Font of Wisdom [Aug 1- 6]

Read that book recently too! Great fun if you have any interest in the area.

9070 has some great stuff in it so far - still have 4 in the sw to go. 19dn was nice though the defn looks suss. 8dn also clever.

Oh, and there's no way it's Helvetica! I'm sure that, appropriately enough, it's Times New Roman...

Yeah, 9070 OK I guess. 25A an attempt to be smart which didn't really work for me. Although I liked 26A.

Two queries on this one, with Zen insight required to ease my troubled mind over 23ac and 3dn.

Enjoy the misdirection of 7dn, and the architecture of 19dn. Beware the onomatopoeia at large in 9ac. As for 20ac, neither AIRPOETRY, nor AIRPORTLY, is a word.

That's 14 down, and tomorrow another day.

I missed on 25ac... not thinking enough like an English man. Back to zero...

Drowning my sorrows in recent Paul from the Guardian - #25387 - and 1dn alone is worth the price of admission...

Agreed, Anthony - a pert expert clue:

Solver no longer above S&M? (8)

Also like the headlinese of Paul's 4dn:

A pet shot, one dead (2,5)

Quiet on the eastern front today. I knocked off 9071 for all those doubters among you, including a trixy SW corner, where 22dn was an educated leap.

Not sold on 11ac (could be one for a future Court post), and loved the seamless style of 12ac, its neighbour. Overall a classy puzzle. Bring on 16, Mr Murdoch.

I liked 9071 as well, recall seeing the composer a while back. With 11A, I agree it's borderline, but relished the red herring anyway. 26A also a neat misdirection. I'm enjoying this run, have an eye out for the next AIRY though...

Frustrating one for me. Most came easily enough. Didn't know 17 but once I'd seen it I was pretty confident. Then came up with an answer for 22 that gave me 26 as my last in. Greatly satisfied until I learned that I should have stuck with my made up answer for 22. But I maintain that CACTUS was a bloody good answer!

9072 is a toughie, but I think I'm home. Leave time...

First in 4D, last in 21D (it's a bit of a stretch, this clue, probably a Meh). In fact, the whole SW corner was hard work.

Oh, and be careful with the 5A and 5D intersection. A trap for young players (so we should all be OK!)

Phew, tis hard. I had the same first entry (4dn) which says something about the lack of gimmes in the across clues. Top half went ok, but then stalled in the bottom, until I came up with another wrong answer that fitted ok, and again had the right checker for me to crack 25ac (a nasty one, that, though obvious enough in hindsight). Then finally 16dn gave me the whole SE. Your complaint about 21dn was sufficient impetus for me to enter a fairly pffft answer with confidence, else I doubt I would have got 26.

Still have 15ac to fill.

Got it. For the longest time, it was the most likely candidate, but took me all day to 'twig' to the wordplay!

One. At last.

Cor blimey guvn'r - how hard was 9072? That SW corner was no place for the faint-hearted.

Can I mention words now? Seems like the time is right. But BOURREE crossing TARKA is a tall order, esp with I GOT RHYTHM (a woeful clue) and TAB KEY (another oblique definition) as the scaffolding.

Thought 'familiar' was odd, or redundant, in 11ac, and the anagind in 26ac was arsey-versey, since it was ME HANDOUT doing the offering, yes? On top of that, 10ac (which I liked) could also be timidly answered with TIGHT.

OK, enough bleating. But let it be known that #16 in my picaresque sequence was almost my undoing.

9073 is a doddle compared to yesterday's (which I made, thankfully). A couple of nice anagrams and charades today.

17A was first (and a goodie), 9A last. Also liked 3D and 16D.

1A is a bit Meh, will wait to see what others think before completely dissing it...

Fingers crossed for 17 straight.

A doddle to a point, Boniface. I sputtered a tad in the SW corner - seems by bugaboo quadrant across the series. With a query attached ot my final punt: 20dn.

Not sold on 9ac's workings (your last I notice), and found 2dn cute.

Like you, I wait for Friday to see if I'm still alive, and banking my 17th.

Looks like I'm exactly 15 behind you two...but still chasing. 20dn my last, and wordplay for 9ac eluded me but all home.

With you on much of your comments, DA, re yesterday. I was very pleased to drag TARKA out of the memory banks with only the first and last in place! The hidden ADMIN fooled me for the longest time...

1ac today, yes, meh. Second half just isn't quite right.

Yikes, that may be an Airy at 21dn. Or maybe it's been an old favourite for the last decade...it's the obvious way to clue it.

Re 20D in yesterday's: The Isis is the river that flows through Oxford. As for 9A, I suspect this is a double def but I just can't see it either.

Is it just me, or is 9074 a case of cruel and unusual torment??! After one miso soup I have just 8 answers. Hold the sashimi.

You'll be fine, DA. Feeling slightly rusty after a few days off, I've managed to get all of it bar one fairly quickly.

I'm done. It felt hard to start off, but once you get going it's got nothing too stretchy. Last in was 22ac. COD to 16ac for the misdirection. And don't expect the wordplay for 26ac to make a lot of sense, I suspect.

Oh - yesterday's 9ac required reading the last letters of witH mucH adO as HHO, H2O...boom tish. I didn't spot it.

Home and hosed on 9074. I'm sure I've seen that 9A clue before - anyone else?

First in 2D, last 21D (which I needed to take a punt on).

Liked 4D, 5D and dodged the trick in 6D.

I got 26A but won't spoil it (yet).

Phew. I can always tell if a crossword is problematic - the grid is filled with three different coloured inks.

Scraped home, but not after a lot of drang. And that's assuming my hunch for 6dn is right. (As for 23ac - AIDE/IDEA works just as well, annoyingly.)

And my last grouse - check out those soft letters. Yuk. On top of the anaemic clues, the double unches of the NW and SE corners, I rate 9074 as a stinker. One I survived, I hope.

I didn't. My WINE (at 6dn) is their FINE. I don't know why, and I flubbed 18, the clubhouse in sight. Hated that puzzle - from EMPHASIS to HACK.

Off to watch the Bledisloe - a Guinness has my name in the cream.

I was fine with fine, but I missed HEARTSEASE. Great way to re-enter the fray.

So far so good on 9075. 11ac had me fooled for a while. Sneaky. I liked 17dn too.

Unlucky, DA. FINE had lousy checkers. (I assume your 'don't know why' was why you missed it, rather than why that was the answer [hidden]). And HEARTSEASE was obscure enough to not feel too bad about, RK...

I saw 11ac, and straight away thought I was being conned. I found 18ac more of a challenge, as I'd written it in the space for 16ac...for a minute there I thought I was going to need Harry Potter to find me 8dn!

Nailed 9074 and no dramas with 9075 - 11A is the tricky one. I reckon the deletion in 27A is terrific. And I suppose that the reference in 26D is Dickensian...

Well done, Boniface. Suddenly you're the tin hare for us hounds to catch.

In Friday's freak-show I slipped on FINE, missing the bleeding Hidden recipe, and presuming WINE was an allusion to some poetic parable about bad plonk in expensive bottles. Did I mention I hated 9074? A pox on the pattern, and a lurgy on the setter.

As for 9075, no major pains. Thought a question mark for 18dn (which I liked) wouldn't hurt the whole, and not so keen for 26dn's looseness. Otherwise enjoyable.

I thought the 26/28 combo was fairly lame too. Apparently it's the nickname for some kind of dial-in time service.