Exactly! Many thanks for your helpful poetic response. I typed the ‘corrrection’ in a hurry, interrupting my wife’s email writing, and somehow managed to repeat the error. Also your use of asterisks is a much better device!

The line of course relates to the custom of awarding part of the bull to the torero if he has been especially brave and skilful. I thought (at the time) that a**e + ear rhymed quite nicely with Garcia!
But it’s more like a pig’s ear after all my mistyping.

My eyes are dim and perhaps I cannot see
But ‘a-e’ looks like ‘a-e’, to me.
Maybe ‘a**e’ is what you had in mind
Since the bull was taken from behind !

After working away at Araucaria’s blockbuster I have only got round to the comments on Paul this morning.

Hemingway was one of my favourite authors when I was a lad, and I am forever indebted to him for tempting me and a friend to visit Ronda in the 1950s before it had become such a popular tourist resort. It was as peaceful and beautiful as he described it in Death In the Afternoon, and we even manged to take in a corrida at the oldest bull ring in Spain. Unlike the others, the book itself is not a novel. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_the_Afternoon

After my visit I was tempted to write some od verses about various toreros including a fictional one:

I’m the famous bullfighter Garcia
I approach all my bulls from the rear
When my latest one died
The crowd angrily cried
Award him its a–e not its ear!

Many enjoyable clues and favourite the 13,9 22,24 pair as for others and 21a.

Well worth a look!

I can’t believe how few comments there are today. Maybe it’s due to the sun and an extended holiday weekend. It’s also St George’s day today which may eventually become a national holiday.

VENUS DE MILO was my favourite and the anagram of teaspoons was also very good. Also thought TIDYING was clever and DAMSEL was typical Paul.

Thanks Paul for all the enjoyment that you give.

I enjoyed this too, not least for the invitation to look up on Hemingway. Circumstances made me rush it a bit at first, and leave it with four to fill in, but these soon revealed themselves as I went about my business, so I was able to fill in the grid immediately on return.

moment as for Dad’s Lad and Tokyo Colin.

I really enjoyed this although I saw the Hemingway links almost too early to fully appreciate the challenge. I agree with Tokyo Colin about the link from 22,24 to 13,9 – delightful. I also liked the link between 21a and 1,3,5.

Now to try and persuade the family to allow enough time to tackle today’s mega-Araucaria, which strictly speaking calls for a Twentyonesquared blog…..

Favourite clues were 1ac and the link from 22,24 to 13,9. A real laugh out loud.

Thanks for an excellent blog, PeeDee. I was a little fuzzy on 21ac. And 18dn could equally have started with Gambia, not that it makes a difference.

It sure was nice to meet the Dalai Lama again, having previously met him in the flesh.

I wish that I could also catch up with Vera-Ellen, Cyd Charisse and Jane Wyman. Anyone?

(Sorry, Eileen and Stella, but these ladies were well before your time.)