Fifteensquared

Rishi is usually an early poster so I think it is safe to assume by now that he is unable to join us today. I have therefore produced this relatively brief substitute blog. Nothing too difficult in this puzzle except perhaps 26d where the checked letters (_e_s) were of little help. 4a appears to be flawed and I’m not particularly happy with 17d, as explained below.

Across

1 THEORY  OR in THEY
4 BREACHED  R in BEACHED – no containment indicator for the ‘R’
9 ATHENA  hidden in ‘sunbATHE NAked’ – the Greek goddess of wisdom amongst other things
10 CONTRITE  CON TRITE
12 CHOW MEIN  CHOW (dog) MEIN (‘my’ in German)
13 CHEESE  cd
15 EPIC  *(PIEC[e])
16 SUTHERLAND  dd – Graham Sutherland, artist, and Sutherland the region in Northern Scotland. If the clue had been ‘She paints’ instead of ‘He painted’ it would have been an &lit since Wendy Sutherland is a Highland based landscape artist (though less well known than Graham)
19 WENDY-HOUSE  cd – Wendy Darling, the daughter in Peter Pan
20 USED  hidden reversal in ‘handmaDE SUits’
23 STREAM  ST REAM
25 SEAQUAKE  cd
27 ELICITED  ELI CITED
28 SIENNA  *(INSANE)
29 NONSENSE  NON SENSE
30 ASTRAY  AS[h]TRAY

Down

1 TRANCHE  RANCH in T[roubl]E
2 ETHIOPIAN  *(PIANO THE I)
3 RENAME  *(MEN ARE)
5 ROOK  dd
6 ANTI-HERO  ANTI HER O
7 HEINE  [t]HE [l]INE – Heinrich Heine, German poet
8 DEEP END  PEN in DEED
11 SIT-UPON  U in *(POINTS)
14 CHASTEN  C[hemistry] HASTEN
17 ABSTAINER  cd – I’m not sure I agree with the ‘in more ways than one’. Chambers defines a party-pooper as ‘someone who spoils the enjoyment of others at a party or social occasion by their lack of enthusiasm or unwillingness to participate’. COED is more succinct, ‘a person who casts gloom over social enjoyment’. An ‘abstainer’ is a person who doesn’t drink alcohol and so *might* be consideded dull by those who are under the influence but this is not always the case, some people are quite lively when sober. S/he can also a person who doesn’t vote thus possibly displeasing other members of a (political) party, but this is not supported as ‘party-pooper’ in the dictionary definitions. Thus it is only possible to equate ‘abstainer’ with ‘one who is unwilling to participate’ (unless, of course, I have missed something).
18 DYNAMITE  *(IT MAY END)
19 WESTERN  WE STERN
21 DIETARY  ET in DIARY – ‘et’ can be ‘extraterrestrial’ (Chambers) or *that* film character again! Why can’t we have a change, such as ‘Journal about emergent technology initially concerned with food’ or ‘Journal about the beginnings of emergent technology relating to food’?
22 EQUIPS  [rud]E QUIPS
24 REIGN  G in REIN
26 SEAS  homophone of ‘seize’ (appropriate)