Latrine Offload [July 18-23]

You weren't alone in being "inconvenienced" DA - that was the common trip up for many of the UK solvers too.

Meanwhile... I'll call pangram first.

A challenging grid - those 4 letter words often hold things up if you can't pick 'em - but I'm through.

Some lovely clues - 2dn, 18ac, 28ac, 26ac all tickled my fancy. I think I'll give the nod to 18ac, even if it did arrive a few days late!

I'm through too... watch the 5's as well esp 22D. Liked 24D even if a bit long-winded.

I think I made it... (One of those crosswords, in the SW corner at least.)

Loved 25ac and 18ac, and puckered my brow at elements of 10ac and 21ac, assuming I made the right stab. Will see in two shakes, at the milk bar.

Three letter words rarely receive so much attention. Kudos to today's setter for being brave enough to care...

(In Sydney all this week, hence the thinly veiled alias.)

Cracked this baby on the Qantas hop. Don't fully get 7dn - or 22dn for that matter. But I survived the opera, the subcontinental ruse and the rebel (whose clue I adored). Also enjoyed the simple twist of 1ac. Yay - I'm 3, hopefully.

We're all such jetsetters here in Timesland. (Though I drove here. And it's only an hour from home.)

Made it through yesterday's much to my surprise, although still none the wiser as to the KISS.

Lots to like in 59. Favourites were 23ac, 26ac, 27ac and 24dn.

(I see you got a tinge of colour on your travels, Anthony.)

Good again today. Should be OK.

My take on DA's queries below:

7D: It's all about the sign (again)
22A: Doss is a rare word

Re KISS: runners are SKIS, first to finish.

Figured I might as well turn orange, but not sure why I had to get capitals in the process. Not feeling too capital today...clearly not on the right wavelength at all. The NE is done (though 10ac's sober computing element hasn't twigged); I dragged 12dn out of the memory banks, and I've got a half-dozen others. But at this point, it's pretty embarrassing.

Still, hope is not lost. Ironically, given the preceding comment, I just got 23ac.

...which at least gave me a few more, but it was still an ugly defeat. Never heard of 13dn, of course (opera ranks very low in my list of things worth spitting on, I'm afraid), 2dn (when they disallowed my first try in practice instead of playing the advantage, I was lost to the world of rugby) and failed to see the reemergence of 13ac (maybe one day it will reach my vocabulary). And I've been defining 26ac incorrectly all my life, so at least I've learned something useful.

Back to zip.

22dn today goes to 9ac, which had me completely bamboozled with its cleverly disguised definition.

9060 is fun! Loved 5D, 9D, 13D, 15A and 22A.

Hope it delivers me to 4 in a row...

I'm in too, but would love to hear someone explain why 1ac isn't totally irredeemably ambiguous! Bon's already listed the best clues. Not sure about 18 + 19 bring in same puzzle, let alone beside each other, but a good fun solve in the end.

@Anthony - not sure whether 1A is ambiguous, but it certainly seemed to me that there was something awry in the sequence of the components of the clue. Maybe "discussing" performs double duty... so maybe there IS a catch here after all.

I reckon this setter was also going for a pangram but couldn't quite get there.

Hearty hear hear from me. Those faves among the clues are likewise mine, esp 5dn, 15ac and 13dn, a gem of the formula. All over the mood was droll and the wit, agile. Wish we had 9060 every day.

And yes Anthony, the spelling for 1ac requires care. I've bitten the bullet, and await No 5....

Do you think you could have built it up for me any more fellas? Yes, there were some gems but there were also some of a much easier standard than I have come to expect: eg 7dn and 4ac. Well someone has to keep things in balance. (Maybe it's just the tedium of typing this into my phone that is making me cranky.)

I don't think 'discussing' does double duty as the def works without it. But I see what Anthony means about ambiguity. There's still a clear winner though in the end.

I liked all the same ones, blah blah blah. And also 14ac and 20dn.

I'll put my money where my mouth is and say I went for O and not A in 1A. We shall see in the morning...

O is the winner. But I maintain the A answer is equally justifiable. It's not possible to definitively split which is defn and which is wordplay, as long as 'discussing' goes with the wordplay part.

It's a fine line, but I don't think 'discussing' is the right grammatic fit to be a homophone indicator for the latter part of the clue. The Times would seem to be quite fussy about these things.

9061 a tricky one which will test the vocab. Watch the 4s. Last in 10A. Fave 3D then 1D.

Shooting for 5 straight...

Been tied with my beloved olds today in Sydney, with 10 word stories to compose (for L&N) before I'm allowed to look at 9061. Thanks for the heads-up Boniface.

No sweat, with mild huhs for 3dn and 22dn, and a tsk for 8dn. Last entry aptly was 18dn - same as yours?

Such a stark contrast to yesterday's. I'll second your huhs DA. No stand out faves for me. 18dn took a while. Did a whole tour of Europe in my head before getting to it.

I'm ok with 3dn - it's the first knight, not the second, so it works fine. 22's just another obscure plant clue, so it's just dull to my mind.

Still 5 to go - penny hasn't dropped yet on 22ac, but it's the NE that I'm stalled on (though I got 10ac, Bon!). If 4ac clicks, I should get there.

Nope. The lazy typo in 13dn made 22ac impossible (you try that with an A, and you'll only ever want to type PUNCHBAG!). Considered the right answer for 4ac for some time, but decided it didn't work with 'in', and was unfamiliar with the rhyming slang anyway.

Oh, and the answer itself is rhyming slang for word, which didn't make things any easier!

I'm back into stop start mode, it seems.

9062 is chewy, oddly with a few too many soft letters. You will need some turbo vocab to secure 8dn, and I don't fully get 1ac. A meh for 24ac (wordplay def is too close to solution) and a bouquet for 22ac.

That's 6 in a row, dare I broach. Any still in the peloton?

Hmmm, not a day to be opening the paper for the first time after dinner. Following at least 5 full minutes of ever-increasing horror, I finally found an anagram to get me started. After that, it was extremely slow going. You were right about the soft letters DA - every answer was hard-fought.

Not that it's finished. I'm short by four.

I think the fact that I was going back and forth between the Times and another crossword also made things difficult. I kept forgetting which one I was looking at. (Not that they were anything alike!)

I liked 15dn and loved 22dn. And I kept staring at 18ac and thinking, yes I can see that, but what do you want me to do?

Missed again - 8dn it was. I was taken with the sneakiness of get=SON so never got past that.

Nailed 9062 and 9063 (I hope) so may have the straight six with any luck. Nothing much to rave about in 9063, thought that the S on rooms in 20D was a bit tricksy... and liked 26A. Good luck to all.

I thought 28ac was a tidy clue. (I think the plural in 20dn is a British usage, isn't it?)

Stuck on 1ac, 3dn, and feeling somewhat sheepish about it.

I'm saving 9063 for tomorrow if I'm allowed. Too busy today. Haven't even opened the paper to look at yesterday's answers - part of me doesn't want to know.

Wasn't familiar with 3dn, but it certainly made 1ac click easily enough. Which means I'm one down...

Pretty confident with this one too, which will hopefully bring me to the grand total of one.

My picks were 26ac, 28ac and 15dn.