Great puzzle as always from Monk. Thank you.
I can see MYSTERES DES VOIX down the sides of the grid. This reminds me of the fabulous Msyteres des Voix Bulgares albums of Bulgarian folk music. I can’t say if there is more to be found, I expect there is.
Along the top and bottom of the grid are EI MORI and RUZHKE, songs on the albums.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | MUESLI | Oat mixture 60% emulsified in a blender (6) |
| anagram (in a blender) of EMULSIfied (60%, 6 of the 10 letters) | ||
| 8 | SURROUND | Posh luxury car getting well across border (8) |
| U (posh) RR (Rolls Royce, luxury car) inside (getting…across) SOUND (well) | ||
| 9 | YOUTHFUL | Fresh new tofu intermittently lousy – hard on the inside (8) |
| anagram (new) of TOFU LoUsY (intermittently) containing (…on the inside) H (hard) | ||
| 10 | IDEATE | Imagine lunch including fish? Au contraire (6) |
| IDE (a fish) including EAT (lunch) – the opposite of lunch including fish | ||
| 11 | SIGNED UP | Enlisted externally paid genius for organisation (6,2) |
| anagram (for organisation) of PaiD (external letters) with GENIUS | ||
| 12 | ATOLLS | Fee to occupy vacated Azores Islands (6) |
| TOLL (fee) inside AzoreS (vacated, nothing inside) | ||
| 13 | TEXT | Times blocking offensive words (4) |
| X (times, multiplication) inside (blocking) TET (the Tet offensive during the Vietnam war) | ||
| 15 | AGONY | Suffering such aunts and uncles? (5) |
| such as Agony Aunts and Agony Uncles | ||
| 16 | DERV | Fuel somewhat undervalued (4) |
| found inside (somewhat) unDERValued | ||
| 18 | EREMIC | Deserted fancifully before introductions in Made In Chelsea (6) |
| ERE (before) then first letters (introductions in) of Made In Chelsea – fancifully indicates a cryptic definition: “deserted” indicates “made like a desert” | ||
| 20 | ELDORADO | European group of stars entertaining large paradisical location (8) |
| E (European) DORADO (constellation, group of stars) contains (entertaining) L (large) | ||
| 23 | ROBUST | Take our money? Time to be strong (6) |
| ROB US (take our money) then T (time) | ||
| 24 | LLANELLI | Poor girl left heart in Wales, coming back here? (8) |
| ILL (poor) ENA (a girl) L (left) waLes (middle letter, heart in) all reversed (coming back) – a town in Wales | ||
| 25 | EASTWARD | Fantastic award set in motion for Asia? (8) |
| anagram (fantastic) of AWARD SET | ||
| 26 | THORAX | Trunk call reservation initially covered by levy (6) |
| HO (a call) Reservation (first letter, initially) inside (covered by) TAX (levy) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EULOGISE | Praise English girl about possessing mostly sound reasoning (8) |
| E (English) SUE (a girl) all reversed (about) contains (possessing) LOGIc (sound reasoning, mostly) | ||
| 2 | ISATIN | Chemical compound given which India, in a way, protested (6) |
| I (India) SAT IN (protested). I can’t explain why “in a way” is there. Perhaps it indicates that India can’t actually sit in, the phrase is being used metaphorically | ||
| 3 | MIFFED | Put out note, following journalist (6) |
| MI (note, music) FF (following) and ED (editor, journalist) – slang word meaning annoyed | ||
| 4 | ORDINARY | Plain gold currency’s unknown (8) |
| OR (gold) DINAR (currency) and Y (an unknown) | ||
| 5 | ROSEWOOD | Forest member in promoted club (8) |
| ROSE (promoted) WOOD (golf club) – a tree in a forest. I’m not sure I have this right. Rosewood is a type of wood not a tree, and ROSE as a verb seems reflexive but promoted seems transitive. | ||
| 6 | INSTIL | Drop this month’s import licences initially (6) |
| INST (this month) then first letters (initially) of Imported Licences – to add drop by drop | ||
| 8 | SELF-PROPELLED | Automotive seller flopped badly (4-9) |
| anagram (badly) of SELLER FLOPPED | ||
| 14 | TIMBUKTU | Man reportedly resisted university in a faraway place (8) |
| TIM (a man) then BUKT sounds like (reportedly) “bucked” (resisted) and U (university) | ||
| 15 | ALCATRAZ | Jailhouse Rock (8) |
| cryptic definition – a jail built upon a rock (island) | ||
| 17 | RED ALGAE | Boy, keen to go outside, pulled up seaweed etc (3,5) |
| LAD (boy) inside (with…to go outside) EAGER (keen) all reversed (pulled up) | ||
| 19 | ROO BAR | Protection against animal, boar or otherwise (3,3) |
| anagram (otherwise) of BOAR OR | ||
| 21 | DEARTH | Want to be part of avant-garde art history (6) |
| found inside avant-garDE ART History | ||
| 22 | REEBOK | Drink up, fine beast (6) |
| BEER (drink) reversed (up) then OK (fine) | ||
2d – “in a way” applies to SAT IN, a sit-in being a kind of demonstration
18 – typo “dessert” for “desert”
Hi Andrew, thanks for pointing out the typo, fixed now.
I know a sit-in is a demonstration, so “India sat in” would be what India did when it protested. I was wondering why “in a way” was put in there?
Someone may beat me to it, but the top and bottom row unches spell out EI MORI and RUZHKE (ALCATRAZ spelt with a Z) which apparently is the name of a song by the Bulgarian Choir – I had no idea about this before, but just looked it up. Certainly piqued my interest and I’ll have a listen.
The usual top rate puzzle from Monk. I had ‘asitin’ for 2d so ended up being a DNF. Highlights for me were the ‘Automotive’ def for SELF-PROPELLED and ‘motion for Asia’ for EASTWARD.
Thanks to PeeDee and Monk
Thanks WordPlodder, I have updated the blog.
I knew Alcatras as an albatros and assumed that the island would have been named after the bird. Forgot about American spellings completely.
I still have that album and indeed saw DES VOIX and MYSTERE but didnt go hunting it down I never knew what the titles were but I probably stole a couple of samples from it.Mea Culpa.Great sound
Great to see Monk-who else to do such a theme.
A theme that totally escaped me (what’s new there?) but the usual enjoyable tussle with the devious Monk in what has turned out to be today’s trickiest cryptic crossword (and yes, I have solved them all)
Thanks to Monk and also to PeeDee
Re “sat-in”
Newspapers always say “workers held a sit-in”. I don’t think they say “workers sat-in yesterday”. I think
that is why “in a way” is added.
Hi Rishi, I like that way of looking at sit-in vs sat in. Better than my attempt at explaining it.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
A DNF for me too, having LLANELLY in at 24a, with NELL the girl, the L and an unaccounted for LAY for ‘heart of’ – “ya can’t parse it properly, it’s probably wrong hits again!”. Was looking for a nina with this grid and the setter’s propensity to use them, but with that errant Y and a complete ignorance of all things Bulagarian music, there was no hope that it was ever going to make sense. Apparently the ROSEWOOD is a tree in the pea family with that gorgeous streaky reddish wood.
Liked the subtle misdirection in a number of clues, TEXT, in particular, was very good. Had come across REEBOK in a recent Sunday Times puzzle which helped late with 22d. Didn’t previously know ISATIN or EREMIC, but did know ROO BAR 🙂
Finished in the NW corner with MIFFED and ISATIN the last couple in.
Though I missed ISATIN and DERV and had to use a word finder to get LLANELLI, I’m quite pleased to have solved most of a Monk crossword. I think he’s one of the best at this craft — a partially completed Monk satisfies me more than completed puzzles by other setters. Favourites included YOUTHFUL, ROBUST, TIMBUKTU, RED ALGAE, and REEBOK. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
[crypticsue @6: Interesting that you thought Monk was the trickiest today — I gave up midway through Picaroon’s bear in the Guardian.]
A satisfying solve with a few head-scratching moments along the way. We did wonder at one stage if it would be a pangram, but it’s J and Q short of that. We liked 8ac – the clue at first suggested the definition might be ‘posh’ parsed as ‘luxury car’ and ‘well’ enclosing ‘border’; not that we could find anything to fit that parsing of course. And we totally missed the nina, not that it would have meant anything to us.
Thanks, Monk and PeeDee.