No 14078, Tuesday 23 Jan 2024, Hypatia

Solution to 24A 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.

Open for anyone to answer, if not solved by 1 PM.

ACROSS

1   Beast using mink extracted from wild pack animal (6) ALPACA {PACk+AnimAL}*

4   Mocking small crook mostly occupied stealing rupees (8) SCORNFUL {S}{CO{R}N}{FULl}

9   Heart of military officer, say (6) KERNEL (~colonel)

10 Letters from publicist urge Nevil (author) (8) TURGENEV [T]

11 How long had Loki prepared to search everywhere? (4,4,3,3) LOOK HIGH AND LOW*

13 Orders on a desi app? They are identical (4,2,1,3) PEAS IN A POD*

14 Capital lost by Hindu God of wealth in transportation service (4) UBER kUBER

16 Station's name on the radio (4) SITE (~cite)

18 Oil supplier set up clay building to store bitumen, essentially? (10) EUCALYPTUS {SET+UP+CLAY}* over {bitUmen}

21 Casually browsing, old women entertained by snakes dancing (6,8) WINDOW SHOPPING {WIND{O}{W}S}{HOPPING}

23 I reread novel depicting sex in private (8) RAREFIED {I+REREAD}* over {F}

24 Study of frog, say? (6) ?O?D?R (Addendum - PONDER [DD] - See comments)

25 Spencer left play regularly behind closed doors (8) SECRETLY {SpEnCeR+lEfT+pLaY}

26 Eye problem in author's work on Central Asians? (6) MYOPIA {MY}{OP}{asIAns}

DOWN

1   Basically ancient Nile's key hieroglyph! (4) ANKH Acrostic &lit

2   Exercise and run lifting block near a structure outdoors (7) PERGOLA {PE}{R}{LOG<=}{A}

3   Registers in airport to scan crime (6,2) CHECKS IN {CHECK}{SIN}

5   Chairperson who's glued to a monitor? (5,6) COUCH POTATO [CD]

6   Man below Queen put up as interim ruler (6) REGENT {GENT}<=>{ER<=}

7   Flu can spread between boy and group of adherents (3,4) FAN CLUB {FLU+CAN}*{B}

8   Entertaining folks under 51 performing reviews (4,5) LIVE WIRES {LI}{REVIEWS}*

12 Precisely how pistachio is found? (2,1,8) IN A NUTSHELL [C&DD]

13 Father's weapons - they should be updated and secure (9) PASSWORDS {PA'S}{SWORDS}

15 Writer's rejected after second fake composition (8) SYMPHONY {MY<=}<=>{S}{PHONY}

17 It can't possibly include rules of Buddhist philosophy (7) TANTRIC {IT+CANT}* over {R}

19 Became stronger by end of autumn, due to running around park (5,2) TONED UP {a...mN+DUE+TO}*{P} 

20 Candy bar replaced by cold beverage (6) COFFEE (-t+c)COFFEE

22 Chiefly ocean resident carnivorous animal! (4) ORCA Acrostic &lit

Reference List

Small = S, Rupees = R, Old = O, Women = W, Sex = F, Exercise = PE, Run = R, Queen = ER, Boy = B, Second = S, Rules = R, Park = P, Bar = T, Cold = C