Here’s day 2 of this experiment, quick before I run off to bed. Not too hard: I will give it a 4 out of 10.

So I was curious about “lop” (50 across) and I had to look it up, because I grew up talking (occasionally) about “loping shears.” Yet my bedside dictionary is telling me there is such a word as “lopping.” I guess maybe I have heard “lop” a few times, but only as “He’s gonna lop his fingers off,” not in a discussion of gardening tools.

The same little dictionary lacks the word “scut” but I am too tired to look it up properly. We got here some Roman numeral math (23 across) and the first appearance of fabled Oran (68 across). But that’s all for now; I’m already prasleep (Weary Fugee?).