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Easy, but nicely structured, and the clues are on the whole excellent- and even charming.

Well, the early night went for a burton. Have just finished it, on a whole, a very clever grid which was well put together, my answers to 39a and 35 & 36d gave me an early way in to see the hint of what 23a was all about.
Can't see the wordplay for the outside letters of 26a, also don't quite get my answer to 12d, and is 6d a word?

Hello, Les. 26a: "Producer of loud" I took as homophone indicator for "uh, sighs is". 12d: (L)evantine and (M)agi facing (serving as lining for) E- the LEM travels over the moon. 6d is US armed forces slang.

Cheers aristo, I saw the homophone for 'sighs' but 'uh' didn't quite cut it with me. Yes, of course, the LEM is an acronym... doh! I understood that the word for 6d must be right because it makes sense as two X two letter words as a prefix and then to mean being called up, just never heard it before, you American tricksters, what are you like... ha ha

A very clever grid though I thought.

I am working on something for a treat for the forum members for Christmas at the moment that I don't think has ever been done before, it's nothing to do with the JE which is perfectly safe the way it is, but a completely new spin on a clue & answer based puzzle which I think - if I get the final puzzle correct, it will give people a good few hours of fun over the festive period and it should appeal to all levels of crossword proficiency. Can't give anything away just yet but will hopefully have it ready for Xmas.

Off to bed now, goodnight all

Must be a transatlantic thing again; uh-sighs-is is exactly how it sounds over here.
Sounds promising...

Yes, quite an easy one this time, about 1/2 hour, but clever clues all relating to the "season". (Dare I say it in these PC times? Christmas; celebrating the birth of the credit card.) (-;>

@Rosalind - had to look up RTFM; not a texter, but I could use that at work almost every day.

@GK - Happy birthday! 28th? I hope January brings a tougher one to challenge us a bit.

@Aristo - thanks for doing the explanations.

@Les - looking forward to your new puzzles.

Cheers, all.

Perhaps someone can explain the wordplay for 7D. Def is clear & all crosses verify.

Les- I think the producer in 26ac is a kind of donkey.
Syzygy- this has to be a first!- the garments in question have 2 components, the first a circumference and the second the -er- excitement factor. Don't get me started is just repeating 23 ac - there because it's a down clue
Is 7ac a word?

Finished except 9 dn which I imagine must be the third proper noun. Just don't have the crossing letters.
You can't please everyone all the time- I was glad it was easier than usual!
Looking forward to your new puzzle, Les
And I thought you might be a lawyer, Ari!

Hiya Rosalind,

The clue for 9d is not a prpoper noun, just a noun. The Def is 'He's late' - You're looking for representative letters and then some more representative letters (abbre) for the clue parts inside an anagram of one of the words.

Re 26a) Can't see a donkey Rosa, the Def is the 'in court' part. The rest is a homophone, I was saying to aristo that over here, the 'uh' part doesn't quite sound right (for me) but the rest is perfectly ok, I suppose it will be pronounced slightly different in other places with various accents and dialects. What's your thoughts?

Be good, les