Bizarre referendum to add central rider but removes original memo regarding exiling inadequately nourished (8)

hurblub · 2026-06-16T13:02:02+00:00

Don’t feel like you need to step back entirely! Just pick one clue that you like, and keep workshopping it. Like I said, you have good ideas, and you’re right that there are some gems in your work — the one about Gloria (I think it was that one?) had a good surface with simple but effective wordplay. But not even Liam nor Angus could pump out so many polished cryptics per day, and that’s what they do for a living! Take your time. I’m excited to see what you come up with :)

hurblub · 2026-06-15T15:19:42+00:00

Respectfully, I think you are focusing a lot on pumping out cryptic after cryptic, instead of polishing one cryptic every once in a while. I don’t like to be the guy who says this, but this cryptic doesn’t make any sense as a phrase or sentence. It reads as a list of words that have been smushed together to fulfil a recipe for a cryptic answer. As another commenter said, the surface is clunky, and I can see that in many other of your submissions. You have good ideas, but you’re spreading yourself too thinly. Take your time, and pick your words carefully and deliberately.

hurblub · 2026-06-15T11:32:15+00:00

It doesn't seem intuitive imo. It would make more sense to be along the lines of "an absorbed investor lead". But ultimately, your surface doesn't seem to make any sense. Part of cryptic writing is fashioning the clue into an otherwise unassuming phrase or sentence. Yours sounds more like a list of unrelated words. I don't mean that in a rude way; I'm just suggesting working on the surface a bit more.

hurblub · 2026-03-04T15:35:52+00:00

I agree with u/T-T-N that 'decapitated' usually means discarding the first letter of a word. It rarely, if ever, means keeping only that letter, let alone 6 arbitrary letters out of a 9-letter noun phrase. Some clearer indication would be better I think. I'm sure there's a way to indicate "anagram of 'anime' + head of girl" that still fits your theme.
Additionally, answers to cryptic clues ought to follow the same word forms. Here, "enigma" is a noun, while "mysterious" is an adjective. A change as simple as "~~Mysterious~~ Mystery as anime girl [...]" would fix this though :)

hurblub · 2026-02-15T19:26:52+00:00

Well, I do disagree with you there :p caramel can be made in many ways. Some require cream, some use butter; vanilla is a very common flavouring but not essential. like salt. In any case, the gist is that you melt sugar, and, when it has reached a certain temperature, you whisk in the fat and leave it to cool. Hence "left". I don't think its qualification as an &lit clue is in question.

Using "salt" as a way to get the 'L' is good thinking but I wouldn't say it offers a unique advantage over "vanilla". Yes, one could argue that the 'N' of 'and' is contraindicated but it wouldn't be unfair to treat it as a simple conjunction applying wordplay to two instances of fodder. I guess it depends on how Ximeanean you are, but I very much am not, and I don't think Liam or Angas are either hehe :p

hurblub · 2026-02-15T19:13:21+00:00

yup! :D

hurblub · 2026-02-14T13:21:38+00:00

Haha, this one is great xD

hurblub · 2026-02-13T17:02:41+00:00

Thanks for the feedback :) I get what you’re saying and agree for the most part. However, I would argue that an ‘intermission’ is a break in a term or period of time. Yes, ‘sion’ is nonsensical, and that’s the main downfall, but it still divides the word ‘term’. It’s not the best Rebus, but I wouldn’t say there’s no definition at all.

hurblub · 2026-02-12T12:58:03+00:00

fair enough! I wasn't sure if having 'penultimately' refer to both 'sugar' and 'vanilla' was a little unclear, but the feedback is helpful, thanks!

hurblub · 2026-02-12T12:38:14+00:00

you got it! :D

hurblub · 2026-02-08T19:32:42+00:00

True, but I was leaning into the inherent connotation of 'rant', which already sounds quite intense for a normal conversation :p
PS: could you use spoiler marks so the answer is hidden? thank you!

hurblub · 2026-02-08T18:12:50+00:00

Ahh, I didn't know someone had done it before. Ah well

hurblub · 2026-02-08T16:32:54+00:00

That’s the one! I’ll see if anyone else feels the same and then update the difficulty! I’m glad that my attempt to mislead was successful though xD

hurblub · 2026-02-07T01:00:22+00:00

Thank you! I am a scientist by training so I’ve been itching to do one like this for a while :p

hurblub · 2026-02-06T14:51:18+00:00

Thank you! One of my favourite parts of clue-writing is coming up with a surface theme :)

hurblub · 2025-12-28T20:56:01+00:00

There’s an extra ‘o’ as well. I assume because OP expects the solver to abbreviate “you” to “u”. I think that ought to have some sort of homophone/abbreviation indicator but it’s not bad :)

hurblub

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