I've noted before that one of the great things about crosswords is that everyone knows something about something and if you find one fact that intersects your knowledge pool, it suddenly means you can chip away at an otherwise impossible puzzle. The Friday February 15 puzzle by Patrick Berry (answers) gave me two such opportunities.
I happened to know Toscanini which gave me a long clue along the top, and one of my favorite films is NINOTCHKA so that gave me something in the bottom half and I was off to the races.
I especially admired "Bands of holy men" becoming CLERICAL COLLARS and the special appearance by Binky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. I spent a lot of quarters on that quartet in my foolish youth. I'm so glad that I'm now well into my foolish adulthood.
