Charles

Just a note about amend and emend. Clearly similar roots and related meanings (something's going to change in both), but they are not not identical words. With amend there is a substantive change as in an amendment to the Constitution. Emend involves changing words so as to improve the text without changing the substance. Was I misled by my teachers?

I find some satisfaction in being old enough to know when MCI happened and then didn't exist any more. I will say that if you didn't know ASTI it's almost like not knowing OREO.

Make an 'S' out of an 'I'? Child's play : $

When I was a child there was a cartoon where a male character says to a female character, "Gee, you're awful pretty". The female responds , "You're pretty awful yourself." For the Erotic Artist's work to be barely seen, the viewer needs to be either 1) nude while viewing, or 2) almost blind.

So now I wonder - if I travel from the US to the UK and and text someone from my smart phone does autocorrect add a 'u' in words like colo(u)r? Does it replace the 'z' in organize with an 's'?

MIXTADE was funny. Foiled by your own hand! Makes me feel less stupid when I do something like that.

I appreciate the warnings from everyone. I like clever wordplay, but don't care much for made up words, so there is good and bad imo with this puzzle. I don't blame the constructors, though - I blame the editors that approved it.

I'm pretty much a geezer and more comfortable with paper. For me it's easier to navigate to 'gimmee' clues so as to get help for the non-gimmee clues.

Your subs filled in admirably, but it is good to see you back. And even though bulls have two horns, in most cases they can only hit you with one at a time, so singular horn seems right to me.