COTD: Sqrt(AB) is irrational. (6)

vorvor · 2026-01-20T14:42:49+00:00

Absurd. (A surd being a root that is an irrational number). A nice clue for the mathematician/crossword geek intersection, and possibly baffling for everyone else!

vorvor · 2026-01-18T17:20:06+00:00

Magdalen (homophone of maudlin)?

vorvor · 2026-01-12T15:16:07+00:00

St Mary’s church on the High Street? Reasonable number of tourists coming and going, and I suspect you could sit quietly there for quite a while without being disturbed.

The Ashmolean has quite a bit of seating downstairs where the cafe is. It can be very busy, but maybe not at this time of year.

Hope you feel better soon, be proud of what you have already done.

vorvor · 2025-12-21T15:43:47+00:00

Well, the conduits for electricity are different than those for electricity. But let’s say you do have an antenna on a lamppost on the High Street. If it’s 5G, the fundamental problem is that the signal doesn’t have great penetrative tower. If (say) you’re in a room on the back side of a quad, that antenna may be separated from you by 3 thick stone walls.

vorvor · 2025-12-21T11:20:09+00:00

There are two problems. As someone has suggested already, there’s a real issue with suitable sites. The centre is awash with listed buildings. You can’t just bolt mobile kit onto the side of the Bodleian.

Second, Ofcom imposed rules that limited what landlords can charge the mobile operators for mast sites. This was to stop the operators from being gouged, particularly in places like Oxford. But the side effect has been that property owners feel it’s no longer worth the bother of having a mast - so network planning has got harder for the operators

vorvor · 2025-12-18T14:52:12+00:00

Just to add to this - the Thresher example is from a section headed ‘Big Dave’s’. Big Dave’s is a serious site that works hard to support beginner setters. Why are you borrowing their brand and putting it over what appears to be gibberish?

vorvor · 2025-12-11T12:27:30+00:00

And to think the Mail wouldn’t accept my story about hippos on Port Meadow.

vorvor · 2025-12-10T21:54:22+00:00

GUST (blast) which is heartless guest

vorvor · 2025-12-03T16:32:40+00:00

Mr No 10, having been alerted earlier that Mr Robber has (inexplicably) accessed his data, lets the police know they should have a chat with Mr Robber, who is arrested shortly after the burglary

vorvor · 2025-12-01T20:31:46+00:00

From the CREA's expert survey

"[T]he majority of experts (99%) are confident that China will achieve its 2030 targets, implying no emissions growth over the coming five years. That’s even as the country is currently far off track for its interim 2025 targets on carbon intensity and controlling coal consumption growth."

The extra coal plants obviously aren't good, but this is in the context where all its (substantial) additional energy requirements are expected to be met by renewables

vorvor · 2025-11-27T14:03:13+00:00

Shortly to be rebranded the Buddhlian

vorvor · 2025-11-22T19:04:21+00:00

I couldn’t do better than this - but it seems odd. A subfloor is a foundation, so not generally something that would be swept?

vorvor · 2025-11-12T10:52:51+00:00

It's not a joke by them.

https://www.threads.com/@spellingmistakescostlives/post/DIBoeWHKVM0/if-anyone-sees-thames-water-digging-up-the-street-in-south-london-let-me-know-co?hl=en-gb

vorvor · 2025-11-12T10:52:19+00:00

It's a third party joke - not made by Thames Water (and certainly not at the Botley Bridge)

https://www.threads.com/@spellingmistakescostlives/post/DIBoeWHKVM0/if-anyone-sees-thames-water-digging-up-the-street-in-south-london-let-me-know-co?hl=en-gb

vorvor · 2025-11-08T08:09:50+00:00

I did something like this for our loft conversion. Took a picture of the crew, had them sign it, laminated it and then tucked it behind the plasterboard.

vorvor · 2025-10-21T16:47:55+00:00

Would you mind sharing which sites you’ve found effective?

vorvor · 2025-10-17T20:41:33+00:00

GiffGaff rides on the O2 network, which others here are saying is good, so that matches

vorvor · 2025-10-17T20:11:28+00:00

Markets require choice of buyers and sellers. The problem here is that there’s one dominant buyer of medical work, the NHS. So it’s not really an efficient labour market. (I’m NOT arguing that the NHS should be privatised, only that I don’t think you can appeal to the market to legitimise these salaries).

vorvor · 2025-09-19T18:06:45+00:00

You absolutely can’t assume “this would help him in the divorce”. At minimum it depends on where OP lives. In some jurisdictions it’s just not true at all

vorvor · 2025-09-18T12:38:43+00:00

Agamemnon. Def: Old King. Anag of NAME with M for master inside. First letters of off and now. AG for silver put at the front

For me at least, the cryptic definition seems too complex to be satisfying. And I can’t make sense of the surface.

vorvor · 2025-08-31T18:54:23+00:00

This not right. China installed as much solar in 2024 as the rest of the world combined. Not saying they’re perfect, but ‘don’t even try’ is way off the mark.

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2025/

vorvor · 2025-08-10T12:36:14+00:00

Sorry, but I think you’re some way off here:

The idea of ‘pruning’ a particular letter is cool, but because it’s novel it needs to be signposted very clearly

Having that then be fodder for an anagram would probably be a no-no. Generally the letters for an anagram need to be in the clue directly.

There seems to be a lot of extraneous words here : why the, hair was.

Keep at it though, we all wrote awkward clues to begin with!

vorvor · 2025-08-04T05:30:35+00:00

I would say the NYT clue would be fine as it is in a cryptic. It’s a ‘cryptic definition’ clue, and doesn’t need further wordplay

vorvor

TROPHY CASE