Times 28279 – Slow-motion solving, or….

This was a not-so-mild puzzle for a Monday, that took a little doing. I got off on the wrong foot almost immediately, looking at the first clue and thinking: is the magazine Life, or Look? Fortunately, I managed to get a toehold with a few of the across clues, got a few of the downs, and was off. The vocabulary is just a bit outside the usual: marlinspike, intendant, psychodrama, Afrikaans – I don’t think we see these very often.