4,5 down: C+H-AxN+C-E? (10, 4)
Here’s a fine example of why DA still remains a thrill despite how powerless he can make you feel at times. C+H-AxN+C-E = calculated risk speaks for itself.
13 down: One buffoon rewound before a Spielberg movie disrupted movie cut worth savouring (5, 6)
Intricate clue that I greatly enjoyed working out, albeit retrospectively. One = i, buffoon = nong, Spielberg movie = ET and movie = film so that one buffoon rewound before a Spielberg movie disrupted movie = filet mignon = cut worth savouring.
20 down: Wireless bra-wearer of the male persuasion? (7)
Anything prurient always makes me laugh, and this time we’ve got wireless = trannie = bra-wearer of the male persuasion.
28 across: Italian meter-man draw amps near the electric leads (5)
What’s special here is DA’s use of words within the same semantic range. Here, draw amps near the electric leads = Dante = Italian meter-man.
Calculated risk is my favourite clue in ages. RC and I flat out refused to leave Journal until we got it, which we did with about a minute to spare before I was embarrassingly late to meet L at Melbourne Central. Excellent.
4,5 down: This reminded me of 5th September
23 across: [?????] (1,5′1,3,1,4). The answer was I HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE.
Clues where the punctuation or other non-alphabetic symbols affect the solution are rather rare, but are often quite memorable for that reason.
There was a classic a year or so back – it went something like ASAP A$ AP ASAP (1,4,3,3,5,3,4,6). It was A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTED – as in a fool (a sap) and his money ($) are parted (A $AP) soon (ASAP). I can’t remember quite what the syntax was, but it was a pearler.