Times 28,241: Nothing Quite Like It For Cooling The Blog

I found this “quirky” with some rather unusual vocabulary and cluing but not too hard for all that: I clocked in at 6.5 minutes. COD to 5ac for pure “what the heck?”-ness. Apparently there’s a James A Stone Swimming Pool in California but it would take me 176 hours to get there on foot so I probably won’t be checking it out any time soon.

Some word-salady surfaces that I couldn’t really imagine ever coming across in real life but I did enjoy this puzzle for a’ that. Thank you setter!

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Pleased in the past with flowers round my person (8)
GLADSOME – GLADS [as in gladioli] + O [round] + ME [my person]
5 James A Stone (6)
JASPER – JAS [Biblical abbrev. of James] + PER [a, as in “a head”]
10 Serving in women’s clink: it is sort of character-forming (6-2,7)
JOINED-UP WRITING – JOINED UP [serving] + IT in W [women] + RING [clink]
11 Support for climbing rose with pressure for second length before summer (4,6)
ROPE LADDER – RO{p->S}E + L(ength) before ADDER [summer, as in one who sums, tots, or adds]
13 Horse taking a long time over race (4)
HARE – H(orse) + reversed ERA
15 Canadian’s box of beer, whiskey, old and fine used during trip (3-4)
TWO-FOUR – W + O + F during TOUR
17 Fanciful female academic’s claim (7)
PROFESS – if a male academic is a PROF a female one could be a PROF-ESS
18 Rail about large university’s power (7)
FLUENCE – FENCE about L(arge) U(niversity)
19 A distanced gesture — as holding in anger is (3,4)
AIR KISS – AS “holding in” IRK IS
21 Encountered one returning couple (4)
ITEM – MET I, reversed. FOIT
22 Tern — ocean’s glory (3,7)
SEA SWALLOW – SEA’S WALLOW. “Delight greatly in” is a meaning of WALLOW
25 Area: mountain road, long time closed, I book (1,7,2,5)
A PASSAGE TO INDIA – A(rea) + PASS + AGE [long time] + TO [closed, as in a door] + I(ndia)
27 Involve volunteers in overturning occupation (6)
ENTAIL – T.A. in reversed LINE [as in, what’s my line?]
28 Awfully base breaking in to dishonestly alter lawyer’s record (8)
CASEBOOK – (BASE*) “breaking into” COOK [dishonestly alter, e.g. books]
Down
1 Emotional about clash over a state of India (7)
GUJARAT – GUT [as in a GUT feeling] “about” JAR A
2 Friend, in a major way (3)
AMI – A + M1
3 Herald sure to be transported (10)
SPELLBOUND – SPELL [herald, as in “this spells disaster”] + BOUND [sure]
4 Bank with millions? Pound, not pence (5)
MOUND – M + {p}OUND
6 Like something stocktaking reveals? (4)
AKIN – hidden in {stockt}AKIN{g}. LOI
7 British in a bad way under rank future legislation? (7,4)
PRIVATE BILL – B(ritish) ILL under PRIVATE [army rank]
8 Right exit to turn back? (7)
REGRESS – R(ight) + EGRESS
9 A wee pest deforming garden plant (5,3)
SWEET PEA – (A WEE PEST*)
12 In favour of tirade against underground being filled to bursting (11)
PROTUBERANT – PRO [in favour of] + RANT [tirade] against TUBE [underground]
14 Iron amulet needs resetting for gemstone (10)
TOURMALINE – (IRON AMULET*)
16 Engineers note combine getting crop up again (2-6)
RE-EMERGE – R.E. [engineers] + E [note] + MERGE [combine]
18 Vessel’s cook found in Providence (7)
FRIGATE – RIG [cook] in FATE [providence]
20 Narrow ridge over in southwest in the past (7)
SOWBACK – O in SW, plus BACK [in the past, as in “a few years back”]
23 Scripture? There’s tons in Koranic verse (5)
SUTRA – T in SURA
24 Wine area with a lot of activity (4)
ASTI – A + STI{r}
26 Party involving upper-class singers? (3)
DUO – DO “involving” U