FriNYT gripe

[rhu]

58A: Natural gas components. ETHANES.

I don't think this works. Yes, ethane is a component of natural gas. Here's NI3 on the subject:

a colorless odorless water-insoluble gaseous paraffin hydrocarbon CH₃CH₃ occurring in natural gas, produced as a by-product in the cracking of petroleum, and used chiefly as a fuel or as a source of ethylene by dehydrogenation

But I don't think this is a case where one can pluralize a valid clue to get a valid clue for the plural. Water is a component of blood; could you clue WATERS as "Blood components?" I don't think so, even though WATERS could be "Evian and Dasani, for two" or "I came to Casablanca for the ____".

NI3 does say that you can pluralize ETHANE by adding -S, and I can certainly think of a situation in which a chemist might need to. "One usually finds a mixture of normal ethane with ethane in which one of the hydrogen atoms is actually deuterium. The two ethanes can be distinguished by their total atomic weight."

But "Natural gas components"? I don't see it.