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Thanks, Jono. That explains those.
Still stumped by the clues listed in post #14

18d is not an anagram of travel (I made that mistake). It’s a four letter word for ‘travel aimlessly’ inside the bits from Golfs
14a is what “cor” is (in another language)

6d is a former German capital city reversed inside “the” in Spanish with a little “Earl” at the end.

18d is a 4-letter word for travel aimlessly inside golfs regularly - it’s a very literal interpretation involving pulling certain letters out of a word - it’s a common conceit in crossword land.

I'm another late parser -- plenty of answers went in today with no real idea why, at least initially. Good to learn a couple of new terms -- the smelly creature, for one, and 'irrational' in 9A (thanks Jono). Can't believe I've got this far through life without coming across that before! Incidentally, could it be that 9A was added at the last minute after the setter realised they were getting a bit overly self-referential this week?

Thanks, all. I had the wrong 4 letter travel word for 18D.
14 A was funny, but LOI 25A elicited a groan!
4D is still COD for its lovely construction.
Stay safe, all

Hi All,

I’ve been teetering on the edge of joining in for a few weeks now on the Everyman and Guardian Prize threads, especially since I, too, have noticed a step up in the Everyman offering. Last week’s puzzle was a bit more in the style of old. Today, I actually had trouble getting started and only got one clue on first reading (23), but once I’d got going I got up a steady pace. I don’t have a clear COD, I thought the quality of the cluing today was pretty even.

It was femmenoire’s description of Michigan winters that finally pushed me over the edge to pipe up. Here I am in Lapland, where winter’s also about 5 months long and all systems go throughout the winter, the locals are getting their ice fishing gear ready for when the sun starts to properly come out in March-April but I’m sticking to the cross country skis. The ice fishing is really just an excuse to sunbathe and I’ve done it, but I hate actually catching fish! Not being a local, I’m squeamish about killing ‘em.

A really good one stumped by 21a had to look up -clever although easy when you see it-22d I thought was going to be American spelling of ' grey' oddly which threw me after seeing American cocktail 25a. I think I have been reading too m many Ross MacDonald books.

Morning all. Just finished but needed to read the forum to parse a few. I am a bit puzzled by 7d being considered Pauline? Perhaps I have the wrong answer although one that rhymes.

it's in the water!

16d was used to make the old fashioned black telephones that some of us remember!
It's different from thermoplastics because it doesn't melt.