Sat., 9/6 Don Gagliardo

[magus]

THEME:   none, but only 26 blocks!
   
GOOD ONES:     
Marching band?   ARMY [I thought ants at first]   
Sees the light, maybe   AWAKES [as in "he awakes to the sound of music"]   
   
BTW:   
"Free," in "land of the free"  ADNOUN [obviously some word found only on line]   
   
Cook poorly, in a way   UNDER BAKE [not buying this one either; it's "under cook"]   
   
BACOS must be a brand name, but what it's doing in a generic salad bar is a stumper: if it's a brand, it should be on a store shelf.   
   
James, again, briefly   CAV [LeBron James, that is]   
   
Spanish sky  CIELO [yes, not an English sky]   
   
RATING:   too forced for me   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

An adnoun is an adjective that is used as a noun, such as "meek" in the phrase "Blessed are the meek."

Editors used to forbid brand names in puzzles but nowadays brand names appear quite often. However, Betty Crocker's bacon bits are Bac-Os. Today's puzzle answer omits the hyphen. I consider BACOS to be an improper answer. And if I ever see a puzzle with JELLO for Jell-O, I'll complain about that one too!

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/bacos

[Howard B]

BTW, in general:
- Foreign words are perfectly acceptable in puzzles, as long as: used in moderation, fairly common words, and with some indication of the language in the clue.
- Words or phrases with any punctuation, diacritics, or markings are commonly accepted to be placed in the grid without those markings (so Bac-Os is always in the grid as BACOS) - this is standardized and accepted across all published puzzles. (Unless there is a special theme case that warrants inclusion of such symbols). So you can save one complaint .
Now the Spanish ano vs. año in the grid drives me crazy, but I've learned to live with it.

Finally: Specifically, many restaurant salad bars do use Bac-Os or some substitute. I've seen it in the wild  . The clue is valid.

Happy solving!

[magus]

Howard---
 
Foreign words are perfectly acceptable in puzzles, as long as: used in moderation, fairly common words, and with some indication of the language in the clue.

I agree, almost.  When was the last time you saw CIELO?  The problem is what is "fairly common."  Words like ETE and OTRA and OTRO are fairly common only in crosswords, and in their native languages, of course.  Unless the foreign word is part of a place name, like SANTA, ILA, ILE, ROSA, these words are rarely if ever used --- except in crosswords.

Finally: Specifically, many restaurant salad bars do use Bac-Os or some substitute. I've seen it in the wild  . The clue is valid.

If you say it's valid, who am I to argue, but did the bag at the salad bar say Bac-O's or did you simply recognize it through other sensory means?