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Good morning, Jazzgirl!
Some very nice tributes to Mikey.
As you say, "News" won't be the same without him.
He posted on many sections, but his favourite was "News".
Poor Mikey!

Good morning, Rusty!
I am late back from my walk this morning.... ....we walked a long way!
It is a beautiful morning here, too......blue sky, (watery) sunshine and frosty....
So hard ground equals clean (er) dog!
That is good news indeed about the Olympics.....it is encouraging when we put up a good show.
Yes, that is a nice gesture from the AB editor to make Mikey's "tribute" thread a "permanent" fixture.
There is a big response........
I have just spoken to my younger daughter on the phone - it is her birthday today!
YB's birthday, too, a week on Saturday, so we have decided to have a family outing then to celebrate both events together!
That will be good......
An easy day today.......

Hello, Elle!
No harm in an easy day!
Me too!
I've been watching the Olympics.
I found the puzzle on the easy side today?
And no new words for me today!

Update for Elle, Jazzgirl, and Malone.
DTC has posted an update of what happened to Mikey, on the "Mikey" thread.
It makes for sad reading.

Rusty, thanks for the Mikey update. Yes, it was sad to read, but I console myself with the fact that Mikey was very much Mikey until cruel fate intervened.

hi rusty
Yes, I have been reading the update.
Mikey and his little dog Willy are now together again.
Bless them both

I can't seem to function properly today, as I have been in tears most of the time, like others. Although I never met Mike in person, I have "followed" him on AB for 7 years

Hello, Malone and Jazzgirl.
Poor Mikey. Poor Willy.
He was a very popular man on AB.
Always up for a debate.
Hard to realise he will never post again.
I think it was in December he posted that he was due to get a heart valve op this year.
A great shame!

Hi, Rusty!
Thanks for the update on Mikey.
It is indeed a very sad situation.........and worse somehow hearing about the little dog.......
Although at least master and hound will be together now.
We are feeling very down here, anyway, having only just taken on board the loss of our own friend.
Yes, I thought today's crossword "comparatively" easy.
I liked 11a, 1d and 25 especially.
I was on the wrong lines with the parsing for 15a at first....
I wanted to use "est" from established...but of course it is as follows, I think
divest = strip (def)
Dives - rich man
t - final letter of joint.
No new words for me, either!
How is your sport going?

Hello, Elle!
Yes, a shame for Willy, too!
It was somewhere in Cornwall that Mikey had a caravan.
Dives was the rich man, seeing as I could not fit Midas in!
I was thinking of quibbling with 1d, thinking "PS" should have been "PA" for "secretary", but Chambers assures me that PS is an abbreviation for "private secretary".
So all's well, and thank you, setter!
I have come away from the sport.
I was cheering the Jamaican and Nigerian women in the bobsleigh!
I thought that them participating, is just great, no matter where they finished!