Rhetorical questions

Very nice! After ALIBI I could not think of suspect any other way for SHAKY - had to get it from the crosses.

Yep, that's a hell of a red herring but I just couldn't resist!

Suspicious, suspicious

Very nice 😊 - I tried HIGH5 first but only took me a second to realize it was HIGHFIVE

Me three!  To fit the theme, just need two more people

5x5x5?

LORRY/SHILL was a nattick for me, fun puzzle though!

Oh, a pity! I didn't realise until after construction that LORRY was British-only. If I'd known, I probably would have constructed differently. Using Europe-centric words is a common pitfall for me. Glad it was fun otherwise, though.

Justice League-ish

Loved learning all of these TONGA facts! I was just about to ask you to explain NOTCH for me but I finally got it 😂😂

Thanks! I always try to get some interesting facts in my clues. I settled on the capital because, well, isn't that a great name?!
I had trouble clueing NOTCH in this way. I was determined, but everything I came up with was unoriginal. Glad it was parsable.

🙌 Love it. And surely a "(var.)" fixes everything, right?

Elementary

Nice one!  Got some uncommon words in there.

 My Cousin Vinny

Nice! A real "morals" theme between AESOP, RUSES, and MONTE 😂

And the moral of the story is...

Loved it, Lloyd! Very smooth solve. I don't think I've seen one of these clue/answer swap puzzles before so it's brand new to me!

Thanks very much! It was news to me, too! As I understand it from test solvers, this theme type is passé and hasn't been seen for many years. Apparently due to a mix of theme entries that are often "not in the language" and as such are hard to discern due to their 'insider' style

Can you explain the crossing at 66A and 62D? I guessed but really didn't understand either there. Thanks!

Happily! PTA is how fans often refer to Paul Thomas Anderson, writer/director of Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, etc. ATN is abbreviating Attention (although I believe it may more-commonly be ATTN?).

Thanks! ATN threw me because that's usually ATTN as you said :)

Flip it and reverse it, or: Crosswordese

Heh very nice Lloyd! The title makes so much more sense after solving 😂. One minor edit: I think the clue for IPADS should be made plural to match the entry?

Thanks! Despite not really giving a hint to the mini theme, I was happy with the title. 😆

Thanks for the ID on the error. You'd think with only 10 clues, I'd be able to catch all of these!

On a related note: I edited the puzzle on my phone and it was a breeze. Great work!

Risqué business

Nice one - I think my favorite was CIGAR!

Thanks, Mike! Appreciate it, as always.

I gotta agree: CIGAR was my favourite to clue, too. If my ire wasn't obvious enough in the original clue, I've also update 5 Down... couldn't help myself!

Yeah, definitely liked the CIGAR clue, and GOBIG

Lloyd

@fakelvis