Variety: Cryptic Crossword

this was the first cryptic I've ever solved in my life. Was it easier than usual?

Very difficult in my view, but persisted and solved 99% of it. These are really challenging.

Took a while, but ultimate got it all. Good puzzle. Hard, but solvable. The only one I can't parse is CONTENDER. I get TENDER = MONEY, but can someone explain how CON has anything to do with Italian?

I know I am missing something obvious but can anyone explain 7D? I got OPERATE as the answer and POET is (re)arranged but where do the remaining letters RAE come from?

I got the answer ELECTRODE but do not understand the clue. Who's Stewart English? And is it SUNDER because it's in the middle of MISUNDERSTANDS? And I don't get the clue for ADAGE. And -- someone down below -- SABLE was not a gimme for me! It was one of the last ones I got.

Since this is also the space to comment on the "A Little Variety" suite, just want to offer a shout-out to Thinh Van Duc Lai for the delightfully fun Bar Code puzzle of the past several weeks. Eminently solvable nuggets of logic. Thank you, TVDL!

Thank you to Richard Silvestri (and to Deb too) for another wonderful cryptic. Deciphering the clues makes me feel like part of a secret society that only my fellow solvers can understand. So, it is nice to be among friends here who can appreciate the joy of figuring out fourth-rate and mixed-up and Friday.

Once my brain started working, I had little trouble solving this one. Cryptics are my favorite, and Richard is one of the best constructors I know. The one answer I couldn't parse was, and is, 3D. E_T_R = ENTER, I guess, but I can't parse the cluing.

Re 23 Across:
Mass and weight are very different things.
And the clue cheats by capitalizing "Mass" in the clue when neither of the substitution homophones "weight," "wait"are capitalized.

This time around, I offer a variation on my helpful hints for new cryptic solvers. Here's a list of the "cues" - indicator words that show what type of trick is involved in today's puzzle.

Anagram cues: "going awry" "oddly" "about" "wildly" "cooked" "arranged" "but not straight"
Insertion cues: "in" (twice) "includes" "devours" "about" "to take"
Reversal cues: "from east to west" "turning over" "the return of"
Container cues: "describes" "essentially"
Homophone cues: "reportedly" "being said"
Omitted letter cues: "not the front" "losing" "peeled"
Selected letter cues: "end of" "initially"

Don't forget that the actual "clue" (definition) has to be either the beginning or the ending (or, in the case of double definition clues, both).

"About" in a clue can indicate reversal (turn about), insertion (one word about the other), or just the letters "re" (as in a memo heading). Watch out for tricky uses like that. Today's prize goes to "Mixed up" = usually an indicator for anagrams, but here it is the definition itself.

Gimmes included: SABLE, TEDIOUS, ANTIC, DRAGNET. spent some time on DESSERTS which also turned out to be STRESSED. Very clever puzzle. re-did all the Cryptics in the Archive, but finished them in the Spring. Good to see this one.

This was a very nice Cryptic! Tough, but just enough footholds to be doable.

You know, after revealing DETONATOR, I still can't figure it out.
It's the reverse of ROTATED with NO stuck in there (or ON, depending which way you're looking at it), but how does "rubbish" enter into it?

I must say that I have a lot of respect for the solving abilities of people who do the Cryptics and PandAs.
I don’t do these puzzles, but I always greatly enjoy reading Deb's piece.
On Thursday night, out of curiosity I looked over the clues. The only answers I was able to figure out were ELDER and CALLERS.

I guess I’m good with foreign articles.