1A DONS is crossed with 2D OMERTA, and I thought this would be a dangerous puzzle. It wasn't, but it was clever. An anagram of a theme answer [
GALLERY] is used to tie in ARTLINKLETTER, NATIONALDEBT, PRESSCHARGES, and PEANUT
ALLERGY. I suppose purists might not like mixing verbs with nouns, but this was fun.
I liked
"Raise canines?" for TEETHE but not
"Meted (out)" for DEALT. I think
doled would be better. We don't "deal out," we "dole out."
