Tom Z

@Steve L Agreed, based on (1). I initially used e because empaneling seemed right, but when it came time to fix my mistakes I noticed “empaling” is not a word. Bae was at least a word I recognized, but it had to be impaling. And impaneling seemed like it might be an alternate spelling or maybe I was just wrong.

@Andrzej I took a couple Russian classes so I know what you mean, but in the Latin phrase “a priori” which is used in English, what would you say “priori” means? Do you know how this declined form of the word got into this phrase where it’s not really linked with a noun or adjective? In any case I appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge about this subject which most Americans are totally unaware of.

@Marshall Walthew I don’t like the clue, but AMIRITE itself is so common it’s used in parodies of textspeak. It’ll be in the dictionary soon.

@Andrzej Beaucoup is a French word meaning “a lot”, popularized in America by military returning from Vietnam, a formerly French possession. The Rainmaker was a book by John Grisham (that I recommend), otherwise I probably wouldn’t know the term. Made into a successful movie I didn’t see. As Eli described, in the book it’s used to describe a lawyer that brings in big cases with big payoffs.

@Oikofuge I agree with your definition of morsel, and scrap can have a negative connotation , but I think scrap *can* mean anything “extra”, and also what’s a discard to one person can be a morsel to another, or to a dog. In a crossword puzzle, I believe the only thing required is that they *can* mean the same thing.

@Steve L I agree that it’s a legitimate clue, but try to find a sentence that uses “antediluvian”, where you can substitute “aged” and the sentence still makes sense and sounds right.

@Mean Old Lady I remember that Mary Tyler Moore episode well, but fortunately I initially just had an hazy notion that Count Orlaf sounded familiar, that got me TEENLIT, and for BARNONE I just had to change it to ORLOF. And then that K went in pencil until I remembered that Jordan was a person too.