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

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.

i like it

lovely clue

Recent clues I don't understand:

An opening celebration or its finale (DOOR)
Cases prepared for Italian consumer groups (RAVIOLI) - I kiiiind of get this one but 'consumer groups' confuses me
Left in charge (OVER)
Baked beans need this lid for protection (TOPI)
Show symbol of authority, namely, before holding exercises (SCEPTRE)
Screen for illness in advance? Imagine! (PRETEND) - this kinda makes sense but... 'screen for illness' doesn't clue tend???

celebration or = DO OR. could it be that obvious / clumsy?

Some of these explanations may be missing something, I'm sure others will correct me if so:

1. celebration = do (party) + or but there seem to be two definition parts, "opening" and "finale"... hmm
2. cryptic definition, ravioli is in a case, consumer groups = eaters of food
3. double definition, left = over (left over?) and in charge of something is to be over it
4. top = lid, other than that I got nothing
5. a sceptre is a symbol of authority, PT = exercises? other than that I got nothing

'_or_ its finale' is descriptive of the word after celebration / 'do'

ha i kinda guess thats what you guys said, it's quite hard with common words like 'or' to pick apart definitions

SCEPTRE relies on you knowing that sc is a less common equivalent to viz (which I didn’t)

A similar expression is scilicet (from earlier scire licet), abbreviated as sc., which is Latin for "it is permitted to know".

So SC (namely) + ERE (before) holding PT (exercises, as in physical training)

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.

wtf!

Thanks to everyone on the last batch! 'Sc' namely is hmm.

bit in the observer yesterday

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/may/12/anna-shechtman-the-new-queen-of-crosswords

american crosswords are strange things.

I read that whole thing this morning really confused; assumed it was a cryptic setter

the one i couldn't get from yesterday's observer:

Tests idiot about uniform (2-6) and i have the letters _S-_E_E_S

("as sevens" i thought. 'ass' around 'even'. but that leaves an unexplained 's' and also isn't a thing)

AS Levels

though i would say that's 1-1-6

Idiot = Ass
Uniform = level

AS Levels?

Beat me to it

thanks. i should've got that.

was also convinced about similies being an anagram of missle until the other letters got in the way.

>american crosswords are strange things.

This article def made me realise that the weirdly arbitrary set of canonical UK-crossword acronyms are just, like, locked in annoyingly until someone consciously challenges them though - are there setters who just don't use the R.E./R.A. ones or the others that always have to be introduced to learner solvers with an apology?

H.E. (his excellency) for ambassador had me rmde when I learned about it not very many years ago.

made you what, sorry

smdh

Never come across this clue type before:
Cryptic crosswords for beginners: cycling clues

https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2019/may/27/cryptic-crosswords-for-beginners-cycling-clues

Me neither! But seems both fair and useful to me.

loved this one in todays times

rogue cop wearing blue material flicks food (7)

p good

Controversy at 30A: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27852

wow

some cute ones in the times quick cryptic on my week off i enjoyed...

Outfit for the tango follower? (7)
Braved winds bravely, say (6)

cuet, second one v sneaky considering the mechanism is pretty obvious.

Smash up Tracy Chapman's car, it's what you do first thing in the morning. (9)

ooh I got that one

today's Graun

Monk controls a new church in Don's area (2, 6)

No way I could get that without letters. An unstraightforward synonym, an unconventional indicating word and a somewhat cryptic definition. Maybe they'd all jump out at you if you do these things more frequently than I do.

the "a new church" bit in the middle was a good start for me, it followed quickly from that. I had also been thinking about definitions of "Don's area" along the lines of Sicily, and the solution wasn't too far away from that.

From today's grauniad (SPOILERS omg):

Fens used to be drained, Hull also (8)
WASHLAND
WAS=”used to be” + H[ul]L drained of inside letters + AND=”also”

I know I promised upthread to stop being pedantic but this just doesn't ahem wash with me - the comma clearly separates 'drained' from 'Hull' so the former can't apply to the latter. Should just entirely ignore punctuation when reading clues from now on?

I've always believed that most punctuation is to be ignored as it's merely part of the surface reading and is designed even as deliberate misdirection. Of course there are exceptions, but commas are definitely something I try to mentally expunge when reading the clue in the hope of finding the solution.

Yes, you should

Just checked Ximenes in The Art of the Crossword and he is definitely not in favour of 'misleading' punctuation, which aids the surface but obscures the solution. Maybe that is an old fashioned view.

its bad cluing and you are otm

*delighted emoji*

today's Graun

Monk controls a new church in Don's area (2, 6)

Sometimes I think I'm just not cut out for these things; today's grauniad doesn't help, half the answers are or involve politicians from the last 70+ years, on top of that it's Paul's usual tricky clues or obscure answers:

Politician's baby (7) - 'baby' here is not what you'd think

Barking, mog admits arrogance (9) - easy anag but not a straightforward synonym.

Sweet thing, a Scot unfortunately beset by wind (9) - I was aware of lots of sweet things in the same category, but not this one.

https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27906

I figured out long ago that Paul is beyond my skill set; I don't even bother.

Arachne (who did the WASHLAND clue) is generally very fair, and clever, when she's setting on the beginner end of the spectrum. This one was mostly too dense for me.

I like Paul and his corny dad joke clues, I think I might be the only one

imo the first one there is not only perfectly cromulent but kind of easy

yeah I like Paul too, tough but fair by and large

aye i'm just bitter cause he's too hard for me.

(Good that the guardian crossword widget now works ok on mobiles - the way Google keyboard is tuned for inputting words rather than letters always used to make it awkward)

Not to turn thread into just our pet grievances but it’s another bank holiday so you know what that means

imo it doesn’t speak well of maskarade’s skill as a cluer that their instructions are so poorly worded that you spend ten minutes just trying to parse them. I made ok (slowish) progress on the puzzle during my long train journey today but it’s definitely offputting when the instructions make it seem more convoluted than it actually is.

I can't make head nor tail of it, but then my level is generally Mondays rather than Prize.

I've been managing the odd few clues further through the week though recently, which has been heartening. Watching some solvers on Youtube (mainly 'Cracking the Cryptic' I think it's called) and listening in on a weekly Sunday group live solve on Twitch a couple of times (https://www.twitch.tv/bupkes_) have helped, I think.

I'm talking about my attempts at The Guardian cryptics there. They're curated to roughly increase in difficulty from Monday through Friday and culminate in the most difficult Saturday Prize crossword, right?

Rufus was always my favourite setter (because I could manage his crosswords!) and I've not really latched on to anyone else in particular since he retired.