Independent 11,013 by Rodriguez

by

As January goes out with a storm and the world’s politicians act like pre-teenage children in the Ukraine, Rodriguez brings some light to the gloom and doom. Wine and cheese at number ten should have been jelly and ice cream to constitute a party surely!

Leads me nicely in to my favourite clue 9ac. Topical, witty and everything else a clue should be. Plenty of other good ones but the standout for me. A new word for my vocabulary too – Cathouse. If I did take a wrong turning and end up in the US I’d certainly stay clear of 5ac and preferring an 8dn or equivalent to a 7dn or equivalent. 19dn is the clue that amused me most.

Thanks Rodriguez – a witty pleasure as always

Key: * anagram, Rev. Reverse, DD Double definition; underline Definition

Across
1 Republican soak hugs Oscar winner (6)
steep (soak) around r (republican) = STREEP

5 Where Americans pay for Congress with grand in bag (8)
thou (grand) in case (bag) = CATHOUSE

9 Ideal Number Ten parties impossible to find out (14)
(Ideal Number Ten)* = UNDETERMINABLE

10 Leader of Iroquois punching tough old Mohican? (6)
hard (tough) around i (leader of Iroquois) + o (old) = HAIRDO

11 Christian cut corner? One may! (8)
angle (corner) – e(cut) + I Can (one may) = ANGLICAN

12 Kind of rifle to move slowly in short cowboy film (10)
inch (move slowly) in western(cowboy film) – n (short) = WINCHESTER

15 Team pulling small muscle (4)
squad(team) – s (small) = QUAD

16 Lover’s knot picked up (4)
Homonym of bow (knot) = BEAU

18 Satisfied by a dissertation, one of Spooner’s? (10)
met (satisfied) + a + thesis (dissertation) = METATHESIS

21 Perhaps Romeo’s day with temperature and chills (8)
Mon (day) + t (temperature) + ague(chills) = MONTAGUE (Romeo’s family)

23 Empty oceanic vessel needing year to fill (6)
oc (empty oceanic) + cup (vessel) + y (year) = OCCUPY

25 Where diplomats are elated to get bonus money (4,10)
high (elated) + commission(bonus money) = HIGH COMMISSION

26 Criticise baked dishes filled by power instrument (3,5)
pan (criticise) + pies (baked dishes) around p(power) = PAN PIPES

27 Tot with games right for tot (6)
nip (tot) + Pe (games) + r (right) = NIPPER

Down
2 Star decked in cap, one giving a wave (7)
sun (star) in tam (cap) + i (one) = TSUNAMI

3 Senior cuddled that woman left by two husbands (5)
held(cuddled) in her (that woman) – h – h = ELDER

4 Crude clothing for pantomime part in middle (9)
pe (clothing for pantomine) + role (part) in tum (middle) = PETROLEUM

5 Speaker’s flow? One’s dried up (7)
Homonym of current = CURRANT

6 Fragile golf bag (5)
thin (fragile) + g (golf) = THING

7 Alluring woman artist put in holy building topless (9)
Dali (artist) in mosque (holy building) – m = ODALISQUE

8 Softer, sweeter version of 5 down for 7 (7)
DD SULTANA

13 Places briefs may be seen, and voguish suit (9)
courts (place briefs may be seen) + hip (voguish) = COURTSHIP

14 Case of Prosecco is stored in shop – it’s lethal stuff (3,6)
rat on (shop) around po (case of prosecco) + is = RAT POISON

17 Mozart’s last symphony covers exciting material (7)
t (Mozart’s last) in Eroica (symphony) = EROTICA

19 Squiffy mother’s drinks may be here (7)
(mothers)* = THERMOS

20 Intrude with message to self-isolate maybe received by setter twice (7)
ping (message to self isolate) in I + me (setter twice) = IMPINGE

22 Wife’s kicked out of mature family (5)
grow up (mature) – w (wife) = GROUP

24 Medium fry wraps for a relative of ours (5)
chip (fry) around m (medium) = CHIMP

22 comments on “Independent 11,013 by Rodriguez”

  1. A DNF for me as I couldn’t see CATHOUSE or ODALISQUE. Otherwise a nice workout, so thanks Rodriguez and Twencelas. Minor error in the blog’s across explanations: The ‘8’ for CATHOUSE should be ‘5’.

  2. I agree that 9a was an absolute beaut of a clue.

    The parsing for 3d shouldn’t have ‘in’, just hELD hER. Long time since I last saw that slang meaning of “bag” in 6d. Did know CATHOUSE (though never been in one or the UK equivalent) and have met ODALISQUE/ODALISK in previous crosswords. Don’t recall meeting METATHESIS before and didn’t know MONTAGUE but both straightforward to guess.

  5. Another great crossword from Rodriguez – I did know the ‘unknowns’ and like others, my favourite clue was 9a

    Thanks to Rodriguez and twencelas

  6. Well beaten today with several words I didn’t know and several I did but couldn’t parse. I also learned that PETROLEUM is the crude from which petrol is derived whereas I’d always thought it was crude oil as the natural resource and petroleum an alternative, fuller name for petrol.

    Particular favourites include the ‘ping’ in IMPINGE and the lovely misdirect with Beethoven’s Eroica and Mozart’s last in EROTICA. I liked the construction of CHIMP and the definition of COURTSHIP. Struggled for a bit to equate bag with THING but assume it’s as in “it’s not my bag/thing”. But 9ac has to be COTD for its rather sad topicality: looking back to twencelas’s preamble, at a time when we might be closer to major war in Europe for the first time in 75 years, the entire British political and media focus is on how often the leadership of the country had illegal parties during lockdown. Pathetic! Rant over.

    Thanks Rodriguez and twencelas

  7. That was tough but very enjoyable even though I had a DNF thanks to 7d. I was very pleased to see the 5a Americanism clearly indicated; full marks to the setter!

    I’ll go along with those who picked 9a as their favourite.

    I wasn’t too convinced by “bag” = “thing” in 6d, but I guess “it’s my bag” is much the same as “it’s my thing”.

    Many thanks to Rodriguez and twencelas.

  8. The expected Saturday tussle but a lot of fun along the way. Managed to get everything in, but METATHESIS was new and I wasn’t familiar with PING for ‘message to self-isolate’.

    I agree 9a was v. good, but I’ll go with the ‘Mozart’ meets Beethoven EROTICA at 17d as my favourite. I had a few crossers already in place when I first tried to solve it and was most put out that “Jupiter” didn’t fit!

    A big thanks to Rodriguez – two top notch puzzles in two days – and to twencelas

  9. No-one’s hinted that this was more doable than Rodriguez’s usual, so maybe I’m finally getting on the wavelength! Fingers very much crossed. My only unknown was 5a. Dreadful concept: me, I won’t even use ‘catwalk’ for fashion show. Anyway, 9a best clue and I enjoyed the neatness of 15a, and the not-a- spoonerism, among many others. Thanks to Rodriguez and twencelas

  10. Agreed that this was more doable than a typical Rodriguez except for the NE corner, where I was held up by two references to “bag”. One of them (“thing”) I still don’t quite get. Thanks to Rodriguez an twenceslas as ever.

  11. For some unknown reason my original comment has disappeared, not sure how that happened.

    I found far more to smile about than I usually do in this setter’s puzzles but still faced a couple of unknowns in METATHESIS & ODELISQUE which I shall doubtless forget almost immediately!
    Top three for me were HIGH COMMISSION, NIPPER & EROTICA.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and to twencelas for the review.

  13. What Simon S said!

    I found it quite tough going but, as so often, couldn’t really see why once I’d finished. 6dn was my last one in and I entered it reluctantly, as being the only answer that seemed to fit. I’ve never heard the expression ‘It’s not my bag’ and I rather balk at THIN = fragile but I haven’t looked it up.

    Apart from that, I had ticks for 9ac, of course, 11ac because I’m one, 18 ac for not being a Spoonerism (although this setter does know how to do them), 3dn,14dn and 22dn for making me smile, 17dn for the tease and. 20dn for the topicality – I wonder if Rodriguez is the first to exploit PING?

    Many thanks to Rodriguez and twencelas.

  15. I think anyone who doesn’t remember “it’s just not my baag, maan” must just be too young. Hippie speak / drawl from the 70s.

  17. Great puzzle and blog. I foolishly thought ’emple was more likely than ‘osque (or ‘hurch), so ODALISQUE took much longer than it should have.

  18. I didn’t think I was going to finish this. Before dinner I’d got the entire bottom left but couldn’t seem to get the rest. It may have helped that a TV programme I watched before I restarted mentioned Meryl STREEP. I did then go on to finish. There were many I couldn’t parse and I entered METATHESIS without actually knowing what it meant and only got round to looking it up as I came here.

  19. Interesting. I had BAG PIPES for 26A as BAG down under means to criticize.

    INFORMAL•AUSTRALIAN
    criticize.
    “the fans should be backing him not bagging him”

  20. Must confess I don’t understand 18 at all, even after reading the blog, or why ping is self isolate. Gave up with a third left eventually.

    I think you have the crossword number wrong. Should be 11,013 I believe.

  22. Dibosco @20 – ping is very much a word whose use evolved in the pandemic for when the nhs track and trace app identified someone as being a potential contact of a positive case and needing to self isolate. Pingdemic was a further extension as case numbers rose. 18ac refers to Spoonerisms e.g. inadvertently transposing jelly beans to belly jeans. Apologies for my numerical error.

Comments are closed.