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This is another offering from Paul, although, unlike his last crossword, there is no indication as to when this was compiled.

There is, however, a definite theme, although I'm not sure if that will be of any assistance when solving what is, in my opinion, a very difficult crossword.

Some of the cluing is really quite intricate and many took quite a bit of untangling to figure out. The definitions weren't much help either, with several being rather opaque.

There were a few that raised a smile, the "old cop" at 17a and what is possibly the most inventive and witty way to clue "ear" at 27a.

There are a couple I've yet to fully parse and I'm still not certain of 11a but hopefully the penny will drop soon.

Thanks to Paul for a difficult but most enjoyable crossword.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,

Agreed this was difficult but enjoyable. Your post enabled me to parse 17a and 27a, my remaining unparsed ones (27 was LOI). Perhaps 17 is a bit too much "pop culture" for my taste, but it's very clever.
11a was my COD, thematic (as I perceive the theme). 8d also a highlight.
Thanks to Paul, keep up the good form.

I should add: 27a would have been COD had I been able to parse it w/o your hint. It's devilishly clever!

Hi Geeker,

Agree 8d is very clever, using the theme for a nice bit of misdirection. I still haven't figured out 11a , there are only about a dozen words with the ?O?I?N letter pattern and none seem to fit.

For 11, think 6d (not the full 6,5), an old-fashioned term.

That's not much help, I'm afraid - what is the definition?

Definition "from another planet". The "food" part of the wordplay is a somewhat unusual word.

I can see a fairly rare 5 letter word for "food" beginning with 'V' so endless would make it 4 letters, which presumably follows a 2 letter synonym for 'juice' but the only word I can see that remotely fits the definition is one beginning with J, but can't see how it means "juice".

Ahh! I get it, it's a brand name of a juice.

Or the infamous Mr. Simpson :) (recall that I'm American)...