No 12980, Monday 06 Jul 2020, Bruno

Solution to 18D 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
6   Guess nitrogen and oxygen can make fire (7) INFERNO {INFER}{N}{O}
7   Utah’s governed by regional law (7) STATUTE {STAT{UT}E}
9   Clean streams lacking white sulphur (5) FLOSS {FLOwS}{S}
10 Setter’s starting to love offensive musical (9) MELODIOUS {ME}{Love}{ODIOUS}
11 Large quantity of food packaging ending in recycling, with no return (7) MEGATON {ME{r...nG}AT}{NO<=}
13 Ornament was shorter by a foot on one end, when turned (6) TASSEL {LESS}{A}{fooT}<=
15 Craftsmen who can’t make biers must be punished (13) CABINETMAKERS*
19 Develop a liking for carb-free diet after fat starting to melt away from back side (4,2) TAKE TO {KETO} after {fAT<=}
20 Scan can seek fractures (4-3) LOOK-SEE {LOO}{SEEK*}
23 Insurgent surprisingly set out to reform legislature after accepting revolution’s leadership (9) GUERRILLA {LeGIsLAtURE+Re...n}*
24 Wife and husband acknowledge murder (5) WHACK {W}{H}{ACK}
26 A grave mistake to take drug ok? (7) AVERAGE {A}{GRAVE*}{E}
27 Sailor’s private notes starting to be released after March (7) MARINER {INnER}<=>{MAR}

DOWN
1   Style of some seafronts (4) AFRO [T]

2   Peter Tosh copped sentence that was decided in advance (6) PRESET {PRE{Se...e}ET*}
3   Vulgar men do wild moves (3-6) LOW-MINDED*
4   Beach with bayfront went underwater all around (8) SANDBANK {S{AND}{Bay}ANK}
5   Feeling a bit uncomfortable to reveal love to female in front of groups (3,2,5) OUT OF SORTS {OUT}{O}{F}{SORTS}
6   One left out of where relatives are? That’s a scandal... (6) INFAMY {IN FAMilY}
7   Only fish in the sea (4) SOLE [DD]
8   Medals will often get mouldy at the bottom quickly (6) EASILY {mEdAlS+wIlL}{m...dY}
12 Player at Indian resort’s an outcast having contracted leukemia at heart (10) GOALKEEPER {GOA}{L{leuKEmia}EPER}
14 Text message contains set of stores with a right to have pistols etc... (5-4) SMALL-ARMS {S{MALL}{A}{R}MS}
16 Period of fashionable decadent travel (8) INTERVAL {IN}{TRAVEL*}
17 Disgrace of Greek character torn by torment, ultimately (6) STIGMA {S{t...nT}IGMA}
18 One that can hold water from wave not river... (6) ?E?K?R (Addendum - BEAKER BrEAKER - See comments)
21 Tired... having nothing coming up ahead (6) ONWARD {DRAWN}{O}<=
22 Extract from tailbone oddly missing (4) ALOE tAiLbOnE
25 Italian hamlet’s not good and new... it’s excellent (1-3) A-ONE gENOA* Indirect anagram? Unless NEW is acceptable as reversal indicator See comments

Reference List
White = W, Can = LOO, Wife = W, Husband = H, Drug = E, Female = F, Left = L, Right = R, Fashionable = IN, River = R, Good = G

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Joseph, our English teacher in A-ONE Matriculation School, used to read out poetry in a MELODIOUS sing-song fashion in class. One day he was reciting the lines from the Ancient MARINER

"Water, water, everywhere/ And all the boards did shrink/  Water, water, everywhere / But not a drop to drink"

Ramanna, my friend, an AVERAGE student (but a reliable GOALKEEPER in the football team) put up his hand to ask a question. He said “Sir, the word “rhyme” is spelt wrong in the book. It says “R-I-M-E”. We expected an INFERNO as Joseph Sir did not TAKE TO such intrusions EASILY. How could Ramanna not know the unwritten STATUTE that Joseph Sir should not be interrupted when he was reciting poetry? Joseph Sir had a collection of SMALL ARMS such as the wooden ruler to hit the knuckles,  a cane to WHACK the backside, the wooden duster that he used as a missile and so on. Joseph Sir took a LOOK SEE above his reading glass with his bulbous eyeballs. He motioned to Ramanna to march ONWARD to the podium and we thought “Ramanna is finished today”. A hush fell over the class and we could even hear the sound of a falling BEAKER in the school laboratory two floors above.

But Joseph Sir seemed to be OUT OF SORTS today and did not take to any of his weapons. He merely said “I think Samuel Taylor Coleridge knows better English than you, Ramanna”. He added “you look like a proper gorilla with your new pseudo AFRO hairstyle. I wish you spent more time looking up the dictionary than the mirror in the barber shop”. Sir then wrote on the board “G-U-E-R-R-I-L-L-A and said “Class, you will find out what this word means and how it is different from this G-O-R-I-L-L-A here. Such exercises will be your SOLE mental FLOSS”. We had no idea what that “floss’ meant but none of us had the courage to face the STIGMA of asking Sir what it meant. To our great relief the lunch INTERVAL bell rang loudly. We ran out of the class to the taps from which we drank water cupping it with our hands. The water had spilled over from the tap left open and had formed a puddle but there was now only a hiss of air from it.  One LOW MINDED boy began singing out

“Water, water, everywhere/ And all the school taps dry/  Water, water, everywhere / But not a drop to drink”