Here appears the crossword to celebrate anyone’s sixtieth birthday. Please contact me at antonypercy@aol.com when you want to see the solution.
The letters on the perimeter of the grid (from 8 Across, clockwise) spell out a relevant statement of nineteen words (1,4,3,5,2,4,6,3,3,2,2,6,6,3,3,5,2,2,9) made by 15 Down, to be found in the leading biography of him. The unchecked letters of this quotation can be arranged to form TOMORROW TV CUTS WOBBLING TOYS. Another quotation by 15 Down (of eight words) appears at 20 Down and 33 Down. The Chambers Dictionary (2008) is the primary reference.
CLUES ACROSS
1 Reverend shaped by tremor of Veblen era (9)
14 Some time before I engaged in wheeler-dealing (8)
16 Succeeded in hedging Malbec expenditure (4)
18 Thralldom regularly leading to sentimental glory (4)
19 Wife of 15D, who led him a dance? (5,8)
21 Macanese bit rendered eggs (3)
23 Ungulate emerging from trendy river (5)
24 Where you might store tablets in Capuchin rosaries (5)
25 Who gives wallop for a tizzy? (6)
27 Musketeers, perhaps, get the bird (4)
29 Milkmaid brings scraps back inside for trash (7)
31 Original prognathic feature defines a rascal (6)
34 In handsome dress, his sire silky-haired (3)
35 The acuities of pointy-headed people? (5)
36 Adult in a variety of eider ducks (6)
37 Restore hearing to wavy audio-frequency (6)
39 Ptarmigan advanced in Gloucestershire for group of veggies (9)
41 Pin topped antisubmarine device (5)
42 Settlement swaps yen for shilling to get Central American cash (6)
44 Poop also identifies a penguin (6)
45 Trojan king detached Turkish governor to find Ethiopian king (6)
46 Novelist who once acknowledged patrial crafting? (6)
47 With land, cell that might spawn a cotyledon (6)
48 Old ceremony where knots were tied (6)
49 Twisted band with hot light (5)
50 Time to study the Economist? What a drag! (9)
53 Residence of 15D (6)
54 Fish found regularly in quill inkhorns (6)
55 Express pleasure in juveniles mostly making whoopee! (5)
56 Stainer obtained from Benin and Spain (3)
59 Scrounges gallons in casks (6)
61 Press baron mentions megalopolis on way back, skipping East (7)
62 Switch resistance off, turning lock (4)
64 Woad from Old Man’s Hill (6)
65 Frog’s rosbif? (5)
66 What seeps from trees, the heart of apices (5)
69 Death 61 encountered around noon (3)
71 Disorderly Deputy Lieutenant tried person as judge (4, 9)
74 Island’s fair lady no longer feminine (4)
75 Local itching universal in luvvies’ laughter (4)
76 Shimmering pole in fog that helps you keep your distance? (8)
CLUES DOWN
2 Enclosed area in Peruvian confines (4)
3 Clear group between Hydrus and Dorado (3)
4 Versemongers like Thomas? (7)
5 Last fragment of plan moves to top for PA (4)
6 Local ditch water in borders of Lowestoft (4)
7 Mathematician replacing core of Euclid and Napier with bit of logic (5)
9 Scraper included work for crane (6)
10 Swift request (3)
11 Habitats destroyed, vents about certain triathletes (12)
12 15D’s counterpart at 38D (5,6,5)
13 Upturned rock, with no black joint (5)
15 Author of quotation (4,7,6)
17 Appetite for toffee, or other tasty humbugs, for starters (5)
19 Lulu getting involved with a Nationalist crescent, it appears (6)
20 (first part of second quotation by 15D)
22 See ENIAC tallying frenziedly in an electronic computer (10,6)
26 Choice after active duty that strays may hope for (8)
28 Judge internalized auxiliary language to build image (7)
29 Hick places Diana kept Prince in (5)
30 Wife taken from pond in elfland? (6)
32 Manipulate small boat (3)
33 (second part of second quotation)
38 (see 12D)
40 Plant dispersed by animals in zone of Ohio, by routine (8)
43 First or second start in a league (7)
45 Bush ploughed Metallurgy with loss of a 51D (6)
48 Chile’s atmosphere accepted by battalion (5)
51 Pull the end off the toboggan (3)
52 Fictional Madeline wasted time finding a low-slung cur (6)
55 Ached for attention in raising of bar (7)
57 It commands interest, normally getting everyone ousted by right (5)
58 Move rug from tepee, then almost vigorously shake to get moliniform tin (6)
60 Decapitation of apophysis on hallux leading to zygosis (5)
63 Wake, perhaps, after anonymous passage (5)
67 Border member (4)
68 Switched sides in brisk storm (4)
70 Poet having name in the aspect of love? (4)
72 Shell upturned, or empty shell (3)
73 John Peter left massacre site (3)