Thu., 1/29 Marti DuGuay-Carpenter

[magus]

THEME:   the word TEN spans two entries on the same grid row
   
GOOD ONES:     
Question about change {& theme}   CAN YOU BREAK A TEN   
It's about a foot   SHOE   [two ways]
Center of gravity?   VEE   
Traffic stopper?   NARC [drug traffic]   
Bordeaux bean?   TETE   
   
BTW:   
"I won't hurt you"   NICE DOG [in some cases; more often NICE DOG means "Don't hurt me"]   
   
"Wait for me"   STAY HERE [The construction game is to try to find a meaning that does not come immediately to mind.  While that is most fun for individual terms; it seems awkward for phrases.  "Wait for me" mostly suggests "don't lose patience" rather than "stay in one place."]   
   
Cleave   ADHERE [oddly, cleave can mean the opposite]   
   
Wonderful container?   BREAD BIN [while I do not like this clue because I think it's too far afield, the fact is it was good enough to make me immediately think Wonder Bread]   
   
Costing more   DEARER [the last time I heard this meaning of dear was by my grandmother (bilingual immigrant)]   
   
   
RATING:    
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

I haven't heard DEAR used as a synonym for "expensive" since 1967, when Paul McCartney sang, "Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight if it's not too dear" (When I'm Sixty-Four).

And yes, CLEAVE can mean "adhere" or its opposite, just as DUST can mean to apply dust or to remove dust. And then there's FLAMMABLE and INFLAMMABLE, which can somehow be synonyms.

Recently I've noticed quite a few puzzles containing several individual black squares which are not connected to any other black squares, not even diagonally. A new trend in puzzlecrafting?