A solid if unspectacular puzzle with just one Brexit reference to see us into the New Year.
A number of slang expressions and other more unusual phrases made this a little trickier than some Monday offerings. A lof the parsing depended heavily on single character abbreviations, which can sometimes feel a little anticlimatic if you were expecting the clue to be more subtle than it actually was. I think I managed to parse everything, although the word order made that difficult in one or two cases.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RECITE | Call out cooking instructions, but swap pepper for final pinch of salt (6) |
| Recipe with p{epper} replaced by [sal]t | ||
| 4 | FIERCE | Wild fellow that is about to take cocaine (6) |
| F{ellow} + i.e. + re around c{ocaine} | ||
| 8 | STROMATA | Supportive tissue ordered mainly at the front in layers (8) |
| (O[rdered] m[ainly] in strata) | ||
| 10 | IGNORE | Region redeveloped to create bypass (6) |
| Region* | ||
| 11 | HOT DESKING | Work set-up in which, ultimately, kids get on terribly (3-7) |
| ([Whic]h kids get on)*. A job practice in which people are moved from desk to desk depending on which team they are working with rather than staying at the same desk all the time. | ||
| 12 | WEED | Went to do some gardening (4) |
| DD (went to the loo) | ||
| 13 | SARIN | Russian leader uncovered a lethal compound (5) |
| I think this is [T]sarin[a] | ||
| 14 | ESCALATE | Step up key piece of activity after usual close of business? (8) |
| ESC(=key) + a[ctivity] + late(=after usual close of business) | ||
| 16 | COUSCOUS | Family member drops in twice to get some grains (8) |
| Cous[in] Cous[in]. | ||
| 19 | NIFTY | Fine, independent newspaper housed in US city (5) |
| (I{ndependent} + FT) in NY | ||
| 21 | BETA | Kitchen equipment picked up for testing (4) |
| Hom of beater. Ref to beta testing, a term often used in software development. | ||
| 22 | PROVISIONS | Food guidelines (10) |
| DD | ||
| 24 | DOABLE | Revised deal with leaders from Brussels obviously can be made (6) |
| (Deal with b[russels] o[bviously])* | ||
| 25 | NAIL DOWN | Make final catch in a low position (4,4) |
| Nail(=catch) + down(=in a low position) | ||
| 26 | DELISH | Food shop’s healthy starter is yummy (6) |
| Deli’s + h[ealthy]. Common abbrev for delicious. | ||
| 27 | ILL SAY | Wicked phrase – one that indicates agreement (3,3) |
| Ill(=wicked) + say(=phrase) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RETRO | Some ombre trousers with an old-school look (5) |
| Hidden in ombre trousers | ||
| 2 | CHOWDER | Soup, food and wine possibly served up (7) |
| Chow + red< | ||
| 3 | TEARS INTO | Launches an attack on one artist when drunk (5,4) |
| (One artist)* | ||
| 5 | ICING | It can top a cake if cream is no good at first (5) |
| First letters of “if cream is no good” | ||
| 6 | RENEWAL | Frenchman without a wife left for a fresh start (7) |
| Slightly convoluted but I think this is Rene(=Frenchman) + w{ife} l{eft} around a, without being used as a containment rather than removal indicator | ||
| 7 | EARNESTLY | Seriously … New Year, let’s get smashed! (9) |
| (N{ew} Year lets)* | ||
| 9 | A SIDE | Ace supplementary dish forming part of a platter? (1-4) |
| A{ce} + side (side dish) | ||
| 13 | STONE COLD | Very chilled character interrupts lecture (5-4) |
| Tone in scold | ||
| 15 | CONVIVIAL | Jovial politician with six bottles, almost finished (9) |
| Con{servative} + VI vial[s] | ||
| 17 | SPAG BOL | Nearly all poly bags recycled for food in Italy (4,3) |
| (Pol[y] bags)* | ||
| 18 | SPOON | No, that was a mistake to turn over and lie front to back! (5) |
| (N{o} + oops)<. | ||
| 20 | FAIR DOS | It’s just pleasing to start parties (4,3) |
| Fair(=pleasing) + dos(=parties) | ||
| 22 | PEEPS | Looks to make friends (5) |
| Peeps (which is an abbrev of people) can be used to mean one’s friends. | ||
| 23 | NO WAY | Straight away? Yes, or never! (2,3) |
| Now(=straight away) + ay(=yes) | ||
*anagram
A pleasant start to the week for me. Although I did know “peeps” for “friends”, I bunged in “peers” which didn’t parse. Should have put more thought into it.
I noticed Sadie Lott appears reversed in rows 6 and 8. I’m sure she’ll be very happy about that, whoever she is.
Thanks to Gila and Neal.
Yes, I found this harder than the usual Monday and was stuck a few times, including on the now obvious COUSCOUS. I missed NAIL DOWN and didn’t know ‘lie front to back’ for SPOON. At least I’ll remember PEEPS, if never use it!
Sorry, just a minor correction. For 6d I think you meant ‘w{ife}’ rather than ‘w{eft}’.
Thank you to Gila and NealH
This was a curate’s egg for me. Most of it was very good and enjoyable but several left me bewitched, bothered and bewildered. 6D Renewal is just mystifying, and 18D Spoon needed detailed explanation to an innocent such as myself. Surely Peeps = people generally, not friends? I agree with Neal’s parsing of Sarin, and 27A should be shown as ‘I’ll say’ not ‘Ill say’. Thanks anyway to Gila and NealH. Incidentally, the Nina surely refers to Sadie Lott, the 2019 Post-Register All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year in Bonneville, Utah, where Gila monsters are to be found in the nearby salt flats.
Although “peeps” is short for “people”, when somebody talks of “my peeps” they are referring to their friends. I guess the cutesy abbreviation is meant to signify this.
So there really is a Sadie Lott. I was being a bit tongue in cheek @1. Let’s let every Sadie Lott bask in the glory.
I put peers too; looks for peers seems pretty nailed down and it seemed close enough to friends. Shame, peeps is a nice solution along with fair dos and the other slangy ones. Couldn’t understand RENEWAL either.
Thanks Gila, NealH
We had peers as well. When children demand a thing because all their friends have got one it’s referred to as peer pressure.
And there were quite a few food references: SPAG BOL, CHOWDER, COUSCOUS, PROVISIONS and ICING, plus possibly DELISH and SPOON together with ‘recipe’ in the clue to 1ac and the ‘kitchen equipment’ at 21ac. A theme, maybe?
Thanks, Gila and NealH.
Also can’t get the wordplay for RENEWAL to work. I put in PEERS and think it’s better than PEEPS, even if that nauseating abbreviation is what the setter intended.
Thanks to Gila and NealH.
Not sure why people are struggling with RENEWAL. The parsing is as in blog. RENE is the Frenchman and WAL is “without (outside of) A – W (wife) L (left)”.
If we hadn’t been talking to our son this morning before solving the puzzle late this evening, we would also have entered PEERS. Like him, we weren’t happy with the correct answer although he did know the meaning of PEEPS whereas we didn’t. We, like alan_c had in mind peer pressure as being influenced by your friends.
Apart from that, a mixed bag. Some nice clues but we also didn’t particularly like the common abbreviations as in SPAG BOL and DELISH. Maybe we are getting old!
Thanks Gila and NealH.
@8Hovis – thanks, OK I get it now.