No 12906, Friday 10 Apr 2020, Afterdark

Day 17 of 21 Stay safe at home

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ACROSS
1   Strong criticism on aidman (13) ANIMADVERSION {AIDMAN}* [RA]
10 Degradation for opposition; leader is sacked by Australia (9) ABJECTION (+a-o)ABJECTION
11 Bury within terminal’s limits (5) INTER [T]
12 Relationship emerged naturally, engagement with leaders to start again (5) RENEW Acrostic
13 Underlying layer at the top of the surface had later burst into pieces (9) SUBSTRATE {Su...e}{ATE} over {BURST}*
14 Order from princess; king to wear shoddy clothes (6) DIKTAT {DI}{K}{TAT}
16 Evidence is that, leaving vice leads to paradise (4) EDEN EviDENce
19 Foodshop opening day — eighteenth, lavish inauguration (4) DELI Acrostic
20 Keep company with a saint; endless golden time (6) ASSORT {A}{S}{e...eS}{OR}{T}
25 Barbaric rule again? It’s a pain (9) NEURALGIA*
26 Shirt and tie is a motif, perhaps (5) TROPE {T}{ROPE}
27 Old counter of 19 is greased (5) OILED {O}{DELI<=}
28 Not customised? It’s costly, return by end of day. Unreasonable final price (9) READYMADE {DEAR<=}{daY}{MAD}{p..cE} Costly mis-spelt
29 State getting support on budget to include an acquisition (13) APPROPRIATION {AP}{PROP}{R{1}ATION}

DOWN
2   Ballet dancer is terribly skinny, needs to take some juice and iodine (8) NIJINSKY {NI{Ju..e}{I}NSKY*}

3   Bird is second umpire at Perth ground to retire (5) MACAW {uMp..e}{WACA<=}

4   Most boring diets served across Romania (6) DRIEST {D{R}IEST*}
5   Conferred a rank and honoured in the end (8) ENNOBLED {EN{NOBLE}D}
6   Skye as seen in laptop (5,4) SHIFT KEYS {SKYE}* [RA]
7   Forbid wife to leave, father to leave, pay expenses (6) OUTLAY {OUTLAw}{paY}
8   Fought with ally to buy a posh car (6) WARRED {W{A}{RR}ED}
9   Preamble to verse about writing (5) PROEM {P{R}OEM}
15 Former criminal moves ahead and joins English regiment to become king (9) ALEXANDER {EX}<={AL} {AND}{E}{R}
17 Drink’s great, have pure shot; make it more exciting (6,2) GINGER UP {GIN}{G}{PURE*}
18 Even schoolboy gets a luxury watch in an American state (8) COLORADO {sChOoLbOy}{RADO}
21 Sometimes crosswords can be this, tough at the start on perimeter, in the end lack substance (6) THEMED {To..h}{HEM}{EnD}
22 Mails land here. Waste bin? Nothing wrong (5) INBOX {BIN*}{0}{X}
23 Exercise? Sprain at the top (4-2) PULL-UP {PULL}{UP}
24 Could be 18, almost fumbles on one and two (6) HAWAII {HAWs}{A}{II}
26 Railway goes bankrupt. Central ministers involved in game in a private meeting (5) TRYST {Ra...aY}{m..iSt..s} in {TT}

Reference List
Australia = A, Princess = DI, King = K, Saint = S, Golden = OR, Time = T, Shirt = T, Old = O, Iodine = I, Romania = R, Posh car = RR(Rolls Royce), Writing = R, Criminal = AL, English = E, Regiment = R, Great = G, Wrong = X

Dr RKE's TalePiece

EDEN is the name of a DELI, located close to the INTERstate 70, in Denver, COLORADO. The shop is known for an ASSORTment of READYMADE foods.  Its owner, ALEXANDER, is GINGERed UP about a secret TRYST to RENEW his love interest with his Russian origin girl friend, Valentina NIJINSKY, at a THEMED resort in HAWAII. He issues a strict DIKTAT to his employees not to contact him by phone, but he says he will check his e-mail INBOX once a day. His business runs like a well OILED machine, and so he is not worried.

In the resort, there is a talking MACAW. Whenever the parrot sees Alexander, it loudly says 'Abigail, Abigail'. At first, Valentina is amused but when it happens repeatedly she wonders why. She asks the reception to PULL UP their registers and to her mortification discovers that Alexander had been at the resort 3 months earlier with a girl named Abigail. In a state of ABJECTION, she confronts Alexander, even as he is checking his e-mail. She accuses him of being a philanderer and launches a vitriolic ANIMADVERSION. He simply presses the control+SHIFT+V KEYS to paste a picture of Abigail. It turns out that Abigail is a 5 year old angelic child.  She has been adopted by Alexander, after Abigail's single mother, working at EDEN was jailed for misAPPROPRIATION of funds from the company. Valentina is ENNOBLED to find that the SUBSTRATE of the relationship is filial and not physical and that this is not the overused romance TROPE of a love triangle.