Monday, July 5, 2021, Peter Gordon

As I started to solve the Monday puzzle here on the evening of Sunday, July 4th, a barrage of fireworks exploded in the neighborhood, which completely blew my chances for a personal best. But seriously folks, I did have a RAREBIT of trouble with a Monday puzzle. I misspelled IDI (Amin) with an "E" even though I know better. Sometimes when there are two to options to choose between, and I know I've made the wrong choice before, I remember the wrong choice better than the right one, especially when I'm trying to be quick.

After correcting my error and completing the grid, I took a look at the shaded and circled squares. The shaded squares contain a multi-letter spell-out of the single circled letter that follows. EYEINTHESKY, for example. WHYYOULITTLE naturally brought The Simpsons immediately to mind. :)

I enjoyed a number of the clues as I went along, including "Undergraduate's declaration" (MAJOR), "Attire for the Mario Bros. or the Minions (OVERALLS), "Butter unit" (PAT), and "What can barely give a hoot?" (OWLET). Speaking of which, earlier this week I dug up my Harry Potter books to lend to Huygens, but for some reason started re-reading them myself. I finished the third book, HP & the Prisoner of Azkaban, tonight. I think I'll stop there, but who knows? The series seems to have cast some kind of spell on me. 

I liked the 2 sets of 3 9's in the northeast and southwest corners. Has anyone ever used their HOTELSAFE? Maybe only in a Nero WOLFE novel. And speaking of hotels, I appreciated all the non-English answers: olio di OLIVA, EAU, ARC de Triomphe, TIA, and of course ELLIBERTADOR, once I got his eye in the right place. 

~Frannie.