was part of the clue!

It's hardly obscure though? I'm far from a web developer and I got it, the computery bit of the clue is a p common word

the tags were included in the clue as printed

Oh haha

(They aren't on the app version)

It almost sounds like John Connor and Kyle Reese avoid Sinatra's regrets (3,3,2,7)

don't get why the setter would want to italicize "almost" anyway

also "press" for cabinet is v obscure

xp I could give this a more contemporary spin:

It almost sounds like Mad Max and Immortan Joe avoid Sinatra's regrets (3,3,2,7)

c.mon, with the letter count it's a gimme