Boatman Cryptics

QP with a GIF that pops up when you type your name

Ah yes, fax machines! When did I last see one of those? I wonder why they don't at least give you an email address - must be easier for them than maintaining a fax machine, and less fuss for the reader than using something like hellofax.

Happy anniversary! Good to have you in the cruciverbial universe …

Excellent! Good luck with the prize if you submit it …

Good to hear … the night is young!

Heh heh … Knew you’d get there!

Thank you - and you’re welcome!

You’ll be fine with 29. As for 22 …

Interesting ... I suppose other three-letter words are available, but I don't think any of them would fit the clue! All will become clear when discussed next Saturday, I'm sure ...

And you're welcome!

Heh heh ...

Well, you say that *now* …

In @theguardian.com crossword tomorrow - no hints, as prizes are at stake - enjoy!

I can’t help trying to turn “Gregor Samsa found himself transformed into a gigantic insect” into an anagram clue, but it only seems to lead to MAGA GROSSER, which, evocative though it may be, is not something I’m planning on using.

It appears to be World Book Day, so here are two books to celebrate. Crosswords! And the stories behind them!
Both available from all booksellers, or signed copies online from
boatmancryptics.co.uk/crossword-bo...

"would otherwise receive immediate access to welfare and social housing" is BS.

Correct: "after 5 years working in a care home, would be eligible to apply for welfare and social housing on the same basis as the rest of us."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Deliberately misleading/disingenous.

FOLLOW-UP FACT: something something blind Old Testament prophet born BCC

Brava! What will they make of it ?!?

… etc etc … There are years’ worth of untapped material here … m.anagramgenius.com/archive/pete...

Very nice! Both excellent ’grams with great use of monster vocabulary, but you get the bonus point for the embedded clue.

Ah, them! Yes, there is a sort of indirect Swiftyness about this - a meta-Swifty, if you like?

… and a pretty good underlying principle is that if you can’t use normal grammar (however whimsically applied!) to read the wordplay as an instruction that will lead you to the solution then there’s a problem.

… they’re going to be verbs, ok? My puzzle, my rules” and it’s ok to break rules, up to a point - plenty of people would say that I break rules that they believe shouldn’t be broken - but you have to have some shared understanding with the solver, otherwise anything you write could mean anything …

… it’s still an adverb and it still means something about first instances; “first”, on the other hand, is always an adjective and it doesn’t mean anything like “first of”, so (although it’s very, very beguiling) to make “first class” work, you have to say “look, if I want adjectives to be verbs …

That’s the thing, though: you have to make it do something that’s not just a whimsical extension of its everyday meaning but is actually at odds with it. It’s true that “primarily” doesn’t normally mean “considering the primary parts of”, but in its whimsical crossword usage …

... On the other hand, we don't like constructions like "first class" as an attempt to indicate the letter C, because, however whimsically you try, any meaningful interpretation still comes out as "class that is first" and not "first of class".

... it's much less whimsical than, say, interpreting "shellfish" as meaning "rather like a shelf". The same thing applies to "primarily", which doesn't normally mean "considering only the first part of" but which can mean "relating to the first instance of", and that's pretty close. ...

... whimsy, and it does say what it means once you understand that a cryptic clue is likely to be playing with letter order and position - you don't have to justify it by saying "look, it's just a weird thing that crosswords do and which you have to learn". ...

I'm not sure that I could give you a name for it, exactly, other than that it's a whimsical usage: "oddly" doesn't mean "selecting the odd instances of" in real life, but it does mean "having odd characteristics", which is what the odd numbered houses in a street have, so it's not an outrageous ...

Yours is more publishable than mine and less likely to get you barred from entry to the States for a few years.

Someone in the "war" dept likes anagrams. PRICEY F.U.

Badly contrived, pricey f.u. (4,4)