Independent No. 11,049 by Rodriguez

The days turn and I find myself looking at a puzzle by Rodriguez – and I must blog it.

I know I generally have more than a tussle with this setter, or his alter-ego, so was expecting trouble.

In fact most of the puzzle got solved without too much fuss though I solved it carefully and slowly.  I gave a lot of thought to previously attempted clues when they got new crossing letters.  In the end I was defeated by one clue where I resorted to a word matcher to find.  I knew there was a word for “the Japanese art of arranging flowers in an attractive way”, and I might have seen it before in my life,  but there is no way I could recall it in any sensible time.  Besides, I studied at the Professor Gumby school of flower arranging and prefer to leave them in their flower beds.

Most answers were found in the first half-hour.  The rest took longer.  The last few earned themselves a slightly longer write up in the analysis below.  For those, as usual, when doing the blog I wonder why I couldn’t see the wordplay immediately.  All clues judged very fair.  Overall I wonder if this is Rodrigeuz at his mildest.
Favourite: 27A Parakeet.  Lovely clue surface (and I love these birds)

Across
1 ASHRAM Retreat from area by marsh ground (6)
A[rea] (MARSH)* AInd: ground.
5 CHIP SHOT Fried food with chilli one’s put onto greens? (4,4)
CHIPS (Fried food) HOT (chilli)
Last one to do in this top-right corner and even with all the crossing letters I nearly blew it – I could not stop seeing CHIP SHOP (umm,  chips) – eventually I realised the greens/golf reference.
9 CHIC Hatchling hiding tail with it (4)
CHIC[k]
10 DANISH BLUE What diner orders contains an off-colour dairy product (6,4)
DISH (what diner orders) around AN (an) BLUE (off colour, i.e. ill, down, depressed)
11 PROMETHEUS Thief who was bound for America swallows two drugs (10)
PRO (for) US (America) around (swallows) METH and E (two drugs)
I liked this clue.  Solved from the definition really but the wordplay soon fell out
12 REAM What sleeper does naked in sheets (4)
DREAMS (what sleeper does) “naked” remove first and last letters
13 HI-TECH Way to get lift to conserve energy using complex engineering (2-4)
HITCH (way to get lift) around (to conserve) E[nergy]
15 TEENAGER One still growing green tea abroad (8)
(GREEN TEA)* AInd: abroad.
17 NINTENDO Console popular nurse beset by rejection (8)
IN (popular) TEND (nurse) inside (beset by) NO (rejection)
19 TIP-OFF Aristo saving tiny bit of cash shows intelligence (3-3)
TOFF (aristo) around (saving) IP (1p = tiny bit of cash)
One of the last bunch solved mainly because I got stuck thinking the first word would be TOP
21 HESS Man associated with Nazis? (4)
HE (man) SS (Nazis) &Lit
23 BEAR MARKET Gamble, investing reserve when selling’s advised (4,6)
BET (Gamble) around (investing) EARMARK (reserve)
25 NATURALIST Attenborough, say, is one revealing all about animal’s skin (10)
NATURIST (one revealing all) around (about) A[nima]L (animal’s skin)
26 GAPE Opening with Mahler’s Fifth generates yawn (4)
GAP (opening) [mahl]E[r] (Mahler’s Fifth)
27 PARAKEET Colourful chatterer‘s caress entertaining a debauchee (8)
PET (caress) around (entertaining) A RAKE (a debauchee)
28 ON-SITE About to park behind European at that place (2-4)
ON (about) SIT (park behind) E[uropean]
Last one in.  In retrospect, no good reason.
Down
2 SCHERZI Soprano singer, one covering last of jazz pieces (7)
S[oprano] CHER (singer) I (one) around Z (last of jazz)
3 RECUMBENT Lying Conservative in Number Ten endlessly partying (9)
C[onservative] inside (NUMBER TE[n])* AInd: partying.
4 MIDST Stupid to roll over stone in centre (5)
DIM< (stupid, to roll over) ST (stone)
5 CONVENTIONALIST Conservative Party Conference, say, with stars (15)
CONVENTION (Party Conference, say) A-LIST (stars)
6 INSISTENT Determined relative maybe camping outside (9)
IN TENT (camping) outside [of] SIS (relative, maybe)
7 SOBER Like a judge in his garb, swapping sides (5)
ROBES (Judge’s barb) swap R and S
8 OVULATE Mostly leave out nuts to make eggs (7)
(LEAV[e] OUT)* AInd: nuts.
14 HANDBRAKE Give cook sandwiches recipe? Rolls will contain this! (9)
HAND (give) BAKE (cook) around R[ecipe]
Rolls = Rolls-Royce car
16 ASPARAGUS Bard’s killer guardian clutching a spear? (9)
ASP (Bard’s killer, Ref Antony & Cleopatra) ARGUS (guardian) around (clutching) A
18 IKEBANA Chain encircling turned-up collar shows decorative art (7)
Ikebana: The Japanese art of arranging flowers in an attractive way according to strict rules.
IKEA (Chain, store) around (circling) NAB< (collar i.e. arrest, reversed, turned up)
I did not know this word and had to resort to a word-matcher given the crossers.
20 FLEAPIT Suit jackets pale, worn in dingy cinema (7)
FIT (suit) around (jackets) PALE* AInd: worn.
Another that gave me more trouble than it should have
22 SAUNA Theresa unabashed to strip off in steamy location (5)
Hidden in thereSA UNAbashed
24 MOTTO What Angus has to say about abstemious gnome (5)
MOO (What angus has to say, Angus = beef cattle) around (about) TT (abstemious)

 

21 comments on “Independent No. 11,049 by Rodriguez”

  1. Fortunately, I remembered IKEBANA. Thought the construction for RECUMBENT was brilliant. PROMETHEUS was my runner-up and my loi. Didn’t particularly like equating “chilli” and “hot” in 5a but that’s a minor quibble.

    Small error in blog for 8d. It is an anagram of LEAV[e] OUT.

  2. Another excellent Rodriguez crossword – like beermagnet, I did like 27a

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  3. Had problems parsing PROMETHEUS as I had PRO THE US for ‘for America’ and couldn’t work more than one drug into ME (as it were!) Like Hovis, I remembered IKEBANA from other puzzles and enjoyed RECUMBENT for both surface and construction. Other ticks for several of the longer solutions: BEAR MARKET (lovely spot of earmark in there), HANDBRAKE for the definition, ASPARAGUS for the construction, though the definition is one I’ve seen before. Also two ticks for short clues – the very clever HESS and the succinct and suggestive REAM.

    Unlike our blogger, I holed out on CHIP SHOT straight away. I was lucky – I did have the starter but CHIP was the immediate fried food and ‘green’ leapt out at me having used it in a golf context myself very, very recently.

    What a wonderful, crazy language we have: that a saying can be a saw, a canon or a gnome!

    Thanks Rodriguez and beermagnet

  4. Quite a relief to see the more friendly side of this setter! Top clue for me was BEAR MARKET with a nod to FLEAPIT which took me back to my teenage years and the local cinema which was always known by this name.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and to beermagnet for the review.

  5. Thanks Hovis @ #1 for pointing out the 8D typo, now fixed.
    I originally picked PROMETHEUS as my favourite clue only changing it to PARAKEET at the last minute when I read through again. I could quite easily have picked RECUMBENT too – wonderful topical surface. In fact, I shouldn’t really single out one clue like this when there are several in the puzzle worthy of particular admiration.

    Yes Jane @ #4. the days of the local FLEAPIT seem long gone. I wonder if the word will survive?

  6. Thanks Rodriguez and beermagnet

    In 28, I think the definition for SIT is ‘park behind’ (cf 13 in yesterday’s Picaroon).

  7. I think at 10a BLUE / off colour means Racy rather than unwell.
    What a lovely couple of days.. Picaroon yesterday Rodriguez today.

    Thanks all

  8. What Simon says @#6 I agree. Now fixed.
    Indeed, behind should not be seen as a “noise” word.
    One of the setter’s strengths is producing clues with scant use of filler.

  9. But “blue” doesn’t mean slightly ill does it? Collins has “indecent or indelicate; risqué” for “off colour”.

    Thanks to beermagnet and Rodriguez

  10. I really enjoyed this puzzle with PROMETHEUS, RECUMBENT & PARAKEET my top three.

    Many thanks to Rodriguez and to beermagnet.

  11. Rodriguez in a fairly gentle mood today, but very enjoyable and with lots of entertaining clues. My favourites were CHIP SHOT, NINTENDO and FLEAPIT – our local version was known as the “Bug House”.

    With any luck, I may wake up to the sound of the ‘Colourful chatterer’s’ not so dulcet tones tomorrow morning.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and beermagnet

  12. DuncT @#10 I maintain “blue” can mean “slightly ill”.
    Indeed in Collins, after Blue as a colour and definitions of blues as in the music genre, we find (Adj.) “sad or depressed” – before oxbridge sportspeople then finally “smutty” – and to me being depressed is being ill.
    I can believe the setter intended the link from off colour to blue was via the pornographic connotation (after all that’s not far from any of our minds is it), but I would never use “off colour” to mean anything other than “slightly ill” so I prefer to describe it that way.
    Many words and phrases have so many subordinate meanings it is likely there is more than one way to relate one word to another.

  13. Apart from spending too long trying to fit a pear or a homonym of a pear into 5 down, I got on quite well with this. The PARAKEET even came into the garden to inspire me. Thanks to both setter and blogger.

  14. When someone is sick, he is said to be off colour (at least where I grew up). Equally an off colour joke would be a smutty one. However, if someone is blue, I would take that to mean sad rather than ill so I opted for the smutty sense of blue. I guess these things vary around the country. Let’s face it, we all tend to feel blue when we are sick, unless being off work makes up for it.

  15. This was one of those days when I was relieved to hear some of the more experienced solvers found this challenging! Lots of headscratching and use of reveal for me, but often followed by “of course!”

  16. I’m really kicking myself for not getting 21ac, and therefore not finishing, because, totally inexplicably, since I know both the word and how to spell it, I’d written IKIBANA for 18dn.

    I have the same three favourites as Rabbit Dave @11 (with PROMETHEUS way ahead) and ticks, too, for BEAR MARKET and MOTTO.

    Aren’t we lucky, having Rodriguez following a Picaroon again?

    Super puzzle and blog – many thanks to both.

  17. Another dose of Picaroon, and of course well-put-together.

    Queried blue in that sense also, but not really a major drama.

  18. On the mild side for Rodriguez / Picaroon, but still enjoyable. I was shocked by the NW quadrant being practically a write-in, but the remainder of the grid was more or less R’s standard of difficulty. Always a treat to see R / P on a weekend.

  19. Book club meeting this afternoon, so didn’t start till late, and the last few took me a while to get.

    I took blue to mean smutty, too.

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