The Age Cryptic by RM #20,602

Happy Monday and we start with a lovely straightforward puzzle from RM. I did not find this a very easy puzzle but I got it all. I can't parse everything, though. I got hung up in the SW corner tripping over 18D and its acrosses. I also had first instincts very wrong and had to erase a lot. For 19A I'd put in FREE LOADER  then figured out 17D so knew that was off. Then I tried to put OVER LOADED for 13D - seems I was determined to get "load" in this grid, but that was wrong, too. No loads anywhere.

Here's my pic - and what a hassle this was! Did the mac update with new iPhoto and it's rubbish!

16A - Brace for year at top secret retreat (4)

Not very sure at all. I first had ARMY which also made little sense to me. I think the "year" = Y but how we're getting the STA I don't know. I get the "retreat" is like a vacation where you "STAY" in a hotel? Did you enjoy your stay? That sort of thing. Ok, I just had another look in case I missed an easy anagram or something - is this a reverse initialism? "Retreat" isn't the definition but the instruction that STAY is backwards in "Year At Top Secret" and that makes "brace" the definition instead. STAY is like a kind of leg brace thing? Corsetry?


8D - Girl's stuff at the art museum (7)

I got this from definition and cross letters. I don't know if "girl's" = GAL or if "stuff" is a container signpost and the "girl" is ELLA stuffed into...GRY. That doesn't seem to work. I'm stumped. How do we make GALLERY?

20D - Militant supporters have a strange fit of pique (7)

Again I got this from cross letters and definition. Apart from "militant" having the first four letters I can't see how we get our answer TANTRUM.

That's it. Not much else to go on about today except I just saw a couple of Pelicans fly over my house! My Goodness! Pelicans! You'd think living near the beach I'd see them all the time but those are the first ones I've seen here since we moved last year. Usually I only see them flying over the M1 at the landfill near Werribee.