No 12849, Tuesday 04 Feb 2020, Hypatia

ACROSS
8   Amount of grain the woman fed to tailless animal (6) BUSHEL {BU{SHE}Ll}
9   Special passport collected at the last minute (8) ISOLATED {SO LATE} in {ID}
10 Ask firmly — “Cannot sis nicely return covers?” (6, 2) INSIST ON [T<=]
11 For starters, Keralites extract real nimbu, excluding lemon seed (6) KERNEL Acrostic
12 Design, say Kung Fu Panda act in pep talk (5,3) POLKA DOT {PO}{LKA{DO}T*}
13 Wise like pharaoh and leader of Egypt (6) ASTUTE {AS}{TUT}{Eg..t}
14 Shell out, earning it back in salary (7) STIPEND {S{IT<=}PEND}
17 Married female killed by imperfect, careless delivery (7) RECEIPT ImPERfECT*
20 Adopt dog (6) FOLLOW [DD]
22 Missing a golfing accessory, say one that’s not there (8) ABSENTEE (~ absent tee)
25 Someone translating English for a minister (6) PARSON P(-e+a)ARSON
26 Referee takes time to deliberate (8) MEDITATE {MEDI{T}ATE}
27 Joining in US to work in Nestlé is harsh (8) TUNELESS {US+NESTLE}* Not sure if this wordplay works?
28 Can watch dog without leads (6) LOCKUP {cLOCK}{pUP}


DOWN
1   Brunt of being tired (5,3) BURNT OUT {BRUNT}* [RA]
2   One might pierce your ear? (6) SHRIEK [CD]
3   Ecstatic when bowled out from behind (6) ELATED Anno pending (Addendum - bELATED - See comments)
4   Standing and tidying all over the place (7) DIGNITY*
5   Prepare poor Spooner for novel shelf (8) BOOKCASE (~ cook base)
6   Force target outside or choke (8) GARROTTE {TARGET+OR}* Outside OR would make it {TARGET}* over {OR}

7   Including the man in top command (6) BEHEST {BE{HE}ST}
15 Thickly spread around one column (8) PILASTER {P{1}LASTER}

16 Partly bored now only, after retirement? Not surprising! (2, 6) NO WONDER [T<=]
18 Pick a bit of rind, etc. chewing through fruit (8) PLECTRUM {PL{Rind+ETC}*UM}

19 She’s handy at reading between the lines? (7) PALMIST [CD]
21 Old student lost badge and became dull (6) OPAQUE {O}{PlAQUE}
23 Tax riding gear (6) SADDLE [DD]
24 Mark and Bill (6) NOTICE [DD]

Reference List
Married = M, Female = F, English = E, Time = T, Bowled = B, Old = O, Student = L

Dr RKE's TalePiece

A TALE OF RESTORATION

The PARSON of the ISOLATED village parish was SADDLEd with the task of restoring the DIGNITY of his church. He first INSISTed ON fixing the falling PILASTER and cleaning the BOOKCASE, whose glass doors had become OPAQUE with years of dust. He issued a NOTICE to withhold the STIPEND for any ABSENTEEing employee. Being ASTUTE, he realized that when the congregation wanted to MEDITATE, the TUNELESS choristers (dressed in a hideous POLKA DOT surplice) would SHRIEK away instead of gently using the PLECTRUM to create a soulful melody. NO WONDER, once this problem was sorted, his flock was ELATED to attend the Mass again. Unlike his predecessor, he issued a proper RECEIPT, when his  parishioners  donated to the cause of the church, even if it be only a BUSHEL of corn KERNELS. At his BEHEST, the heathen PALMIST, who led the villagers away from God, was put in a LOCK-UP (in an earlier era, a non-conformist would have been GARROTTEd!). Having to bear the cross all the time thus, he would have become  BURNT OUT in the FOLLOWing year. He avoided such a disastrous outcome, as he learnt to unwind every now and then, by solving The Hindu Crossword and by blogging at the Hindu Crossword Corner!