Tom

@Hitch > And 'counting noses' is not a term anyone ever uses. You sure? "Like the Toronto researchers’ report, the new Portland chamber study uses cellphone data to count noses." <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/08/downtown-portlands-recovery-better-than-advertised.html" target="_blank">https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/08/downtown-portlands-recovery-better-than-advertised.html</a> "Then on Nov. 1, we count noses, decide we're all here, and we don't have to worry for the next 364 days." <a href="https://www.startribune.com/trick-or-treating-dead-not-really-but-it-s-been-tamed/453094623" target="_blank">https://www.startribune.com/trick-or-treating-dead-not-really-but-it-s-been-tamed/453094623</a> "'I’ve got to count noses and also count how they’re gonna vote,' Durbin said, 'I can’t predict all will be called. I’m not sure yet.'" <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/dianne-feinstein-back-dc-still-missed-another-vote-rcna83794" target="_blank">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/dianne-feinstein-back-dc-still-missed-another-vote-rcna83794</a>

@97Bravo STON doesn't mean anything, nor was it meant to. The squares are highlighted to make the shuffling in the paired clues a little more obvious, but the puzzle would have worked just as well (maybe better, given the confusion so many people seem to have had) if it had not highlighted any squares at all.