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I thought that might be it because I immediately thought that scene in LOB and started to laugh - I think I'm starting to get the hang of these "Pauline" type clues:-)

Some of the wordplay in these clues is really intricate, 21a for example, took me ages to figure out the parsing even when I was sure of the answer.

Agreed on the complex wordplay of 21! I started with only the crossers, from which I was able to deduce 13, which in turn gave the balance of 21. Probably couldn't have solved 21 directly from wordplay.

I got a bit of shock when I first saw 10a "victim....of Empire" - for one awful moment I thought it might be to do with that famous Empire "victim" Jussie Smollett, or as Dave Chappelle calls him "that well known French actor Joosie Smoulliet" - massive relief it wasn't:-)

10 was actually my FOI, I spotted the definition and it was a write-in. Being an old f**t and out of touch with popular culture, must admit that I don't recognize either of the names you mentioned!

No problem Geeker, Dave Chappelle is a very funny American comedian, who famously turned down a $50M offer to produce a show for Netflix because they wanted too much control. The other guy is an actor from a US show called Empire (although he's since been fired) who falsely claimed he was the "victim" of a homophobic and racist attack.

25a is a city in Florida.

Hi Mathi,

Yeah, I got it literally seconds after posting, as is so often the way - in my defence though, it is one of the unlikeliest sounding names for a city I've ever heard - plus it doesn't show up in the usual word search engines:-)

21a I completely forgot this clue was referenced in 13a - I don't make it easy for myself:-)

I could get 21a only after getting 13a! They are nice clues.

I've just started, but I don't think I'll carry on. Two of my five answers so far (17d and 25a) have only come from wordsearches - never heard of either!

9d is a nice clue, though.

HI Chris,

There's no doubt it is tough but, having said that, Geeker did in a near record time for him/her, so it might be a "wavelength" thing?