No 12876, Friday 06 Mar 2020, Dr. X

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS ON FRIDAYS ONLY

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PLEASE NOTE, SOLUTIONS WITHOUT ATTEMPTING THE ANNOTATIONS WILL BE DELETED

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ACROSS
1   Repent fling after wife enters place! Utterly perplexed (2,4,4,3)  AT ONES WITS END {ATONE}{S{W}IT}{SEND}
8   Put hand around heartily merry maiden (5) FIRST {FI{meRry}ST}
9   Determined about including son in projects (6,3) STANDS OUT {ST{AND}{S}OUT}
11 Senior state official’s haphazard record reviewed (10) CHANCELLOR {CHANCE}{ROLL<=}
12 Straight trap to capture knight (4) BANG {BA{N}G}
14 Squealed about man heading for bawdy affair (7) SHEBANG {S{HE}{Ba..y}ANG}
16 Most marvellous lunch in retreat (7) NEATEST {N{EAT}EST}
17 Pasta smelt mostly foul, primarily inedible (7) FUSILLI {FUSe}{ILL}{In...e}

19 Italian composer’s most upset about wrong start to interlude (7) ROSSINI {SORe<=}{SIN}{In...e}
21 Concerning nationalist overwhelmed by rage (2,2) IN RE {I{N}RE}
22 Slap cheek angrily after boy becomes a disgrace to family (5,5) BLACK SHEEP {B}{SLAP+CHEEK}*
25 Old-time soldiers improvised (9) EXTEMPORE {EX}{TEMPO}{RE}
26 Most knowledgeable daughter gets trophy (5) AWARD {AWARe}{D}
27 Fellow crossing limits is beginning to incite terrible disagreement (13) DISSIMILITUDE {DUDE} over {LIMITS+IS+In...e}*

DOWN
2   Couple of sailors start to eat mayonnaise dressing served with fish (7) TARTARE {TAR}{TAR}{Eat}

3   Honoured to welcome versatile ace, it’s evident (10) NOTICEABLE {NOBLE} over {ACE+IT}*
4   Mexican agave in woods is alluring (5) SISAL [T]

5   Where punished student might be standing, facing a difficult situation (2,1,6) IN A CORNER [DD]
6   Nasty politician finally abandons party (4) SIDE SnIDE
7   Newly born child found in shrine on a terrace (7) NEONATE [T]
8   Facelift done to tackle largely delicate, inescapable truths (5,2,4) FACTS OF LIFE {FACELIFT}* over {SOFt}
10 Drunk made up a story, keeping very quiet and secretive (11) TIGHTLIPPED {TIGHT}{LI{PP}ED}
13 Unsuccessful attempt to begin developing flatter ass (5,5) FALSE START*
15 Overwhelming diarrhoea? Essentially bad curry in restaurant (9) GRILLROOM  {GROOM} over {d..rRh..a}{ILL} 
18 Musical passages producing titters (7) STRETTI*
20 Where tipsy islander wanting last drop of Guinness might be? (7) IRELAND IsLANDER* &lit

23 Caught fish around river! Put in this? (5) CREEL {C}{R}{EEL} Semi&lit
24 American city in Iowa, mesmerizing (4) AMES [T]  Iowa on Double duty

Reference List
Wife = W, Son = S, Knight = N, Nationalist = N, Boy = B, Old = EX, Soldiers = RE, Daughter = D, Sailor = TAR, Quiet = P, Curry = GROOM, Caught = C, River = R

Dr RKE's TalePiece

An EXTEMPORE tale

ROSSINI, a capo dei capi of the Mafia, ran a SHEBANG of drug running in AMES, Iowa. He had been named so as his father was listening to the famed Italian composer's STRETTI, when the news of the arrival of the NEONATE came. In school,  Rossini was NOTICEABLE as the boy who always STANDS OUT in boxing, winning many AWARDs. When the boy came of age, his father explained the FACTS OF LIFE of being a don. The young man got into the family business and after several FALSE STARTs, he hit upon the idea of getting cocaine concealed IN A CORNER of CREELS of TARTARE, ostensibly imported from IRELAND. The CHANCELLOR of the city council was AT his WIT'S ENDs to stifle the drug trade, until a BLACK SHEEP in the "family", who could not remain TIGHT LIPPED, gave a tip-off IN RE the methodology of Rossini. The narcs were sent to open the creels in the fish market FIRST, before the "mob" got to them. They did it with a BANG, but found only FUSILLI instead of any contraband. Rossini, who had his eyes and ears all over, had learnt of the raid in time, to switch the crates, in a NEATEST of operations. The informer was picked up by the Mafia, while trying to flee the town, bound in SISAL rope and brought to the GRILL ROOM, through a SIDE door. I leave to your imagination the fate of the person who squeals on the mob.  Dr.X, could do nothing to save the victim of Sicilian torture.