Independent 11,650/Liari

Liari’s second puzzle for the Indy, and one that I found quite tough to finally crack.

This wasn’t helped by the rather solver-unfriendly grid, but it turns out that this was required for the perimeter nina, which reads CURIOUSER [AND] CURIOUSER, a quote from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).

We also have JABBERWOCKY, the poem by Lewis Carroll across the middle, and rather randomly, HERDS just above that. The relevance of today to Carroll and his work I know not, but Liari commented on the blog of her first puzzle that she always includes a bird as an answer. She and I are going to get on famously.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

6 Navy occupying vast river that’s long
HUNGER
An insertion of N in HUGE, followed by R. Some dictionaries do give N as a stand-alone abbreviation for ‘Navy’.

7 Clip wings of enormous wading birds
SNIPES
A charade of SNIP and ES for the outside letters of ‘enormous’, and a chance for the obligatory Pierre bird link. Medium-sized waders with a long, straight bill. The Common Snipe posing in the picture was photographed in Norfolk.

10 What’s found in tower? Try again!
REHEAR
An insertion of EH? for ‘What?’ in REAR. The insertion indicator is ‘in’, and the hearing is one in court.

11 “Sorrow indeed!” said old philosopher
ROUSSEAU
Aural wordplay (‘said’) for RUE SO. Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU, the Genevan-born writer and philosopher from the Age of Enlightenment.

12 Has some wine at supper
EATS
Hidden in winE AT Supper.

13 Snake wees all over the place around source of seismic faults
WEAKNESSES
An insertion of S for the initial letter of ‘seismic’ in (SNAKE WEES)* with ‘all over the place’ as the anagrind.

14 Wreck a job by performing a lot of nonsense
JABBERWOCKY
(WRECK A JOB BY)* with ‘performing’ as the anagrind. A nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll as part of the theme.

19 Rammed in door when she crashed after consuming whiskey
SHOEHORNED
(DOOR [W]HEN SHE)* with ‘crashed’ as the anagrind. ‘After consuming’ suggests that the anagram fodder would be the full phrase after the addition of W for the phonetic alphabet ‘whiskey’, but I’m not convinced that really works.

22 Runner with zero energy
NILE
A charade of NIL and E.

23 It’s hard to get on when relative catches cold
UNICYCLE
An insertion of ICY in UNCLE. The insertion indicator is ‘catches’.

24 Two dimensional design artist inverted
PLANAR
A charade of PLAN and RA reversed.

25 Unhappy exhausted delegate carrying large burden
SADDLE
A charade of SAD and L inserted into DE for the outside letters of ‘delegate’. The insertion indicator is ‘carrying’.

26 English explorer with fine hat
FEDORA
A charade of F, E and DORA. I’m not convinced that the clue unequivocally leads to the correct order of the particles, but you will have heard of Dora the Explorer if you are of a certain age (or have children or grandchildren …)

Down

1 Spotted one cat he twice disturbed
CHEETAH
(CAT HE HE)* with ‘disturbed’ as the anagrind.

2 Submarine endures choppy area
UNDERSEA
A charade of (ENDURES)* and A. The anagrind is ‘choppy’.

3 Make another picture using red, green or blue?
REDRAW
A charade of RED and RAW. There are two references to the second element: if someone is raw and unexperienced they are green; if steak is raw, it is blue.

4 Hint of ecstasy found in open pub at first
INNUENDO
A charade of INN and E inserted into UNDO. The insertion indicator is ‘found in’.

5 Spouse carelessly works
OPUSES
(SPOUSE)* with ‘carelessly’ as the anagrind.

8 Deals including 100 pieces of fish
SCALES
An insertion of C for ‘100’ in SALES. The insertion indicator is ‘including’.

9 Fruit preserves are in the middle on top of range daughter fixed in advance
PREARRANGED
An insertion of R (‘are in the middle’) in PEAR, followed by RANGE and D. The insertion indicator is ‘preserves’.

15 Brother with endless stomach pain devours cold vegetable
BROCCOLI
A charade of BRO and an insertion of C in COLI[C]. The insertion indicator is ‘devours’.

16 Kinky bottomless American sweetheart you called “honey bear“
KINKAJOU
I had KANGAROO in here because I couldn’t make head or tail of the parsing, but then the perimeter nina told me that couldn’t be right. A charade of KINK[Y], A, JO and U, aural wordplay (‘called’) for ‘you’. The Scots Language centre tells me that JO is a Scots variant of ‘joy’, and can mean a sweetheart or lover, or be a term of endearment akin to ‘dear’ or ‘darling’. I know why the setter has had to use this word (naff all else fits) but in my opinion this is obscure and the Scots dialect word is rather unfair.

17 Considers exchanging ketamine for good stuff
THINGS
The setter is inviting you to change the K in THINKS to G for ‘good’.

18 Annual report from local man accepted
ALMANAC
Hidden in locAL MAN ACcepted.

20 Easy clue oddly written by party for “coin“
ESCUDO
A charade of EaSy ClUe and DO. The old currency of Portugal.

21 Smart and very quietly absorbed in retrospective study
DAPPER
An insertion of PP in READ reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘absorbed’.

Many thanks to Liari for this Monday’s puzzle.