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Ah, of course. Many thanks

Didn't start this week's until last night due to travel and I'm maybe one third of the way in, finding this one pretty tricky.

I could ask many questions, but here's one that's slightly worrying me...

27ac: "To sum up, taking cocaine, the thing he loves"

I have a potential solution that fits with the wordplay, using the last word as definition with a modified letter as per preamble—and it fits with what I have in the grid (the middle two letters are filled, and no others are; those two match up).

The disconcerting thing is that it would fit without cycling, despite having modified the definition. I solved this one without noticing the crosses, so it's not a case of my solving towards a particular answer. But I must be doing something wrong, whether it's the wordplay, definition, or misapplication of the thematic rule.

(As a further complication, the way in which I modified the definition was because it looked like a good letter to end up with based on the three preceding "corrections" as well as the one following.)

One other question, if I could be permitted...

Trying to be vague here, I think there are two clues whose misprint is of a categorically different nature than the rest, and I presume those two make up the difference between 31 and 33. However, having just noticed those two, I'm worried about a clue I had previously assumed to be one of those two:

23ac: "Site faces westward"

I had thought this perhaps had a non-definitional misprint—and, again, a different kind of misprint than all the others I've encountered. My attempts to be vague may make this post too incomprehensible to answer, but I suppose I'm looking for any hints about the extent to which 23ac matches the other thematically-modified clues, or if it's some kind of outlier. I had previously assumed it was the latter but now I'm wondering if I was completely wrong.

Chrisremo

I hope I'm not being too explicit when I say that 23ac is one of the 31. Definition is the first word (after modification, of course)

27ac is not one of the 31 & so needs no modification to the definition.

Will37, thanks much for the reply. I must have entirely misparsed 23ac, because I used the first word as definition without modification, but rather modified the wordplay. My result does work with the one cross I had, which I now must assume is entirely coincidental.

And re 27ac--is it some kind of &lit or similar, then? I have a pretty good wordplay match, but I modified the definition to make it a closer grammatical fit. So I think perhaps I have this one all wrong as well.

Ah, well at least with 27ac, I think I now see the definition is SLIGHTLY longer than I had previously understood, which makes the fit tighter.

I remember at the time being a little puzzled by 27ac, not being sure exactly what is definition and exactly what is wordplay. But it sounds as though you've hit on it.

Uuurrgh - all done, after a helluva slog - in spite of having understood the theme at an early stage.

Although a clever theme, and brilliant thematic clueing, I really found it unpleasant - rather, I realise, after refamiliarising myself with it, like the theme itself.

The combination of inscrutably subtle and thematically idiosyncratic clueing, the misprints, the cycling, and the horribly frustrating redistribution of the clue order requiring constant searching, all made this one of the most difficult Listeners I can recall.

Let's be honest - I hated it.

Sorry, Aver.

I have what I think is a complete grid, but some gaps in parsing mean I'm not sure I'm really able to close out the full theme. I have an idea as to what it's about but I don't have anything highlighted and I'm not sure what's going on with the "misprints"(?) in 11ac and 12ac (there's some overlap there with some potential initials of the condemned man but I think I might be on the wrong track entirely), and my utter inability to parse 35ac is leading to an irritating gap in my thematic messages.

Any nudges welcome, I know this is quite late for this puzzle!

CR - this is the abbreviation referenced in the preamble.

Three-letter initialism, pluralised, cycled.

It is also recognised as the same in the US.