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Oh wow, thanks Bowergirl, that subtlety (re the quires) for 3d completely passed me by! I was wondering why so many people thought it such as great clue!

Well, along with the quick cryptic, I'm guessing this a bridge between Everyman and Cryptic. Are they trying to train up the general population for an upcoming crypto war? I don't know anymore! Let's ask Brockwell!

darla wrote: "Re 1d, the Titanic wasn't supposedly "unthinkable" but rather unsinkable. So a captain with a ____ would pronounce it as the former."

That's how I parsed it, too, but there is a problem imho: People who lisp do not pronounce the TH sound. It's not that they merely mix up the S and the TH sounds.

OK, the ancient Romans did not use IC for 99 according to their rules at the time.

But the use of Roman numerals has evolved in the modern era, so we now write them with fewer restrictions than the ancient Romans did.

Conclusion: It's perfectly fine to use IC for 99 in a cryptic.

3d. I took it to mean that the definition is what happens to squires to make quires.