Just curious...how is "at sea" an anagram indicator? I thought anagram indicators were words that hinted at confusion, or mixing, or jumbling things. I'm not sure I'm seeing how "at sea" indicates any confusion.
'I feel all at sea today' would be an easily understood phrase in the UK, meaning 'all over the place'. Probably, a reference rocking and rolling and pitching of boats. Things slide all over the place. Maybe you don't use that phrase in the US?
Yeah, I've never heard that phrase before. Thanks for the explanation!
I think that's a large part of of what throws me with these, the clues (and many times, the solutions) are very British. I feel I have a better-than-average-American understanding of British culture, from having lived there (and spent a lifetime immersed in British TV
, and going back over a lot of the ones in the thread, I find myself saying, "I've never heard that word," or "I don't know what that means," an awful lot! 
Yeah, I've never heard that phrase before. Thanks for the explanation!
I think that's a large part of of what throws me with these, the clues (and many times, the solutions) are very British. I feel I have a better-than-average-American understanding of British culture, from having lived there (and spent a lifetime immersed in British TV
I'm sympathetic - the world of cryptic crosswords is historically male dominated and class dominated with a shared knowledge of cricket and other stuff. I struggle with a lot of that. Some of it can be learned, though. But clearly, its tough for anyone who didn't grow up in the UK to understand the language nuances.
It's still fun to read the answers and try to reverse-engineer back to the clue.
And yeah, cricket...I don't care for sports, but both my and my wife's family are heavy into sports, so I have a good working knowledge of just about every common sport Americans engage in, but I've had more than one person attempt to explain cricket, and...nope.
Bill Bryson's (rather lengthy) description of cricket is one of the best things ever written.
Yeah, I've never heard that phrase before. Thanks for the explanation!
I think that's a large part of of what throws me with these, the clues (and many times, the solutions) are very British. I feel I have a better-than-average-American understanding of British culture, from having lived there (and spent a lifetime immersed in British TV
Some slightly naughty words in here so be careful.
Slang - The Best of British
Correct! The other clue is a cheese if that helps anyone.
Agreed. I really like Bill Bryson's writing.
I thought you had an aversion to any sort of quizzing. I also always thought that you are good with words so might enjoy a bit of word play.
To update - the current unsolved clue is:
Falsely enclose Montana (9)
I've given the definition above - its a cheese. It may be a bad clue - I was trying to test out what was possible or acceptable.
Falsely enclose Montana (9)
I've given the definition above - its a cheese. It may be a bad clue - I was trying to test out what was possible or acceptable.
I generally don't like puzzles, but there's something psychologically different about knowing the answer and working backwards.I thought you had an aversion to any sort of quizzing. I also always thought that you are good with words so might enjoy a bit of word play.
Still not getting it.
I think the big difference between solving a clue 'cold' like this and solving it as part of a crossword is that you often get 1 or 2 of the other letters as part of the crossword. Also if you do a newspapers crossword regularly you get a 'feeling' for the crossword setter.
Maybe we should have a crossword solving club thingy.
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It's borderline. It's not something I am keen on. The range of possibilities becomes too large, unless the synonym is something obvious.
Unrelated, but worth mentioning, is that all the clues here are leading to 'blank' solutions. By this I mean that we know no letters in the answer. When you're doing a real crossword, there are usually a few fairly straightforward clues that help you to solve the trickier ones because you start to get a letter or two.
OK - more clues/explanation:
Its an anagram of 'MT' and a word meaning 'enclose'. The answer begins with C and ends with T and is a well known cheese. Its funny, because I set this one to see how feasible it was to solve without a definition part in the clue - but no-one could solve it even when I gave the definition!
C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ T
Not sure what you mean?