Monday's puzzle solved: January 1, 2018

My time: 6:06.

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Matthew Sewell celebrates the first day of the calendar year with... a fire theme?  Why?  Couldn't we have some fun "new" theme or something (with Nova Scotia, New England, novelist, etc)?  Or maybe one that featured celebratory answers like firework, champagne, etc?  But no.  We get songs with fire in the title.  Jon Bon Jovi's "torch song" is "BLAZE OF GLORY," the Trammps is "DISCO INFERNO." Ho-hum.  It's a perfectly adequate theme, but why today?

AAAA batteries are really a thing.

Here's the Bangles' "ETERNAL FLAME."  Not really my cup of tea.

CUZCO (or Cusco) is a city in southeastern Peru.  It was the capital of the Incan Empire for a few centuries.  The name apparently comes from an indigenous phrase meaning "rock of the owl."

Pablo Picasso had a daughter named PALOMA Picasso who is a designer of jewelry and perfumes.  She is represented in some of her father's works.

E-3 in the Army is a designation for enlisted rank grade.  E-3 is a PFC, while E-9 is a Sergeant-Major.

I'm not too familiar with FedEx rival DHS.  I had *UPS at first.

OMS ("yoga chants") is a terrible fill.  As is OYS ("kvetchers' cries").  Ugh.

A pretty basic Monday, nothing too clever or fun.  AWL be looking forward to better ones in 2018.