No 12984, Friday 10 Jul 2020, Karaoke

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ACROSS
1   Take responsibility for roles over band (8,5) SHOULDER STRAP {SHOULDER}{PARTS<=}
8   Steam loco regularly carried mineral (4) TALC {sTeAm+LoCo}
9   Disorderly behaviour by angry bear to get allowance (10) ABERRATION {BEAR*}{RATION}
10 Fruit aid becomes indicator (6) CITRON iNdICaTOR* [CA]

11 Women’s trousers for bullfighter (8) TOREADOR [DD]
12 Clumsy criminal in angry violent riot (9) MALADROIT {M{AL}AD}{RIOT*}
14 50% drop in bloodsucker on spot (4) SITE paraSITE
15 Funny comedian lacking perhaps main principles (4) CODE COmEDian*
16 A fight over issue — it should have happened sooner (5.4) ABOUT TIME {A}{BOUT}{EMIT<=}
20 Hanging fate after illegal coup’s preference (3,2,3) CUP OF TEA {FATE*}<=>{COUP*}
21 Inventor reviewed end of match (2-4) NO-SIDE<=
23 Pedestrian in the sky? (4-6) ROPE-WALKER [CD]
24 “What a relief!” Some say (4) PHEW(~few)
25 What would one do to betray? (4,2,3,4) STAB IN THE BACK [CD]

DOWN
1   Brings to life around without drug by endurance (7) STAMINA ANIMATeS<=
2   No banks worry for money (5) ONCER cONCERn
3   Greenhorn is more deficient about reading (7) LEARNER {LEA{R}NER}
4   Exciting cover — it keeps the bed warm (8,7) ELECTRIC BLANKET [ELECTRIC}{BLANKET}
5   Unlawfully arrest philosopher (6) SARTRE*
6   Trial suit stitched for church official (9) RITUALIST*
7   Offer from expert model (7) PROPOSE {PRO}{POSE}
13 Plant with capital leaflet growing (9) ANDROMEDA {AND}{ROME}{AD<=}

15 Soupcon converted into tickets (7) COUPONS*
17 Rattle exposed sunny server (7) UNNERVE {sUNNy+sERVEr}
18 Slow over and said to be lacking force on Wednesday (7) MIDWEEK {DIM<=}{WEEK}(~weak)
19 Artist drawn cloud formations (6) STRATI*
22 One breaking revolutionary mirrors is largely brown (5) SEPIA {A{1}PES<=}

Reference List
Criminal = AL, Drug = E, Reading = R, Leaflet = AD

Dr RKE's TalePiece

The famous ANDROMEDA circus was playing in our town once. My father PROPOSEd we go there in the MIDWEEK as the crowd would be less but I guess it was because he managed to get free COUPONS for our family of four for that day. PHEW, what an experience it was! The atmosphere was ELECTRIC. As a boy, I was fascinated by the array of strange animals, the comic clumsy clowns, the STAMINA of the bodybuilders and the agility of the acrobats. Finally, it was ABOUT TIME for the top billed item of Kunjumol. She was a ROPE WALKER. She appeared in SEPIA coloured TOREADOR pants, that matched the colour of her skin. In the floodlights, even the sandal TALC  pancake on her cheeks was clearly visible. Plastic wings were attached to her SHOULDER STRAP to make her look like an angel.

Kunjumol’s father Thankachchan had trained her from childhood well and she was a quick LEARNER. By the time she was 12, she was an expert in rope walking. She then perfected her own death-defying act of leaping into the air, while in the middle of the rope and landing on one foot. Walking 30 feet up in the air was in itself UNNERVing and imagine doing a somersault at that SITE! Certainly, not a CUP OF TEA for most rope walkers. She had used the safety BLANKET below during rehearsals, but for the show she chose to do her act without that protection.

Being a RITUALIST, she touched the rope with her hands and then touched her eyes with the hands to pray for providence.  The rope swayed violently as she put her first foot on it but she stayed as if glued to it by some divine force. She must have wondered if there was an ABERRATION somewhere. She cautiously reached the middle of the rope and took her celebrated leap. She appeared to remain suspended mid-air for a fraction of a second and then came crashing down, alas missing the rope. There was a collective gasp from the audience. A MALADROIT clown in a CITRON outfit, who was on one SIDE, rushed with blinding speed to hold the falling girl in his arms and save her life.

The papers were full of stories about the heroic rescue by the clown. They also revealed how Kunjumol’s jilted lover, a circus artisan, had tried a STAB IN THE BACK by slightly slackening the rope that day. My father remarked “when the rich wage war, the poor die” but I was too young to grasp the significance of this quote, which I learnt later in college was from Jean Paul SARTRE. True to the prediction of the press, Kunjumol and the clown who saved her were soon married.