No 13418, Friday 03 Dec 2021, WrdPlougher

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS ON FRIDAYS ONLY

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ACROSS

1   For some time, unminded child is wonderstruck (6) AWHILE {cHILd} {in AWE} 

4   Look after toilet — needed extremely to complete unfinished business (5,3) LOOSE END {SEE}<=>{LOO} and {Ne..eD}

9   Lucy not posh, enjoys period western tradition (6) LEGACY {Lu{AGE<=}CY}

10 Versatile band without frontman touring globe limitlessly, returning to join large university (3-5) ALL-ROUND {bA{L}{wORLd<=}{U}ND}

12 Fiancée too cool to care about heartless cheat (8) INTENDED {IN}{TEN{DupE}D}

13 Idea’s to step out of street quietly on this (6) TIPTOE {TIP}{TO+stEp} Semi&lit

15 In a safe place, just one final stretch (4,8) HOME STRAIGHT {HOME}{STRAIGHT}

18 A rascal steals luxury car, beaming idiotically, checking out car’s interior all over — disgraceful (12) EMBARRASSING {BEaMING}* over {A}{RR}{ASS}

21 Sick of leaving essential members out (6) AILING bAILING

22 More than a major fuss over having no extrinsic value, getting in a state (8) COLORADO {COL}{OveR}{ADO}

24 Duty to exchange farewells around 10, best to return (8) TAXATION {TA{X}<=>AT}{NO1<=}

25 Classes conducted in return at arts school (6) STRATA [T<=] 

26 Dominates run at first, on the heels of Usain Bolt, trails coming in, loses heat (8) CONTROLS {CO{u..iN}{bolT}{Run}OLS}

27 Eastern position (6) ORIENT [DD]

DOWN

1   Nothing left in Bizarro World, OK? (3,5) ALL RIGHT [C&DD]

2   Almost too late to strike? Good heavens! Commencing in one minute, exclusively (4,4) HIGH TIME {HI{G}{He...s}T}{1}{Mi...tE}

3   Few more unwisely ingesting drug, leaving den, wandering around, on about Church spawning spineless demon? (4,4,7) LOCH NESS MONSTER  {L{O{CH}N}ESS}{MO{NeST}ER*}

5   Stare at one girl, starting to gaze lasciviously without hesitation (4) OGLE {One}{Girl}{LEer}

6   Sophisticated theorists hog art, getting to honest person (8,7) STRAIGHT SHOOTER*

7   Compare quarterly runs — railway disregarded digital advancement (6) EQUATE {QUArTErly}*<=>{E}

8   Actor overpowering two directors, holding sway (6) DODDER {DO{D}{D}ER}

11 Riot control agent curbing a great disorderly situation at the outset (4,3) TEAR GAS {A+GREAT}*{Si...n}

14 Love returned briefly, having sex; rift ensues halfway, leading to bitterness (7) VITRIOL {eV{IT}{RIft}OL<=}

16 Stray pooch lapped up Oreos initially; is driven out — wagging tail, keen to go back inside (8) DIVAGATE {D{AVId<=}oG}{ATE} 

17 No rating, stupid, for the uneducated (8) IGNORANT*

19 Briefly taste, sipping creamy starter inside tiny vat of milk (6) LACTIC {L{vA{Cr...y}T}ICk}

20 Oddly, felon to bury the hatchet, to be fair (6) FLAXEN {FeL{AXE}oN}

23 Clipped folder contains zip sheet (4) FOIL {F{O}ILe}

Reference List

Posh = U, Large = L, University = U, Quietly = P, Luxury car = RR, Good = G, Drug = E, Church = CH, Girl = G, Raiway = RLY, Digital = E,  Director = D, Sex = IT 

TalePiece

By Dr RKE

“ALL RIGHT, boys, we are on the HOME STRAIGHT now. It is HIGH TIME we tied up all the LOOSE ENDs and delivered this TAXATION software on the INTENDED date” said Jackie Davies, the Project Manager. She was giving a pep talk to her underlings from her 36th floor office in 17th Street District of Denver, COLORADO. Brushing her FLAXEN hair from her forehead, she declared “we cannot face another EMBARRASSING fiasco, as happened the last time. You mess this up and HR will be handing you the pink slips”. Wasn’t she a STRAIGHT SHOOTER?

At this moment Pankaj Gupta TIPTOED into the office. People in the room braced themselves for the VITRIOL Jackie was going to pour on him for being late to her scrum, but he held his left thumb up and clutched an open laptop in his left hand like a FOIL suggesting that he had something up his sleeve. He started off with a long-winded intro, as ORIENTals were wont to do, but the impatient Jackie snapped “Don’t you DIVAGATE, Gupta. No one here is IGNORANT of the bug in our software. Come to the point, have you caught the LOCH NESS MONSTER?” PMs are least bit interested in how things are done- they only want results. Gupta plugged his laptop to the LCD projector, as he made a mental note to look up what a Loch Ness monster was. You know these Indian computer brains are brimming with software and stuff that there is hardly any space for trivia like these.

As he ran through his presentation, in the next 3 minutes, everyone in the room knew that he had aced it, living up to the LEGACY of his training at IIT, Bombay. An ALL-ROUND applause followed. This was the best time to get what Gupta wanted most, a 3 week-off to visit his AILING, DODDERing grandmother in Jaipur. After all, wasn’t she the only one who had reposed faith in her Pankaj, when his own parents had given up on him? She had spurred him to rise above the STRATA of the society they belonged to and go to “Amreeka”. Jackie, who knew the ins and outs of her team, announced “Gupta is going to India tomorrow”. Gupta’s face lit up. But then the wily Jackie added “make no mistake, he still CONTROLS the further development of this project from his home there”.  The deflated Gupta knew this EQUATEd to working all night from India to keep up with the time difference. PMs everywhere are known to take more than what they give and Jackie was a master at this.