msh210

Oh, wait, did you mean solving it? I assumed you meant composing it.

@oAlt For you, it'd have been effortful. For me, impossible. For Jafe, I'm sure, it was a walk in the park.

@Jafe very impressive

@Stiv yes indeed

It's not like I type with my head.

@juicifer CCCC: Inside it are many different types of animals (including setter, horse), beheaded. Weird. (9)

(h/t)

@DanielS un break able

But I agree that saying so about Taiwan is beyond the pale.

@Stiv In this case, "nations/regions" instead of "nations" is actually a reasonable edit, since the list includes the Faeroe Islands.

@GentlePurpleRain so do I!

CCCC: Not just any Sith Eternal members (3)

They did, for a while.

@GentlePurpleRain reserves ddef. Nice clue.

Can "rounded" mean "with the last letter removed"? (Like rounding a corner of a paper by cutting off the very corner, or rounding a number by cutting off the last decimal places.)

"It takes a great mind to coalesce others' ideas." — Confucius, or someone

@Stiv good find, btw

Thanks for the clue, @juicifer — now I'll be able to remember how to spell apothecary without trial and error.

@oAlt As a native Usonian, I've always stressed the "po".

ah, thank you!

Ah! Grant = Cary. And administration…person = doctor per Jafe. So we get carydoctor, a potential leader.

yeah, but allowdoser isn't a potential leader (though tbh I haven't checked)

or doser, if "(the) Grant" can clue 5 letters

Collins and MW dictionaries online don't have any meanings of "carry out" that can apply to a person.

That's the primary reason I'm doubting it's &lit.

Serious question: If it's &lit, what does "carried out" mean in the surface? Literally borne from a room? Can it mean "kill" perhaps? (Wiktionary doesn't have that meaning, but I haven't checked elsewhere.)

I suppose you could say Horatio Seymour and Horace Greeley were potential leaders of the Grant administrations.

(and yes I'm kidding)

(still assuming it's an &lit)

and who was a potential leader of Grant's administration

A, potential = V, leader of Grant = G, so it's gotta be someone whose name starts with AVG

Grant administration was carried out by this person

@oAlt you got it

C4 hint.

This deserves more attention, really. Here…

CCCC: Old lady and solver hiding inside, not shifting (8)

@Avastar nah, it wasn't. "Man dates" was a poor solution.

h/t (for both of those possibilities) to wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/rules.html

Oh, it's protocol (rules) = proto- (first) col. (short newspaper piece).

@Avastar Is this possibly mandates (rules) = man dates (the headline of a hypothetical first short newspaper piece about Adam and Eve)?

@Jafe Nice. I like how "Rockefeller" and "Center in Manhattan" are separate units.

@oAlt The subtrahend could be the s.

Could you specify where in "underground" you'd insert the space, or would that be too big a hint?

@Stiv yes indeed

CCCC: Shortest distance: it's between your ears (4)

(from The Princess Diaries)

@GentlePurpleRain Mia's ma. Nice.

@GentlePurpleRain fair enough

@GentlePurpleRain or maybe the answer is repool?