[magus]

Oily Friends

Theme: O-P-E-C in phrases
Major oil conferences and {theme}   OPECMEETINGS

  Tums target   AGITA [I use the word which means acid in Italian; but unlike, say, tiramisu, it’s still a foreign word that is yet to be adopted by our lexicon.]

RATING:    Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = No fun

[DrewE]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought AGITA was questionable at best...I'd never heard the term.  Some online dictionaries claim that it's been current since the 1980's; apparently it skipped Vermont.

I thought there were some unsportingly nasty crosses in this puzzle, particularly among the bunch of names in the northeast corner:  PENELOPECRUZ and ANNEMEARA crossed with LINC, LEEZA and MURTHA seems unsporting to me.  Those are not especially guessable names even with most of the letters, so they mostly fall in the "you know it or you don't" category.  AGITA and RANIS wasn't too nice, either...and it's only Wednesday.