Fri., 4/3 Jim Quinlan

[magus]

THEME:   second letter of a phrase is doubled to create a different phrase
   
GOOD ONES:     
Marshmallow that's been toasted too long?   GOO UP IN FLAMES   
Response to  drone   YAWN [already I'm thinking flying machines]   
Zeus' beginning?   ZETA   
It might blow up in a crash   AIRBAG   
Shade at the shore   AZURE   
Socket set   EYES [I thought wrenches]   
   
BTW:   
Joe sans jolt   DECAF [I thought Joltin' Joe DiMaggio --- who oddly sold Mr. Coffee]   
   
Gave notice   QUIT [not the way I see it; the notice is the intention to quit --- still committed to work there for some time]   
   
Enero is not used in our language, but for some reason it is used often in Xwords (must be the vowel/consonant configuration)   
   
RATING:    
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

I second the motion: "Give notice" is not the same as QUIT. In addition to ENERO, the foreign words ZETA, EINE, IRAE and LOCO were among the answers. And does ALP as a singular word ever appear anywhere except in crosswords? I doubt it. Another word that I never see anywhere except in crosswords (including today's) is ASEA. And how about UTNE, which was in today's crossword? That's another common crossword answer...but how many people have ever even seen a copy of Utne Reader? The quarterly publication was founded in 1984 by Eric and Nina Utne. The website is http://www.utne.com/

[magus]

I relied yesterday but somehow it did not post, so I'll try again.

Foreign words, in my book, are okay if they are used in our language --- often in names.  So Eine is part of a famous classical music title; Zeta is used in Greek college organizations; IRAE is part of a prayer title; and LOCO is part of the Latin phrase in loco parentis or the term for crazy we got from the Spanish.  I hold, but in this I am in the minority, that words from elementary foreign language classes when not used in our language are not fitting in English puzzles.  Maybe I'm loco.