LAT Tue. 7/14 Chuck Deodene

[magus]

Clever theme, but I almost missed it.  A clue would have been helpful, and easy.  In the lowest right hand corner YET could have been MSS.  The clue could have been "Manuscripts, and a clue to the theme." [MASS, MESS, MOSS, MUSS].  EGO would be changed to ONS, and BRO would be changed to DRE [as in the rapper Dr. Dre].  See below.

O D O M
U R N S
T E S S

I liked "Whopper of a meal" for FEAST. [don't normally consider McDonald's a feast]

As for "Enero or mayo" cluing MES, I don't know why Spanish for month is fair game when other Spanish and other foreign words are not.  What makes MES a word anyone but those who know Spanish would know?  I suppose it would be a fair argument that the words across are easy enough.
 

[Eric Maddy]

I'm not sure why MES is any less fair game than ETE ("When the French fry?") or AMOR ("Latin love") or FRAU, and you know those pop up often. Same with MAI, DREI, and others....

As for "Enero or mayo" cluing MES, I don't know why Spanish for month is fair game when other Spanish and other foreign words are not.  What makes MES a word anyone but those who know Spanish would know?[/move]

[magus]

Eric---
I guess I see amor and Frau and drei and to a lesser degree ete in English texts and in drama dialogue.  I just don't ever recall seeing mes, except in Xwords.  I know we must give lattitude to constructors in order to get interesting puzzles, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.  I would draw that line at foreign words which very rarely are written or spoken in English.  Mes is one of those words.  Ete may be right on that admittedly subjective line.

ATM

[Eric Maddy]

Point taken -- like "crosswordese", I think we'd both like to see the foreign words not in common usage kept to a minimum.