Thu., 12/17 Jeff Stillman

[magus]

THEME:   magazine names starting random phrases
   
GOOD ONES:     
Financial magazine tracking device?   FORTUNE COOKIE   
Rolled-up news magazine drifting at sea?   TIME IN A BOTTLE [pretty big bottle needed]   
Pot boiler   STOVE [not a good read: potboiler]   
Drilling gp.   ROTC [I thought dentists]   
   
BTW:   
Pleasant surprise   TREAT [yes, but treats are too often not surprises]   
   
Back in the day   ONCE [I prefer ONCE to "Back in the day" --- probably because back in the day "back in the day" did not exist.]   
   
Final: Abbr.  ULT [I don't know who if anyone uses ULT, but I do know that with three simple steps ULT would not be needed:  UNTO>UPTO; LEON>SOON; TOSS>NESS.  That would mean that Down we would have USN [Navy] instead of ULT and POE instead of NEO.     
   
   
   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

Time In A Bottle was a posthumous number-one hit for Jim Croce in December 1973. He had written the song after his wife Ingrid told him she was pregnant. It begins, "If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do is to save every day till eternity passes away, just to spend them with you." The song was released as a single after Croce died in a plane crash in September 1973. How sad it was to know that he died and then hear him on record singing about mortality and wanting to have more time. 

Another magazine-related answer in today's crossword was ELLEFANNING for "Cooling oneself with a fashion magazine?" Mary Elle Fanning, the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, goes by her middle name and has had roles in many films including Trumbo, Super 8 and We Bought A Zoo. She starred as Princess in Aurora in Disney's Maleficent (2014).

Also in today's puzzle: OREO ("Snack choice"). As long as crossword puzzles continue to be published, the manufacturers of Oreo and Atra and STP will never have to worry about the public forgetting their products!