HEK

@Tristan 1) Eponymous just means something named after someone (like Pop Warner football). 2) To eke is to barely manage, as in he/she "eked out a living." 3) 45 across is properly clued. If someone says "Stop with that," they could also say "Oh, c'mon." 4) Cos. means companies, in this case ISPs (Internet Service Providers), which "provide connections."

@Veronika I'm always impressed that non-native speakers can do English language crosswords at all. Re the "heard it through the grapevine" phrase, check out Marvin Gaye's song of the same name. You'll remember it always.

@Dave Don't like to admit it, but I'm just warming up at the 20-minute mark. I've given up on time for these end-of-week puzzles. For me, success is no lookups. Today I was successful.

@RisDrewAndRu That word always makes me remember, un-fondly, Nixon VP Spiro Agnew, who called his foes "nattering nabobs of negativism."

@Billy Hendricks In general, it's not a good idea to give hints to other wordplay games regardless of how they are phrased. Your comment inevitably came to mind when I later did Connections, rendering me unsure of whether I would have come to the connection on my own or not.

@Sarah Cheer up, the day is still young.

@ad absurdum Speaking again of Nathaniel Hawthorne, his stories are collected in a compendium entitled "Twice-Told Tales," to which I assume the clue refers.

@Lori I just put in an "f" and it was accepted.

@Mark. I'd had "coopt" instead of "adopt" for far too long. I don't object to the clueing, however. Note that the clue isn't "takeover"; it's "take over," which I believe is fair.

@Helen Wright Just to pile trivia on top of trivia, it might (mildly) interest you to know that the 4 "H's" in 4H are "Head, Heart, Hands & Health." 4H is a club for kids that's especially popular in rural areas, probably because it focuses heavily (although not exclusively) on raising and caring for animals, large and small.

@Michael I thought Big Love was a gimme. What other (very popular) show from that era involved polygamy and began with "Bi"?!

@Nancy J. My thought exactly. While I can appreciate how difficult it must have been to come up with those pairs of words and fitting clues, that was all on the puzzle constructor. The puzzle solvers (us) only had to fill in the blanks, which wasn't very difficult.

@pat in oregon I'll have what she's having.

@Steven M. One person's natick is another person's gimme. Just have to accept it.

@Cas "Lahr" (as in Bert Lahr) is useful to know for crossword puzzles. It appears frequently.

@Strudel Dad "Chomping at the bit" rather than "champing...," although the former has actually become acceptable because it's incorrectly used so frequently. It's still wrong, and here's why: The phrase comes from horse racing. A bit is part of the apparatus that goes in the horse’s mouth and connects to the bridle and reins so the horse can be controlled and directed by the jockey on its back. The bit fits into a toothless ridge of the horse’s mouth, so the horse never really bites the bit. But it can grind his teeth or jaw against the bit, and if it does, it means that the horse is either nervous, or really excited about racing. That’s how the phrase “champing at the bit” entered everyday communications: to indicate extreme eagerness. It's also wrong to say “chomping,” because “chomping” is a transitive verb, or a verb that needs an object for it to make sense. In other words, you have to have something to chomp on if you want to use “chomp.” A horse doesn’t chomp, or bite, the bit—he champs, or grinds, his teeth. No bit is necessary for a champing to happen, so champing is an intransitive verb, which means no “object” is required.

@R.S. There's a tart response here just begging to be made, but I will refrain.

@Abigail Friedman Or you could just continue on your current path until you find yourself in negative, below zero, numbers.

@Hamish. I wouldn't bother adding that "word" to my vocabulary, if I were you. In this case, the "in a way" added to the clue seems to mean "in a way you'll never hear outside a crossword puzzle."

@Nathan Wang I'll bet you knew Bert Lahr, though, didn't you? :)

@DIVAS IVLIVS I'd wanted it to be Bierhall.

@Barry Ancona (and retired, with cat): Thanks. I see it now.

@Rod D I think the "dupe" part refers to duplicating something. So, one who's able to ape (copy) something really well might, at least in x-words, be called a "superduper."

@john ezra When I think of the word "fain," this old hymn comes echoing back from my childhood: Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand, the shadow of a mighty Rock within a weary land; a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way, from the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day. I believe I've tried to use it in Spelling Bee, but it wasn't accepted.

@Jane Wheelaghan Reup is definitely "a word that's used." Although it's also heard in other contexts, it's commonly used by military people when they are deciding whether to end their service or sign up for another deployment. I think it may be a combination of "sign up" and "re-enlist."

@Brad And especially not in the 60s to which the clue was referring (as I realized much later than I should have).

@David Then you should chalk that up as a "TIL" ("today I learned"). It's actually a fairly common phrase.

@Steve L Ignoring the sarcasm, I did actually check before commenting. Merriam-Webster lists three meanings: 1) the basic monetary unit of Japan ; 2) a strong desire or propensity, urge, or craving (noun) and 3) an intransitive verb if used as yenned or yenning.

@Lori For black heart, I believe it means that the "heart" of black is its middle letter, a, which is a short (as opposed to long) sound. Rather infuriating, but I suppose I should have seen it eventually. (I didn't.)

@Horsefeathers The phrase is actually "call ON the carpet," and I believe it relates to the idea of someone being summoned for a reprimand and having to stand in front of a superior's desk in an office that (probably unlike that of the person being reprimanded) actually has a carpet.