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

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.

(archel bupkes is ex-ilx)

Rufus is sorely missed. I do enjoy the extra challenge of the special instruction ones; often they actually aid in the solving, the alphabetical ones especially. "Not further defined" can always fuck off though. Gonna give this a go but will be leaning hard on anagram solvers et al.

Chances of being able to sit down and watch something live on a sunday are basically zero, unfortunately.

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/guardian-crossword-hidden-bollocks-to-brexit-1-6266121

How common is this? Is it something that slipped past the editor?

Hidden messages like that crop up now and again, & they’re always sneaking in naughty/political content, it’s not common to see both at once - I’m in favour of it even if it is eyerolly Lib Dem kinda stuff

I’d got out of the habit of doing crosswords since the person I used to do them with at work quit, but a few weeks ago I was in the pub and a group of people at the next table were doing the listener together. I was trying to read my book but I couldn’t help eavesdropping - scornfully at first like “get a load of these posh ninnies” but eventually I just had to (politely) butt in and supply and answer, and they invited me to join them

Last night I went back to that pub and they were there again so I asked if it was a weekly thing they did & would they mind if I joined from time to time. Despite my initial unkind thoughts they are a nice bunch & taking on the listener in a group is pretty fun! I like the satisfaction of figuring out what the deal is: the one we did yesterday was titled “don’t tell” and it was Burroughs-themed, with one aspect of the puzzle relating to the Vollmer incident and several of the clues having been subjected to the cut-up technique!

I will say tho that these people are a bit too quick to cheat for my liking

TIL that hidden messages as discussed above are called 'ninas' and are both fairly common and a longstanding tradtion: https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/10/what-is-nina.html

last clue i need in everyman xword from january

Draws a tableau originally with expanses of land (8)

a.t.a.t.

nothing in the standard mac /usr/share/dict/words that matches. all the letters are correct. looks like it'd be an anagram of 'a tableau' but...

a _ t _ a _ t _

attracts?

Yes

thanks for all your help 8)

(of course, it being an old puzzle i can just hit 'check this')

Well you got it!

But yeah A T tracts = draws

So have the guardian just stopped doing the big bank holiday weekend puzzles? There wasn’t one earlier this month but I assumed that was to do with the VE Day fuckery in some way. None again today - fuckers can keep begging for the price of a cup of coffee till they’re blue in the face afaic if they’re gonna serve me up a standard issue Paul grid in a fuckin lockdown 😤

I stopped caring when Araucaria died tbh :(

He was good but I’m not partic invested in the cult, plenty of inspired clues out there still. I have phases where I’m more or less into doing these but they are a good way to pass the time, especially now

Serbians detest commerce? At heart, I don't care. (4,2)

rude

Democrat gripped by hysteria prevalent everywhere (8)

Good one

From 2002!

Partly reveals orange loser in an election (4-3)

nice

Wild social do - put easy chair away (4,5,5)

Acid house party all night long

Hell yeah

apologies to fluent french speakers but a) i am not one and ii) this one came to me when i was half asleep:

'vous regrette rien, ne regrette pas' translated for a keepsake.

Wait, is this an anagram?! Gonna need number of words and their lengths, at least!

oops, was still half asleep at 9 this morning, or wishing i was anyway.

(8)

got it, nice!

I got the answer and I *think* I parsed it.

I thought Mondays were supposed to be gentle, but Vlad offered up this:

ROTTEN ROW
Shabby Italian rider’s content to go up bridle path (6,3)

A reversal (‘to go up ‘in a down light) of WORN (‘shabby’) plus dETTORi (Frankie, jockey, ‘Italian rider’) minus the outer letters (‘content’). Rotten Row is a bridle path in Hyde Park, London.

I'm supposed to know that "Italian rider" = some jockey I've never heard of, and then take the outside letters off that? GTFO

I'd never heard of Rotten Row either, but that's my shortcoming I guess.

Seems a little too indirect, but his wiki page seems to indicate he has been very popular in the UK for a long time, and he’s got an MBE.

With a clue like that the thing to do is focus on the definition. It can only be 'shabby' or 'bridle path'. A little research might have led you to Rotten Row, which you then have to retrofit around the other stuff.

For what it's worth I'd say Frankie Dettori is perhaps the most famous jockey in the UK and probably the only one that a lot of people (i.e. non horse racing fans) could name (myself included). The only other contender I can think of might be Lester Piggott. I'd never get a clue like that though.

My biggest problem is that it's a vague definition by one example. "Italian rider" doesn't denote "Dettori" any more than "New York slugger" would lead me to "Ruth" vs. say "A-Rod." Maybe it'd be more likely to a non-American? I do think the setter needed "ROTTE" to make the answer work and, as anagram says, retrofit the jockey in there.

Sorry all, I'm not *that* salty about it, but I was so close to completing a very difficult puzzle.

Rapper has blood transfusion for heart related thing (6)

lol

American here. So the bits and pieces clue "Brussels" = EU?

Yep, it's where the EU headquarters is.

Yeah, but that's sorta like "Washington" = USA. Just hadn't seen it before, filing with my knowledge of RA, AB and TT.

I guess it's referring to the governmental not geographical entity, which makes a bit more sense synecdoche-wise. Probably inspired by endless references to bonkers brussels bureaucrats in the tabloids.