Rodriguez fills the Thursday slot this week.
14ac mentioned that there was something to look out for in the pairs of across answers. Having solved 14ac, we noticed RIALTO and googled Chapel Bridge to find that it is an unusual pedestrian bridge in Lucerne. Before we solved 10ac, we had BERT at the beginning of 11ac and Bert wondered if 10ac was going to end in …AL for the Albert Bridge in London – this delayed completing the NW corner until we realised that 3d was not -C-L-I – not helped by the fact that we had never heard of the German city at 10ac, and once we had the M in 3d we were wondering about BUM for ‘swan around’ for a while. 12ac revealed itself when we were looking up synonyms for ‘enlightenment’.
Thanks Rodriguez for today’s fun.
A MAN (geezer) inside or ‘tucked into’ L (large) CHA (drink)
ELVIS (rock-‘n’-roller) after or ‘on’ P (piano)
A reversal (‘around’) of COB (swan) + HUM (sing quietly)
BRAND (‘one famous Russell’) around or ‘keeping’ sEcReT (alternate or ‘occasional’ letters)
OR (other ranks – ‘men’) in SAT (part of weekend) + I (newspaper). Joyce looked up synonyms for ‘enlightenment’ which had OR in them in Chambers and found the answer.
An anagram (‘drunk’) of COLA LEFT
An anagram (‘reforms’) of URGING, BIBLE DID and S (special). The pairs of across answers ‘build bridges’.
An anagram (‘breaking’) of THRILL OF
HAVEN (shelter) around or ‘invaded by’ O (old)
HAND (give) MILL (John Stuart Mill – ‘utilitarian philosopher’)
A homophone (‘heard’) of OLE (Spanish cheer)
LOG (record) reversed or ‘spun’ and an anagram (‘jazzy’) of END
GATEs (Bill Gates – ‘tech entrepeneur’) missing last letter or ‘reduced’ + POST (job)
A reversal (‘going up’) of AD (notice) O (nothing) GAP (crack)
W (wicket) ASH (remains) BOWL (pitch for cricket)
SCAM (fraud) PI (private ‘investigator’) – ‘crumby’ reflecting the way that scampi are served in breadcrumbs
BARBer (expert in male grooming) missing ‘er’ (hesitation)
Double definition
CounciL (first and last letters only or ‘losing heart’) ERIC (Idle perhaps – as in one of the Monty Pythons)
An anagram (‘confused’) of SEVEN and NInE missing ‘n’ (indefinite number)
gANGSTa (rapper) missing or ‘putting out’ the first and last letters or ‘cover’
Hidden (‘bit of’) in liqueUR IN A TORpor
An anagram (‘parties’) of RIO inside or ‘hosted by’ IVAN (terrible ruler) S (succeeded)
D (first letter or ‘starter’ of duck) EnVELOPS (wraps) missing ‘n’ (new)
LADA (car) around or ‘carrying’ DI (detective)
HEAR (try) TrouserS (first and last letters only or ‘hem’)
An anagram (‘rogue’) of IS TOO ‘followed by’ E (earl)
L (left) EGO (I in Latin – Constantine 1 was a Roman)
I remember the first time I encountered SATORI – in a crossword – and chalked it off as a word I’d probably never see again. And it’s been in half a dozen puzzles since! So no defeat there but I did struggle to see/hear AU LAIT. I also didn’t know Chapel Bridge and, whilst I have seen pictures of the impressive Millau Viaduct, I could not have put a name to it.
A typically tightly clued Rodriguez puzzle – what else should we expect? PELVIS, HILL FORT, SCAMPI, OPERATOR, CLERIC and DEVELOPS were favourites. I’ve always found it amusing that the most famous utilitarian should have the name of the most fundamental industrial production unit. A form of nominative determinism perhaps.
Thanks Rodriguez and B&J
I found this very challenging but great fun. I went through exactly the same process as B&J in assuming that 10a would end in AL. I too had never heard of SATORI but it fell into place from the wordplay and checkers.
With lots of ticked clues to choose from, PELVIS and SCAMPI are fighting it out for my top spot.
Many thanks to Rodriguez and to B&J.
I first met SATORI through 15²: it was the FT pseudonym of Albi Fiore, the Guardian’s Taupi, one of my favourite setters and a quite remarkable man, who sadly died in 2009. See John Henderson’s obituary here:
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/aug/18/albie-fiore-obituary
I really enjoyed the ingenious bridgebuilding. RIALTO was the first to emerge for me, too. I didn’t know of the CHAPEL bridge but have been interested in the MILLAU viaduct, having spent several holidays in the Tarn valley, before it was built.
As for the clues, my favourites were 9ac PELVIS, 11ac BERTRAND, 12ac SATORI, 13ac ALTO CLEF, 14ac BUILDING BRIDGES, 24ac AU LAIT, 7dn VIENNESE, and 15dn URINATOR.
Many thanks to Rodriguez and B&J.
A most ingenious bit of bridge building. I spotted the Humber fairly early on which helped to solve several other clues by finding a bridge in the middle
Many thanks to Rodriguez and B&J
Albie Fiore, of course.
I followed Eileen@3’s link on Taupi – (“Moley” based on the French word for mole – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/taupe#French)
I remember his puzzles with fondness, and was surprised to find that his pseudonym SATORI, had nothing to do with Zen enlightenment, but was based on the Basque word for mole – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sator#Basque – “Moley” again. Early on I was expecting a Nabokov theme with BOCHUM BERTRAND
Thanks R & B&J
Very enjoyable indeed!….as is inevitably the case with this setter in whatever guise he appears. A couple of unknowns in there for me but obtainable with wordplay and checkers.
I really liked PELVIS lol, SATORI (I’ve gotten wise to the newspaper here!) HAVE ON, SCAMPI, DEVELOPS, LA DI DA and the BUILDING BRIDGES device.
Many thanks Rodriguez and B&J for a top puzzle and blog.
Great fun – thanks setter and bloggers. I was held up for a while because I found CHAPEL and then BUILDING BRIDGES, and thought we were looking for “buildings” spanning the gaps between clues.
[MILLAU reminded me of an enjoyable French holiday which included a day-trip to the viaduct; if you’ve only seen pictures, I can assure you it’s even more impressive close up. So many people go to see it that they turned one of the original building site offices into a tourist centre.]
I too spotted HUMBERT, and also realised VLADIMIR NABOKOV was handily (8,7), so trying to work out how that might fit the long light’s clue threw me for a bit. Good fun, thx S&B!
I was another distracted by the HUMBERT connection.
Pure coincidence that it is partly formed by a clue mentioning Russell Brand I suppose….
Me too with HUMBERT. Saw CHAP as well and then expected 13 across to start with CHARD
Great fun as usual from this setter.
Blissfully unaware of the Nina… thus struggled, 1st principles n a short nap helped..
Thanks Rodriguez n BertandJoyce
Thanks both. I really like impressive bridges so this was highly enjoyable once I eventually got on the scent. I’m a little surprised the clue for BERTRAND was not restructured in light of recent events, but the wordplay works well, as it does for ANGST taking as its source gangsta, for which my understanding was it is a type of rap music rather than the rapper, but no doubt it can be either
Isn’t it BUILDING: chapel + BRIDGES: the rest? Whatever
I enjoyed AU LAIT, a friend (not me, honestly) had the mickey taken by a French waiter singing ole ole when asked for the au lait
We were helped considerably by the hint in the clue for 14ac but we took a while to see exactly what was going on. A most enjoyable and satisfying puzzle, though. Favourite was VIENNESE.
Thanks, Rodriguez and B&J.
Thanks Rodriguez. I generally find Rodriquez crosswords difficult and this was no exception. I needed a nudge to complete a number of clues and I only recognised two of the bridges so my fun was limited. Still there was a lot to like including GOLDEN, WASHBOWL (for the poetic surface), URINATOR, DEVELOPS, and OTIOSE. [BTW, the word SATORI is familiar to me because it was the name of a screensaver in the early days of desktops.] Thanks B&J for the blog.
[PostMark @1: Interesting comment about SATORI and its repeated appearance in crosswords. I’m beginning to write cryptic clues and I sometimes begin with a word in a crossword I’m solving and come up with alternate wordplay. I wonder if setters, who are solvers themselves, do that as well?]
[Tony @17: all the time. You do start to look at words and clues in a different light (‘scuse pun) once you begin to play around with setting/clueing too. I find myself looking at clues in dailies and thinking of my own versions – maybe previously done, maybe giving me inspiration for the future. But, before long, you’ll find yourself not just looking at words in puzzles but words on the side of delivery trucks, on cereal packets, in official documentation … Dog walking is often my time for sorting them out in my head. Good luck – I hope you’re enjoying it.]
[PostMark @18: Thanks for the detailed response. I am enjoying writing clues — now I just have to fit them in a grid. In any event I do look at words and phrases differently. For example, I was at a urinal at a hockey game; the name on the urinal was American Standard. “I can stand” immediately jumped out!]
Thanks Bertandjoyce and Rodriguez.
Lovely stuff.
Theme, yes, I actually looked up each of them and was impressed by the selection.
SATORI and VIENNESE are top favs.
Oh look James popped in, and no, it’s Kapellbrücke.
Nice puzzle, nice idea.
Haven’t seen “I” used for a newspaper. Typically it’s FT, SUN or RAG or similar. Was able to get SATORI though as I guessed the bridge must be RIALTO.
A fine puzzle. Thanks to James and also for the blogging.
Re 22 above, I is for the newspaper the puzzle is in.
Thanks to Rodriguez & Bertandjoyce for the puzzle and the blog respectively.