Good morning everyone.
Having to admit to an off-form day, as there are a brace of clues in this grid by Wiglaf that I just can’t parse. Thankfully I have this community to dig me out of the hole! On the way past if anyone can also explain the provenance of “nothingburger” that’d be good.
Ironically I felt this wasn’t too chewy a challenge, so thank you to Wiglaf for the grid.
Definitions are underlined.
ACROSS
1 Ruler here, pet target for bashing (5,3,5)
PETER THE GREAT
Anag [“target for bashing”] HERE PET TARGET
9 Call for blood from unbelievable yahoo oddly (5-2)
TALLY HO
Unbelievable [TALL yahoo oddly [Y H O]
10 Crude stuff produced by e.g. Berkshire press (3,4)
PIG IRON
Berkshire [a breed of pig] + press [IRON]
11 Headless porter? That’s uncannily frightening (5)
EERIE
Headless porter [BEER] that’s [That is = IE]
12 Being self-absorbed, Russians swimming will catch cold (9)
NARCISSUS
Anag [“swimming”] RUSSIANS will catch [around] cold [C]
13 Northern son seen recycling garbage (8)
NONSENSE
Anag [recycling] Northern [N] + SON SEEN
15 Stay on at sea (6)
REMAIN
At [RE] sea [MAIN]
18 Street wisdom about alcohol (6)
STEROL
Street [ST] wisdom [LORE] about [reversed]
19 Bears with footwear and cushions (8)
HASSOCKS
Bears with [HAS] footwear [SOCKS]
22 Very long time needed to catch each TV series (4,5)
SOAP OPERA
Very [SO] long time [OAP = old age pensioner] needed to catch [around] each [PER]
24 Some hitman in Japan? (5)
NINJA
Hidden word [some] HITMAN IN JAPAN
25 Baroque sculptor from Swiss city, fashionable one (7)
BERNINI
Swiss city [BERN], fashionable [IN] one [I]
26 Old church bell needs colouring brownish yellow (7)
OCHRING
Old [O] church [CH] bell [RING]
27 Duck at McDonald’s? It’s overhyped in America (13)
NOTHINGBURGER
Duck [NOTHING] at McDonald’s [BURGER]
Me neither!
DOWN
1 Model runs into Fat Pang (7)
PATTERN
Runs [R] into Fat Pang [PATTEN]
Apparently “Fat Pang” was the nickname given by the Chinese to then Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten during the handover of power in the province to the Chinese government.
2 Play electronic dance music to entertain limitless Europeans (9)
TOLERANCE
Electronic dance music [TRANCE] to entertain [around] limitless Europeans [POLES]
3 Feature of much verse and church music, mostly used in religious studies (5)
RHYME
Church music, mostly [HYMNS] used in [inside] religious studies [RE]
4 Prominent feature film of the 90s: Basic Instinct? (8)
HOOKNOSE
Film of the 90s [HOOK]: Basic Instinct [“NOSE”]
5 Rubberneckers gossip after popping by (6)
GAPERS
The first of today’s clues that have beaten me.
6 Elderly folk with urge to replace old kitchen gadgets (3,6)
EGG TIMERS
Elderly folk [OLD TIMERS] with urge [EGG] to replace old
7 Names of parts of algebraic expressions from school days (5)
TERMS
Double definition
8 Public service workers in harmony, though not technically (6)
UNISON
Second unparsed clue
14 Cryptic notices circulating round the northernmost part of Milton Keynes? (9)
ECONOMIST
Anag [“cryptic”] NOTICES circulating round [around] the northernmost part of Milton [M]
Reference to John Maynard Keynes
16 Dance and sing about getting higher (9)
ASCENDING
Anag [“about”] DANCE + SING
17 Follow Filipino around Norway (3,5)
TAG ALONG
Filipino [TAGALOG] around Norway [N]
18 Lord Coe impressed by Portuguese saint in Japanese port (6)
SASEBO
Lord Coe [SEB] impressed [put inside] by Portuguese Saint [SAO]
20 Small dog’s arrogant style of perambulation (7)
SWAGGER
Small [S] dog [WAGGER]
21 Old family bones brought to Italy (6)
MEDICI
Bones [MEDIC] brought to Italy [I]
23 Tart wears a new garment that only covers the front of body (5)
APRON
Tart [PRO] wears [inside] a new [A N]
24 Ex-PM picked up female on the game
NEHRU
Picked up [backwards] female [HEN] on the game [RU = Rugby Union]
GAPERS = GAS around PER.
UNISON = a double definition, from the trade union & then ‘unison’ doesn’t technically mean harmony in music.
I guessed that Chris Patten had that nickname, and really liked TAG ALONG when the penny dropped.
Thanks both.
@Amoeba
Thank you very much!
REMAIN is “stay” definition and RE (on) + MAIN as wordplay. SOAP OPERA = SO (very) + ERA (long time) around A POP (each). The blog has a rogue 1a.
Struggled a bit at the end with UNISON, HOOKNOSE, PATTERN and the nho SASEBO. nho TRANCE as a musical genre but it was easy enough to back parse and I somehow feel the nho NOTHINGBURGER may well have been an early entry into the grid – hard to believe it ended being a fortuitous fit with the crossers. An odd choice. Like Amoeba, I enjoyed TAG ALONG.
Thanks Wiglaf and Leedsclimber
Thanks both. MEDICI and NEHRU entertained me, and were within my sphere of knowledge, though I’d wrongly determined I wouldn’t know the Portuguese saint in SASEBO (which is a nho) as Sao Paolo should have assisted me. In ECONOMIST I guess we get the second ‘o’ from ’round’.
Where does the second O in ECONOMIST come from? Is it the ’round?’ Ta
22ac: SO (very) + A POP (each) + ERA (long time)
One of my rare forays into Indy territory these days, but an enjoyable solve. Didn’t know PATTEN’s nickname so couldn’t parse 1dn.
Thanks, Wiglaf and Leedsclimber.
Hovis @3
Thank you and now fixed
Hovis @3: Apologies- I skimmed through the comments too quickly.
Thanks, TFO @5: your answer to my question crossed in the post
Thanks leedsclimber. I agree that this was slightly odd – a relatively quick solve with a couple of rather tricky parsings. Nothing wrong with that of course.
Thanks to Wiglaf.
I’ve often said how Saturday puzzles either remarkably easy or have me totally stymied. Fortunately, this was the easy week.
Thanks Wiglaf and Leedsclimber. I was stumped by the same two parsings so thanks also to Amoeba @1. Wikipedia tells me that “nothingburger” was coined by the famed Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the 1950s to describe vacuous celebs, but I first heard of it as Hillary Clinton’s description of the email scandal that dogged her in the 2016 campaign. Turns out that was quite a somethingburger.