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

koogs yeah I got everything on that one except Jimmy being the definition. It did dawn on me eventually.

“Most of” to mean “all but the last letter” is standard wordplay that nobody would balk at if it were just part of the construction of the word, using it to get anagram fodder is acceptable because you can have more than one kind of wordplay in a cryptic clue.

Also if you see that you can get “raiders of the lost ark” from “let’s take Harrison Ford” with the simple addition of the word “most”, you take the damn shot; that’s not lazy, that’s elegant

one of my objections is that the clue is a simplex one, the anagram (or if i prefer, pseudoanagram) is mere reverse-engineering merely to suit requirements

lookit thats long enough on the subject im glad everyone else enjoyed it

Fuck usefulness - what’s the use in it? (8)

i have no idea where to begin, but, letters?

futility

all the letters, sure, that'll do.

inspired by real life events:

Place where they stockpile organs (9)

(spoilers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder_Hey_organs_scandal although it's in the news again today)

cold

lol

This week’s prize had “dollar” as a clue for the letter S which doesn’t seem quite kosher but whatever

Mainly I came here to note that the wasteperson who’s doing the Monday xwords lately is fucking dreadful and almost makes me pine for rufus RIP. Just a load of dumb pure cryptic clues (or whatever they’re called) that are both basic and sloppy - there was one that was “put a sock in it (4)” and the answer was SHOE. That’s like a “cryptic clue” a 10 year old would come up with!

Why would 'Slaughter in the theatre' be "BLOODSHED"?

operating theatre? pretty weak.

Unless there’s some clever thing I’m not seeing that clue makes no sense

I made this one up this morning:

Nora is in bra, nervously holding breakfast. (6,4)

raisin bran®

Head chef is a knob (4)

Man, I got nothin' on that one.

Boss, possibly?

correct. it's legit, right?

Is it a triple definition?

yep.

Where does chef come in?

it's french for chief. maybe a little sneaky...

The nit I’d pick there is that two of the definitions are essentially the same. I’d have kept it simple and gone with “knob head (4)”

good to see a thread revive here. A nice clue in today's Guardian:

All welcome here, but we have not decided on kind of dance music (4, 5)

ha i was trying to parse acid house for a while there

Got one in the Saturday Guardian for the first time today

Keep your chin up to apply warpaint (3,2,1,5,4)

put on a happy face

saw this one in a 'history of crosswords' book i have -- it's not hard but it has a clue i hadn't seen before:

British flee in all directions, to town in part of Canada (3, 9)

Brave face surely

yeh it's brave

"Way to the top - and why you can't get there." - ROAD UP

Is this some kind of phrase I've never heard of? I don't get the second half at all.

The road surface has been taken up making it impossible to traverse.

It's a road sign, I think, probably one of those things that cartoons depict that isn't really a thing any more.

Thanks Koogs! I'm really struggling with expressions that I just don't know at the moment, I had "In a pet" just now which I'd never heard of.

Some others I couldn't make sense of:

Bitter about a man - ALEC
Lower class fare - COMMONS (is fare 'S' for "standard" or something? But then I feel like the whole thing would need to clue "Commons")?
Common cleric constantly in pain - REVEREND (I think constantly is 'ever', which leaves pain as... rend? I guess being rent would be painful? Also, why 'common'?
Rock a shade of yellowish green - LIMESTONE (It's... a rock? And lime is green? I can't seem to make this one fit together.)

The first one is ale (bitter) c. (about, as in circa)
Third one is exactly as you say (to pain, to rend)
Fourth: a shade of yellowish green = lime’s tone

I'm always amused by a good, off-color surface reading, and this one was excellent, if a bit convoluted.

Before taking off partner's clothes, firstly extinguish flash lamp (9)

Lower class fare - COMMONS (is fare 'S' for "standard" or something? But then I feel like the whole thing would need to clue "Commons")?

iirc "commons" is an oldfashioned word for a meal served communally such as in a monastery refectory, university hall, etc, so it's a double definition - I think

no idea about yours yet, Dan, but I look forward to thinking it over

Yeah, in researching it, commons (plural) can mean "the common people" i.e. lower class, and "food provided for meals in common for all members of a group." So it's a double def. Not a particularly satisfying one imo.

Here's another one I liked from the same puzzle as above. Dictator's pampering young swimmer (7)

Creole tune originally played as synthesised music (7)

got it!
that's a nice cute one

lolz

Bones found here in your ass, remarkably (7)

finally got that Creole one!

xp is that from a newspaper? either way i approve of this increased ass content.

Yeah today’s Graun

another Graun, from today's

Doubtful The Sting was Peter's kind of film (9, 7)

nice anag though the apostrophe s might make ximenes slightly shuffle in his grave.

still parse-able enough IMO

yeah it's fine. just not perfect :)

lord knows it's hard enough to write good clues without pedants like me sticking their oar in; i hereby rescind all previous remarks and will refrain from all future such.