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Jigjag, thanks - and thanks for taking on the overseeing of the supermarket merger stuff. I know I can rely on you to focus on the appropriate points. If you haven't yet done today's Times puzzle, 14 A will delight you, I'm sure!

Malone

I am planning to do The Times crossword tonight. I am intrigued by your comment , so hope I can solve 14A.

jigjag

Looking forward to hearing about him correcting customers' grammar. I suppose he is German , or possibly French.

Grunger, your comment reminded me that I'd overlooked Jigjag's forthcoming fine dining experience. I'm Scottish, and hope that Jigjag will bump into my good friend, Big Mac (along with the rest of his family, the small fries)..

On the BBC Radio 3 website today: "Paired [sic] back Schubert. How does he achieve so much with so little?"

Grunger

Ivor is actually half-German.

Malone

It was a rather disappointing evening. The trip with my son to McD....... went well enough (report later if I get a chance). I forgot to mention Big Mac and his small fries to Ivor, but I did not see any large Scotsmen. I go to the Cheshire Oaks branch at Ellesmere Port, and I suppose your friend goes elsewhere.

On arriving home, I was told by the family that we were going to watch 3 hours of recordings of a programme about "Baptiste", a detective apparently. I started the Times crossword whilst watching it. I am afraid I did not get very far. I could not solve your 14A and seeing the answer today I am not surprised The SA is nonsense and I never see it. To me "appeal" is "O" or "howzat".

I thought 13D must be Ostrich Egg but the anagram was wrong. A rare error. But then I thought that the "Trot" clue was wrong too. Also the "Lufthansa" one did not need "large", or if it did, it should be after "developing". So I abandoned it. I could not really follow the TV story, and to cap it all, I find we are only half-way, and another 3-hour session is booked for the weekend!

Jigjag, thanks for your comprehensive post - a restaurant review, analysis of a television drama … and some crossword dissections. The Ostrich Clue and Lufthansa clues contained errors, and were discussed on the long, chatty thread yesterday. Corrections to the clues appeared online yesterday - too late, of course. I thought Trot was feeble. I'm glad you found no appeal in the cliched, ancient SA.

I watched one episode of 'Baptiste' and felt it was one too many.

jigjag

Thanks, I suppose he has a German father and that is why he is strict on grammar, German and English. Are you watching the first series?

grunger

Do you mean there is another series? I wont be watching any of that. This is set in Amsterdam and that is about all I have understood.

Malone

Thanks - yes my posting seems to have been a bit of a rant, probably due to gorging myself on fast "food", Baptiste and crossword clues including the "gorges" one.

I must do a more measured report on my visit to McD.....

Orson, I overlooked your 'paired' last night. I was feeling charitable at the time and decided to deem it just a misprint.

Jigjag, it certainly wasn't a rant - you had a lot of ground to cover.

PS I could be wrong, but I thought Grunger's 'series' related to cricket stuff as you'd mentioned appeals and howzat.