No 12939, Tuesday 19 May 2020, Afterdark

Day 56 of 68 Stay safe at home

(I am maintaining lockdown till 31 May)

Solution to 17A 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.

A Capital way to start the day.

ACROSS
1   About to leave Reverend confused in the city (6) DENVER reVEREND*
4   Some returning, almost with scare to the capital (6) MOSCOW {SOMe<=}{COW}
9   Sour love? Essence of it becomes a menace (4) LOUR Anno pending  (Addendum - (soUR+LOve}* - See comments)
10 Annoying personality; no love in interactions (10) INTERPLAYS PERSoNALITY*
11 Letters from Rambo got accessed at the city (6) BOGOTA [T]
12 Leave out, 40% of motor gone in the lift (8) ELEVATOR {LEAVE*}{moTOR}
13 Basic apartment reportedly found in capital (9) STOCKHOLM {STOCK}{HOLM}(~home)
15 Small round before large round at city (4) OSLO {S}<=>{O} and {L}{O}
16 Crazy one at the centre; undressing T-shirt shamelessly in front of all (4) NUTS {oNe}{Un...g}{Ts...s}{Sh...y}
17 Comfortable stop at England surroundings (9) ?C?S?S?E? (Addendum - ECOSYSTEM - {E}{COSY}{STEM} - See comments)
21 Fasten on a tree (8) CINCHONA {CINCH}{ON}{A}

22 Billions displace, a large migration out of city (6) LISBON BilLIONS*
24 Show with a rope (5,5) COMIC OPERA {A+ROPE}* [RA]
25 Team takes first step forward by three places roughly by the middle of the month (4) SIDE (+s)SIDE(-s)
26 Maybe an eskimo in cinema shooting (6) ICEMAN*
27 Milan? It’s another one, different city (6) MANILA {MILAN*}{1}

DOWN
1   Proud to be aberrant as one who quit school (7) DROPOUT*
2   Car crash in point zero is related to opiates (5) NARCO {N}{CAR*}{0}
3   Inscription on record; A path rewritten (7) EPITAPH {EP}{1}{PATH*}
5   Old cheese served on first of November, from 1984 perhaps (6) OBRIEN {O}{BRIE}{No...r}
6   Support left at part of church at Southend comes apart (9) COLLAPSES {COL}{L}{APSE}{So..h}
7   Expression of praise at roadsign perhaps (3,2,2) WAY TO GO [DD]
8   Teacher sleeps around with an athlete (13) STEEPLECHASER*

14 Give religious instruction to Tom to impart energy, force? Nonsense essentially (9) CATECHISE {CAT}{E}{CHI}{nonSEnse}
16 Torrential rain? Nothing big at Indian city (7) NAIROBI {RAIN*}{O}{B}{I}
18 A grape variety, small, high class, brown found in American city (7) SULTANA {S}{U}{L{TAN}A}

19 Introductions made through old radio broadcast (7) EXORDIA {EX}{RADIO*}
20 Talk of the town is firm’s dismissal by new article (6) CORONA {CO}{RO}{N}{A}
23 Selection of tiramisu, shiitake mushrooms and another Japanese dish (5) SUSHI [T]

Reference List
About = RE, Small = S, England = E, Large = L, A =1, Point = N, record = EP(Extened Play), Old = O, Support = COL, Left = L, Energy = E, Force = CHI, Big = B, Indian = I, High class = U, Old = EX, Firm = CO, Dismissal = RO(Run out),  New = N

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Mark O'BRIEN, a STEEPLECHASER, had boarded a Lufthansa flight from STOCKHOLM. He had to go to LISBON and there was a layover of an hour at OSLO. Since he had done a through check-in of his riding gear and his personal luggage at Stockholm, he didn't have to collect his luggage at Oslo. He was eating at a SUSHI bar in the airport when there was a final call for his flight to Lisbon. Being a sportsman, he could run up the staircase faster than the ELEVATOR or escalator and arrived at the departure gate just before it was to close. He asked if his luggage would have been loaded on the correct flight and the attendant at the gate smilingly assured him that the entire process was computerized and there was only one in a million chance of error. 

He landed in Lisbon and waited and waited at the baggage carousel but his CINCHONA coloured luggage did not arrive. He lodged a complaint with the lost baggage claims and he was told that his baggage would be traced and brought back soon.  When he enquired 2 hours later, they told him that they were contacting the airports at MOSCOW, MANILA, BOGOTA and DENVER, places to which flights had left from Oslo at around the same time as his flight to Lisbon. The casual air of the staff there drove him NUTS, but what could they do when those other flights had not yet landed at their destinations? He was taken to a SIDE by the chief of the unit and was given a CATECHISM on the complex INTERPLAY of factors involved in the luggage ECOSYSTEM of modern airports but that only infuriated him more. He was offered a free night's stay at the airport hotel. He COLLAPSED on to the bed at the hotel but at 3am, he was woken up by a telephone call. He was told that his luggage had been sent to NAIROBI and that they were making all efforts to bring it back at the earliest. 

Lufthansa said they were ready to rent a riding gear for him to participate in the STEEPLECHASE  international event and O'BRIEN felt that it was the WAY TO GO. When the rented gear arrived, O'BRIEN had a LOUR on his face as it was too small to wear for his 6'3" frame. Sadly, he had to DROP OUT of the competition and when last heard, he had filed for compensation. Having a sense of humour, he had the COMIC thought that his epitaph would read "Here lies the steeplechaser who turned a baggage chaser".