No 12972, Friday 26 Jun 2020, Sunnet

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS ON FRIDAYS ONLY

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ACROSS
1   Brew of choice after operation is over (6) POTION (OP<=TION}
4   A chance to house helpers (8) ABETTORS {A}{BET}{TO}{RS}
10 Pine for example is always fresh (9) EVERGREEN {EVER}{GREEN}
11 Alto’s gentleman’s vehicle (5) AGENT {A}{GENT}
12 Gypsy’s design finally is from an Italian city (5) ROMAN {ROMA}{d...gN}
13 Helpful woman is given a gold coin by one (9) EDUCATIVE {E{DUCAT}{1}VE}
14 Caught girl’s jokes (7) SALLIES (~sally's)
16 Bag and belt without cap (4) TRAP sTRAP
19 Unite for a suit (4) CLUB [DD]
21 Breather for boy getting back on trail after disappearance of adult (7) NOSTRIL {SON<=}{TRaIL}
24 Foreigner had daughter transferred (9) ALIENATED {ALIEN}{ATE}{D}
25 Fascinating magazine has one chapter (5) MAGIC {MAG}{1}{C}
26 Part of bank lending (5) ANKLE [T]
27 A parasite ruined some title (9) MISTLETOE*

28 Relish grooming (8) DRESSING [DD]
29 Trips to judge relatives (6) JAUNTS {J}{AUNTS}

DOWN
1   New pictures of a sweet base (3,5) PIE CRUST*
2   Winter wear got from the right shopping areas after spending money (8) THERMALS{THE}{R}{MAlLS}
3   Rag or nag badly (5) ORGAN*
5   Bar’s peaceful without some idiotic feast (7) BANQUET {BAN}{QUiET}
6   Rowdies divide a street and society (9) TEARAWAYS {TEAR}{A}{WAY}{S}
7   Exile Bond’s revolutionary superhuman character (6) OBELIX [T<=]

8   Easy catch for a model (6) SITTER [DD]
9   Note on tax break (6) RECESS {RE}{CESS}
15 Perhaps English setter slurs (9) ISLANDERS {I}{SLANDERS}
17 Cow’s just inside the swamp (8) FRIGHTEN {F{RIGHT}EN}
18 They don’t like working with Cockney girl in informal trousers (8) SLACKERS {SLACK{'ER}S}
20 Spot upper class gentlemen with roofing material (7) BITUMEN {BIT}{U}{MEN}
21 Demand for payment is raised by first naturist (6) NUDIST {DUN<=}{1ST}
22 Tough to take a final letter and guess (6) HAZARD {H{A}{Z}ARD}
23 Bored the French peasant’s representative? (6) SICKLE {SICK}{LE}
25 Take liquor to a Mediterranean island (5) MALTA {MALT}{A}

Reference List
Operation = OP, House = RS(Rajya Sabha), Alto = A, Adult = A, Daughter = D, Chapter = C, Judge = J, Right = R, Money = L, Society = S, On = RE, Upper class = U, The in French = LE

Dr RKE's TalePiece

The Misadventures of Asterix

“The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the ROMANs. Well, not entirely…One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders…

All efforts by Gluteus Maximus to TRAP Asterix, in the EVERGREEN Boulogne forest while on his way to buy a new SICKLE at Lutetia have failed, thanks to the might of his friend OBELIX. The CLUB swinging Obelix owes his superhuman strength to the MAGIC POTION (made of MISTLETOE by the druid Getafix) into which he had fallen as a baby, when his baby SITTER was snoozing. The duo manage to hoodwink the devious Clovagarlix and his ABETTOR Navistrix and lay their hands on a secret underground store of golden sickles.

On their JAUNT back to the village, their NOSTRILs are hit by the scent of roast boar, being cooked for the annual BANQUET. Asterix tells Obelix that PIECRUSTIX, the chief cook for the banquet is an AGENT of Inspector General Overanxius and he could have poisoned the wine to render them comatose. Dogmatix, their faithful canine, SALLIES forth, jumping over the stockade around the village, built by Overanxius to keep the rebel villagers ALIENATED from the rest of Gaul.  Obelix tries the same trick but sprains his ANKLE. Getafix applies a DRESSING and prescribes rest for 2 weeks.

When he is cooling his heels Obelix, normally a SLACKER, hits upon the idea of selling menhirs to Preposterus. Since he cannot carry the menhirs in his indisposed state, he employs ISLANDERS from MALTA. These people, who were NUDISTS back home, resent wearing the THERMALS made of bear skin to protect them from the cold winter of Gaul. Obelix FRIGHTENs them that they run the HAZARD of their ORGANS jellying into BITUMEN, if they TEAR AWAY the bear skin robe….”

Here comes the RECESS in this EDUCATIVE(!) movie, The Misadventures of Asterix, scripted by RKE Goscinny and illustrated  by CGB Uderzo. Await the second half, a saga of valour and cunning, profound and profane, classic and yet modern!