Spoil Away [Sept 26 - Oct 1]

Whoops, missed that intro and put something on the other thread already.

9118 fell in nicely over lunch.

The Latin in 9A is a bit tricky unless you happened to study such things at Uni, but the checkers will help.

18D uses a famous front-hook. While 19D could have referred to a case of Delhi belly...

Lucky for us all that 17A has another meaning!

17ac. Nice pickup. And 19dn, I'd noticed the same opportunity. Interesting that those two clues intersect, along with 20dn on the eastern boundary and 27ac along the bottom.

You two are on fire. I had to Google the last few, partly in self-loathing for not joining your party as promptly.

Who knew HERB ROBERT? Or LOCUS STANDI? These are DH-ish. Along with SECCO and SQUARE BASHING, which sounds painful for the nerd.

Thought DECIPHER was a zinger, and I felt tempted to put in MINCED for 11ac: M-IN-CE-D = GROUND?!

While DESUETUDE [with DUET, not PAIR] was gnawing at my lobe for a while too. Very tough way to start any week. I'm too ashamed to count that, since reference-free is the only way to fly.

For me, HERB ROBERT was an informed guess based solely on wordplay, but good enough, it looks. LOCUS STANDI is stock in trade for any litigator (which I'm not, BTW - I'm an advisor).

Pretty sure I'm home on this one. But I'll own up to fluffing Saturday's by rushing OUTAGE instead of HUMANE, dammit.

I confess, I got through only by trusting the wordplay. Never came near any of the four you mentioned, DA, though SECCO rang enough of a bell to believe it.

And if it makes you feel any better, DA, Mondays are my day off, so I had more than usual time with the puzzle in the morning.

What are the odds? My first solution entered was 28ac:

Lightly touched sound chest = BUST [sounds like bussed, or kissed]

Only to figure out in the end-game that KIST must also be a chest. That's weird.

And still have six to solve. What the hell is this Outspoken European satire? Am I going to kick myself?

In 13ac, thought 'shrivelled' was a subpar signpost for a Hidden. Back to my six.

@DA: Re the outspoken one, yeah I think you'll know it. Kick away!

26 across is especially dodgy as a def since the emergence of "unplugged" as a genre. 16A is a bit queer too and I reckon 11A is a meh for reasons I'm sure you'll fathom.

Hard but not great this one.

I'll disagree with Bon on 26ac - you're thinking down too narrow a track here. 16 has its ? and is clever enough that I'll take it. 11ac is wordy, yes, but I didn't mind it.

I took shrivelled as a deletion indicator, with some strength to it.

I can only assume that you're lacking some checkers for 12dn, DA! I would imagine that first or last letter would give it to you.

Ouch. Consider my own butt kicked. CANDIDE indeed. I didn't have the C of SEMICIRCLE either, which is a clever clue.

Maybe my brains are candied bananas.

Never mind - I would find it inconceivable that today's will trouble you...

Nor did it, Anthony. And 9122 is in the bag as well.

Wasn't sold on 'quack' as the straight part of 3dn (empiric?), and I calling Man a cay (in 20dn) was a trifle pert in my books.

But did enjoy realising (thanks to 28ac) than ANDANTE is a blend of DANTEAN. If that's not a Wordwit, I'm ancestrally related to a monkey.

#9123 - is 21D a typo?

All bar 17A. A hint please?

Sorry DA - I had RAY for man, in C for chapter and ON for about (as in, a chapter about this is someone writing on it). No idea how you've parsed it! Empiric turns up in the dictionaries, it seems, though such cynicism in an older defn is curious...