Independent 10,419 by Monk

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A rare appearance from Monk — once an ever-present — and, apart from one or two clues that are beyond me (but I would say that, wouldn’t I), an excellent solving experience.

Definitions in palevioletred, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

No, I see nothing, although I bet there is something. Rachel appears in a row of unches, so perhaps it is a private message.

ACROSS
1 HIKING Raising prices by 24 — that’s not on (6)
24 being RAMBLING ON, this is RAMBLING, another word for hiking in that sense
4 JUICED Current Democrat drunk in America (6)
juice [electric current] D — an American term for drunk
9 WILL Desire When Eight Bells Toll to be presented progressively (4)
When Eight Bells Toll — the first, second, third and fourth letters progressively — I remember Monk using this device years ago and being impressed with it — apparently it is unique to him
10 TOWER BLOCK Maybe keep head office development (5,5)
tower [maybe keep, as in castles] block [head] — not necessarily an office development, though, so ‘perhaps’?
11 SHUFTI Look to one with feminine interior (6)
(shu(f)t 1) — to = shut, as in ‘the door is to/shut’
12 ENLISTED Englishman on vacation tipped and got help (8)
E{nglishma}n listed [tipped]
13 DOBERMANN Modern ban on getting stray dog (9)
(modern ban)* — a well-disguised anagram that I didn’t see until the very end
15 MISS Avoid weapons? Not half (4)
miss{iles}
16 BECK Stream reversed, as announced at Balmoral? (4)
The Royals at Balmoral would [would? English actors of the 1930s perhaps but surely nobody nowadays] pronounce ‘back’ as ‘beck’
17 ETYMOLOGY This science makes you gloomy yet excited (9)
(gloomy yet)*
21 CAGLIARI Mostly secretive pork-pie manufacturer, one supplying Italian capital (8)
Rather lost here: the reference is I think to the 1920 silent film ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’, and ‘Caligari’ is somehow tampered with to become ‘Cagliari’, the capital of Sardinia, ie an Italian capital [As NeilW@1 points out it’s cag{y} liar I. Nothing to do with the film.]
22 MADCAP Reckless royal officer briefly disrupting plan (6)
m(ADC)ap — the ADC is an aide-de-camp
24 RAMBLING ON Talking incessantly, Nora Batty pinching male jewellery (8,2)
(Nora)* round (m bling)
25 TWIT Namely missing old idiot (4)
t{o} wit
26 OGRESS Monster development having price slashed (6)
{pr}ogress
27 BOWYER In boudoir, Henry finally prepared for Agincourt? He did (6)
bow({Henr}y)er — a bowyer, one who makes the bows of bows and arrows, would have prepared for Agincourt
DOWN
1 HEIGH-HO Stoned outside English house — expression of resignation follows (5-2)
h(E)igh ho.
2 KALIF Eastern leader, one stopping withdrawal of criticism (5)
1 in (flak)rev.
3 NATRIUM Sodium discovered in new cavity (7)
n atrium — natrium, which is a word I hardly knew, is [according to some sources, but not to allan_c@9] the chemical name for sodium, hence Na
5 UNROLL Spread out breads after cover is removed (6)
{b}un roll
6 CELESTIAL Divine tea is brewed in brother’s room (9)
(tea is)* in cell
7 DICKENS Deuce shuffled in decks (7)
*(in decks)
8 SWEET NOTHINGS Beloved trifles, perhaps I adore you (5,8)
sweet [beloved] nothings [trifles] — ‘I adore you’ is an example of a sweet nothing; but I don’t see how it’s nothingS
14 EXCALIBUR Popular brand set in stone (9)
CD, relying on brand = sword
16 BRAVADO Showing off female’s excellent fare (7)
brava [the female version of bravo] do [fare] — I thought it was this but couldn’t see how, thinking something about a bra
18 MEMENTO Setter repeatedly enthusiastic about unopened souvenir (7)
me me [ie setter, repeatedly] {i}nto [into = enthusiastic about]
19 GLAZIER One mainly expects to see through his work (7)
CD
20 CARIES Decay beginning to crack a sign (6)
c{rack} Aries
23 DOTTY Barmy Sheila, very much so according to Morse (5)
I don’t quite see what Sheila is about: the dots are part of Morse code

 

12 comments on “Independent 10,419 by Monk”

  1. Thanks, John. No, I don’t know why Rachel is there either.

    CAGLIARI: CAG(y) [apparently a variant of cagey] LIAR [lie, pork-pie manufacturer] I[one]

    I presumed that SWEET NOTHINGS was just a reference to the phrase, “Whisper sweet nothings” which uses the plural. I tried to find some sexist Australian slang for a mad woman for DOTTY but nothing showed up so I can’t help with Sheila.

  2. SHEILA spelt in Morse Code would be …/…././../.-../.-

     

    So the first four letters are all made from dots, so it is very dotty.

  3. I saw RACHEL JENNY and BECKET but cant connect them.I parsed CAGLIARI as per NeilW @1

    I bet I’m missing something.

    But lovely puzzle as always. Thanks Monk and  John

  4. A very enjoyable crossword – thank you Monk – please come back again soon!

    Thanks also to John

  5. The Lhs was too hard for me. Cheated with a word fit to get EXCALIBUR & NATRIUM and then managed to complete with some difficulty but all the more enjoyable for that. Also saw RACHEL & JENNY but none the wiser. Parsed CAGLIARI as Neil@1. Thanks also to muffyword for the SHEILA explanation.

  6. Well, there may be some connection between people with names that are various combinations of Will, Jenny, Rachel and/or Dotty plus Dobermann, Beck, Bowyer and/or Dickens, but I can’t be bothered to check them all out.  Could Monk drop in to explain?  Thanks Monk and John.

  7. Agree with John re 10A and 16A. Tried my best to sound like a Royal but still couldn’t convincingly turn back into beck.

    Parsed Cagliari as did NeilW. Found one reference to Australian slang equating “dotty” to “an eccentric”. Thanks to S and B

  9. We found this moderately easy, though we couldn’t see the parsing of DOTTY.  And JUICED was our LOI as we didn’t at first think of ‘juice’ for ‘current’.  Interestingly Chambers doesn’t mark ‘juiced’ as American usage, although it does have ‘juice’ as American slang for (alcoholic) drink.

    In 14 dn ‘popular brand’ could refer to the frequent use of EXCALIBUR as a trademark or brand name as clicking here will show.

    Re 3dn, the chemical name for sodium is … sodium.  Chambers marks NATRIUM as obsolete or New Latin – it is derived from ‘natron’, a form of soda (and ‘sodium’ is derived from ‘soda’)

    We liked the linking of 1ac with 24ac, and the ‘progressively’ device in 9ac – though it’s a long time since either of us read the book referred to and we wondered how many solvers would recognise the title.

    Thanks, Monk and John.

  12. Many thanks to John for blog and to all for positive comments. There was indeed a hidden Nina dedicated to a few HIKING friends, none of whom are solvers, and all of whose names were spotted above. Responses to still-unexplained specific queries follow.

    NeilW@1: you are right about the plurality, even though examples of the answer are generally singular.

    allan_c@9/11: yes, ‘popular brand’ defined ‘well-known sword’, as ‘sword’ by itself wasn’t quite fair IMHO. Also, … _ _ _ … is indeed SOS. On which note, I vividly recall a 1971 Open Evening in my school’s physics lab when, as a mischievous 3rd-former, I was in charge of the Morse Code transmitter. What wheezes and japes when I tapped out … …. .. _ and several dads (ex WW2 servicemen, back in 1971) turned round to smile and wink at me 😉

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