The Sunday Crossword No 3086, Sunday 09 Feb 2020

ACROSS
1   Out of harm’s way, a sodden faun’s given treatment (4,3,5) SAFE AND SOUND*
9   Demented broadcast with no time to be edited (7) EMENDED DEMENtED*
10 Having no time or energy, distractedly vindicate historical figure (2,5) DA VINCI VINDICAte*
11 Endlessly desiring friendly words from driver (3,2) HOP IN HOPINg
12 In retrospect, ‘sound of approval’ politician claimed? It’s a sound of disapproval (8) HARRUMPH {HURRAH}<= over {MP}
14 Head hurt? Let’s get together some food (3,7) NUT CUTLETS {NUT}{CUT}{LETS}
15 Primarily, smear, libel, undo reputations? (4) SLUR Acrostic &lit
17 Anarchist, to some extent, is mischievous (4) ARCH [T]
19 In line with plan, a second place in Scotland revoked degree (2,8) AS ARRANGED {A}{S}{ARRAN}{DEG<=}
21 Delivered by Spooner, rug prepared in old Asian capital (8) KATMANDU (~mat can do)  Why old?
23 Fast-food freebie recalled, growths found on skin (5) STRAW <=
25 Perhaps McKellan’s comeback: singer contracted in safari destination (7) NAIROBI {IAN<=} over {BORI<=}
26 Charmer is lovelier, not very unreliable (7) LORELEI LOvELIER*

27 Sat idly, years wasted: there’s still time! (3,5,4) ITS EARLY DAYS*

DOWN
1   Eminent scientist makes you think when page's turned (7,7) STEPHEN HAWKING*

2   Pale, shuddering, overcome by convulsion in infested locale (7) FLEAPIT {F{PALE*}IT}
3   PS: Tipsy dad and mummy regularly hugging, close (8) ADDENDUM {DAD*}{mUmMy} over {END}
4   Dead bird komodo dragon’s eaten, brought up (4) DODO [T<=]
5   Art’s models represented by these! (3,7) OLD MASTERS* Semi&lit
6   Nebuchadnezzar, extremely welcoming Old Testament figure? In no degree! (5) NEVER {Ne...aR} over {EVE}
7 ‘Everyman’s superseded’: note in chronicle that’s brutal (6) ANIMAL AN(-nu+i'm)IMAL
8   Scientist Darwin gets in a muddle with dishrack (7,7)  RICHARD DAWKINS {DARWIN+DISHRACK}*
13 Instant urge to get IT gismo (5,5) FLASH DRIVE {FLASH}{DRIVE}
16 Show’s host appears after 500 commercials (4,4) DADS ARMY {D}{ADS}{ARMY}
18 Perhaps to keep a Persian in attic’s wrong (3-3) CAT-SIT*
20 On the radio, an insurgent ape (7) GORILLA (~guerrilla)
22 Ampere: unit giving current (5) AFOOT {A}{FOOT}
24 Band’s promotional material is abridged (4) BLUR BLURb

Reference List
Time = T,  Energy = E, Second = S, Very = V, 500 = D, Ampere = A

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Biography of a Biologist

RICHARD DAWKINS, born in NAIROBI, had to return to England,  when his father joined the "DAD'S ARMY" in WW II. Contact with GORILLAs in his EARLY DAYS at Africa, kindled in young Dawkins an interest in ANIMAL behaviour. He became an ethologist - a staunch Darwinian - who held that God, the Creator, is dead as a DODO. Plans were AFOOT once, to shoot a BBC Channel 4 show in a Nepalese forest, with Dawkins in the lead, wearing a STRAW hat and talking on the Origin of the Species and the Selfish Gene. The rightwingers in  KATMANDU cast a SLUR on him as being anti-religion, anti-god and anti-whatnot and would NEVER  let him into Nepal, until he EMENDED his views. He had to HOP IN to the next available flight to be back SAFE AND SOUND in England. STEPHEN HAWKING, who has a Theory of Everything, when asked about Dawkins had reportedly said "Dawkins is the DA VINCI of our times, his views are as bewitching and as inscrutable as the smile of Mona Lisa". In the Oxford University, the Ethology Department has an imposing ARCH at the entrance and a couple of OLD MASTERS are ARRANGED on the walls, BLURRing the distinction from a department of theology. Of course, EVERYMAN knows that ethology is an anagram of theology!

ADDENDUM: This story ends abruptly here as, HARRUMPH, the FLASH DRIVE containing all the material I had collected on this living Darwin has crashed!

Disclaimer: This tale is neither fact, nor fiction but indeed a "faction"