No 12923, Thursday 30 Apr 2020, Neyartha

Day No 37 of 40 Stay safe at home

Solution to 2D has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS
1   Grave procession — an entertainment of sorts? (5,7) DANSE MACABRE [C&DD]

8   Short-sighted to be diplomatic in obviating the fraud (7) INSULAR (-con+in}INSULAR
9   Part of the Algonquin’s tepee used to make a part of a shoe (6) INSTEP [T]
11 Cooked beets for a meat dish (5,4) ROAST BEEF*
12 A shot in golf fetching an American gold coin (5) EAGLE [DD]
14 Cricket team welcomed by the first woman includes a fashionably cute corporate bigwig... (9) EXECUTIVE {E{X{CUTE*}I}VE}
16 ...leading youngsters eager to identify an undocumented Himalayan native (4) YETI Acrostic
18 Cold Democrat at the wrong place in a game of chance (4) ICED (-d)ICE(=d)D
19 Strangles the king participating in the placement of barriers around the rocky hill from the east (9) GARROTTES {GA{TO{R}R<=}TES}
21 Concentrate on leaving Connecticut with the bit player (5) EXTRA EXTRAct
22 Monetary aspects of the new spy organisation getting suppressed in a major test (9) FINANCIAL {FINA{N}{CIA}L}
23 Bear-like figurines damaged after the Mediterranean fruit’s removal (6) URSINE figURINES*
25 Agent in-charge enters a proposal (7) OFFICER {OFF{IC}ER}
26 Friendly Will’s seed pod breaks up (4-8) WELL-DISPOSED*

DOWN
2   Relief at getting approval to confiscate the Ukrainian treasure (11) ASSUAGEMENT {ASS{US}{GEM}ENT} - See comments
3   Break the journey to determine what The Hindu does to produce different city editions (5,3) SPLIT RUN {SPLIT}{RUN}
4   Promotion for the alien welcomed by the monarch after Ram goes north (9) MARKETING {K{ET}ING}<=>{RAM<=}
5   Half of Kerala’s out with a square scarf for the leader (5) CHIEF kerCHIEF
6   Suit to ask Bond’s boss to leave out the church (6) BESEEM BESEE(-ch+m)M
7   Scottish supplement to the auditor’s informal expression of surprise (3) EKE (~eek) Why Scottish?
8   Jacob’s descendants find the non-performing personalities starting off by mistake (10) ISRAELITES pERSonALITIES*
10 Doctor ruins panel depicting the nature of the southern part of India, perhaps (10) PENINSULAR*
13 Preferred route for an air journey’s on this note inside a round label with the company (5,6) GREAT CIRCLE {G{RE}AT<=}{CIRCLE}

15 Misguided one’s involvement in a run-out interrupts guaranteed upset (9) ERRONEOUS {R{ONE}O} in {SURE}<=
17 Shuttle’s movement? (2,3,3) TO AND FRO [CD]
20 Spreading out like some features of the Agra dialect (6) RADIAL [T]
22 Pitch from the candidates (5) FIELD [DD]
24 Piercing scream on the radio (3) RAW (~roar)

Reference List
Cricket team = XI, Democrat = D, King = R, New = N, Alien = ET, Bond's boss = M, Church = CH, Note = RE, Run-out = RO

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Aaron Abrams (AA) was the CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER of RADIAL pharma, a big pharmaceutical firm at Tel Aviv. His FINANCIAL degrees and his long experience in the FIELD of MARKETING drugs had made the Board of Directors pick him for the job. AA had an EAGLE eye in looking for  opportunities to develop new drugs and so he put in an EXTRA effort to strengthen the research department of the company. His job took him TO AND FRO on the GREAT CIRCLE flights to far-flung corners of the world for sourcing RAW materials. (YET I am told that, true to his ISRAELITE ancestry, AA ate only kosher food,  be it ROAST BEEF or whatever, everywhere he went.)

AA was WELL DISPOSED towards his chief of research, a brilliant innovator but an INSULAR personality. The scientist had SPLIT many a molecule to design new drugs that boosted the bottom-line of the company. The Board had told AA that he was ERRONEOUS in backing one man over a team, but AA felt it did not BESEEM fit to withdraw his support for the aging researcher. Who is spared by the DANSE MACABRE? The researcher was found GARROTTED in his bed one day presumably by a hired killer sent by a rival company. AA was crushed by the loss and no words of ASSUAGEMENT came forth from the Board. He resigned his job and retired to a yogi's ashram in the Deccan PENINSULA.