Tuesday, January 23 2024, Patrick Maher

Lifted from the Periodic Table is the theme of today's puzzle.  Four chemical elements appear in the grid, as suggested in the central revealer "Principles for good prose..." - ELEMENTSOFSTYLE: OXYGENMASK, LEADAPRON, GOLDGLOVE and TINFOILHAT.  Neat!  Stylish, even.  As for how literal these references are - I was unsure about whether the Gold Glove was actually made of gold, so I looked up and yes, it's got gold lame on it, so everything's on the up-and-up.  The four elements even have a metallic nature in common, though if you want oxygen to be metallic, you have to cool it way down and apply a tremendous amount of pressure to it.  No practical application there that I know of, but still, neat to know.

What else, what else .. no real impediments to report.  I'd never heard of EGGCREAM and so the fact that it contains neither EGG nor CREAM rates a mild "huh" from me.  Brilliant QMC in the middle - 'Bad match on tinder?' is ARSON.  Love it!  Who knew that a LLAMA could guard sheep?  I guess nothing deters a marauding wolf quite like getting spat on.  :)   Amazing that VANNA White is still around, presumably still turning letters on Wheel of Fortune, which I haven't watched in decades.  She's immortal!

Not much else to report.  If I hadn't typed in OWNUP instead of OWNIT for "Take responsibility for something" down at the bottom, I'd have been sub-2:30 on this one.  Instead - FWOE (or is it FWTE?)...womp womp.....

-philbo