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Posted a bit later than the Guardian used to. Site page appears to number by date, so that's in the header.
Gentler than the last few IMO. Seems to be an "eye-rhyming pair" rather than phonetically rhyming pair this week.
The scoring algorithm may have been tweaked. My score was 340 rather than the 285 (iirc) that automatically registered in past Observer Everymen.

I thought this was quite difficult, as they have since the move to the Observer - small sample size, I know, but still.

I scored 295 for a time of a time of 13mins and 56secs but I've never bothered with times before as I often stop mid-solve to have a cup of tea or coffee or watch a YT video, so I'm not going to start recording them now.

I was lucky to 12d as I've never seen Titanic but new the reference from the gazillion parodies that I have seen:-)

Was somewhat nonplussed by 4d - still can't believe it to be honest!

COD - quite liked 23a but I'll pick 6d for its smooth surface.

I know there's still some confusion over Everyman's move from the Guardian to the Observer so here is the new address:-

https://observer.co.uk/

Just click on this and scroll down.

Stay safe:-)

COD - I meant 8d

I liked 6 as COD. Maybe because I struggle with homophone clues.
Would have written in 18, but thought my guess was too uncommon a name. It wound up verifying.
Didn't take notes of FOI or LOI, but I think FOI was 1d and LOI 19d.
Never saw Titanic but managed to solve 12 from crossers.

3 is an outstanding clue IMO because of the "ferryman", though I wrote it in sans parsing due to the solution's fame.

Hi Geeker,

I remember, years ago, having one of my infamous (but thankfully rare) rants on here about setters using (first) names as answers. My point was, and still is, that virtually any combination of letters will probably be someone, somewhere's name!

What about "apple", for example, 'but come on Bren', I hear you say, 'that's oviously a fruit not a name and, even if it is, who's going to have heard of him... or her'? Well, she is actually the daughter of Chris Martin of Coldplay and Gwyneth Paltrow and so, given their fame, would it not be safe to assume that she is known to millions all over the world? In which case, could a clue read "fruit of her father's eye' or similar and would you have thought it fair, and if not, why not? Surely Apple (Paltrow/Martin) is known to more people than anyone named the answer to 18d.

... what happened to the "but thankfully rare" bit Bren! 😂

Couldn't agree more about 3d.

The use of such completely different literary and cultural references, one from Greek mythology and the other from Hollywood is, outstanding, as you say:-)

Lowering the tone.

14a

Did anyone else start singing about a large airborne dessert?

Will just note that as past crosswords disappear from the observer.co.uk/everyman location, they can still be referred to on the puzzle constructors servers, like this.

https://cdn2.amuselabs.com/puzzleme/crossword?&set=tortoisemedia-everyman&embed=js&id=8f337a5e&uid=e6f05a98-3d2f-475e-ab57-725b93339618&src=https%3A%2F%2Fobserver.co.uk%2Feveryman

Igbore me. A senior moment.