Elke

You are my favorite, no offense to Ms Lovinger or Ms Corbin. I will miss your column immensely. I'm sorry for your unfortunate ear worm. Mostly because my husband died recently, my ear worm is Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, Time to Say Goodbye. All day , every day.

Sorry Sam, it’s up to me to put a meal on the table every evening.. TACO PIE was an inspiration and what I’m making tomorrow.

Can we talk about BONG? As a regular meditator, I confidently filled in Aums ( not OM as frequently spelled ). When the crosses fit not, I thought Gong. Bong, my friends, is something else entirely. That's all.

Sam’s choices about words she’d never encountered, LARIAT, PEPPILLS and in the comments, I GIVE, are pretty common words/phrases to me. Is it a regional difference, an age difference or a provincial mindset? I was happy there were no pop culture references . The - was fun once I figured it out.

What a very clever theme! Probably my favorite ever.

Fun way to start my day’s festivities! I decided no tree for me this year and strung golden ribbons across my front window and hung my favorite ornaments, illuminated by a frame of Christmas lights and cranberry garlands. This will leave more room for my guests of all religions and denominations, but mostly one political persuasion, to gather and celebrate. That’s was a long way to go to say, I loved the pop up tree and the 🅾️’s Happy Christmas. Merry Hanukkah and Joyful Holidays to all.

Street fare before STREETFAIR

Rarely have I enjoyed a Friday puzzle as much! I had to look-up VASCO and AUNT was confounding my morning brain, but the crosses and clues made this puzzle a joy. Good luck in college.

STL was my downfall. Not a sports fan at all so idk ARI , but when I SLIMED and DIAL’ed, I heard the happy music.

Star Trek and x-word fan here, I was looking for characters’ catch phrases, but this was better bc a non Trekkie could get it too! ( thanks Ms. OBVO!) The cluing was tricky, which made my brain stretch.

TIL MARIO’s first name is “ITS AME”. It’s not certain that all pyramids are tombs. Am I the only one here who knows what SIGIL is? Very clever anagrams.

I thought maybe it was a rebus and had BURLESQUEbiSQE until the music didn’t play.

Sorry, I’m not up on modern slang. It irks me when the meanings of words change and no one sent me the memo. And then I require an explanation and get an eye roll of contempt. I’m also not a fan of that phrase every one uses all the time, “ hear me out”.

Spoiler.. awol instead of AMOK at the bitter end