Puzzling thoughts:
Happy Groundhog Day, Cornerites! More on this, later ...
Thanks again for all of your kind comments on my puzzle this past Wednesday (Jan 31)
It took the Chairman (15-across. Re:) ABOUT 12 minutes to complete today's puzzle; less than my normal solving time for a Friday
I was expecting a Groundhog Day-themed puzzle, but this one did not disappoint
Amie Walker and Matthew Stock collaborate on this very enjoyable puzzle (whose grid is asymmetric, BTW) that uses four words/phrases as synonyms for "no running". Each of the entries - three down and one across - are "in the language" terms. Let's examine them further, shall we?
3-down. "No running" to an incumbent: TERM LIMITED. Blog rules strictly prohibit me (or any of all y'all) from discussing politics, so I will let the image below speak for itself ...
11-down. "No running" at a cosmetics store: SMUDGE PROOF.
 |
| She obviously didn't use a smudge proof mascara! |
25-down. With 26-Down, "No running" to a newspaper reporter: OFF THE RECORD. Two things struck me about this entry:
1) How skillfully placed this was in the grid
2) How amazingly clever to come up with this phrase to signify "not running"
55-across. "No running" on a pool deck: SLIPPERY WHEN WET. All sorts of images crept into the Chairman's devious and puerile mind but this is the one that will be published!!
Let's get on with the other clues and entries, including the plethora of 3-letter words (sorry, Irish Miss!) ... the picture of the grid will be at the end of the blog
Across:
1. Body art: TATS, with its "clecho": (57-down. Body art:) INK. (one of the plethora of 3-letter words)
5. Split __: HAIRS. Neither "ENDS" nor "PEA SOUP" fit
10. Soft "C'mere!": PSST. This "word" is showing up often, recently, in xword puzzles
14. Begin to form: BREW. Interesting clue for this word
16. Chicano poet Luis __ Salinas: OMAR. "___ the tent maker" would've worked as a clue, too
17. World of Warcraft beast: OGRE. This filled via perps
18. Zelle alternative: VENMO. I use PayPal
19. Herding dog from Hungary: PULI. A learning experience for me, although when I went to "save" the image, I already had it in my pictures folder. Perhaps this word was used once before @ LA Times? This looks like a dog that Bob Marley would own ...
20. Veinte, por ejemplo: NUMERO. A CSO to Lucinda. Veinte is twenty, no?
22. Athena's domain: WISDOM. A bit of misdirection, as the word "domain" also means the area in which she might preside. Here is what [wikipedia] says: "Athena was the goddess of battle strategy, and wisdom. Identified in the Roman mythology as the goddess Minerva. She was always accompanied by her owl ..."
24. Fast-food chain with Epic Burritos: DEL TACO. This filled easily via perps; I don't regularly frequent DEL TACO restaurants but we have some in our area; you?
26. Tips over one's king, e.g.: RESIGNS. Chess reference when a player realizes that they are going to lose and/or face "checkmate"
27. "__ be my pleasure": IT'D. #2 of the 18 three-letter words
28. Usage charge: FEE. The third of the three-letter words
30. Dry __: ICE. The fourth of the three-letter words; Dry ICE is actually the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO2), a molecule consisting of a single carbon atom bonded to two oxygen atoms [wikipedia]
31. "Thus with a kiss I die" hero: ROMEO. I sensed a Shakespeare quote here, and ROMEO fit
33. TV watchers?: F.C.C. Fifth 3-letter word, and another abbr.
34. Beta preceder: ALPHA. In the Greek ALPHAbet
37. Bird-related: AVIAN. It's "for the birds"
38. Howe'er: THO'. Sixth 3-letter word; another abbr.
39. "Great blue" or "little blue" bird: HERON. A HERON would be AVIAN, no?
40. Obtain: GET. Seventh 3-letter word; I "GET" it; there are a lot of them today
41. Free of wool: SHORN. I had SHEAR first before the perps corrected it
43. Not available at the moment: OUT. #8; and I am OUT of explanations!!
44. Seasoned vet's opposite: NEWBIE. Nice clue
47. Part of JD: DOCTOR. Juris DOCTOR; a legal term; "A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law is a graduate-entry professional degree in law. The JD is the standard degree obtained to practice law in the United States, where there is no undergraduate professional law degree" [wikipedia]
50. Fizzled out: DIED. What happened to your car after you drove with a "Check Engine" light illuminated
51. Playing surface: TURF. Term used for both football and golf
52. Ooze: SEEP.
54. Sizable plot: ACRE.
62. Small horse: PONY. Or, a small beer bottle
63. "Now __ talking!": YOU'RE.
64. Line graph display: DATA.
And of course, there is another "clecho": (49-down. Line graph display:) TREND.
65. Look for answers: ASK. #9; ASK me (or Irish Miss) again, "how many 3-letter words are OK for a puzzle?"
66. Awards for "Abbott Elementary": EMMYS. One of our favorite "major" network shows
67. Break: GAP. #10 ... maybe a better clue would've been from the old commercial jingle: "Fall into the ___"
OK, it's "halftime" at the blog. Remember when I said that there would be more about Groundhog Day?? Well, I read an interesting article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past Sunday. The person writing the article began by saying that perhaps PETA would someday put an end to this annual celebration, where Punxsatawney Phil (the groundhog) is no longer the focal point of whether we do or don't have 6 more weeks of winter. She said that maybe they have a gold coin with a "heads" or "tails", and the citizens of that sleepy little Western Pennsylvania town just flip the coin ... heads = more winter; tails = an early spring. But at the end, despite so many ARGUEments for why Phil should be allowed to return to the wild, she realized that this is a huge event for the townsfolk. And, it gives all of us who don't live there a reason to celebrate. I'm all for that. Plus, it also gives us a chance to watch a little clip from the movie starring Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray. Enjoy!
Down:
1. Govt. security: T-BOND. Did anyone else try T-BILL instead? Not I
2. Go back and forth: ARGUE. One thing I have learned: you can either be right or be happy ... no ARGUEment here, eh guys??!! 😅
4. Lemonade alternative: SWEET TEA. CSO to all of our southern friends who have probably consumed more gallons of this than can be counted. The "trick" is to BREW the tea with the sugar already in the water
5. Chaos: HAVOC. Another Bill Murray clip with a reference to chaos/HAVOC
6. Dad on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel": ABE. An Emmy Award for actor Tony Shalhoub as ABE Weissman
7. + or - particle: ION. #11
8. Pirate song spirit: RUM. #12. "Spirit" as in an alcoholic libation; RUM
9. Madeleine of "Revenge": STOWE. Harriet Beecher ___ would have been too obvious (for me)
10. Stick in the freezer?: POPSICLE. A nice play-on-words clue
12. Place where one might leave tips for tips: SALON. Another nice play-on-words clue; tips (as in gratuities) for tips (as in highlights for ones hair)
13. Cuts back: TRIMS. Another SALON job
21. Hazardous gas: RADON. Are RADON detectors still mandatory in homes with basements?
23. "Da 5 Bloods" actor Whitlock Jr.: ISIAH. A Biblical prophet, perhaps? Nope. Him:
29. Helpful Amazon gadget: ECHO. We have one; it's called a "Dot"
31. Joplin work: RAG. #13
32. "The Great British Baking Show" appliance: OVEN. Even if you didn't know the show, what else COULD it be??
35. 3,600 seconds: HOUR. 60 seconds in one minute x 60 minutes in one hour = 3,600 seconds
36. Crumb-collecting insect: ANT. #14. And I bet that there are more than 14 clues for this industrious insect that have appeared in xword puzzles
41. Skeptical look: SIDE EYE. This:
42. Tally marks: NOTCHES.
45. Thin and wavy: WISPY. Like this HAIR??
 | |
| How to wear WISPY bangs |
46. [Time's up!]: BEEP. [Grammarly dot com] says: "Parentheses and brackets are punctuation marks used to set apart certain words and sentences. Parentheses, ( ), are used to add extra information in text, while brackets, [ ], are used mainly in quotations to add extra information that wasn't in the original quote." In this case, the "BEEP" is the extra information
48. Remedy: CURE. Despite all of the time modern medicine has had to develop one, there still is no CURE for the common cold
53. Formal: PROM. "Formal" as in the participants are dressed in formal attire for this school event
54. Off course: AWRY. Hey Moe! When are we going to get a Moe-ku? Well, this one sort of fits ...
Waggish pastry chef
Opened a new bakery.
Just bakes a wry bread.
55. Escape room?: SPA. #15. Don't people go to a SPA to escape the toils of daily life??
56. __ Gatos, California: LOS. #16. What else could it be, other than "LOS" for a California city??
58. "Delish!": YUM. #17. CSO to Hahtoolah with her pet word: YUMmers!! 😋
59. Tail movement: WAG. #18. Did anyone have to use a "WAG" (wild-assed-guess) to come up with "WAG"??
60. "We'll get there then" approx.: ETA. #19. Another abbr.
61. Water source: TAP. "VEINTE"!! (20) "TAP" as in faucet
And we have reached the "END" (another 3-letter word!). Let's end with a Moe-l'ick:
As your blogger I might be your shill,
And admit, didn't you feel the thrill?
I've got one thing to say
On this year's Groundhog Day
Don't you think that we've gotten our Phil??
The grid:
Comments, please ...
41 comments:
Well, this puzzle was certainly no “walk in the park!” In fact, it reminded me of Friday puzzles of yore in terms of its (very real) difficulty. Nevertheless, through P&P I eventually overcame the challenge. FIR, so I’m not only happy, I’m relieved!
Good morning!
Struggled here and there, but finished in good time. No chance of missing the theme today. In my day, JD denoted a juvenile delinquent. One of my TBONDs matured on 1/31. Now I need to figure out where to invest that cash. DEL TACO was all perps -- they've expanded to only 17 states, and Texas isn't one of 'em. My bank offers Zelle, not VENMO. We use it to pay our lawn guy. Enjoyed the challenge, Amie and Matthew. Nice expo, C-Moe.
FIR, but erased tatt for TATS, foal for PONY, prim for PROM, and popcicle for POPSICLE (UNTIE!)
Today is:
NATIONAL GROUNDHOG DAY (looks like no shadow today in Gobblers Knob)
BUBBLE GUM DAY (sponsored by the American Dental Association)
NATIONAL TATER TOT DAY (created from the scraps from making French fries)
NATIONAL HEAVENLY HASH DAY (start with marshmallows, then freestyle)
NATIONAL WEAR RED DAY (an annual campaign to raise awareness about heart disease in women. The Beatles weren’t fans)
There's a difference between a miniature horse and a pony. I'm not quite sure of the difference, but I know that miniature horse people bristle if you make that mistake.
"Begin to form" for BREW is SOOO Friday.
I don't own one of those helpful hockey pucks. I'll wait for Elon to implant one in my so-called brain.
Oprah must be in charge of EMMYS. Seems like everyone gets one. (Except at ESPN, and they just get extras and "correct" the name of the recipient.)
Thanks to Amie and Matthew for the fun challenge, and to our Chairman for the details.
I'm missing how OFF THE RECORD fits the clue, could someone please explain?
I get it now, if someone says something off the record, they don't want the quote running in the paper. I was thinking they just didn't want the quote attributed to them.
Took 6:40 today for me to ... reach the finish line.
So, I have a different experience than SubG did today. I found this one unFriday-of-yore-like.
I didn't know today's actress (Stowe), the actor (Isiah), the Hungarian dog, the Spanish clue/answer, and I was nearly tripped-up by the Greek letter.
Clever theme.
FIR. Another vertical puzzle and on a Friday no less. As Friday puzzles go this was about average.
Got the theme after a bit and finally entered smudge proof. The NE was the last to fall for me. Didn't know Omar or Puli, and then salon came to me.
Didn’t figure out this ingenious theme till the last SLIPPERY clue. Then slogged my way back thru the rest. Didn’t think I’d finish with so many PNs but perped to a 🌲
Thought [Time’s up] was bzzt!!😖 but wouldn’t perp. (PSST otoh was correct) “Arnold Palmer” obviously too long led to icedTEA, too short, finally SWEET-TEA, just right. Then suprised myself, remembered Midge Maisel’s dad was ABE (Monk: Tony Shalhoub)
DOCTOR really means “teacher”
Guess puzzle “Pirates” stopped drinking Grog earlier this week and have switched to RUM. 🏴☠️
For some reason I thought 20 in Spanish started with a B…..
Hadda correct Tbill and change office to OFF THE
Candlemass and Groundhog Day interesting connection ” To celebrate this day in the middle of dreary winter lots of candles were lit to brighten the feast. Eventually the saying “If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite. If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, winter is gone and won’t come again. How a hibernating mammal took over is another story. We have a groundhog living under our deck there’s no sun today so no shadow.
Good Morning! Thanks, Amie and Matthew, for your offering today. Nice! I enjoyed your theme.
I started at the south today because the north had a field of blanks. The south came together quite nicely so I gradually worked my way back to the top.
WO: shear -> SHORN and tat -> INK. SIDE EYE was in, then out, then back in.
I had some help – LIU: ABE, STOWE, OMAR and OGRE. I had to translate viente to get NUMERO.
POPSICLE: I have Outshine popsicles in my freezer year-round. I had one for dessert last night! I get the box with a variety of lemon, lime and tangerine. YUM!
C.Moe, I loved the SIDE EYE pic – so funny! And your recap held lots of fun & info. Thanks.
It took about 15 minutes for a DNF today. Getting 3/4th of the "No running" clues were done but the NE stumped me. I wanted SMEAR PROOF but it was too short. SMUDGE wasn't a thought. Couldn't remember the PULI dog, OMAR was unknown and unfilled, I misspelled POPSICLE as 'popcycle', and get the chess reference for RESIGNS. The unknown ISIAH was guessed. Not enough WISDOM on this end today.
DEL TACO- none around NOLA; never seen one-anywhere.
SWEET TEA? Nope. Don't drink it.
d-otto- spare cash? Always a good problem to have. Try Series-I bonds. You can tie VENMO to any bank account and cell phone. Do I have a VENMO? No but all the younger set does.
P.S. I sure hope that Groundhog is right!! Yea, Phil!
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Just a few unknowns easily taken care of by perps.
Ray-O @9:30. Yes today is Candlemas, chandeleur in French and in France it is celebrated with crèpes. My pan is ready to go. Now I need the batter.
C-Moe. I too loved that SIDE EYED dog picture, and the rest of your review.
Musings
-I am subbing today and first period had the most hyper kid in the school. Yup, he was drinking an energy drink with 300 mg of caffeine. Uh, I sat very close to him.
-I had to duck and weave to get this enjoyable puzzle done.
-TERM LIMITS: Our senator is an SOB, but he’s our SOB!
-If you want to get a middle school science class’s attention, bring DRY ICE!
-ARGUE: I don’t know which is worse winning or losing an argument to my dear wife
-We like cooking shows except when they are competitive
-I doubt women in the 1940’s knew their swimwear would become PROM dresses
-Fun job, Chris!
Hola!
I lost my post because Google wants me to verify myself. Is this happening to everyone. It's really annoying!
Anyway, I finished the puzzle with no problems. My only comment is that I really, really, really dislike TAToos! My daughter has a plethora of them, too.
ATHENA was in the forefront of my mind this week. Our Humanist Society of Santa Barbara started a most interesting tour on Monday at the ATHENAeum on the Caltech campus. It is a WISDOM club.
You can see DW below the ATHENAeum sign.
Hand up SWEET TEA unknown and sounds way too SWEET for my taste! FIR.
I'm trying again to see what happens. I don't understand why I have to verify that it's my posting. It's discouraging!
Hmm,
Ever been confused by a sign? "and," if your over water, can you carry scissors?
"And," for no particular reason...
What a delightful puzzle, with a well executed theme. For me, it was easy, and over too soon. Many thanks to the constructors, and to the Chairman for a lively review.
Tough puzzle today. Took a whole lotta perpin' to put this one to bed, but it made for an enjoyable outing. Our local groundhog, Woodstock Willie, agreed with Phil this morning. Early Spring! Huzzah! Never heard of the taco place.
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Amie and Matthew, and CMoe.
I FIRed eventually and got all the clever “no running” themers.
Some great fresh clueing today - POPSICLE, SALON, SPA.
The centre was the last to fall, as this Canadian did not know your FCC, and I was trying to think of non-allergenic non-wool material. (Oh, it’s the sheep who is “free of wool”.
T note changed to BOND to open up the NW corner. Grow changed to BREW.
I seem to recall seeing PULI here in the distant past, but I needed perps.
Perps were fair for my unknowns like NUMERI, OMAR, DEL TACO (not here in Canada).
I have a SWEET TEA story, but I have told it here before. (It involves my Canadian/British ignorance of a southern US term in which I ended up with Ice Tea instead of Hot Tea.)
Wiarton Willie did not see his shadow. We can hope for early spring. Actually we would like to see some sunshine, as December and January were very dull.
Wishing you all a great day.
Good Morning:
I thought the theme was clever but to my eyes and ear Term Limited is an outlier. The other three themers are solid, in-the-language phrases and while Term Limited fits the theme, Term Limits is the more frequent and accurate reference. Just my personal opinion, of course. The solve was difficult due to the numerous perp-required entries such as, Omar, Ogre, Numero, Wisdom, Del Taco, Abe, and Isiah. Moe addressed my particular and well-known pet peeve but, on the positive side, there were two clecho clues, i.e., Body Art and Line Graph Display which I liked, as well as the fun trio of Salon, Trims, and Hairs.
Thanks, Amie and Matthew, and thanks, Moe, for the fun and facts and especially for the Side Eye Pooch, the cute "Wry" bread Moe-ku, and the video of Abbott Elementary, which is one of my favorite shows, too. Your anecdote about PETA's concern for Punxsutawney Phil's safety was timely, considering that today is the 10th anniversary of former New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio's accidental dropping of Staten Island Chuck, the poor groundhog that died a week later.
Have a great day.
Nice puzzle today. No real beefs. Have never heard “side eye” as an expression tho. Also usually see t bill instead of t bond. Good job on the theme. Not too many proper nouns for a change. We puzzlers arrrgh at that.
Thank you Amie and Matthew for to me a Saturdayish Friday challenge upto which I was NOT. I foundered far too long in the NW, then moved on and things got better. But the NW never did (see below).
Thanks MOE for a stellar review and for your theme explication. I was too busy trying to make 1D play nice with its neighbors that I didn't have time to look for a theme; although I did notice that there were no stars, circles, or a reveal.
A not so favorite ...
1D TBOND. Didn't try this one. Yes I did try T-BILL (naturally!), but I also tried T-NOTE and ARGUED with myself, until I settled on the latter and couldn't make any sense of the rest of the clues in that ACRE.
But there were some favs:
22A WISDOM. Always the best choice.
31A ROMEO. With 34A ALPHA, a homophonic CSO to Tony.
38A HERON. There are also the beautiful Yellow-crowned night herons. A nesting pair visited us in the Spring for several years and would stalk around our backyard tilting their heads listening for worms and then suddenly poke into the mud and pluck out a worm.
44A NEWBIE. I'm almost 77 and still a NEWBIE at everything.
47A DOCTOR. This past November marked the 60th Anniversary of DOCTOR WHO who is still traveling all over the Universe. I'm still working my way through the Matt Smith episodes trying to catch him.
Cheers,
Bill
Every four years, radio and TV talking heads say that the Virginia governor is term limited. Not true - you can be governor as often as you can get elected, but you have to sit out a term after your current term expires.
Husker 10:22 AM Winning. Definitely winning.
Lucina 10:37 AM Looks like your posts are posting and your Avatar is showing up.
Easier than most Friday puzzles, except for the NE. OMAR and PULI were especially difficult. SMUDGE and PULI gave me POPSICLE and WISDOM. I should have been able to come up with wisdom without perps. TSK, TSK.
Rather than scolding students, often I found a side eye with a shake of my head and TSK TSK made them settle down with a self-conscious laugh. To a student who got up and wandered around, "What's up?" "Nothing" "You are," did the trick.
Like RosE (and I do like RosE), I had to start in the South and work upward. The puzzle was easy except for several not-useful clues, including the relatively unknown versions of ABE, OMAR, AND ISIAH. The World of Warcraft clue was worse than no clue at all for OGRE. Like Picard, I can’t see SWEET TEA as a viable alternative to lemonade. And I’d say a SIDEEYE is more than skeptical. I’d have said “scornful.”
Newspapers (still) do require attribution for quotes. If the source of the quote mustn’t be identified, anonymous attribution weakens the credibility of the report. It has to be an awfully important quote or fact to reach print anonymously, and that’s by far the exception, not the rule. That having been said, you’d be amazed how innocuous the facts or quotes might be when someone wants you to report something but doesn’t want to be identified as the source. Look how often a change in a sports team’s front office is attributed to an anonymous source. Again, sources are people who want to see the news reported without being associated with it by the attribution.
Ray O: The pronunciation of “v” in Spanish is supposed to be so close to the “b” sound as to be nearly indistinguishable, so that may have fazed you. That’s one reason I dislike language instruction that’s entirely oral in presentation. I want to see it in writing.
CMoe: Thanks for the ‘splainin’, complete with the requisite haikus and limericks. BTW, we don’t have Del Taco where I live, but I did buy lunch from one in your neck of the woods a couple of years ago – in Gilbert, the now-famous-because-of-Brock-Purdy suburb of Phoenix.
Edward, Los Angeles (Eagle Rock)
Del Taco, YUM! The grated cheese in the tacos is awesome!
Sweet tea: yuck.
Copy Editor @ 1:13 ==> I know the Del Taco of which you speak (Gilbert)! We have eaten at that exact one. Never had a Brock Purdy sighting, though ...
Picard @ 10:38 ==> SWEET TEA is definitely a Southern thing. If you order iced tea in the deep south, you best tell them up front that you don't want SWEET TEA; order it "unsweet"
desper-otto @5:38 ==> if you're having trouble finding a home for your T-BOND money, Miss Margaret and I are traveling to Italy later this year, and would definitely appreciate a gift of cash to help pay for it!! ;^)
I enjoyed this puzzle. Like C-Moe, I appreciated the grid design. For some reason Amie's clueing seems to work for me. Thanks to her and Matt for a good RUN!
FAVs: Tips for tips next to TRIMS & SALON; BREW crossing SWEET TEA; and DATA crossing TREND
Thanks for your tour, C-Moe! You nailed the theme song!
What’s the problem with 3 letter fills?
I liked this puzzle. I am often in admiration of the imagination, ingenuity, and originality of the constructors.
Lucina, to answer your question: No, I have not had that problem except on my iPhone. If I try to use my iPhone to make a comment here, it always makes me log in to my Google account, so I don't ever use it for that purpose. My iPad and my Windows PC usually don't require me to log in, because I am already logged in, so I can Preview and Publish my comments with no problem. Are you using an iPhone when you have this problem? By the way, in any case, I always copy my comments before posting, so that if they get lost for any reason I can paste them back in. I recommend you all do that.
I heard DW use her HS Spanish by accident in Italy. Sounded like she said “benti” for twenty and she was politely corrected “venti”
Anonymous ==> regarding excessive # of 3-letter words: my take, both as a solver and constructor, is it allows for many more abbreviated words/phrases. There are some editors who are ok with them; some not. YMMV. As an aside, Irish Miss and I frequently have email communication. She provides me with feedback on my pre-published puzzles, so I know of her likes/dislikes. The counting of them today was more "TIC" than critical
I usually do the puzzle and print comments at work during much needed quick breaks and have to use my IPhone. When I was using Safari browser in order to print a comment had to convert to the “web format” then choose my screen name and finally the robot thing. I switched to Google Chrome and all that nonsense stopped. Don’t know if that helps.
I agree about cut and pasting comments as well
Jayce
I work on my desktop computer and for a short, very short, while it was having issues but all is well now. Thank you.
DEL TACO is available here but I have never gone there. In fact, I never, or hardly ever, eat at any Mexican restaurant unless I know its reputation. My siblings can usually keep me informed of good eating places. There is on excellent place here in Scottsdale called Frank and Lupe's on Marshall Way. It serves authentic Mexican food, IMO.
No, no, no, Moe. You wrote "SWEET TEA is definitely a Southern thing." Should read "SWEET TEA is definitely a Southern thang." Thanks in advance for your future consideration of s***kicker culture.
I prefer ice water to sweet tea. I make my iced tea and hot tea with just brewed tea, no sweetening, no milk or cream, maybe a drop of lemon juice. I have to be careful in some areas to specify non-sweet tea. I like barefoot coffee, too. Interesting how tastes differ.
Yr
Is barefoot coffee the same as black coffee? I've never heard that term before.
I like a few drops of creamer in my coffee and sugar in my teas. For that reason I no longer drink tea except occasionally hot tea but also with sugar.
“He can’t run again because he’s term-limited” aka “termed out”. HTH.
====> D. / L.A.
Looks like I’m Mr. Agree today; C-Moe, your recap basically touched everything I noted about this puzzle — interesting sorta-kinda asymmetrical grid, not too many proper names ( but yeah, a ton of 3’s!). Learning moment about doubled clues being called “clechos” — I always thought those were the temporary rivets used in sheet metal work 😆…
Hand up for TBill before TBOND; and yeah, how many different clues can there be for PSST??
All in all, a totally enjoyable, not too obfuscated cruise-in that did not wreak HAVOC on my brain.
And Del Taco — it may not be “authentic” Mex, but their stuff is sure good for a quick-fix of cheap tacos! YUM indeed!
====> Darren / L.A.
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