QC 3275 by Izetti

First thought “Oh, this must be DROWN”, the OWNS of 2D confirms it, must go back and parse it as I’m blogging today. What, wait? NWOR, hang on…

I remember in 1999 when copyright notices on the BBC changed over (while computer experts wrestled with Y2K) and there it was the glorious MM.

Superbowl in 2016, (just about the only other widespread use of Roman Numerals) bottled it and didn’t call it Superbowl L.

The African National Congress (ANC) is South Africa’s governing political party, which famously led the struggle against apartheid.

This is the metaphor “Deaf to the argument”.

Per can equal “a” as in  “16 miles a minute” or “£50 a head”

Hyper-correcting Americans might be tempted to write “tremour”, as in “Clamour” at 20a. Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way.

The original buccaneers were French and English hunters on Hispaniola who earned their name from the boucan, a wooden rack used for smoking meat. All Buccaneers are pirates, not all pirates are buccaneers.

Struggled here, as I saw the Courier anagram, but tried to place it inside a Caribbean island (Cuba)

Sting means smart as in, “ooh, that smarts/stings”. This was a tricky one to parse.

William Hogarth was a prolific 18th-century English painter and engraver best known for his “moral histories” which used satirical, sequential images to critique the social and political follies of London life.

The colour originally comes from the dark pigment found in the ink sacs of the cuttlefish (whose scientific name is Sepia officinalis). And the photograph thing, the sepia tint (a silver-sulphide compound) made the photographs much more chemically stable and resistant to fading, which is why so many Victorian photos still look great today.

Clever clue where craze/crazy is used differently at each end of the clue.

Word comes from Greek for 50th, being the 50th day after Easter (7 weeks), Jewish tradition is to count start and end day, hence Jesus rising “on the Third Day”. Was called Whit Sunday in England (the priest wore white) In the 1970s some bureaucrat decided to fix it as the last Monday in May (they didn’t dare mess with Easter).

And pleasingly this year Pentecost and Whit fall on the same weekend (May 24/25)

This seems pretty racy for a Times clue. Sex on the Beach is a cocktail: vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice, and cranberry juice together and serving it over ice.  Variants include “up against the Wall” (with Galliano) and “With a pillow” (with whipped cream)

Very nice anagram. Best other ones I could find for US States are: LOOK A HAM, and INVITES RAW GIN. Maybe they’ll turn up soon.

Footballer=back is a common definition, so Backfire, Backstop, Backbone, etc all looked good.

A valve is any device that “regulates, directs, or controls the flow of a fluid by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways.” So a tap is a valve.

With a ending of ING looking likely I started out with GANG for my criminal group.