Times 26299 - The emperor will continue to sleep without a sign!

Solving time: 26 minutes

Music: Beethoven, Kreutzer and Spring Sonatas, Rubinstein/Szerying






I thought I was in for a quick solve when I put in the first five at sight, starting at 1 across. While I completed the top half relatively quickly, I slowed in the bottom half, and came to a complete halt for a while in the SE. Eventually I saw the obvious 'petrol', and was able to finish with 'beachhead' and 'rummage'.

For the blog title, I offer an alternate clue for 'Napoleon', which I entered in a clue-writing competition many years ago. It did not win any prizes, but I still rather like it.

Across
1	FISHERMAN, F[ill] + I + SHERMAN.
6	ALOOF, AL(O,O)F.
9	NARWHAL, RAN backwards + W + HAL. 'Initially' refers to the placement of the first two elements, not the first letter of 'west'.
10	PATELLA, PATEL + LA, one of the hotelier Indians.
11	IDE, 'IDE, of course, as said in an allegedly Cockney area, although it's probably full of Russian oligarchs by now.
12	SADDLE HORSE, SADDLE + sounds like HOARSE. 'Saddle' in the sense of stick you with something or someone undesirable.
14	DETOUR, anagram of ROUTED.
15	COGNOMEN, CO(GNOME)N, the kind of financier found in Zurich, not the one in gardens.
17	FLOODLIT, F(L)OOD + LIT.
19	PETROL, P[-a, +E]TROL, a simple letter-substitution clue that stumped me for a while. I consider a 'patrol' to consist of more than one man, so the literal is questionable.
22	INTERREGNUM, anagram of TRUE MEN GRIN. I was delayed by crossing out the wrong letters.
23	MUD, a simple double definition.
25	EMBARGO E(M.B.)AR + GO....and not an anagram of 'organ' at all!
27	UNREADY, UNREAD + Y[outh].
28	TORSO, ROT backwards + SO.
29	BEACHHEAD, B(E)ACH + HEAD. I was taken aback, because Mrs. Amy Beach was an American composer, but then I saw how the clue worked. However, a beachhead is not really part of a fortification, but a temporary line of incursion from the sea into an enemy-held country.
Down
1	FUNGI, sounds like FUN GUY, a chestnut.
2	SERPENT, S(E,R)PENT - it wouldn't do to cross the Queen!
3	ECHO SOUNDER, E.C. HO + SOUNDER.
4	MELODY, M(DOLE upside-down)Y. I wasted some time trying to use 'me'.
5	NAPOLEON, NAP + O + NOEL upside-down.
6	AIT, A + IT, in the crossword-puzzle sense.
7	OIL DRUM, [d]O(I)LDRUM[s].
8	FRATERNAL, anagram of LEFT ARRAN, and a very easy one.
13	HUNGER MARCH, HUN(GERMA[n] + R)CH. I had to parse the cryptic for the blog, since this was an obvious write-in.
14	DIFFIDENT, DIFF(-er,+ID)ENT, a more venturesome substitution clue.
16	FIRE BOMB, FIRE + BOMB in different senses. It is not exactly clear to me why 'mine host' would say 'fire' - maybe there's some trick? In any case, the answer is correct.TIME BOMB, TIME + BOMB, where the landlord of the pub calls for the last round, plus a failure.
18	OCTOBER, [d]OCTO(B[e]E[f])R.
20	RUMMAGE, RUM (M) AGE, one I should have seen much more quickly than I did.
21	UNGULA, A(U[sefu]L)GNU, with the exterior, but not the interior, upside-down.
24	DRYAD, D(RY)AD. Those looking for L or LL will be disappointed.
26	RIO, [dinne]R + I + O, a compendium of cryptic cliches.