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Loved this one. One small critique that threw me for a while, the meaning of "BEEFED", at least to us younger folks is less complaint than it is conflict. Beef as a noun vs a verb have evolved into different slang terms. Saying "I'd had beef with them/that" would mean complaint, but the verb form of "I beefed/I'm beefing with them" implies an interaction of some sort. The Cambridge dictionary conflated the two with their definition, and their example phrase "he was beefing about having to do the shopping", is not a way I've heard the word used in common parlance. It might have had that grammatical usage in the past, I don't know. TLDR: nowadays, beef as complaint is usually congugated as a noun, whereas congugated as a verb it is more synonymous to "feud".
In regards to 40A: I'm surprised the editor didn't catch this. Bog is not a synonym for FEN, in fact the word difference distinguishes two clearly distinct biomes. Fens are alkaline, bogs are acidic. The clue "wetland" or "peatland" would've worked, or "often mistaken for a bog", or "wetland that can become a bog", but fens are not bogs. The whole reason both words are still in common parlance is because the differing pH levels lead to distinct flora and fauna, so it's a valuable bit of info for anyone in the natural sciences. Which I am not, I know this because of a Tumblr post that sent me down a rabbit hole last month, but REGARDLESS, it is true.
@Barry Ancona It is true that they needn't. However they do tend to fall under the category of either synonym, definition, factoid, word fragment, or pun, of which this is none. It'd be similar to using the simple clue "birch" and the answer being "oak". Yes, they are both tree and wood types, but someone who knows the difference would likely balk at that hint/answer pair. The fact that both are wetlands is precisely why I suggested "wetland" as an alternate clue (which would fit in the factoid category, a fen is a wetland). Not sure why you felt the need to link the dictionary definitions. The fact that a bog is also a wetland is as irrelevant as pointing out that a birch is also a tree.
I will say, upon seeing "a dance floor flourish" as a clue for a three letter clue, the first cross of which was that the first letter was D...I felt a twinge of fear. "It couldn't possibly be DAB." I thought. "Please dear god let it not be DAB." Thankfully it was DIP. The relief was powerful.
Bogs are not a synonym for fens! The two are mutually exclusive. Swamp, marsh, wetland, all of these are acceptable clues for fen, but bog is not! It'd be like giving the hint of "fork" for the answer "spoon".
LOVED this one! My favorite Thursday puzzle in a while. Got the gist of the trick fairly quickly, but that still didn't spoil the fun of using "passages" to try and fill in those tricky entries.
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