The clue is in the title, “Up, up and away” …in my beautiful balloon. A song probably known to many of my contemporaries as the music from the Nimble advert. Nimble was a brand of bread aimed at those hoping to lose weight. The cunning trick was to get more air in and then make the slices smaller and thinner than standard loaves. You really were eating less.

Anyway, where was I? Yes, balloons. I knew it had to have something to do with balloons. After getting a couple of the extra middle letters in the wordplay I guessed BALLOON would be part of the 14 letter creation. Then I got the final IC of the 14 letter title and BALLOONATIC seemed an obvious crosswordy word. A quick Google revealed that THE BALLOONATIC was a Buster Keaton short. I’ve seen a fair amount of Keaton but this one didn’t ring a bell. Not one of his best apparently. Maybe Phi thinks otherwise.

BUSTER KEATON nicely gave me the six pairs of extra letters and let me quickly complete the puzzle. I hadn’t got any of the answers to be inflated before I got Keaton’s name so I’m not sure how I would have found this without the help of the Internet.

I was left wondering whether there was anything more signficant in the puzzle that I was missing or maybe Phi, like me, just liked the term Balloonatic?

The first entry is the grid entry at that number. The second is the clue solution at hat clue number. Green = extra middle letters, red = inserted pairs of letters, blue = number at which inflated answer appear in he grid.

* = anagram
< = reversal
dd = double definition

I hadn’t planned to blog this puzzle, but if nobody else wants to, here’s my contribution. The theme involves eight elements from the perodic table, and in each case the clue starts with the symbol for the element.

Across

7 KILOMETRE - mil(e) + OK*, followed by etre (to be, in French)
8 TOKAY - (banque)t + okay. Tokay is a famous Hungarian wine
9 LIVE WIRES - double definition
10 NIXON - the reference is to the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Presumably the word play is intended to convey nix=nothing + on
12 INDIUM - the first of the themed clues. Mind* around 1 U(niversity). A soft malleable silver-white metallic element
13 INTREPID - I printed*
14 ELEMENT - ele(ctions) + ment (sounds like meant = represented)
17 IN BRIEF - Brie is the place where the cheese was first made; f = fine (on lead pencils)
20 A STAT(IN)E - a radioactive chemical element
22 CUBIST - bis (”repeat” in musical parlance) in cut, which can mean fashion
24 SWIFT - the reference is to Jonathan Swift
25 AMERICIUM - “Eric + I” in “a mum”. A radioactive metallic element first produced in America
26 FRAIL - fail round r (for resistance)
27 ALUMINIUM - alumni round i + um.

Down

1 VISION - this is the only clue I have doubts about. Vision is clearly a sense, but the unusually fair reference escapes me
2 NOBELIUM - NUM round obeli (an obelus is a dagger sign in printing). This radioactive element was first produced at the Nobel Institute
3 HELIUM - Eli (the priest) in hum, which can mean a noise indicating dissent. Not sure it can mean a dissenting statement, though
4 ARSENIC - the word play is clever, with not altogether polite referring both to the first four letters and the last three (nic(e))
5 IODINE - hidden
6 VALORISE - or in valise; it means to fix or stabilise a price - I’m not sure that “acknowledge” is an adequate definition
11 STUN - nuts reversed
15 LAST WORD - Zyrian is the last but one word in the current edition of Chambers

16 NAIL - to pay on the nail is to pay without delay, a reference (I think) to the nails still to be found in Bristol where merchants would meet to settle transactions

18 RUBICUND - hidden, an unusually long word for this type of clue

19 SEA MILE - ea in smile
21 A F FAIR - clever wordplay
22 CH ROME - not an element, but a compound (although it can also mean chromium, which is an element)
23 SHUT UP - double definition