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Am stuck in one corner of this Times oldy.

Playful Stalin capturing island(6)
- - - O - E

I am thinking of JOCOSE = playful but what about the rest of the clue? Can't see it.
Any ideas?

Joe Stalin
COS is an island.

Thank you fRancis. Cos is a lettuce to me! Or it was, rather.

All I want for Christmas is to get shot of this crossword so all help appreciated.

Here's the Christmas double: a down and an across clue sharing the initial letter:

DOWN CLUE:

Pricker's over a thousand to prick (4).

- - N -

ACROSS clue:

Local university replaced by different sage, perhaps (3-4).

- - - / - E - B.

I'm thinking PIN could be a pricker but then what? PINT (T for a Thousand)? I suppose TINE could also be a pricker.
Across, I don't get the local and university. It looks like Herb because of the reference to sage. PEA-HERB? Is there such a thing?

pot herb
pub,where U is replaced by Other

pink?
k is a thousand.

Thank you, sue. Local = pub, of course! I had PINK as a possibility originally but rejected it. I didn't actually think of K = thousand. I was thinking of M or the initial T.

how does pink = prick (maybe the pop star)or sausages or pinking shears.
I love my star.

Earlier on today when I was toying with the idea of PINK, I looked up pinking shears and they are for cutting in a zigzag fashion. However, I also found PINK in a list of synonyms for PRICK.