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Hi, Rusty!
No, it isn't right....sudden violent death like that in so horrific an accident prepares no one for the shock and aftermath of being deprived of a loved one.
When one thinks of how blithely the victims probably set out that morning...............
I am now reading "Hawaii".
Have you read this one?
I have just come to the end of the first chapter, telling of how the islands originated.
My word, what descriptiveness!
I am wondering what is in store for me this time?
I see I have a week's tennis ahead!
The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals start on Sunday and there are three hours viewing on BBC 2, daily!
I have set the recorder.
I am looking forward to watching!

Good morning, Elle!
Rain has stopped.
It is many, many, years since I read "Hawaii".
It may have been my first Michener epic.
I remember missionaries etc in it but not much more.
I am off out now, meeting my granddaughter later.

Hi, Rusty!
It is very wet here... a "wellies" day when out dog -walking earlier!
I am not sure whether you will be back home - or still out with your granddaughter?
I am sure she was excited to show you her new flat!
And I bet you have come home with a long list of things you plan to buy for her?
I have done the Times Jumbo GK, but am struggling now with the 15x15!
Maybe a coffee will help........
If this rain doesn't let up, I have told the dog we are not going out again.........!

Hello, Elle!
Not too bad here.
I was not out very long.
Just to see the flat.
No bacon roll!
Yes, she was quite excited showing me around.
She has most of her items.
Been planning for a while.
Trips to Ikea etc.
Now the crossword, I have one to fill.
17a, if the commoner with title is "baronet".
Disposes of core, "bar(o)net"
Leaves me Barnet.
Is there a Barnet in London?
Or am I astray...again?
I have a tiny inkling of Barnet Fair, wherever that is/was?
And is a baronet a commoner?

Hi Rusty

Yes, there's a place called Barnet in North London.

Good evening, Rusty!
I am glad that you liked your granddaughter's flat!
Is it local to where you all live?
She sounds very well organised, gathering her necessary possessions in readiness for her move.
I am sure she was delighted with the goodies you had bought for her?
I managed to finish the crossword this morning, apart from two parsings that I am still struggling with..........
Yes, you are right about 17a........
The answer is Barnet.
Barnet used to be in Hertfordshire but has since become a part of Greater London.
And there is a Barnet Fair!
It used to be an annual horse and livestock fair, but I think is now purely a pleasure fair?
It is held on the first Monday in September!
Also, "barnet fair" is cockney rhyming slang for "hair"!
And yes, a "baronet " is a Commoner! (as a baronetcy is not a peerage)
So you had it right on all points!
Incidentally, my parents lived in Barnet during WWII, until a bomb destroyed their house - whereupon they move back to Bolton, in Lancashire.

Hello, Elle,
For a time I thought it was "baroness" and "Barnes"
I had heard of Barnes Bridge during the Boat Race commentary.
I presumed there was a place called Barnes, but, I could not make it work.
There still is a Barnet Fair?
I new the "hair" bit.
I hope your parents were out when the house was bombed?
My granddaughter was very pleased with me, yes.
She has several folk going to see her flat over the weekend.

Hi, Rusty!
Now, I seem to have a dim memory of telling you all about Barnes - a most attractive Thames -side village?
Why I should be doing so, I cannot recall?
Unless it was a side -step from the boat race? and, as you say, Barnes Bridge?
My husband used to live quite near there before we were married.
Re the house bombing....my father was away at war.....he was in the RAF.
I think my mother was out doing her war work elsewhere.....
Neither was hurt anyway; I was told she just found a flattened building on her return!
(I wasn't around in those days!
I was born later when they were back living in Lancashire!)
Now, of the two clues I still had to parse, I think I have done one of them satisfactorily.......
26a: Publicity to obliterate lead of honest chap who's in power?
Answer is Prince Regent. = who's in power (def)
Pr - publicity
(s)incere - honest
gent - chap
I think this is right?
But the last one .....
1d: I have "idiotic" as the answer, meaning "nuts"
but cannot parse the rest of it?
I am completely lost.....?

Elle, take Ma out of Idiomatic.

...I'm away from the paper,so can't give the whole clue - I just remember how it worked!