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Seriously disappointed by Doc's latest, especially after his beautiful puzzle a few weeks ago: back to normal dismal form.

Peter284, I too was disappointed. I thought Doc's last puzzle was nice in that it was different, but I wouldn't have classed it as 'beautiful'.

Maybe, the tiniest drop of water in the desert has led to hyperbole.

Thanks, Peter284. I didn't like to appear churlish, but 'beautiful' seemed a step too far!

“one with an apostrophe” - well, only if you are a greengrocer or the editor of Chambers. Collins and the ODE record this expression without any apostrophe.

I whizzed through the gridfill and completed most of the unclued with the aid of a small subtraction, some nice cars, a basic education, some beer, some cool jazz, some Russian composers and some cartoon characters. However, I am completely stumped as to the three worder. Does anyone have a nudge for me?

Turast, venture across the pond...

Or fly across. I thought the composers were French.

Thanks, Malone and AlwaysPuzzled.

That's embarassing! Funny how the brain plays tricks. Just when I was writing my post, I was recalling that while the puzzle was referring to Poulenc and his mates, Borodin and his pals could have been included thematically at a push, if they hadn't already been covered by (4,4) the Dave Brubeck title. Also the erroneous nationality I ascribed has been on my mind a lot recently.

To compound my shame, I'm still struggling with the area of my original enquiry. I thought I should be able to fit "EIGHT" into the entry, but I have got ?IR?O?C?ON?. Thinking transatlantically hasn't helped, I'm afraid

Turast, remember one element/part features twice (I can't remember the exact wording). Think you'll need to be on a higher plane to solve it....