that is fair enough I SUPPOSE but they should still be executed for putting definitions in the undefined clues
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:30 (seven years ago) link
oh yes hanging's too good for them!
― Neil S, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:36 (seven years ago) link
can someone explain "four pennies" to me now? My best guess is that "4p porridge" was a meme a few years ago due to Anne Jenkin
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:36 (seven years ago) link
king = george rex = GRporridge = OATS
GROAT - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groat_(coin)
(also, a tanner = 6p in old money)
― koogs, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:40 (seven years ago) link
morelike GROAN
(I forgot "could provide" as a reverse-clue thingy)
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:44 (seven years ago) link
got the tanner thing obv, even tho unlike the setter I live in the time when George is not the King
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:46 (seven years ago) link
oh yeah it is def v satisfying filling them all into the grid, working out which ones can go in first, etc, and I felt vaguely triumphant when I half-cheated/half-guessed some of the last few and suddenly worked out how the apparently inscrutable clue fitted together - yes, that is the usual joy of crosswords, but there were some particularly inscrutably surfaced clues here, for better or for worse
also either I was lucky or the grid was quite kindly and cleverly put together, in that I started filling in when I had maybe only half the answers worked out and tentatively filled in several spots which might also have fitted not-yet-solved ones and yet I didn't have to backtrack at all, so that was nice
but still, 3 clue types which are not my favourites: cricket + lots of wacky reverse clues (no real reason why I don't like these except that I'm bad at spotting them) + "undefined" clues which sort of are defined and you lose track of which words are clue and which are spurious definition and which are both or neither
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 2 January 2017 00:19 (seven years ago) link
one I've just remembered not liking/not getting: the unthemed U, a double def where the answer doesn't fit the 1st half of the clue grammatically, and the second half doesn't seem great either
maybe I am just a parts of speech pedant and/or reading it wrong
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 2 January 2017 00:27 (seven years ago) link
That was one I got pretty quickly but went "nah it can't be that surely" then saw that it had to be when I was jigsawing
― wins, Monday, 2 January 2017 00:37 (seven years ago) link
"expressions I know cause I've heard granny say them" eg "never-never" as a synonym no one uses anymore for a term no one uses anymore
how did this one even work?
the 50-year-old idioms/synonyms and cultural references only pensioners would get bug me more, and there are so many of them. feels like the actual current world of slang and linguistic evolution is completely untapped and i'm actually wondering, like NV, whether anyone involved has any idea of how to keep this going as an art form?
also, a lot of the time when an answer is outside your frame of reference it's still satisfying to see how it works and learn something new - enigmatist crosswords are always good for this - but this was both difficult and unsatisfying. seeing how the 4p porridge thing and never-never work are just like, oh, i don't give a shit about these.
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 08:43 (seven years ago) link
Perhaps this one is a bit more to people's taste: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/prize/27082 Saturday's prize, which has a good thematic element but is very tough IMO.
― Neil S, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 09:27 (seven years ago) link
found the HP abbreviation more problematic than never-never tbh, although the latter is indeed more a thing my granny might have said (or more likely some 70s/80s sitcom) rather than something I'd say
I might just be ignorant and/or brought up terribly middle class tho seeing as a quick google for "hire purchase" includes "(HP)" in most of the first several results
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 10:58 (seven years ago) link
I've def seen HP used (maybe in GCSE history tho tbf, that's genuinely where I first encountered the phrase hire-purchased)
xp I started that one, it is indeed fiendish - might be out of practice tho as I hadn't done any in ages until I saw this thread bumped
― wins, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 11:11 (seven years ago) link
HP and "never-never" are within my actual memory but I'm provincial working class oldster which explains a lot
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 11:13 (seven years ago) link
oh also I've been doing it on the app & didn't see there are special instructions ffs xp
― wins, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 11:14 (seven years ago) link
also 20-odd years ago I did debt chasing for the Inland Revenue and hire purchase was a thing we needed to know about on vehicles and factory plant etc
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 11:15 (seven years ago) link
xp yeah that would certainly make it more difficult! I failed to understand the instructions properly to begin with until the other half managed to set me straight, after which we made some progress...
― Neil S, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 12:32 (seven years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08h7trr
― koogs, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 20:15 (seven years ago) link
(whoops, was expecting facebook-style embed to happen)
The Riddle of the SphinxInside No. 9, Series 3
Nina thinks Professor Squires has all the answers when actually, neither has a clue what the future holds. With deadly intent, they commence a battle of wits to solve the puzzle and reveal the guardian of their fate.
― koogs, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 20:16 (seven years ago) link
in other news, finished my first Everyman in about 6 months the other day, No 3670.
― koogs, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 20:18 (seven years ago) link
nearly fell off my chair when I saw the 50 Cent reference in the Sphinx crossword
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 21:22 (seven years ago) link
quiet round here lately! My very own hand-crafted clue:
Substitute for one getting married results in a busy area? (8, 4)
― André Ryu (Neil S), Friday, 21 July 2017 14:20 (seven years ago) link
Rats I meant this one (not a clue)
Wound, sounds like rapt attention (4)
― Gary Synaesthesia (darraghmac), Sunday, 12 November 2017 22:14 (six years ago) link
gaze? as in graze rhymes with it
― Einstein, Bazinga, Sitar (abanana), Sunday, 12 November 2017 22:44 (six years ago) link
Nope!
― Gary Synaesthesia (darraghmac), Sunday, 12 November 2017 23:00 (six years ago) link
*shrugs*
I'm busy but can someone do something with Isambard/Islamabad, thx
― Monogo doesn't socialise (ledge), Thursday, 16 November 2017 14:22 (six years ago) link
Hmm I'm either too clever or wrong and I know which one it usually is
Answer is coil
― fake pato is kind of racist, dude (darraghmac), Thursday, 16 November 2017 14:52 (six years ago) link
answer to my clue above is "standing room"
― Neil S, Thursday, 16 November 2017 14:56 (six years ago) link
Haidg the coil one at all, all I got is that wound = coiled
― treeship: a year in the life (wins), Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:03 (six years ago) link
Wrapped at tension but I mean idk
― fake pato is kind of racist, dude (darraghmac), Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:21 (six years ago) link
"not further defined" is bad enough, "a letter must be added" twists the knife. bullshit, not fun.
― Here comes the phantom menace (ledge), Sunday, 24 December 2017 18:25 (six years ago) link
Hah I've printed it off & will have a crack maybe Boxing Day but my initial reaction to these is always jfc
― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Sunday, 24 December 2017 19:01 (six years ago) link
I've started it, it's not so bad. As ever the special instructions are confusingly worded so they sound more complicated than they are - basically each set contains two complete clues, definition and all, and you have to add a letter to one of the solutions to form a new word. Does that make sense?
― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Sunday, 24 December 2017 20:31 (six years ago) link
what's this about now?
― Einstein, Bazinga, Sitar (abanana), Sunday, 24 December 2017 20:48 (six years ago) link
saturday's guardian holiday crossword.
― koogs, Sunday, 24 December 2017 20:53 (six years ago) link
it's not on the site because it has two grids. i can post it if you're interested.
― koogs, Sunday, 24 December 2017 20:55 (six years ago) link
is this it? https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2017/dec/24/jumbo-everyman-christmas-crossword
― Einstein, Bazinga, Sitar (abanana), Sunday, 24 December 2017 21:00 (six years ago) link
no. two identical 15x15 grids with special instructions
― koogs, Sunday, 24 December 2017 21:17 (six years ago) link
It's the prize xword
― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Sunday, 24 December 2017 21:55 (six years ago) link
this must be it https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2017/dec/23/prize-crossword-no-27388
― Einstein, Bazinga, Sitar (abanana), Sunday, 24 December 2017 22:06 (six years ago) link
That's the one
― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Sunday, 24 December 2017 22:09 (six years ago) link
each set contains two complete clues, definition and allno, one is undefined!
― Here comes the phantom menace (ledge), Monday, 25 December 2017 09:11 (six years ago) link
ps happy christmas!
Oh sure the new words aren't defined, I just mean that neither of the clues is just the wordplay part (which is what I usually dislike about "not further defined"), so eg a (6;6) has a pair of complete clues inc definitions but one will be for a 5-letter word & then you just need to add a letter to make another word. By maskerade's standards, not that annoying imo!And yes, merry x(word)mas!
― Bitcoin Baja (wins), Monday, 25 December 2017 10:12 (six years ago) link
hmm putting it like that doesn't sound so bad. i've only been looking at this with the 1% of my attention left over from looking after a 21 month old, maybe that explains my difficulties.
― Here comes the phantom menace (ledge), Monday, 25 December 2017 10:36 (six years ago) link
Nice one in the Gdn today:
After drink, rock group has drugs for another group (8)
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Wednesday, 21 March 2018 07:45 (six years ago) link
got stuck on '...eloes' then thought hmm maybe it's not elo, bingo.
― lana del boy (ledge), Wednesday, 21 March 2018 12:51 (six years ago) link
Oh that's a great one! Took me Ledge's comment to get it though
― carrotless, turnip-pocketed (fionnland), Wednesday, 21 March 2018 13:02 (six years ago) link
Couldn't get it, had to cheat and peek. "ES" for drugs bugs me.
This one made me laugh recently: Vegetable rubbish in dump (6)
― No energy, only great chaos (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 21 March 2018 17:40 (six years ago) link
Can someone tell me that drinks one please? I think I have it but not sure...
― kinder, Wednesday, 21 March 2018 19:16 (six years ago) link