Blessed Saturday

To Fio, a good crossword puzzle is one she can breeze through in about fifteen minutes, like the ones the daily newspaper used to carry day after day. Egret, aerie, ebon, oboe, opal, ode, Audi--she knew all the words, even the smattering of French--ete, avec, tete, amie.

Then the paper introduced a new crossword puzzle writer--not overtly, of course, but Fio could tell the puzzles were different. Where were all the old familiar, uh, faces? It was taking Fio half an hour and an occasional Google consult to finish the puzzle!

Ah, blessed Saturday. From "Groucho's brother" to "Sherpa's sighting," "exiled Roman poet" to "Asian desert" to "sea eagles" to "zones," "pouches," and "little devil," Fio knew them all.

Welcome back, former crossword writer, and please, like Dolly, never go away again.