No 12970, Wednesday 24 Jun 2020, Afterdark

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
9   Cold and hot times become disorderly for pharmacist (7) CHEMIST {C}{H}{TIMES*}
10 Concern at home against love that’s odd (7) INVOLVE {IN}{V}{LOVE*}
11 Fugitive at last got cover in South Dakota and got away (7) ESCAPED {f...vE}{S{CAPE}D}
12 Blind dog getting tense and primarily aggressive at home (7) CURTAIN {CUR}{T}{Ag...e}{IN}
13 So free, dancing topless at Times hotel for inaugural event (9) THEREFORE {T}{H}{fREE*}{FOR}{Ev..t}
15 Wife’s the first lady to get a braid (5) WEAVE {W}{A}{EVE}
16 A new date bungled? Have a small preferably (7) INSTEAD {1}{N}{DATE*} over {S}
19 Perhaps officer is in complete security (7) SHELTER {SHE{LT}ER}
20 Lively beer, right? (5) ALERT {ALE}{RT}
21 Complain on record to Jesus, perhaps (9) CARPENTER {CARP}{ENTER}
25 Claim it, a terrible suppressing of copy (7) IMITATE [T]
26 Foolish to lose half of the cash while taking grant (7) SHALLOW {caSH}{ALLOW}
28 Mostly unnecessary points... (7) NEEDLES NEEDLESs
29 ...concerning atoms, relative with new advancement at Russia to begin with (7) NUCLEAR {(+n)NU(-n)CLE}{At}{Ru...a}

DOWN
1   Stress on bill to get change perhaps (6) ACCENT {AC}{CENT}
2   Save on spending first, stimulus to come later (6) ?E?C?E (Addendum - RESCUE {RE}{Sp...g}{CUE} - See comments))
3   Stagger to border avoiding military leader (4) LIMP {LI{Mi...y}P}
4   Custodian can be sacked mismanaging the workshop (6) STUDIO cUSTODIan*
5   Provisions (some cereals and livestock) provided at cooking places (8) KITCHENS {KIT}{Ce...s}{HENS}
6   Primarily eccentric, so wife and her direction is all over the place (10) EVERYWHERE {Ec...c}{VERY}{W}{HER}{E}
7   Satisfying prayer with an Indian holy man (8) PLEASANT {PLEA}{SANT}
8   Restriction on rivers for animal (8) REINDEER {REIN}{DEE}{R}

14 Match at centre court with partner finally (10) EVENTUALLY {EVENT}{coUrt}{ALLY}
16 Antiviral distributed, after vacating Vatican and Rome primarily; scare starts for these people (8) ITALIANS  {ANTIvIrAL}*{Sc..e}
17 Sample spice mixed with meal halfway, not in the beginning (8) SPECIMEN {SPICE*}{MEal}{Not}
18 By December, virus essentially will abate and diminish (8) DECREASE {DEC}{viRus}{EASE} Let's hope it happens earlier than that!!
22 Riot is contained within group (6) RISING {R{IS}ING}
23 Probably a telemarketing agent, out of college takes time to become greater (6) TALLER (-c+t)TALLER
24 Pay on delivery first to avoid confrontation (6) REWARD {De...y}<=>{RE}{WAR} (Correction - {RE}{De...y} around {WAR} - See comments)
27 Cars crash on curves (4) ARCS*

Reference List
Cold = C, Hot = H, Against = V, Tense = T, Time = T, Hotel = H, Wife = W, New = N, Small = S, Offiecr = LT(Lieutenant), Right = RT, Bill = AC, Direction = E, River = R, College = C, On = RE

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Angelo Piccini, an ITALIAN CHEMIST, had ESCAPED from the Fascist regime of Mussolini and sought SHELTER in the USA. He was known for his work on NUCLEAR fission. THEREFORE, he was EVENTUALLY recruited for the Manhattan Project, that INVOLVEd the concerted efforts of several scientists. Only the military commanders and Robert Oppenheimer, the chief scientist in the project, knew that the sole aim of the project was to make an atomic bomb. There was an iron CURTAIN of secrecy and the rest of the scientists were only given to understand that they were working for harvesting atomic energy for peaceful purposes.

Angelo Piccini was born as the son of a CARPENTER from Padua. RISING out of his poor circumstances, he was the first from his family to receive a university degree. He had even won a REWARD for the best student scientific paper. While he was engaged in research at Rome, WW II broke out and Italy joined the Axis forces alongside Hitler’s Nazis. EVERYWHERE in the academic circles there was fear that scientists would be forced to work for the war. Piccini, who was strongly anti-Nazi, made the wise move to flee to the US, INSTEAD of being conscripted. He had made his adventurous escape across the hills to France,  fracturing his leg en route. He was RESCUEd by an ALERT shepherdess and sent to Paris. The injury left him with a permanent LIMP.

His scientific passion kept him working on nuclear fission but this PLEASANT natured man did not expect any political power to actually be foolish enough to use the atomic bomb. Piccini was bitterly disappointed when on 6th August 1945, that SPECIMEN of heartlessness of humans, the Little Boy was dropped over Hiroshima. He resigned his job as a protest and became one of the TALLER champions of the antinuclear lobby. He recorded many impassioned pleas under the ARC lights of the STUDIO, in films, appealing in his Italian ACCENT “Say No to the A-bomb”. It is a sad reflection on the SHALLOWness of human nature that such sane voices could do nothing to DECREASE the pile-up of nuclear armaments over the years of the cold war.

Note: This character of the hero of this tale has been WEAVEd imaginarily.