Finger food (Solution No. 3,280)

ed. note—Apologies to Hot and anyone else whose comments disappeared: I was clearing out some spam, and deleted too many posts.

A fun theme in this puzzle, one of the kind you don't realize is a theme until you get to the bottom of the puzzle and see the connection.

Themework: Hard, until you figure out the theme.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):

Solution and annotation below the fold

Legend: "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed; "( )" letters inserted; "_" or lower case: letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue, “^” first letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters, “§” heteronym, “¶“ letter bank

Across

1a	T(HUMB{E{L)INA	TINA (“Fey”) containing (“outside”) HUMBL{E{ (“modest,” switch of two last letters indicated by “swapping two last elements”)
2a	CHAD	Double definition
10a	*INDE(X C)ARD	XC (“90”) contained in (“found in”) *DRAINED (anagram indicated by “mistakenly”)
11a	LEAR | N	LEAR (“king”) + N (“no”)
12a	C | ARGO	^C^ached (first letter indicated by “primarily”) + ARGO (“ship”) Exclamation point since “on a ship” is used in both wordplay and definition
13a	*ER(IC I)DLE	*ELDER (anagram indicated by “comic”) containing (“around”) ICI (“here in Montréal) Would it have been fair to leave out “funnyman” and give this an exclamation point?  Eric Idle (one of the members of the Monty Python cast) is now 70 years old
15a	M(ID)D | LE E | ASTERN	MD (“doctor”) containing (“holding”) ID (“passport”) + LEE (“shelter”) + ASTERN (“toward the back”_)
17a	RINGS(IDE S) | EATS	RINGS (“tolls”) + EATS (“fare”) containing (“about”) IDES (“15th of the month”)
21a	ARE | A | *CODE	ARE (†) + ^A^rt (first letter indicated by “originally”) + *DECO (anagram indicated by “reimagined”)
23a	GOD | EL	GOD (“Olympian”) + EL (“train”)
26a	~TAUPE	~TOPE (“drink,” homonym indicated by “by sound of it” “tope”??  Never heard that word before.
27a	*LITTLE BOY	*TOY ILL BET (anagram indicated by “shattered”) “Little Boy” was the code name of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
28a	RUN | T	RUN (“to be a candidate”) + T (“time”)
29a	*FINGER FO | <OD<	*OFFERING (anagram indicated by “strange”) + <DO< (“party,” reversal indicated by “retro”)

Down

1d	T | WITCH	^T^empt (first letter indicated by “beginning”) + WITCH (“enchantress”)
2d	_UNDER	_s_UNDER (“divide,” omission of first letter indicated by “cut the top off”)
3d	BOX | WOO | D	WOO (“court”) preceded by (“comes first”) BOX (“case”) + ^D^amaged (first word indicated by “first part of”)
4d	*LEAN	*LANE (anagram indicated by “rebuilt”)
5d	~NADER	~NADIR (homophone indicated by “we hear”)
7d	HEADDRESS	ADDRESS (speech) following (“in support”) of HE (“that man”)
8d	DUNG | *EON	DUNG (“manure”) + *ONE (†, anagram indicated by “stirred”)
9d	F | LICKS	F (“loud”) + LICKS (“musical flourishes”)
14d	P | LED	P (“page”) + LED (“was in front”)
15d	MANN | EQUIN_	MANN (“German writer”) + EQUIN_e (“jackass,” omission of last letter indicated by “not quite”)
16d	_EAS Y_	id_EAS Y_ou (hidden word indicated by “penetrating”)
17d	*REALT | _OR	*ALERT (anagram indicated by “frantic”) + _f_OR (†, omission of first letter indicated by “leaderless”)
18d	*SACRED	*SCARED (“frightened,” anagram indicated by “after a minor change”)
19d	<_ANGULAR_<	<Guadalaja_RA LUG NA_chos< (reversal indicated by “heading west,” hidden word indicated by “through”)
20d	*SLAYED	*DELAYS (anagram indicated by “inexplicably”)
22d	~DELHI	~DELI (“food store,” homonym indicated by “announce”)
24d	DO | <BRO<	DO (“note”) + <ORB< (“planet,” reversal indicated by “upset”) A dobro is the kind of guitar that has a round metal resonator in place of part of the top.  It's heard most often in folk music.
25d	<STAG<	<GATS< (“handguns,” reversal indicated by “picking up”)