Cryptics

[AppallingGael]

@Biotop

Dislike cryptic thread (6)

HATRED (anagram).

xxxxxxx

Sailors hat will last forever (10)

[Johnny_Ace]

@gigi

Hint – are we solving for “custodians”?

Sorry, somehow I managed to miss this for four days. Partially.

[gigi]

Just so we can move on with our lives:

Burning / to take a vow // in code (7)
BUSHIDO

Joshua tosses his beer can / before trashing // a Straight Dope Classic topic [10]
TREPANNING (TREE - E + PANNING)

Now:

Started keeping upper floor like a garden trellis (8)

First in esoteric notes were ancient custodians. (7)

Sailors hat will last forever (10)

[Biotop]

@gigi

Started keeping upper floor like a garden trellis (8)

Because it is in the WSJ puzzle I will spoiler box it:

LATTICE D
L (ATTIC) ED

[gigi]

Dang it! I think I even thought of that word and then didn’t figure out why! :smack:

ETA: I am waiting for my Roger Wolff Cryptic All-Stars (1st First Edition) [Ring-bound] which was estimated to arrive yesterday! Come on!!

[Johnny_Ace]

OK, I’m going to go with ‘hard.’

Following are some clues; take as many or as few as you like.

First in esoteric notes were ancient custodians. (7)

1. The definition is ‘ancient custodians.’

2. No crossletter will be particularly helpful, but:
   _ _ _ _ N _ _

3. The answer is an anag of a term related to one of the clue words (mostly).

4. The word associated with the related term is ‘notes.’

[Robot_Arm]

@Robot_Arm

I started from the newest cryptic and wanted to work my way backwards. I found a link to download the puzzle as a PDF, and printed it so I could take it with me to work on it. Did the same with the previous cryptic. Now I want to do the one before that and I can’t find a link to get the PDF, and the link to print the puzzle only brings up the solution.

Did the WSJ change their site recently, or am I not getting the same page that I was before?

@Biotop

I am having the same problem. It worked just a few days ago. Grrr… PDF links are gone.:mad:

@Robot_Arm

I suspect they made a change to the template for their web pages and didn’t do sufficient testing before they rolled it out. All the comments are gone as well.

I sent them an e-mail; I’ll post here if I hear anything back.

@Robot_Arm

A reply. It seems they changed the publishing platform (whatever that means) earlier this week, and some of the puzzles are missing download links. They’re trying to fix the archive, but she helpfully added download links back to the beginning of March. I’m trying to get the January puzzle, so that doesn’t actually help, but it sounds like they’re on the right track.

I checked the WSJ puzzle archive just now and there’s improvement, but I don’t think it’s totally fixed, either. I only checked puzzles with the Cryptics tag, starting with the most recent. They now include links to .pdf files going back at least several months. One puzzle, though, shows the solution in the same place it gives the .pfd link, so if you want to print and solve it you’re going to be a little spoiled.[sup]*[/sup] And a puzzle from last March still doesn’t have the .pdf, and I didn’t check back beyond that.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain; it’s a free archive of cryptics from my favorite constructors. But I work in software testing, and I hate to see a good idea get fucked up for technical reasons; even more so when it used to work before they decided to mess with it.

• Technically, all the puzzle pages show the solution along with the link to the .pdf, but on most of them you have to scroll down to see it. This one puzzle (and maybe others) has it at the top of the page so you can’t really avoid seeing it.

[Biotop]

Someone who is secretly working among us to cause us problems with impossible clues… they make up this stuff. (9)

[Johnny_Ace]

@Biotop

Someone who is secretly working among us to cause us problems with impossible clues… they make up this stuff. (9)

I’m guessing JOHNNYACE.

Yeah, I make 'em up myself. Not much point (to me) in plagiarizing somebody else’s stuff. But the clues are on point. I don’t make any claim to being good at it; I just started this stuff.

So anyway, want the answer?

[Biotop]

@Johnny_Ace

I’m guessing JOHNNYACE.

Yeah, I make 'em up myself. Not much point (to me) in plagiarizing somebody else’s stuff. But the clues are on point. I don’t make any claim to being good at it; I just started this stuff.

So anyway, want the answer?

More hints, no answers please!

Plus my clue is legit… not any kind of critique. The surface sense pokes fun at how hard some clues have been in this thread, but that is all —and meant in good fun.

[Biotop]

And the answer is not JOHNNYACE!

[AppallingGael]

MOLECULES. And I’ll provide a crossing letter for my latest [‘Sailors hat will last forever’ (10)]–

_ _ B _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[Johnny_Ace]

OK, next, then.

5.Aside from the crossletter, there are exactly two letters remaining in the answer, each appearing three times.

[Johnny_Ace]

And this:

6.There’s a double entendre within the clue for the objects which the custodians kept.

[Biotop]

@Johnny_Ace

OK, next, then.

5.Aside from the crossletter, there are exactly two letters remaining in the answer, each appearing three times.

ESSENES: e + senses*?

[Johnny_Ace]

Joogotit, mang.

On reflection, ‘ecclesiastical’ would probably have been a better choice than ‘esoteric.’

[Biotop]

@Johnny_Ace

Joogotit, mang.

But the sailors hat thing is driving me crazy. I keep working with —eer (ever) suffix…but get nowhere.

[Johnny_Ace]

I see the direction you went, but I’m damned if I can figure it out either.

[Robot_Arm]

Forbidden literature from Rat Packer’s period, so I hear. (8)

Last shape heading for Ottawa. (4)
And this thread reminds me of a question from the radio show Says You!, although it does not follow the true cryptic style. The category was World Leaders (or something like that(, and the clue was:

Get the most money for that collie.

[Robot_Arm]

Nuthin’, eh?