Dorothy

"However, never let two obscure words or names cross." - from the submission guidelines RAMOS/TOJO was my downfall on this one. Otherwise, fun and inventive!

Agree with others that it was way too easy for a Friday. Hopefully tomorrow's puzzle will be a challenge. And of course we must not notice that the clue for MENOPAUSE fails to refer to the fact that only some people go through it. I cannot specify which people, or use the word "biological", for fear of being accused of a hate crime. J'ACCUSE, indeed.

Tricky solve, but seeing ELAL made it all worthwhile. :)

I finished it in 9:19 and was thinking "this was a good Wednesday puzzle", then looked up my average Wednesday solve time and found it's 11:29. (An average Saturday is 24:09.) So basically this was an easy Wednesday or a mildly challenging Tuesday (average 8:30). Ho hum, to the archives I go. Haven't heard SERVIETTE since the 90s but perhaps it's still used down south.

Deb - The production desk sounds like a nightmare to work with. You were given an assignment, then told off for doing the assignment comprehensively?