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

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (5780 of them)

sputa?

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Thursday, 16 March 2006 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Archel's one is "reception". I still don't have the confidence to make any up myself though, so fire in, anyone who wants to.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 16 March 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

I think I was running on a clue defecit. But if my brain kicks in I'll post it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 16 March 2006 19:39 (twenty years ago)

I quite liked this one from today's paper: Fish given low score? (4)

You could probably fill a whole book with fish-themed crosswords.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 17:51 (twenty years ago)

Inject heroin into depressed fish. (4)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 17:58 (twenty years ago)

Faux fish? (3)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Archel's is "bass", which is a nice clue.

Casuistry's first one is "shad". I didn't actually know that was a type of fish, I just guessed from the clue.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 18:47 (twenty years ago)

cod

A Spanish hello upon rising is hello, goodbye (5)

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 17:57 (twenty years ago)

Fictional don's utterance of surprise before spaghetti chef (8)

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Aloha

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 18:03 (twenty years ago)

Book 'em, ailsa!

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 18:09 (twenty years ago)

Corleone. But who is Leone?

― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 20:19 (twenty years ago)

Some spaghetti chef, perhaps?

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 20:20 (twenty years ago)

Sergio

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 20:22 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah. Chef?

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 20:22 (twenty years ago)

Spaghetti maker, perhaps.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 20:25 (twenty years ago)

or like chef d’école.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 20:25 (twenty years ago)

I like spaghetti chef - a good cryptic definition.

Many headed monster you beat shortly is water-powered (9)

― ledge (ledge), Thursday, 30 March 2006 09:00 (twenty years ago)

I don't understand Archel's :(

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:02 (twenty years ago)

hyraulic

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:02 (twenty years ago)

er, hyDraulic, even.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:02 (twenty years ago)

(near impossible, I'll post an easier one in a sec)

Putting something on top of 0.01? Part of lung follows. (8)

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:09 (twenty years ago)

Oh wait! Ignore that!

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:10 (twenty years ago)

Field position for getting a percentage? (5)

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:12 (twenty years ago)

Point

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:33 (twenty years ago)

No-Man's-Land taken over by Napoleon (6,4)

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:44 (twenty years ago)

Haha I meant cover! But point seems totally fine.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 11:02 (twenty years ago)

Was it 'reception' you didn't understand G?

'Party' is the definition. Then it's re ('about') + cep (type of mushroom) + tion (anag. of 'on it' indicated by 'spinning').

Ooh that napoleon one was in the paper and I couldn't get it then either :(

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 30 March 2006 11:03 (twenty years ago)

It was the bass one, chel!

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 30 March 2006 11:05 (twenty years ago)

Oh right! 'Low score' is used in a musical sense ie the bass voice would sing the low notes.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 30 March 2006 11:10 (twenty years ago)

scotsvo's one reminded me - does anyone know if there's an online thing that lets you jumble up the letters from an anagram into a series of random orders - ie not a thing that finds actual words only (which doesn't help you cheat when proper nouns are involved)?

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 30 March 2006 11:16 (twenty years ago)

scotstvo's one isn't an anagram though, is it? It's Animal Farm (I hope)

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 30 March 2006 15:58 (twenty years ago)

Ailsa is on fire

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:08 (twenty years ago)

She must be extinguished!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:22 (twenty years ago)

:-(

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:25 (twenty years ago)

Crab time in monastery (9)
Yell about everything softly in stadium (8)

― In The Court Of The Redd King Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:28 (twenty years ago)

Ballpark. Every time this thread dies I half-heartedly try and come up with a clue for Revive! but I never get much further than mumbling to myself about IV drips.

― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:00 (twenty years ago)

I can't decide what I think about this one, but I'm giving it to you anyway.

Soft drinks or beer? (4,3)

― In The Court Of The Redd King Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Hit the gas! I have to wake up! (6!)

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Soft drinks or beer? (4,3)

Pale ale!

― ledge (ledge), Monday, 17 April 2006 08:39 (twenty years ago)

Or, the thread where Greg repost clues from The Oxford Times that he has now seen seen the answers too but still doesn't get, wtf?

King leaves to shorten meeting(7) = CONTACT, apparently!?

Either way you can play it(5) = DARTS (okay I have just googled, are they abbreviating 'Stradivarius'? What a bunch of nobbers.)

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 18:03 (twenty years ago)

King = regis = R. Take R out of "contract" (as in opposite of expand, i.e. shorten) and you get "CONTACT" which is a meeting.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 18:29 (twenty years ago)

(the R thing might not be Regis, but it's the R that you see on postboxes with a monarch's initials on it, whatever the male equivalent of Regina is anyway)

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 18:32 (twenty years ago)

Rex, isn't it?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 18:45 (twenty years ago)

That's the chap! Or is it, I don't know. It's what's on the postboxes anyway. (sorry, I'm useless)

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 18:47 (twenty years ago)

Oh right! That's quite clever, actually. Nice one ailsa.

How do people feel about that 'to' there? Is that kind of fluff a necessary evil for readable clues?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Maybe it's to drop a hint that it's a verb you're looking for (specifying that the "contract" is the verb meaning to shorten, and not the noun version of the same word)? Or maybe I am just waffling, as without knowing the answer, you wouldn't actually have that distinction to make. (I don't think that makes as much sense written down as it does in my head)

To be fair, I don't think I'd have got that from the clue, but it made sense and was relatively easy to work back when I have the answer in front of me.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 19:47 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

Bonanza note about opened pack (7)

Art deco rules! (4)

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 14:58 (twenty years ago)

This one is even worse:

Young girls spill guinness and rotate a point (8)

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 15:05 (twenty years ago)

Code.

I'm not sure about the others though.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 15:09 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 5680 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.