MONDAY PUZZLE — The last time we saw Yacob Yonas, he and his collaborator, Alan Southworth, were enthused about super heroes. Today, Mr. Yonas and veteran constructor Erik Agard offer us a smooth and entertaining crossword puzzle with which to open our solving week.

Tricky Clues

16A/53A: On Thursday, we had the phrase OOH AND AHH and in this puzzle, we get to both OOH and AAH separately.

26A: For me, the “High point of winter?” is all the holiday food I get to consume (Three cheers for Thanksgiving!), but if you interpret “high point” another way, the answer would be an ICICLE, which hangs from a high eave.

49A: Before I started solving crosswords on a regular basis, I had no idea what the phrase “Nota BENE” meant. But because I like to learn from my puzzles, I looked it up and learned that not only was the answer BENE, but that the phrase is what the notation “N.B.” stands for. And now, as I like to say, I know.