No 12981, Tuesday 07 Jul 2020, Avtaar

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
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 (~fruit bores)
12 Violet, the main character in popular teenage comics, left for England (6) ARCHIL ARCHI(-e+l)L
13 Balanced support for ball close to foot before starting to drive (8) TEETERED {TEE}{fooT}{ERE}{Dr..e}
14 Necessary return is assumed (9) REQUISITE {REQU{IS}ITE}
16 The main part of write-up about reproductive organs (5) UTERI {wRITEUp}*
17 Animated sex at the upper deck of a boat (5) TEXAS*

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*
27 In Toulouse, black iron is tempered (4) NOIR*
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}{Po...y}{En...g}{Na...s}

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 {E{MB}OLUS*}
6   Craggy regions of Neptune/Venus (6) UNEVEN [T]
7   Wooster regularly travelled in this old convertible (3-6) TWO-SEATER {WOOSTER+TrAvElLeD}* = TWO SEATER OLD &lit
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 {C}{U(~you}}{T{TOT}HECHASE*} 
15 One of many works construed as Hindu philosophy’s primer — ultimate in Vedanta (9) UPANISHAD {AS+HINDU+Ph...y+v...tA}* &lit
18 From England — dainty implement (7) E?E?U?E (Addendum - EXECUTE {EX}{E}{CUTE} - See comments))
20 Kindle’s performance had overwhelmed users in the beginning (7) ACTUATE {ACT}{Us..s}{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, Hundred = TON, Left = L, England = E, Base = E,  No = N, Doctor = MB, About = C

Dr RKE's TalePiece

A NOIR novella

Amarillo, a city in the NORTH of TEXAS is known as the Bomb City as it is home to a NUCLEAR arms factory. Angela ARCHIL, a RETIREE from this factory, was admitted to the Harrington Cancer Centre. She and several women who had worked in the factory had become STERILE and some, like Archil, had even developed cancers in their UTERI, presumably because of exposure to radioactive uranium. Her name was written with a red FELT PEN on the white board over the nurses station, indicating that she was on a sick list, someone who TEETERED on the brink of death. Her course after a salvage surgery and chemotherapy had been UNEVEN and her latest problem was an EMBOLUS in her lung artery. She struggled to breathe and was in unspeakable pain, but in full possession of her senses. She tried to think of the balmy days, when she and her FIANCE had driven off in their TWO SEATER to the Grand Canyon. The pain caused by their broken engagement seemed so big then, but it was dwarfed by her torment at the moment. 

Nurse Jack Dripper, assigned to look after Angela, appeared very professional with his neatly BUTTONed white uniform. Angela kept telling him that it is useless to live, being unable to STIR out of bed, looking at the bare ceiling 24 x 7. She had never married after that broken engagement and there was none to support her emotionally. Her doctors tried to GET ACROSS to her that she needed to be put on a ventilator in the ICU, but she steadfastly refused. “No machines, let me just hold the hands of this handsome young man, Jack Dripper when I go to the SEA of the DEAD”. 

That night, in the muted light of the room, Angela had the vision of a handsome young man who looked like her long lost FIANCE. “What is he doing here and that too in a white uniform? And why that DEVILISH GRIN on his face? Ah, I can’t b.r.e.a.t..h…e,”. The beep from the monitor faded away and soon all was quiet. 

Let me CUT TO THE CHASE and tell you Jack Dripper was ultimately tried for committing EUTHANASIA, not only of Angela Archil, but of 13 other similar cases. The BRUTE FORCE argument by the State's Counsel pushed the jury to find him guilty on the count of serial murders. The judge ordered him to be EXECUTED by lethal injection. After all wasn’t that the method he had used for all his victims? 

Americans may not agree but isn't it said “whatever deed he does, that he will reap” (Brihadaranyaka UPANISHAD)