Aven

@Fact Boy “I see Sally & Tom’s cat”, “I see their cat”. (Or, of course, as a singular, “I see the neighbour’s cat”, “I see their cat”). “Their” replaces the nouns on both those sentences. It is a possessive pronoun. The full declension is “they, them, their”, nominative, accusative, genitive. A pronoun does not have to be a subject: “him, her, us” are all pronouns, but they are accusative (function as objects).

@MRR And a nice, if grisly, touch that the crossing word is MAIM!

@Andrzej I agree with you, and I was a professor of Latin and Greek! While an introductory class in one or the other is a very helpful guide for English vocabulary and spelling, it’s by no means necessary for the majority of people. And having studied either language does not, alas, automatically make people more intelligent, witty, or enlightened.

@John I’m a Canadian who’s well aware of both the slang and the city and I never thought of HOSER — in fact I gave up on the puzzle and checked the answer key, which I haven’t had to do in many months, in part because I couldn’t get that corner of the puzzle. Normally I enjoy when Canada makes it into the puzzle, but it gave me no joy today.

@Wayne C And similarly, the sea anemone is named (I’d imagine) for its resemblance to the anemone, a flower on land. So the “sea” is necessary to distinguish it.

@Leslie Block there were five popes with the papal name SIXTUS. And Avia is a US brand of running shoe, as is Puma (or so I have gathered from this crossword over the years, since I have never seen or bought either brand).

@Mean Old Lady Agreed on the nesting quibble (though I have no real problem with it as a crossword clue). A pair of robins around our house built four successive nests this year and laid eggs in all of them; only two clutches made it to hatching, and only the last one resulted in actual birds leaving the nest (though even in that one only three of the four eggs hatched). Predators got all the rest.

@Man and 2 dogs yeah, never heard of padiddle, no idea about dah, that whole corner was a stumper for me. I don’t love a regional nonsense word as a key entry.

@Luke yes, I was confused by that clue, though it was obvious enough what the answer had to be. No Lords in the House of Commons, by definition!

@Bonnie Ah! Thank you! I’ve never heard that before—I guess I should have expected US military slang to be weirdly Roman. Much appreciated.

@Eric Hougland Yeah, I don’t object in the sense that I think they’re wrong or unfair, they just aren’t particularly pleasing or enjoyable for me. I agree that they’re often acceptable phrases that I wouldn’t say myself.

@alan mine kept reloading with a bunch of entries lost today as well, doesn’t happen often but the days it does it’s very annoying. (iPhone through the browser, for those asking)