I really think that a lot of Guardian readers weren’t very pleased today.
With the posts @29 and 31 as a result.
When I say that we thought the editor’s choice was a good thing, I meant that we (my PinC and I) liked it for a change.

Most of the above posts appreciated the crossword, but Fifteensquared regulars are not the average solvers.

I hope that the editor gives Rufus the Tuesday spot tomorrow.
Which would be surprise #2 this week.

mark @31:
When EERIE (22d) is indeed a mistake, then that’s very annoying – I agree.
But normally Orlando is such a precise setter that I find it hard to nail him to the wall for just one misgiving (which could have any reason – who knows).
I do agree with you about the order of things in BENGALI (5d). The problem, however, is that this is Crosswordland. The clue cán be read as “a tongue which when twisted gives us Belgian”. I know it’s not the obvious way of looking at the clue, but, you see, there’s a question mark at the end too.
But I definitely see your point.

This wasn’t a puzzle for Monday Solvers.
We did like the cleverness of many clues.
We do understand the imperfection of some other clues.
But there was a lot that’s priceless.
But again, for us, that is.

K`s D “do” seems to be shaping up really well: I can see the headlines now in the Derbyshire Evening Telegraph: “FIGHTING DRUNK CRUCIVERBALISTS CLASH OVER THE SPLIT INFINITIVE!”

God Speed to you all who attend.

Nice puzzle, full of Orlando’s trademark misdirections.
A quasi-simple clue like 12ac (NIAGARA) could take you anywhere – I mean “Russia’s borders” were clear, but it could have been just as easily a “river” (flowing backwards) with RA inside, giving “Border”.
One or two unusual things like, for example, LONDRES.

We forgive Orlando 2x “fish” in 1ac [yes, Dave @10], with its well-hidden anagrind, and perhaps the EERIE clue too [although, when John Doe is right @28, there is nothing tó forgive].
While others weren’t completely happy with “observing” in 3d, we weren’t convinced of the necessity of “needed” (16ac PORTRAYAL), other than for the (splendid) surface.

Good, but tough puzzle.
Generally very well-written, as we’ve come to expect from Orlando.

But we suspect that there will be some Guardian readers out there, still staring at an half-full grid.
[Wonder what the policy behind today's choice was, but we thought it was a good one]

And of course, mhl, thanks for the blog.
Hope to meet you and others this Saturday!

*Disturbing* does double duty as the definition and a further instruction, so

disturbing (instruction) ERIE E gives E ERIE, anyway you like it, anagram or swap

I too was puzzled by 22d which really looks like ERIEE from the wordplay. I guess we could all be missing something, like I did for quite a while with 26a.

Unlike mathematics, there’s no precise order to things and no brackets to change that order or lump words together to undergo the same process, so there’s some flexibility, but I really couldn’t make it become EERIE.

Discussing it with my PinC, the best justification I could come up with was the rather unsatisfying, but technically accurate:

Take the abbreviation for European (E) and reverse that (still E!)
then take the name of a republic (EIRE) and reverse that too (ERIE) and append it:
<E< + <EIRE< = E + ERIE = EERIE

Not very satisfying to reverse a single letter and then carry over the same reversicator to act on the next word, which is placed after the first reversed letter.

Likewise it's not satisfying to say that a reversal can use an anagram indicator because reversal is technically a special case of an anagram, or that a double reversal (for surface reading's sake, I guess) would count as the same word forward, acting either as part of a charade or a double-definition. These things are frowned upon unless there's an unusual special reason (maybe a theme of double-negatives).

However, I thought this was a marvellous crossword, with some lovely misdirection, plenty of well disguised 'lift and separate' moments such as "French capital" and "South American city". This is rather unusually challenging for a Monday Guardian, but I'd enjoy this any day.

A nice puzzle today, really.

Can anybody explain what a NAIL BAR is? I had NAIL BED; if you can be treated in a burns ward, maybe you can be treated in nail bed?? This slowed me down some, but 3d is precisely enough clued to reveal my mistake.