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Obscure vault 99 (7)
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It's the cryptic crossword discussion game. Tease each other with clues, help each other with the dailies, educate the beginners, whatever.
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Do's
[Blob] Fair do's. It was a practice worth highlighting, even if it transpired that you weren't guilty, your honour. But "note" is a single choice of 8. Unless you start including the tonic sol-fa I guess... so although I think this should probably be frowned upon, I would say that if you have less than about a dozen choices you're doing ok. However "boy" expands to a list that spans about 20 pages in my Crossword dictionary and should be banned.
Fair's fair
[rab] I accept your grovelling apology ;-)
Re notes - 8 ? Er, 7 I think ... and yes I suppose 7 ain't too bad. But if it's three such notes then you're up to 343 possible combinations.
Re names - well yes, but usually it boils down to just a few (Sid, Tim & Ian being the favorites) and names such as IGOR are usually clued as "Russian" - but in principle I agree that they are a scoundrel's tactic.
Eight-ball pool
[Blob] Depends on whether you include H, which is German for what we call B.
Hmmm
[rab] A likely story !

Anyway I haven't set one for a while - this one would probably spread over two answers if you know what I mean, as it is 19 letters long, and the max is usually 15 - but we don't have that constraint here.

They come in light, they punish harm - I embraced destruction ! (8,3,8)

None
[Blob] Rab is quite right, H *is* used in Germany (and some other European countries).
H
[Darren, rab] duhh ? So if H = B, what equals A (second time round ?) - or is it A,H,C,D,E,F,G ?
German notation
Germans use eight letters. The British "natural" notes A to G are represented as you so very rightly say above. B is reserved for B-flat. Apparantly it has something to do with a superstition revolving around the use of the letter B. However I suspect it is more likely due to the prevailing mode of the time. (And yes, I do mean mode).
Nota Bene
So it's A,B,H,C,D,E,F,G ... how sensible is that ? Anyway, I don't think a Xwd compiler who used "note" to mean the letter H would be very popular with his subscribers somehow.
Blob's last clue
I guess it is Seraphim and Cherubim ? Being an anagram of "punish harm I embraced".
Very quick
[Bb] It is indeed - I don't think you really had to ask did you - it was unlikely to be an anagram by accident ! I was actually thinking of them the other way round (simply coz. that's the way they are more usually said) but there is nothing in the clue to suuggest the order, so spot on, and *** for getting it so quickly - I thought as anagrams go it was quite tricky - but I seem to remember from the Cryptic Stations games that you have an aptitude for them. wd.
Wow! Singer has pork rump consumed by president. (4,4)
[Blob] Thanks, once I spotted cherub (more by accident), it fell into place. If I can get my brain in gear, I'd supply a clue. I seem to have lost touch with cryptics just lately. Haven't done a crossword in months.
None
Is everyone ignoring my last clue on purpose??
None
[Darren] I don't think so. I've just looked it up.
Punctuation, endlessly one group (9)
Mating
That'll be COMMUNITY = COMM(A) + UNITY or I'll pawn my shawl.
Still wearing my shawl
OK, time for another rude one folks.

Flatulence might raise the temperature when receiving head from call-girl -- coat! (11)

Not so much a shawl ....
More a windcheater methinks - (explanation : Flautlence = wind, raise temp = heater, receiving head (first letter) of call girl = C, inserted wind-c-heater)
Wow!
That was quick. Too easy, clearly...
How about ...
Scheming man outside a pod welcome inside. (13)
None
[Blob] It's MACHIAVELLIAN (MAN surrounding A CHILLI, all surrounding AVE).
None
Ten-ball (2)
Could it be . . .
[Raak] Are you refereing to Io, a moon of Jupiter?
Indeed it could
Martian terror. (6)
None
[Darren] It sure is - well done. I presume the pod rather gave it away, but I couldn't think of a reasonable alternative.
I'm beginning to wonder if the use of <font="white"> is really necessary - coz. once they're solved we're moving onto the next one. What does everyone think ?
None
[Blob] I don't mind either way. Here's one I made up last night:
Sound out the swimmer after a very soft introduction. (8)
None
Well, I don't mind if we leave off the <font color=white> business either. But until we get a majority decision either way... [Raak] It's PHOBOS.
None
[Blob] Btw, regarding your clue, it was actually the "man outside" bit which was the giveaway for me. That, with the scheming part, clinched it.
None
Here's another opportunity to get one's coat... Risk manipulating a turd, even (9)
None
[Darren] Close...
None
[Darren] ADVENTURE.
Phobos &
DEIMOS - Phobos being Fear rather than Terror. Nice dogs those.
None
The farthest dog. (5)
Coat at the ready...
Shower us or show us your bum -- it's a huge gas!
None
...(6)
None
[Raak] That's the spirit. Not in the right frame of mind at the mo, tho. Too many stochastic functions.
None
[Raak] I think there is a theme to your clues . . . . I know what the answers are but not sure how I get the answer from the Shower us . . . clue (unless it's a double sound-a-like).
Golden...
[Boolbar] The BBC-approved pronunciation puts the stress on the first syllable, to avoid the er, assonance of stressing the second.
on the same planet
[Raak] OK - someone has to do this and it may as well be me - URANUS - and, like Boolbar, I would also quite like to know how the 'URAN' bit works. I, do, however, have a hunch, that you may be referring to the practice of the 'golden shower' [which I'm not unfamiliar with] which points to the 'soundalike' that Bb hinted at, ie. 'urine' sounding like 'uran'. It is at this juncture, that I feel it may be best to continue with the 'hidden text' feature!
Raak's first above
It's PLUTO of course, which everyone probably has got by now.
Everyman
Have to say I'm a bit pissed off with this week's Everyman. Bird, girl and river clues aplenty... Also it seems that crosswords can sometimes be like bridges - if you get certain key solutions then the rest fits in around out. If you don't, the whole thing falls over. Maybe I'm just grumpy cos I can't finish it.
Clueless
Well, I'm stuck here at the desk for a couple of days doing tedious accounts work. My brain needs teasing. Is everybody on holiday or exceptionally busy or somefink?
A couple of clues I just made up, so don't expect wonders.
Flow around short length of first baffle (7)
Poor shape breaks into odd cabin (3,9)
[Darren]
First one's flummox.
and...
second one's Bad Condition
Here's a couple from me...
Headless garden pest - a negative in Switzerland (6)
Allowed evil empire with dreadful leader to hold a race (9)
Plez ring, an rnser is requird
1.) Gay sports R-R-D (though not 100% on the D)
2.) Formerly in Greece, young men the last to be hip, perhaps -P---I
[rab] Really? I thought it was quite easy this week. Or was that from last week?
[Big Dave] Permitted?
hmmmm.
[MF] You are correct.

Afraid I can't help with yours, apart from to suggest that Number 1) does not end in "D" - I have written out all the possibilities, assuming that the missing letters are vowels, and nothing seems to fit the clue. Number 2) may end in "phi" (anag. of "hip").
Sorry I can't be of more assistance.
[MF] I think your last one is EPHEBI - Big Dave was on the right track but it's "the last" (E), then an anagram of BE HIP (PHEBI). These are, according to http://76.1911encyclopedia.org/E/EP/EPHEBI.htm "a name specially given, in Athens and other Greek towns, to a class of young men from eighteen to twenty years of age, who formed a sort of college under state control."
Astute and helpful bear
[Darren] Thanx, that's the Sunday Times finished then. I'll send you a page of my new dictionary as soon as I've won it.
[Big D] Lugano - as in the lake?
Correctamundo!
I'll post a couple more this arvo sometime, when I can be arsed to make some up.
Clues I found which I made up some time ago. Posted here if anyone's arsed to solve them! Some of these are pretty old though.
1. A mad, mad, mad toy belonging to family of U2 member. (4,7)
2. Over the top? A Washington city found in Canada! (6)
3. Rustic walkway with shops, says Ian. (8)
4. Yard-arm (without my reconstruction) detects presence of other objects. (5)
[Darren]
1) Adam Clayton?
4) Radar?
[Again Darren]
2) Ottawa?
3) Arcadian?
I'd guess those are right, so here's one of mine. I'm not a great cryptics man, so my goal is merely competence: Ingrained bear of the ocean floor (4-6).
I note my pork rump clue went unnoticed. :o)
[Big Dave/Martha Farquar] Yes, all four correct!
[Hugo] Is it DEEP-SEATED, by any chance?
More monkey puzzling
"Maybe leaves ancient city in the Cape" V-R-U-E
[MF] VERDURE (maybe leaves = defn., UR in (Cap) VERDE).
Aaaaaaaaargh!!
Would anyone believe me if I said I'd just got it? No, probably not. How very annoying that is. Still, that's that finished, anyway
15 minutes later...
[Raak] Thanks
[Darren] It is, yes.
Flesh-eating crone follows pig draped in the Koranic verses (11). This is a work in progress, and an experiment for me, so see how you do...
Only flesh-eating crone I know is Baba Yaga - which doesn't help me but maybe it will for someone else.
CARNIVOROUS fits the length and what might be the definition, but doesn't appear to fit anything else.
It's something like ----COPHAGE or (more likely) --COPHAGOUS, I think - but the Koranic verses bit has me stumped, and the whole is (I reckon) a word I don't know.
Cop hags
Got it, it's SARCOPHAGUS. The COP/HAG part is at Wol suggested, and it's surrounded by SURAS, i.e. Koranic verses, except it's backwards, which there's no indication of. The definition part is cleverly obscure, I had to search for this to confirm it. , Koranic verses might be indicating SURAS, but SURAPHAGOUS SARCOPHAGUS
Oops
Ignore the fragments after the part that makes sense.
[Raak, Wol] Thunderous applause Good work.
A spot on the unfair side, I think; the experiment was in judging difficulty. If you hadn't got it, I'd have reposted as Flesh-eating Greek crone.... I do wish I could find a way to indicate the reversal of SURAS without losing the neatness and sense of the clue...
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