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

Ok ok, should've thought a bit longer.

Swift's contents gets ILB all aflutter

got it, nice! One for the US people this week...

I liked this one in today's Guardian:

Painter of some force? (9)

yeah we enjoyed that one.

I've actually nearly managed to finish today's, which I'm pretty pleased about, even if Rufus' puzzles tend to be easier than those set by say Araucaria.

From one I just completed:

In a very short time, it may be this month. (7)

The answer is instant, because according to internet research "we received your letter of the 10th instant" was actually a thing that could be typed in a business letter in, oh, say 1865...

stuffy busy guys will still use "of the 1st inst." occassionally i believe

stuffy business guys i meant :p

it's a usage i suspect most Brits wdn't know either

There are also 'ultimo' and 'proximo!' Almost every example I can find seems antiquated as all hell. Might lawyers still use this, maybe? I learn something new every day.

“Besides the loss which he sustained on the night of the 23d ultimo, which is estimated at 400, he cannot have suffered less between that period and the morning of the 18th instant than 3000; having, within that time, been repulsed in two general attempts to drive us from our position, and there having been continual cannonading and skirmishing during the whole of it.”
The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876

I think ultimo or proximo might have the odd xword appearance over here, i remember my solving companions talking about them a little while back.

I think "inst." and "ult" are more a Civil Service kind of thing than a business thing, I used to see them from time to time when I worked in the Civil Service.

inst/ult still v much a thing ime

One from the observer, will give you one letter which is more of a help than it might seem:

In which every second one is a starter (12)

-a----------

ok, got that. needed a couple of other letters though.

lots of "a"s in the solution?

there's a clue in the clue 8)

The puzzle I just completed has typos in the solution. Their answer is TAISG.

Not a thick string, but only one with an obsession has it. (5)

I got the answer, but how are they getting G from string? I know G is where one of 6 strings is tuned on a guitar, but...

G-string as in underwear?

Oh, jeez, yeah probably. My mind never went there.

Still kinda clumsy, I think.

Sales decoration of old? (John's country relative had one, in other words.) (7)

Editor's note: If you "get" the first part, please write... we don't!

This was difficult but clever (starts with L if you want a hint) and I don't know what's up with the first part either.

(taramasalata btw)

^^^ ah, awesome! Glanced at that, but never would have gotten it w/o research.

nice, taramasalata is awesome too

Here's one I just made up myself!

Nigel crazy, but retains marbles? (5)

That's a good one but quite easy.

yeah I thought it was easy but quite elegant!

"thanks, man, for the mexican food" (6, wotd)

RE The puzzle I just had to look at the solution to complete: Anyone who can look at "My USA and Upstage" and come up with Guy De Maupassant is better at anagrams and knows more about literature than I do.

Did the crossword for the first time in ages the other week. Flew through it - Araucaria's recent Greek tragedy one. Proceeded to call myself a Titan of Crosswords despite knowing that it was, had to be, staggeringly easy. Oh, there was a great one for Agamemnon tho - First among men.

One of the funnier surface readings I've seen in a while:

Your pipe isn't quite full, so how about a little cheese? (4)

i've recently started getting into cryptic crosswords and have got to the stage where i'm pretty much solving them by guessing which bit of the clue means the answer and going by, idk, general knowledge and knowledge of etymology etc. it's satisfying when i can actually use the crypticness of the clue to work it out but too often i find that i guess correctly but i have NO IDEA how it pertains to the clue (and by implication, if i hadn't guessed i wouldn't have had a chance of getting it). this is a bit frustrating. do people usually get past it?

eg in today's grau crossword:

drink served up after Greek character's eaten ham (7)

I have the answer because it was a word that fit but I have no idea! at all! how it relates to that clue

i'd be lying if i said this still isn't at least partly how i solve a lot of clues, but i can usually work backwards to get the rest of it

I'm still getting the hang of all of this, but I think it's all about recognising which devices are being used, or might be being used, in a particular clue, and then playing with them... The Guardian had a useful series on lots of these devices here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/series/cryptic-crosswords-for-beginners

Every cryptic clue should have a definition in it, and in this case it is "ham" (so the solution will be either a synonym or a word that is closely related to this - and often not in the most obvious sense, or the one suggested by the surface meaning of the clue). The rest of the clue is the cryptic part, and one of the devices being used is highlighted by the phrase "served up" - as this is a down clue, it means that this part of the clue will be backwards, or literally written upwards. "Greek character" refers to a letter from the Greek alphabet - in this case "eta" which has been "eaten" (or swallowed up) by the drink. The letter "a" from the start of the clue kicks it off, so the solution is (I think) A + (RU(ETA)M) backwards...

OHHHHH. I

a) didn't make the link between "up" and "backwards"
b) the initial "a" threw me off completely (I find that cryptic setters often just add a letter in randomly? like there's often one letter that you're SURE has nothing to do with anything in the clue)*
c) dunno if i'd have remembered "eta", i was kind of stuck on the greek letter being alpha as in the a at the start

*like:

Utter contempt, say, in poor Sir Alec's case (9)

where "ge" somehow relates to "case"? really?

"God has never-ending position within the big leagues (6)" eludes me as well (the meaning, again, the solution was easy)

imo a really good setter should add nothing to the clue that isn't clue or definition, but obviously a lot of setters fall below this ideal.

guessing what the solution is and then figuring out why is still the way i solve at least half the clues i read and i'd imagine that's true for a lot of us, deciphering the clue is like a confirmation that you've guessed the correct word.

the conventions really do get more obvious with practice.

i think redudant letters are pretty rare, very occasionally someone will play a bit fast n loose for the sake of a witty reading. connectors between wordplay and definition are allowed (is, becomes, for, from, to, many many others). the 'ge' there does elude me. ok http://www.fifteensquared.net/ says it's 'e.g.' ('say') in 'sir alec', still not sure what the 'case' is doing.

god=mars, position=job without the b (never ending).

Your pipe isn't quite full, so how about a little cheese? (4)

OK STILL CAN'T GET THIS ONE

god=mars, position=job without the b (never ending).

duhhhhhh. these are things i know!

h8 h8 h8 the 4-letter answers, there always seems to be way too much info packed into the clue for too short a word - almost always get them last (by which point they're (mostly) obvious)

i'm always impressed by the huge clues for short words. as a crap amateur clue writer there's a knack to the long ones that eludes me.

Your pipe isn't quite full, so how about a little cheese? (4)

OK STILL CAN'T GET THIS ONE

Four letter word for a kind of cheese, ending in E.

I didn't get it either, needed the answer key because the first and third letters were unchecked, and the second linked to a phrase I had never heard of (Breeches Buoy) so I didn't get that either.

can think of a cheese but not the pipe connection. there's a briar pipe, not brier...

That's it, but I assumed brier was an alternate British spelling!

briar [entry 2] | brier | briar pipe
a tobacco pipe made from woody nodules borne at ground level by a large woody plant of the heather family. | the tree heath, which bears the nodules ... (27 of 55 words, 2 definitions,

ok i should rely on proper dictionaries not just google searches

Sir Alec, above, I think case is just an extra indicator that 'eg' is being contained.

Guardian/Al has good list of irritations this week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/crossword-blog/2012/dec/20/crossword-roundup-clues-you-hate
Think we've covered most of them (cricket), but cosign on boy/girl especially.

Lex, I looked at The Guardian. The "ham" clue actually starts "A drink served..." That A is there for a reason.

Your pipe isn't quite full, so how about a little cheese? (4)

lol i went for a run (going for a run with a fiendish cryptic crossword makes you run really fast! who knew) and all i came up with in that hour was the very tenuous THAT, which i justified along the lines of

cheese = old rubbish = tat (I KNOW it's tenuous)
how = h
put THAT in your pipe and smoke it

completely fucking wrong obviously