Dickens character who says Something Will Turn Up / WED 8-11-10 / Nattily dressed ad figure / Sayers bon vivant sleuth / Wisecracking dummy old radio

Constructor: Edward Sessa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: MONOCLES (68A: Items worn by 14-, 23-, 39- and 52-Across)


Word of the Day: WILKINS MICAWBER (23A: Dickens character who says "Something will turn up") —

Wilkins Micawber is a fictional character from Charles Dickens' 1850 novel David Copperfield. He was modelled on Dickens' father, John Dickens, who also ended up in a debtor's prison (the King's Bench Prison) after failing to meet the demands of his creditors.

His long-suffering wife, Emma, stands by him through thick and thin, despite the fact that her father, before his death, had to bail him out on many occasions and the fact his circumstances force her to pawn all her family heirlooms. The maxims she lives by are: "I will never desert Mr. Micawber!" and "Experientia does it (from Experientia docet, One learns by experience (literally, 'experience teaches'))".

He is hired as a subordinate by Uriah Heep, who believes Micawber to be as dishonest as himself due to his troubles with creditors. However, Micawber is honest, and, after working for Heep for a while, exposes him as a forger and a cheat. To make a fresh start, Micawber and his family emigrate to Australia alongside Daniel Peggotty and Little Em'ly. In Australia he is successful and becomes a magistrate as well as manager of the Port Middlebay Bank.

In Hablot Knight Browne's illustrations for the first edition, he is shown wearing knee-breeches, a top hat and a monocle. (wikipedia)

• • •

Blew through this in 4 flat (faster than yesterday) despite not having any idea who WILKINS MICAWBER was. 19th-Century Literature, not my field. Why don't most pics I'm finding depict him with the monocle. Does he have a monocle outside the first edition illustrations done by Browne? Literary characters are slightly odd choices for this theme, as — unless the book makes great mention of the monocle in some fashion — the monocle would seem an incidental detail. I can *see* MR. PEANUT and CHARLIE MCCARTHY, so I *know* they have monocles. The first person I think of when I see the word "monocle" is COLONEL MUSTARD, but he's one letter short of being able to take, say, WILKINS MICAWBER's place. Besides MICAWBER (whose last name I at least recognized from puzzles past), the only other sticking point today was TWITTERY (62A: Giggling nervously), which is not a word I use despite using Twitter nearly ever day. I tried TWITTERING (too long), TITTERING (ditto), and ATWITTER (letters not lined up right) before realizing what word I was dealing with. I also can never remember if SELENE (47D: Greek moon goddess) is SELENE or SELENA, but cost me maybe 1 or 2 seconds—just left it blank and picked it up on the cross.

Theme answers:

• WILKINS MICAWBER (23A: Dickens character who says "Something will turn up")
• MR. PEANUT (14A: Nattily dressed ad figure)
  
• CHARLIE MCCARTHY (39A: Wisecracking dummy of old radio)
  
• LORD PETER WIMSEY (52A: Dorothy L. Sayers's bon vivant sleuth)
  

Words can't express how wrong BANDANNNNNNA (9D: Part of many a bank robber's outfit) with two-thousand "N"s at the end looks. The number of "N"s in BANDANA shall total 2, and 2 shall be that number, amen. I honestly considered BANDANDA (var.?) before I succumbed to the stupid extra-N version. Grid is mostly nice-looking, despite the usual unfortunate short stuff and the less-than-ideal IDA / IDAHO ([Slutty 28-Across?]) crossing. Winning entry of the day: CHOW LINE (42D: Mess queue).

Bullets:

• 8A: FBI operation involving a nonexistent sheik (ABSCAM) — sounds like a shady exercise-machine-selling operation; or a camera pointed continuously at someone's midsection; or an early-80s Genesis album.

• 56D: Success on TV's "Concentration" (MATCH) — Trouble for me, as that game is (way) before my time. Now if the clue had been [Success on TV's "Match Game"], oh man, I'd have nailed that one.
  
• 29A: Dogpatch diminutive (LI'L) — as in "Abner"
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]