The Age Cryptic by LR #20,441

This one was harder than previous Monday puzzles. I'm missing most of the left side. I can't seem to break into those clues at all. Did not help that the internet was chock full of interesting articles and debates that demanded a portion of my attention stemming from this article in The Guardian by Kathleen Hale. Admittedly I'm enjoying this in a ghoulish way, with a bowl of popcorn and the thrill of a good tennis match. I'm not usually drawn to drama, I even avoid overly dramatic TV shows. It's one of those rare occasions where the train wreck was neat but the aftermath is fascinating. Debates of stalking vs confronting your online bully. Who was the real bully? Was there really any bullying? Where was the line crossed etc. Many writer friends have pitched in with their take and many of those opinions are evolving.  One person equated this to Gamergate. Quite the kaboom.

I Got more clues in while watching Q&A - I do love Prof. Cox so there was no way I was missing this one.

Anyway, enough of that. I missed eight clues in the end:

(Ok, for some reason Blogger won't let me upload the picture. I'll try later. OH you bugger. Blogger tried to screw me out of hours of work this post. I'm so glad I copy/pasted this into a word processor when it started acting weird or all that work would've been gone. Right, now that I've logged out and back in it's all behaving. I hate when tech misbehaves.)

9A - Beer turns to body odour with speed - it's complicated (9)
"It's complicated" is our definition and "beer turns" = ALE reversed to ELA, "Body Odour" = BO, "speed" = RATE all becomes ELA(BO)RATE.

10A - Marx initially had all Russians protesting outside (5)
"Marx" is who we are looking for and not Karl. Hone in on the word "initially" to see this is an initial letters clue "Had All Russians Protesting Outside" = HARPO.

11A - Abbott's heading into New Guinea for horse (3)
"Horse" is our definition and "Abbott's heading" = A "into New Guinea," = NG to give us N(A)G.

12A - Leaping surf recklessly in this body of water (7,4)
I didn't get this because I was sure "leaping surf" was anagrind and fodder and couldn't figure out how to get SURF split around a word for reckless. Wrong wrong wrong! "Recklessly" is the anagrind and "leaping surf" the fodder which is mixed to give us PERSIAN GULF as our "body of water."

13A - Freezing location? (7)
I guessed this was a double definition and SETTING was the likely answer but I wasn't confident "freezing" was a synonym of setting. I suppose it's like making ice cream and once it's "set" it's frozen. I think of "setting" more with gelatines and jams.

15A - Wait for support (5,2)
Double definition: STAND BY as in being on standby for a flight and "stand by your man."

17A - Arrowhead from cupid has love, and the litre of 22-down stuff (7)
I got this without getting the "22-down stuff" and in fact this clue confused me about what 22-down would be. I'd lightly pencilled in the answer. "Arrowhead" = A, "cupid" = EROS, "love" = O and "litre" = L all together for AEROSOL.

18A - Mistake outer cool with fury (7)
"Mistake" is our definition and "outer CooL" = CL "with fury" = ANGER for CL(ANGER)

20A - Madman with plate had rotten tuna and one cod head (7)
"Madman" is our definition "Plate" = L as in an L plate for a car, "rotten tuna" is anagrind and partial fodder, "one" = I and "Cod head" = C put together to give us: L(UNAT)(I)(C)

23A - Fellow attends with fruit (7)
"Fruit" is what we want  and a "fellow" = MAN and "attends" = GOES for MANGOES.

24A - Fictional sailor in hat, gutting tuna at hotel with goth (7,4)
"Fictional sailor" is our definition and I quickly discounted Popeye. "Hat" = CAP, "gutting TunA" = TA although in another clue it could mean to take the middle two letters - to remove the "guts", but here it's remove the guts and throw them away taking the outer TA. "Hotel" = INN and "goth" = EMO all together to make CAP(TA)(IN N)EMO. I'm glad I'd had a second look because I'd first put in AHAB and that was not working with "goth" at all. Quite a fun clue in the end.

26A - Outer layer (almost) of snowgear (3)
"Snowgear" is what we want and our "outer layer" is our SKIN "(almost)" is a deletion signpost to remove the last letter -N leaving SKI.

27A - Calm whisky maker (5)
Double definition: STILL.

28A - Throw rake around during landscaping (9)
This is the second anagram I missed because the fodder has a misleading anagrind in it. Sneaky LR! "Throw" looks a much more likely anagrind but "around" which is one of those words it could mean many things. "Throw rake around" is fodder and anagrind to give us EARTHWORKS. Not a word I've come across before which seems weird as it is what it says it is.

1D - Bouncer from the inn let slab shatter (6,4)
We are looking for a "Bouncer" and looking at "inn let slab shatter," is fodder and anagrind mixed up to give us TENNIS BALL.

2D - Giggling afterwards about grunt (8)
"Giggling" is our definition  and "afterwards" = LATER to be split "about" a word for "grunt" = UGH to give us LA(UGH)TER.

3D - Very happy with broth (4)
"Broth" is what we want and the answer is SOUP but I cannot see how "Very happy" works here. Could it just be "So Up?" Is it that simple? Yes it is, I asked @LRxword himself ""with" in this eg is just a filler word. Too many words spoil the broth? But yeah, Very = So. Happy = Up." which is fair enough. One of my New Year resolutions was to stop using "So" as the first word of a sentence when I noticed it being abused by a few Facebook friends. "So I was..." "So this guy..." "So we went..." every single time! I blame Chandler on Friends.  I also try and reduce the number of times I say "just" because I noticed it's a common repeat of mine. I used to have a coworker who said "basically" so much we created a counting game and would wager on how many times she'd say basically in conversation. I also used to have a manager who'd say "proberly" which could've  meant properly or probably depending on the conversation. It did make us pay attention because she said it a lot. Sorry, distracted...

4D - Cross Rhode Island with casual girl in song (8)
"Song" is our definition and "cross" = MAD, "Rhode Island" = RI because we tend to take the first letters of proper nouns, not always but it's a good first bet. "Casual girl" = GAL all together for MAD(RI)GAL

5D - Imbibe gin shot internally for starts (6)
Again we have the use of a typically actionable word "starts" being something else, here it's our definition.  Focus on the word "internally" as it's a hidden word signpost. "ImbiBE GIN Shot" = BEGINS. I was really off the ball yesterday. I got this late while watching Q&A. You can see my notes have incorrect parsings.

6D - Skinny king has a profit to reconsider (5,5)
"Reconsider" is our definition and "Skinny King" = THIN+K and "a profit" = A GAIN for THINK AGAIN.

7D - Grand spherical earth (6)
I was overthinking this. I was trying to work orb, clod, terra you name it. This clue is straightforward. "Grand" = G as in "10Gs = 10,000," or if you're American there's the Grand Bar. "Spherical" = ROUND for GROUND, a synonym of "earth."

8D - Some bread left by brute (4)
I first had in TROLL -T for ROLL thinking a "brute" where a letter "left" but that was not working. "Some bread" is the definition and "left" = L and "brute" = OAF for a LOAF.

14D - Greedy for Finnish seconds I interrupt a table (10)
"Greedy" is our definition and "fInNiSh seconds" = INS as we take every second letter, "I interrupt A TABLE" = "I" will go into the middle of A TABLE like this: INS(A T(I)ABLE)

16D - Why a road adheres to standards (10)
I got this with cross letters and seeing the definition was "Standards." Working backwards I can see "adheres" = STICKS and...aha I see it now! "Why" = Y A=A and "road" = RD to make YARD. There was no homophone signpost to make me realise "why" = Y but I think it is a common device used to get us to the letter Y and I've just not seen it that often.

18D - Arrivals surrounds a gym class - those equal in rank (8)
"Those equal in rank" is our definition and "arrivals" = COMERS which will split to "surround" a "gym class" = PE like this: COM(PE)ERS.

19D - Spooner must leave! Excellent! (4,4)
Damn! I missed another Spooner. These clues are rare enough that I never get enough practice at solving them and struggle to do so. I really need a puzzle of just Spooners so I can improve. "must leave" = SHOULD GO which spooners into GOOD SHOW.

21D - Serviette gets rest of ink spill (6)
"Serviette" is our definition and "Gets rest" = NAP with "ink spill" as partial fodder and anagrind to give us NAP(KIN)

22D - How 1-downs, 2-down, and 3-down could be scrapped? (6)
How TENNIS BALLS, LAUGHTER and SOUP "could be scrapped?" All share the word CANNED.

24D - Throw line to actors (4)
Double definition: CAST.

25D - Boat thus edges away from Hawaiian island (4)
"Hawaiian island" is what we are looking for and "bOAt tHUs edges" = OAHU as we've removed the "edges" of the words to reveal the answer.

And we are done. I had the pleasure of getting this typed up in a beachside cafe as I was booted from my house while the bug man was there to spray the house and yard. Coastal living has a buggy disadvantage. Our yard is infested with flies breeding out of control on the beaches. Then there's ants and spiders and recently the big, black moths. Soon the mozzies will be coming. I could handle one or two plagues at a time but not all at once.