The spicy May 28 crossword

[Thomps2525]

Pancho Harrison is a musician who spent time in jail for a traffic offense. While there, he started solving solving newspaper crossword puzzles to help pass the time. When he got out, he decided to try to create his own crosswords. His first appeared in March 2009 in the New York Times. His puzzle today is titled "Subtly Seasoned" and includes the names of different spices and seasonings within seven phrases:

Axioms: UNIVERSALTRUTHS
Paid informants: NEWSAGENCIES
Dietitian's recommendations: HEALTHYMEEALS
Brahms and Clara Schumann, by most accounts: PLATONICLOVES
Poem title following "Gin a body meet a body": COMINTHROTHERYE
In danger of being towed: PARKEDILLEGALLY
Hospital emergency units: TRAUMACENTERS

"Healthy meals"? Language purists will say there is no such thing as a "healthy meal." Meals can be healthful but they can not be healthy since meals have no health at all. Unfortunately, "healthy" is now widely used as a synonym for "heaalthful" in the same way that "nauseous" is often used as a synonym for "nauseated." Arggh!

There have been many variations of Comin' Thro' The Rye. The earliest is The Duke of Buccleughs, published in 1690. The most well-known version, and the one quoted in today's crossword, was written in 1782 by Scottish poet Robert Burns. ("Gin" is a Scottish word meaning "if.") The poem is set to the melody of the old Scottish minstrel song Comin' Frae The Town, which is also the tune to which we sing Auld Lang Syne.

Johannes Brahms was 14 years younger than composer/pianist Clara Schumann, who was the wife of composer Robert Schumann. Was Brahms' and Schumann's relationship really platonic? A 2003 article in The Guardian describes the relationship as a "splendid mess":

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/apr/26/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures2

"Madre's hermana" is TIA, which is not used in English. "Diciembre follower" is ENERO, which is not used in English. "The same, in Paris" is EGALE, which is not used in English. "It meant nothing to Ravel" is RIEN, which is not used in English. And the crossword includes the much-overused words AIM, ERA, ERE, EEL, EAT, ECRU, OLE, OGRE, SST, STE and the Gillette razor ATRA. We also have RUER ("One who'd like to forget, maybe"). "Ruer," like "agape," "aroar," "asea" and "elhi," is a word I never see anywhere except in crossword puzzles.

Today's discussion concludes with Brahms' Lullaby:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t894eGoymio

And now I feel sleepy. Good night.