No wordplay quibbles but there are a couple of loose definitions that dictionaries probably support but felt a bit unsatisfying while solving (see 15A, 17A, 21D). Two across anagrams got me started here rather quickly.
Across
| 11 | UP TO N,O, GOOD – Somehow I knew that West Ham play at UPTON “park”. |
| 12 | MORSE,L – ref. “Inspector” MORSE and L really is a “learner driver”. |
| 14 | ST,ILETTO=toilet* |
| 15 | TR(END)Y – def is “with it” and I think END for “Waterloo” which I suppose is literally accurate since it’s a terminus. |
| 17 | SE(AL[l])ED – SEED for “family” seems a little liberal. |
| 20 | HALL,O,WED |
| 22 | CO,WARD – as in, “don’t be such a baby!” |
| 24 | DISH – hidden &lit in “fooD IS Hot” |
| 26 | SAFE SEAT – (see a fast)*. “banker” here is not a river, nor someone who works in a bank but… something you can bank on, i.e. count on, i.e. safe. |
Down
| 1 | JACK,BOOT – my parents still embarrass me by calling the trunk the BOOT (in Portland, OR). |
| 3 | ANNUAL – double def |
| 4 | DOWNSIDE – (dies, snow)*. Quite a drawback indeed to die with snow all around (as Scott probably noted). |
| 5 | LONG,FELLOW – ref. the American poet Henry LONGFELLOW. |
| 6 | ESCORT – corset*: anag &lit |
| 8 | ARTIST – traits*: turns out that GBS actually wrote in “Man and Superman”: “The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.” My mother is an artist and, growing up, she had a large sign on the fridge door proclaiming: “Housework is the enemy of the artist!” |
| 18 | DORIS DAY – (Dry? I, soda)* |
| 21 | AV,O,WED – “Open” is the (somewhat loose) definition and AV is “authorized version” (of the Bible). WED shows up again (also in 20A) as “hitched”, i.e. married. |
| 24 | DASH – two meanings both quite different and the surface is well-constructed: “Tear drop” |
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