No 12949, Saturday 30 May 2020, Avtaar

Day 67 of 68 Stay safe at home

(I am maintaining lockdown till 31 May)

ACROSS
1   Government dinner spread is beamed (7) GRINNED {G}{DINNER*}
5   Studs save hundreds (7) BUTTONS {BUT}{TONS}
10 Song and dance show that inspired Rajput chiefs (4) STIR (Acrostic)
11 Monstrous strength seen in Spooner’s crop pests (5,5) BRUTE FORCE Anno not clear Spoonerism of  fruit bores?
12 Violet, the main character in popular teenage comics, left for England (6) ARCHIL {ARCHI(-e+L)}
13 Balanced support for ball close to foot before starting to drive (8) TEETERED {TEE}{fooT}{ERE}{Drive}
14 Necessary return is assumed (9) REQUISITE {REQU{IS}ITE}
16 The main part of write-up about reproductive organs (5) UTERI {wRITE-Up*}
17 Animated sex at the upper deck of a boat (5) TEXAS {SEX+AT*}
19 Convey  what the winner of an honour might do? (3,6) GET ACROSS {GET A CROSS}
23 Dark food plates? Atrocious! (8) DEVILISH {D{EVIL}ISH}

24 Purpose of backward integration (6) TARGET (T<=)
26 Sick auntie has a release from suffering (10) EUTHANASIA {AUNTIE+HAS+A*}
27 In Toulouse, black iron is tempered (4) NOIR {IRON*}
28 Lady undressed, starting to swim in river adjacent to a salt-water lake (4,3) DEAD SEA {DE{lADy}{Swim}E}{A}
29 Writer is touched by poverty enveloping natives at birth (4,3) FELT PEN {FELT}{Poverty}{Enveloping}{Natives}

DOWN
2   Pensioner in Eritrea almost completely shifted base (7) RETIREE {ERITREa*}{E}
3   No use heading off towards the Arctic (5) NORTH {N}{wORTH}
4   Venomous louse sucks doctor resulting in clotting of blood (7) EMBOLUS {LOUSE*} around {MB}
6   Craggy regions of Neptune/Venus (6) UNEVEN (T)
7   Wooster regularly travelled in this old convertible (3-6) TWO-SEATER Anno not clear (Addendum - {WOOSTER+TrAvElLeD}* = TWO SEATER OLD  [CA] &lit - See comments)
8   Global body reviewed fine for owning atomic weapons (7) NUCLEAR {UN<=}{CLEAR}
9   Stop rambling about baby cheetahs frolicking around, following you noisily (3,2,3,5) CUT TO THE CHASE Anno not clear CHEETAHS=THE CHASE , rest from ? (Addendum - {C}{(~you)U}{T{TOT}HECHASE*} - See comments)
15 One of many works construed as Hindu philosophy's primer — ultimate in Vedanta (9) UPANISHAD {AS+HINDU+Philosophy+vedantA*} &lit
18 From England — dainty implement (7) EXECUTE {EX}{E}{CUTE}
20 Kindle’s performance had overwhelmed users in the beginning (7) ACTUATE {ACT}{Users}{ATE}
21 50% of iron and steel building is barren (7) STERILE {IRon+STEEL*}
22 One about to take a vow, perhaps? (6) FIANCE ? (CD)
25 Channel featuring article about storm (3,2) RUN AT {RU{AN<=}T}

Reference List

Government=G, Left=L, England=E, River=Dee,  About = C, Base=E, No=N, Doctor=MB, Global body=UN, From=Ex, Article=An

Colour/Font Scheme

Definition, Solution, Component letters, Embedded links, Theme word,  Anagram Indicator, C/C indicator, Reversal Indicator, Hidden word Indicator, Letter Pick indicator, Deletion Indicator, Homophone Indicator, Movement Indicator, Positional Indicator, Substitution, Indicator, Opposite indicator, Link/Connector, Extraneous

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Medware was a firm supplying the REQUISITE software solutions to hospitals across the world. The firm’s CEO Mr. ARCHIL NORTH, was in a DEVILISH mood when he learnt that the sales TARGET had not been met for the last quarter. He called his sales EXECUTive Mr. Mark Sellers, and said “C’mon, Mark, CUT TO THE CHASE, tell me in a nutshell why the bloody sales figures are so damn poor”.  Sellers, who had come prepared to give the usual tame excuses, had no choice but to blurt out the stark truth. He said “the hospitals think there is a bug in our software. You remember, we had built in a system to warn physicians of allergy to drugs they prescribe. It is working UNEVENly and the software fails to warn the doctor at times. In a TEXAS hospital that uses our software, two women undergoing surgery on their UTERI, died after being given ampicillin to which they had declared their allergy. The word has got around among hospitals. We gotta do something fast”. Mr. North then had a RUN AT the guys in software testing department. He wrote with a red FELT PEN in bold letters on the white board in the scrum room “48 hours”. “That is all the time you have guys, don’t STIR from your seats, use BRUTE FORCE or whatever it takes to find the bug and fix it”, he thundered.

The whole team pushed the panic BUTTONS. Mary Finder, the chief tester, had to sadly miss her date with her FIANCÉ, as she sat a whole day and night trying to find the fault, blithely unaware of the risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary EMBOLUS caused by such prolonged sitting. In desperation, she called Mr. Graham Maker, now a RETIREE, who had earlier helped design the software. He said cryptically “look for ‘Biomedic’”and hung up. By diligent work, she found that the software failed to show allergies, not to the generic drug name but only to the specific brand name of Biomedic products. Physically exhausted, she TEETERED on her way to Mr. North’s office to GET ACROSS the message. Now, Biomedic was a pharmaceutical company of which Medware was a subsidiary. The software, it turned out, had been doctored by a rogue programmer to not recognize allergies to drugs made by Biomedic, while allergies to the same drug by other brands was recognized. Presumably, the programmer was a disgruntled employee and had decided to wreak vengeance on the conglomerate that cared little for his talents. Thank God, this sick mind was only a programmer and not in the AVTAAR of a doctor, and heaven knows he might have even committed EUTHANASIA were he one. Then it would have been eerily reminiscent of what one sees in a NOIR novel or movie.   Once identified, the process to make the software STERILE was ACTUATEd.

If you like the mystery in this story, pat yourselves on the back for you have joined the ranks of the Gods. Doesn’t the UPANISHAD say “The Gods love what is mysterious and dislike what is evident”.