Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with today's recap of a puzzle constructed by veteran puzzle-setter Blake Slonecker. Today's theme is straightforward so let's jump right in with the unifier which has been conveniently placed in the middle of the grid:
39 Across: Camera setting, and what shortened 18-, 24-, 47-, and 58-Across?: F - STOP. At the four referenced places, Blake has dropped the F (not dropped the F bomb, just the letter F) in order to answer the clues, and provide us with a few chuckles here, here, here and here:
Enough, F, Stop!
18 Across: Pollinator who can't fly?: GROUND BEE. Where's the BEEF?
24 Across: Parents in the Hundred Acre Wood?: RAISES THE ROO. Parents is used as a verb in the clue. Kanga is a single mom. When ROO misbehaves Kanaga idiomatically RAISES THE ROOF.
Roo and Kanga
58 Across: Experimental soft cheese?: TRIAL BRIE. A TRIAL BRIEF is a legal document presented to the court. It is intended to provide the court with the presentation of facts, evidence and legal arguments. A TRIAL BRIE might provide an introduction for someone who has yet to develop a taste for soft cheeses.
Here is how this all looks in the grid:
...and here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Tries out: DEMOS. Hand up for initially trying out TESTS.
6. Nosegay: POSY. As in "Ring Around The Rosie".
10. Pod whose cross sections are pentagonal: OKRA.
6. Nosegay: POSY. As in "Ring Around The Rosie".
10. Pod whose cross sections are pentagonal: OKRA.
14. Skip a syllable or two: ELIDE.
15. Until: UP TO.
16. "Stay" singer Lisa: LOEB. I searched for a Leopold and (Lisa) LOEB mash up but could not find one.
17. __ Cup: PGA Tour prize: FEDEX. A golfing reference. Both Professional Golfers' Association and FEDeral EXpress have been abbreviated. Although, those abbreviations are now used far more often than are the full names.
20. Middle of dinner?: ENS. We have seen this type of clue before. There are two N's in the middle of dinner. If Blake had needed DEES, here, would he have gone with "Middle of middle"?
21. Perfect: IDEAL.
23. "Island of the Blue Dolphins" novelist Scott: O'DELL.
27. Joie de vivre: ZEST. A French phrase (in English, Joy of Living) fully co-opted by English speakers.
28. Emo: ANGSTY. Slangy clue/answer combo.
32. Storage furniture: CHEST.
34. Prize money: PURSE. Commonly used this way in the world of professional boxing and in professional golf.
37. Sphere in old referee whistles: PEA. Before they developed synthetic orbs they used real PEAs.
38. A pop: EACH.
40. Otter kin: MINK. A relationship that is a bit of a crossword standard.
41. Durango day: DIA. Today's Spanish lesson.
42. Apt rhyme for "freeze": SEIZE. As in SEIZE-up.
43. Well-mannered blokes: GENTS. It is relatively easy to convince ladies not to eat Tide pods but it is more difficult to deter GENTS.
44. Goofs in proofs: ERRATA. What do you call a list of corrections read out in a suggestive fashion? ERRATA - CA.
46. Tromp: PLOD.
53. Bird in a bevy: QUAIL. A group of QUAIL is called a bevy.
56. Hot spots: OVENS. Not a WiFi reference.
57. Signal: CUE. Both can be employed as either verbs or nouns.
60. Glossy material: SATIN. Like most chairs?
62. 55-Down, properly: ISN'T. See also 55 Down. Duh, MM.
63. Like most whiskey: AGED. This 36-year-old whisky can be yours for about five or six thousand dollars. Let me know and I will send you a link if I can still (pun intended, See 42 Down) find it in my trash file).
64. Heart Eyes or OK Hand: EMOJI.
65. Fancy spread: PATE. To make chicken PATE one has to first de-liver the chicken.
66. Fool (with): MESS.
67. Wrap sheet: SARAN. The following, from the mid-60's, might be deemed NSFW:
Down:
1. Schedule for later: DEFER.
2. Two-time WNBA MVP __ Delle Donne: ELENA.
3. Many a sedan: MID-SIZE CAR.
4. Amit Majmudar's "__ to a Drone": ODE. I was not familiar with this work. I have now searched for it online, found it, read it a couple of times and .... well, make your own judgement:
5. People's superlative: SEXIEST. A reference to People Magazine. The honorific of SEXIEST Man Alive is awarded annually to a male but the magazine awards Most Beautiful Woman Alive in lieu of SEXIEST.
6. Sound of the Northwest: PUGET.
7. O icon: OPRAH. OPRAH Winfrey of, among many other things, O Magazine.
8. Took second, say: STOLE. A baseball reference.
9. Second person: YOU. Not an Adam and Eve reference. A grammar reference.
10. One whose trick-learning years are behind them: OLD DOG.
11. "The Mamba Mentality: How I Play" writer Bryant: KOBE.
12. Rod and __: REEL. A fishing reference.
13. Cain's brother: ABEL. A reference to The Book of Genesis.
19. Nary a soul: NO ONE.
Sir Paul McCartney
22. "Spring forward" letters: DST. Daylight Savings Time.
25. Quick meeting?: SESH. "Quick" as in a shortened version of SESSION.
26. Tough talk?: RASP.
29. Damage control pro: SPIN DOCTOR.
30. High-stakes shelter: TENT. I don't know about the High bit, but many TENTs certainly do employ stakes.
31. Shaggy beasts: YAKS. See also 33-Down.
32. Relinquish: CEDE.
33. 31-Down abundance: HAIR.
34. Pump letters: PSI. Pounds per Square Inch
35. Lays aisle-mate: UTZ. A snack food (pretzels, potato chips, etc.) reference.
36. Bass output: ROE. Not a bass guitar. Not Bass Ale. Not the Mayor of Los Angeles. Fish ROE.
39. "__ the Turtle": University of Maryland catchphrase: FEAR.
40. "I would like some more catnip, please": MEOW.
42. Bootlegger's vessel: STILL.
43. Visual aids: GLASSES. Not, e.g., pie charts, flashcards, flip charts, or the like. Aids to help us see.
45. Really take off: AVIATE. Really. No, really take off.
46. Blame (on): PIN. As in "Y0u won't PIN that murder on me!"
Eydie Gorme (and friends)
48. Canyon: GORGE.
49. Campus climbers: IVIES.
Tom Lehrer - "Bright College Days"
50. Focus of Maslow's hierarchy: NEEDS.
52. Red Square honoree: LENIN.
All Hail Marx and Lennon !
53. Sample collector, maybe: Q-TIP. For the DNA lab.
54. __ Major: URSA.
59. "Bang!": BAM. Onomatopoeia
61. Org. for OBs: AMA.
________________________________________
Notes from C.C.:
Voting is now open until March 1 for the 12th ORCA Awards – the annual celebration of creativity in crosswords! Winners will be announced on March 6 during a livestream filled with games and prizes. Five long-time solvers will receive special awards. For
each day of their streak, solvers can receive a chance to win crossword
memorabilia inscribed to them and signed by Will Shortz. Need not be
present to win. Details and voting info can be found at Diary of a Crossword Fiend.
This puzzle seemed about the right level of difficulty for a Friday; namely, pretty tough. For one thing, I had “Ryder” before “FedEx,” but knew “seriest” couldn’t be correct, so I fixed that. With the first themed fill, I knew what the gimmick was, and though a few of the themers seemed a bit of of a stretch (raised the roo, anyone?) I got through them. FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteD-o fell into the TESTS/DEMOS trap. Also TROD/PLOD and SWAB/QTIP and POO/ROO (what was I thinking?). Wite-Out, please. Thanx for the exercise, Blake. Always enjoy your take on things, Mal-Man.
GLASSES : It's finally been long enough that my eyes have stabilized. Near vision is blurry, far vision is also blurry. My new glasses should arrive early next week. I'm looking forward to seeing again.
I really enjoyed today’s pangram, none of the cluing really made me ask WT_? Managed a FIR in 12:48. A few obscurities were perped, didn’t know writer ODELL. UTZ brand has been around since 1921, but I don’t ever recall seeing their products, are they regional? ELENA is a little less famous than KOBE. Thanks Blake for the very creative grid!
ReplyDeleteMM ~ nice write-up today, I don’t think I’ll be sipping on that Laphroaig anytime soon. Not to be picky but there is no “s” in Saving in DST.
FIR without erasure.
ReplyDeleteToday is:
NATIONAL BANANA BREAD DAY (where old bananas go to die)
NATIONAL SKIP THE STRAW DAY (not a discussion of Mr. Ed’s eating habits, this day wants us to eschew these sipping devices to save the oceans. Don’t bother telling these folks that nearly all the ocean’s plastic come from other countries, they say it’s the thought that counts.)
NATIONAL TILE DAY (I’ve seen some really attractive look-alikes, I just don’t know how well they will age)
NATIONAL DOG BISCUIT DAY (I don’t know if Zoё really likes them, or if she just likes being hand-fed something by dear old dad)
It may just be the crowd I grew up with, but I had the theme being "Get the F Outta Here."
Viktor Hovland won $18,000,000 for his FEDEX Cup victory. Sahith Theegala won $250,000, and he didn't even make the final tournament. Justin Thomas, Adam Scott and 13 other players "won" $140,000, and they didn't even make the three-event playoffs. The total PURSE in 2023 was $75 million.
The Steve Miller Band's Abracadabra had these steaming lyrics:
I feel the magic in your caress
I feel magic when I touch your dress
Silk and SATIN
Leather and lace
Black panties with an angel's face
CSO to Zoё and me at OLD DOGs.
When I lived in LA, I subscribed to the LA Times. I thought that LENIN must have been the editor, because it was so biased. The Orange County Register was the antidote, but it wasn't delivered in the Santa Clarita Valley, where I lived.
I loved this puzzle, mainly because of the dearth of junk cluing (except for ELENA, when clued as anything other than a member of the Supreme Nine.) Thanks to Blake for the cleverness, and to Patti for not ruining it. And thanks to our MalMan for another clever and funny review.
That’s a real banana bread comment about Lenin and the LA Times they are a changin’
DeleteAngsty was new to me.
ReplyDeleteFIR. Quite typical for a Friday puzzle. The misdirects in some of the clues were tough. And there were a lot of unknowns, particularly those proper names, but again the perps helped with the solve.
ReplyDeleteThe theme was clever, and I got it with "raises the roo(f)". The reveal cinched it and the rest was history.
A very enjoyable Friday endeavor.
Took 6:37 today to _inish this one.
ReplyDeleteThis is par for the course for the "new Fridays": add/subtract a letter.
Seemed like a lot of proper names in the beginning of the Downs: Elena, Puget, Kobe, Abel, & Oprah.
French & Spanish today, but no actress? Oddly, I actually knew the name of this WNBA player.
I think FedEx became the official name of the company, decades ago.
Fun puzzle. SE corner gave me fits. Finally fir
ReplyDeleteGood Morning! Blake presented us with a challenging but doable puzzle. Thanks, and to MalMan for your enlightening recap.
ReplyDeleteI saw the theme when BEE(F) and ROO(F) appeared. Nice!
ESP: O’DELL, ELENA
WO: oops, I automatically added the “u” after the Q in 53D. That didn’t work!
I knew a lovely lady named Saran who was named long before the wrap. Some folks thought it was a typo and changed the “n” to “h”.
PEA in a whistle? What? And princesses and mattresses - a very versatile veggie.
CSO to Hanover PA just west of me, original home of UTZ.
Didn't realize FedEx had anything to do with Golf. 35 down, Utz, is not a brand in Houston, never heard of it. Otherwise it filled nicely.
ReplyDeleteRather have circles than skipping around the puzzle inorder to complete answers. But AINT/ISNT not bad today as adjacent perps. Anyhoo easier than yesterday despite a ton of Proper Names. Obvious theme: F STOP. “Full stop” (Brits use this term to mean American period) at the end of the theme phrase stopping with F (Canada Eh, you too?)
ReplyDeleteActually GROUND BEES 🐝 and BEEF 🥩 both fly. The bees simply have a subterranean hive they fly out of. My son was stung badly while mowing the lawn at camp when he was a teen. And don’t forget… “the cow jumped over the moon” 🐄 🌕
Inkovers: nut/PEA,
Liked “High stakes shelter” (Not a risky investment vehicle) TENT. Whiskey AGED in yesterday’s barrel. I noted like MalMan Kanga Roo’s single Mom but the clue says “parents” plural. 🤔. “O icon”, Oprah (O in the clue and answer hmmm?). People mag’s SEXIEST man alive. LIUed, currently Patrick Dempsey, (I lost again😉)…..Was expecting to name the turtle. What kyna name is FEAR?😧 then reread the clue 🙄
I thought EMO was a style like “Goth” but it’s a rock genre. After I perped ANGSTY I googled EMO and that adjective would fit.
Double stuff Oreos….. GORGE
The Hermits’ Peter……NOONE
Parenteral fluid avenues….IVIES
On to Saturday.
Think of raising or rearing a child. Verb not n oun
DeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteFun Friday! Originally, this required a lot of thinking but then I gained momentum and whizzed through the top. More thinking. When VIRGINIA WOOL emerged I saw the light and quickly filled the bottom.
GORGE took a while to fill because I had RYES then realized that AGED was required. And it has been DECADES since I thought about Maslow's hierarchy but he filled my NEEDS.
Very clever, Blake Stonecker. Thank you and thank you, too, Malman. nicely done.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Ooh. Clever and tough CW this morning but FIR. Yeah. I too noticed the pangram. Another Yeah.
ReplyDeleteThere were quite a few unknowns but WAGS and perps came to the rescue. For example I’ve never seen UTZ chips, and never heard of VIRGINIA WOOL. For a long time I had ZOO/ROO, OXEN/YAKS. What an imaginative way to clue OKRA. The theme was the last hurdle , but I was delighted to have discovered it. What fun.
MM great recap.
“Sometimes words have two meanings” People!
ReplyDeleteNice Friday pangram, Blake! Did you set out to make a pangram puzzle, or did you realize midway through that you just needed a pesky j or q or x?
DeleteNormally I despise the use of obscure names as answers, but I realized with this puzzle--since I'm into sports--that I don't mind sports names (e.g., KOBE and ELENA). If you haven't see Elena Delle Donne play hoops, by the way, you are in for a treat.
Me again, our washer is suddenly on the blink again and I wasn't initiated closely following Mal Man’s fun narrative. I see now that “Parents” is a verb. Excellent pick up. (Wonder where Roo’s dead beat Dad is.) 😊
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this solve for several reasons. The theme was cute and the themers themselves were fun, my favorite being Virginia Wool. The difficulty level was not quite Friday level, but offered enough of a challenge to satisfy. The cluing was clever and I especially liked these three: Message Board?=Ouija; Tough Talk?=Rasp; "I would like some more catnip, please"=Meow. The grid was junk free, although Angsty is a tad awkward-sounding, and there were only two unknowns, O'Dell and Elena and only one w/o, Ryder/FedEx. The fill was fresh and lively and the low number (13) of TLW was an added plus.
Thanks, Blake, for a very enjoyable solve and thanks, MalMan, for the fun and facts, especially the laugh-out-loud puns, i.e., Deter Gents, Sat In, and De-liver the chicken. Tom Lehrer is always a treat and Marx and Lennon were a hoot!
I was happy to learn this morning that All Creatures Great and Small has been renewed for two additional seasons of six episodes each. 😉
Have a great day.
Very fun puzzle theme - which sped up the solve after getting it. It took a second when I saw the Hundred Acre Woods clue when I was thinking of parents as a plural noun instead of a verb.
ReplyDeleteI wanted it to be something like "NOT ALLOWED" since it was Christopher Robin's imaginary world of friends, but then I remembered that there is actually one parent with Kanga having ROO
I thought of our Eastern blog friends with UTZ chips - which I only knew of from crosswords- but last week I saw a display of UTZ chips in Wal-Mart so it's reach has spread to the Midwest!
Once there was no U below the Q - I knew it was likely Q-TIPs which used to be made at the Unilever plant in my town - but that was moved to Puerto Rico - and now the plant makes Suave products.
Thanks MM for the fun blog and Blake for the puzzle
FIR on a Friday TA DA!
ReplyDeleteI pecked around until I got toehold at the bottom VIRGINIA WOOL gav
e away the theme.
ELIDE, we Americans are getting more sloppy with our pronunciation. Consonants and syllables are often elided. I do it too. This makes it difficult for those of us with hearing aids and those learning English.
We prefer Utz chips and snacks to Wise products.
I studied Maslow's Hierarchy in grad school in the late 90's.
We had ground wasps in our front lawn when I was a kid. My sister and I took turns mowing that section with the push lawnmower. Scary, but we were never stung, so my parents didn't try to eliminate the wasps.
Mowing over the wasp nests made us angsty
I hear angsty more than I see it in print.
Kobe took a while. I know him as a basketball player, not as an author.
Solving depends so much on our life experiences. My class read O'Dells "Island of the Blue Dolphins," so O'Dell was gimme for me.
I can't remember the last time that I got as much enjoyment out of a crossword puzzle! Blake, this was just plain fun! Really clever clues, and some wonderful misdirection had me chuckling all morning. And MM kept it rolling with a great bunch of tunes & 'toons, "Marx & Lennon"...LOL!
ReplyDeleteWEES, except for Jinx at 7:17, whose political pronouncements are of no interest and don't belong here. The puzzle was challenging, but perps took care of unknowns, and the theme was clever. MM's review was a delight. Many thanks to Blake, Patti, and MalMan. Enjoy the weekend, everyone!
ReplyDeleteI managed to FIR but will admit there was a lot of white until I filled F-STOP, which is the only camera setting I know. ELENA was unknown and ODE was a WAG in the NW. The crossing of two authors-ODELL & KOBE- with unknown LOEB above had this OLD DOG stumped. We eat OKRA but I haven't fooled with it for a while; it's slimy. After I realized the missing F the rest of the puzzle was easy.
ReplyDeleteSESH- a made up word for crosswords
Bob@ 7:25- ANGSTY- not in my vocabulary, but neither is EMO, which I only know from Xwords.
"Heart Eyes or OK Hand"- it took a few perps as I don't pay attention to any EMOJI or try to decipher any emoticon. Never read any "People Magazine" either.
FEAR the Turtle? thanks perps
Jinx- Lenin is still the editor. Anon@10:14- LAT just laid off 115. Losing money has a way of making management change their ways.
Lucina- KOBE didn't write the book, a ghostwriter did. Other than Carrie Fisher I don't know of any celebrity who actually wrote any book attributed to them. That also goes for most politicians.
Ray-O-Sunshine- there was an article in yesterday's WSJ about the new appliances that basically says they are not lasting and are too expensive to repair. Get the washer with the LEAST features and it will last longer; not as many sensors. Keep your old dishwashers, washers, dryers, and fridge.
I am so dense sometimes, of course VIRGINIA WOOL is not a real thing anymore than TRIAL BRIE.
ReplyDeleteI’m so glad to see so many cornerites liked this puzzle.
Naomi Z I agree. I winced.
ReplyDeleteYesterday we had tataki as a method of Japanese cooking. Tataki is marinated and seared so that the outside is cooked and the inside is raw. It is sliced thinly. Tataki means pounded in Japanese but it is not the meat or tuna that is pounded, but the fresh ginger for the marinade. These days instead of pounding it can be grated on a microplane or a very fine shredder.
Let’s start with what I DID like. I liked the premise of the theme, although I got the unifier before I figured out any of the theme entries, and I liked having to struggle for my FIR. I thought “Sound of the Northwest” was excellent misdirection and that using “parents” as a verb worked for those of us who knew Kanga is the sole parent in “Winnie The Pooh.” I also liked the “bass” misdirection and figuring out “FEAR the turtle.” Thanks, Blake.
ReplyDeleteI’ve had a crush on Lisa Loeb ever since I saw her on “Later (with Bob Costas)” in the Nineties. Yummers.
On the minus side: First of all, “tromp” is one of those non-words coined by the sort of people who “sop up” gravy. At the other end of the intellectual spectrum, you’d have to be a real egghead to ascertain the “focus of Maslow’s hierarchy” without perps. . . . I don’t think “rasp” denotes toughness. . . . Even when I realized the “Lays aisle mate” must be some sort of corn or potato chip, I didn’t know UTZ (and neither does spellcheck, by the way). . . . I guess, as a former sports journalist, that I shouldn’t have had so much trouble coming up with FedEx Cup, but those of you who are not former sports journalists were entitled to a better clue.
But my real quibble is with the crossword editor. It seems to me that “emo” is a proper clue for its fellow noun “angst” but not for ANGSTY, which is an adjective. The PIN/blame entry didn’t quite parse, either. Am I the only person who wonders if Patti ever visits the Corner? She might learn something that makes her better at her job.
Our extremely bare-bones Kenmore washer and drier are still working fine after 37 years. I’m with Big Easy on this one.
Thanks, MalMan, for ‘splainin’ and for any and all Firesign Theatre references.
I hope that all solvers recognized that Virginia WOOL is a play on the author and playwright, Virginia WOOLf. Very clever constructing!
ReplyDeleteBeg Easy:
I'm flattered at your reference to me, but it was actually another commenter who made that reference. I am very well aware that most celebrities and politicians likely do not write their own biographies and often they acknowledge that somewhere within the books.
Finished everything but the SW corner, where I only had URSA.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t know ERR_TA. Looked it up in my Webster’s and errata is “a list of corrigenda.” Well that clears it up…
And the “Really” in the AVIATE clue ‘really’ threw me off. ROCKET would be a more appropriate answer. Or if the “really” is supposed to mean “actually”, well the phrase “to take off” in an airplane is not a literal expression. Taking off a clothing item, or say a tag from a purchased item, would be more literal usages of the phrase. Think I could’ve gotten it if the clue was just “Take off.”
But it was a fun, clever theme and f-stop brought me back to my photography days. Was afraid the “camera setting” clue was going to be a newfangled iPhone thing like ‘portrait mode’ or something…
Film speed, shutter speed and f-stop were the three components in determining a good exposure. And I believe fancy new digital cameras still have a setting to adjust the film speed, even though there’s no film!
Thanks to all for your kind comments. It's always nice when many different people find different things that "speak" to them.
ReplyDeleteCopy Editor @12:56, I am glad that you picked up on the Firesign Theater reference. I suspect that some folks here might believe that I conjured that one up myself.
Oops, gotta run . . . I'm waiting for the electrician.
Musings
ReplyDelete-A just right puzzle and write-up.
-I actually had to teach today and I am on the tired side.
Fun a Friday pangram. Thanks to Blake and MalMan. (Thanks for explaining SEIZE as Freeze-up!)
ReplyDeleteI FIRed and saw the missing F after BEE and ROO. (No, Ray-o, we don’t use that FSTOP like the British.)
We don’t have UTZ here, and I don’t know the FEAR turtle.
OKRA is not found here either but I WAGged it.
I smiled at AGED and OLD DOG (and then we had a MEOW).
BigE, Ray-o, Copy Editor - I think I have mentioned that I finally had to replace my 42-year-old Maytag washing machine a couple of weeks ago. It rusted out at a drain from the drum. I replaced it with another Maytag top-loader, dial controls. I love it. (The dryer is still going strong.)
Wishing you all a great day.
Thanks to Blake for a puzzle that was more difficult than yesterday's but also more engaging. Well done!
ReplyDeleteFAVs: Sound of the NW and Took second
The Visual aids took me a while to see
; )
Terrific review, MalMan! FAV: Blame it on the Bossa Nova. I think I'll go back and listen to it again....
Nice misdirection-ing, Blake — you made today’s job a real brain-buggah for me! Lots of fun stuff in this F-ed out cw 😆 And MalMan’s run-through pleased, as usual — can’t tell you how many years it’s been since I originally heard Frank’s “Saran Wrap” ditty — then a Tom Lehrer song to visit the other side of the musical spectrum…
ReplyDeleteOriginally had “speed” in place of FSTOP (ASA and ISO wouldn’t fit) but the perps finally forced in the correct fill. U of M took me to the proverbial V8 can hit; recalling that their team is the Terrapins rang the ol’ bell for FEAR.
No UTZ out here on the Left Coast — total unknown to me but PURSE and SEIZE solved it.
It’s finally drying out enough here in ol’ Smogopolis to go mow the jungle out back… D out!
====> Darren / L.A.
Thank you Blake for a Fine Friday FIR! Loved the Fheme, which took my a while to get.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for your tastefully reserved review MalMan. 😁
The last Few weeks have been Frightfully busy so I have just a Few Favs.
10A OKRA. I knew they were tubular, but it's even cooler that they're pentagonal!
16A LOEB. Is she the singer for the Simpsons?
20A ENS. I love these metas -- they can be quite tricky. My favorite was a three letter Fill for "Mamma Mia quartet": EMS.
43A GENTS. Worst pun.
44A ERRATA. Well, maybe not.
40F FEAR. I knew that.
Gotta go - Teri just got back with the sushi. TGIF in Lent!
Cheers,
Bill