Laurie Almoslino

This puzzle was an absolute delight! Fun clues, great theme to match the weather, and I learned a few things like the small country and a music flair. It can't be easy to create a Monday-worthy puzzle that is still so much fun to solve. Warm winter hat off to you!

Deb, thank you once again. I had figured out the "fuse" theme, but was stuck on the Ivan Drago clue and on the top right section. After you graciously provided the Ivan Drago clue, the rest fell into place. I did have a couple of lookups; I try to look things up indirectly so I can learn about them rather than typing the NYT clue into Google.

As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives, Each wife had seven sacks, Each sack had seven cats, Each cat had seven kits: Kits, cats, sacks and wives, How many were there going to St. Ives? "Kits, cats, sacks and wives, How many were there going to St. Ives?". The riddle could be asking how many "kits, cats, sacks and wives" were going to St. Ives. The answer could be "none" or "unknown", since, as someone else pointed out, you can meet someone along the way. In fact, the "I" could probably move much faster than a man with seven wives, all weighed down by sacks containing cats and kits, so it is likely that one person would overtake such a laden group.

when i saw all those long entries, I didn't think I would finish this puzzle. But following Will Shortz's dictum that "it's ok to look it up", I looked up a few things like "c-store" and "Jewell" and slowly it all came together. Delightful cluing and misdirects! I was curious if the popular antiobiotic ointment had been in the crossword before. We always had a tube of it in our medicine cabinet when I was growing up. Have to admit I spent a while trying to figure out the length of shorts (kneehigh?) in Loony Tunes.