The asterisked squares spell out DVORAK, which, "taking into account an audible signal network of ironic alien" ("cue" + interweaving WRY & ET = QWERTY), constitute the "keys to unlocking the code". The eight perimetrical answers are entered in the grid as a touch-typist would --not knowing that the keyboard setting had accidentally been switched from the typical QWERTY set-up to the Dvorak layout. (Hence the title"Don't Look Down" -- the classic admonition of the typing instructor.)
In explanations, asterisks (*) indicate anagrams, ellipses (...) indicate selections from clue text, quotation marks (" ") indicate homophones, and lowercase letters indicate deletions.
| Across 1 OVERTAKE [RK . PYAT . ] -- double definition, with pun on OVER-TAKE 6 LAZY [NA ; F] -- Z for D in LADY 9 QUMRAN -- QU(M)RAN, &lit. 11 ALAR -- LARA, with its last character put first 12 CRANING -- ...desiGN IN ARCade..., rev. 13 ENOKI -- OINKEr* 14 XENIA -- AI + N + EX rev. 18 ON THE GO -- final letters 19 ANTECEDENCE -- ANT + tEaChEr + DEN + CE 21 WASHING-LINE -- (WHEN SAILING)* 24 GARBING -- GARBlING 28 SWANN -- "SWAN", ref. HC Andersen 29 BAHIA -- BA(HI)A 30 ANTILOG -- (NAIL GOT)* 31 JAIL -- J + A(I)L, &lit. 32 LIZARD -- rhyme for WIZARD, IZZARD 33 HARM [DAPM] -- ...FrencH ARMoire... 34 FLAGPOLE [UNAILRN . ] -- FLA(G)P + OLE, &lit. |
Down 1 OJIBWA [RHXC , A] -- O + J(I + B)WA* 2 KOREAN WAR -- cryptic definition, ref. Chosen = Korea 3 PUNIC -- initial letters, &lit. 4 ARNO -- ON + RA, rev. 5 TAG END -- T(AG)END 6 NANA -- double definition, ref. Peter Pan 7 ALOPECIA -- A + POLICE* + A, ref. Oakland Athletics = A's 8 YOGISM [FRICOM] -- YOGi + ISM, &lit. plus quote from Yogi Berra 10 NEST EGGS -- (SEGMENTS, with G for M)* 15 ARCHIVAL -- ARCHrIVAL 16 AGENT NOUN -- AGENT + NOUN, &littish def., plus descriptive example 17 STARSHIP -- S(TARS)HIP 20 QUENCH [ ' G . BJD] -- tECHNiQUe* 22 IN VAIN -- "IN VEIN" 23 DELUXE [E . NGQ . ] -- EXULtED, rev. 25 TWIRL -- T W I + R,L, &lit. 26 FILM -- M + LIFe, rev., &lit. 27 ANZA -- ANZAc |
For those four letters (Q W E Z) that do not encode to a fellow alphabetic character, both unshifted (' . , ;) and shifted ("< > : ) encodings are acceptable.