Fifteensquared

My second blogging encounter with Orense of late.  Not the most strenuous of workouts, but he’s always a pleasure/never a chore.  Am running late today, so please excuse the skimpy blog.

Across
1 PERSONA NON GRATA - person + anon + initial letters.
9 ANAGRAM – eager vis-a-vis agree.
10 COLOGNE – log in (once)*.
11 MAMBA - samba with change of initial letter.
12  DREAMLAND – as in The Land of “Nod”.
13 CATCHES IT – cat + (I in chest).
15 HAITI – ait (=islet) in Hi.
16 LEPER – l{enienc}e + per.
18 AVALANCHE – AV (Auth. Version) + (Ch in (a lane)).
20 GRAPESHOT – “charge” in the sense of rudimentary ammunition.
23 TEARS -(rates)*.
24 CABARET – bare in cat. Our “spiteful woman” from 13A has metamorphosed into a “queen” here.
25 OPERATE - cryptic (surgical) def’n.
26 LIGHTNING STRIKE- double def’n.

Down
1 PHARMACOLOGICAL - Homophone of “farmer” + {e}cological.
2 READMIT – read + MIT (Mass. Inst. of Technology).
3 OUR FATHER - (turf a hero)*.  A nifty definition (“Petition”).
4 AIMED  - me (compiler) in aid.
5 ORCHESTRA - cryptic def’n.
6 GOLEM – Ole! in GM (Gen. Mod.)
7 AFGHANI – F(ellow) in Agha + in<.
8 A HEAD LIKE A SIEVE - ahead + like a sieve.  I was held up by two factors here.  First, looking for a song title (via that old indicator “strain”).  Additionally, I’d never encountered this variant of the phrase before (only being familiar with “mind like a…”).
14 SPAGHETTI – (get at hips)*
15 HEARTFELT - heart + felt.
17 PEAT BOG – (pot beg a)*.
19 CHAPATI – chap + a ti{p}.
21 EGRET – {r}egret.
22 THONG – tho’ + NG.