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Hi jvector
The last three letters refer to a playing card

hi everybody

Oh joy - a crossword I could do, though I did look at the Forum half way through, which helped.

I started at about 2.45pm and astonished myself by filling in loads of answers. (FOIs 8ac12ac14ac, 17ac) I'm usually very pleased if I get one or two on my first read through. Anyway, my tea got cold, so I went off to do other chores and returned to the crossword later. I now have an answer for each clue, though haven't managed to parse them all.
24ac was my last one in when the penny dropped over the special card.

Parseless or partially parseless are: 13ac, 20ac,19d and 27ac (where does the soprano come in?). My favourites are 2d,10ac,15d and 17ac - all of an ilk. I knew the Shetland festival from Ann Cleeves books set in Shetland, but 18d was unknown to me.

I don't do the cryptic crossword in the week, but I am sure I've seen Pan before on a Saturday. After the last few weeks it was good to finish a crossword. I know some of you found it frustrating, but spare a thought for those of us with little brain.

What does "surface" mean?

Hi Roof,

I'm glad, like me, you enjoyed it - nothing wrong with a bit of an easier one now and then.

13a - 5 letters for "disturbance" + 2 letters for "on" + T(urkish)

20a - 2 letter acronym, for a "doctor" surrounded by 5 letter synonym for "redder" (as in 'more inflamed/infected) + O(ld)

19d - "starters" of C(hilled) O(gen) M(elon) + 4 letters for "bit of a lemon" as in a 'junk car' or 'heap of rubbish'

27a - S (an accepted abbr. of Soprano) inside an anagram/"dancing" of "tap" all inside a synonym for "polished".

Surface refers to how the clue reads. For example, if the clue was written as a sentence in a newspaper or book, would it make good grammatical sense? If you take 4d say, "demonstrate in favour of group returning to Thailand" - it reads perfectly and if you saw or heard it a news report it would make perfect sense - hence it 'has a good surface':-)

13a - Woops! I meant 2 letters for "about" and inadvertently gave part of the answer - sorry 🥵

PS. Roof - I hope your hand is better:-)

DB's birthday was yesterday. Along with Elvis, Stephen Hawking, Shirley Bassey, Graham Chapman and me. Pedantic, I know. Anyway, let us hope 2021 is far, far better. If you have Netflix, death to 2020 by the black mirror mob is fantabulistic. Find that in Chambers. Peace and woot woot.

Hi roof
To brendan's useful advice I would add that a good surface will not actually give you false information, but the rhythm of it could allow you to misunderstand what the clue is saying. For example "Not a street where things happen", disguises the significance of "Not a". It makes you think of streets, but is solved as getting "avenue", a kind of street, and then omitting the "a" to leave "venue".

Thanks Brendan and David W

I'm glad to say I had got all the right answers now I've managed to parse them with your help.

My hand is still very sore Brendan. Thanks for asking. I look forward to getting the cast off on 18th and being able to type with two hands and do many other things. Though I expect it will still hurt for a bit even with the cast off. As I recall when I had my right thumb done, I had to do a lot of hand exercises.

Thanks barbs, chrise, and brendan - I was hung up on the 1+4 split and was racking my brains (and thesauri) for why 'card' indicated **** !
cheers, I can sleep soundly now
:-)

Hi all. A fun puzzle from Pan, I fell two slight murmurs of disappointment: that (mostly) it was quite so easy and that, having started with an answer to fill our hearts, there wasn't a theme for the puzzle between the Man's birthday (on Friday) and 5th anniversary of his death (today).
Brendan @33, I thought 19d had a three-letter dish around the (initial) bit of lemon rather than your dodhy car, otherwise 'dish' seems redundant?
FOI 7a, LOI 20a - I had mis-spelt 16d so spent ages looking for an Italian hat!