COMBOS: THIS AND THAT
Credit: GAMES Magazine
December, 2011
Mike Graczyk (#1-6)

Each pair of three-letter sets below contains letters that appear in that exact order in a familiar two-word phrase - in the form of _____ and _____. Can you supply the missing letters necessary to reconstruct the phrases? For example, given the letters sets ALL  HAI, the answer would be BALL and CHAIN. The letter sets may or may not be in the familiar order. For example, ERS  HAP would be VERSE and CHAPTER - which you would switch to the familiar CHAPTER and VERSE. Each answer is at least four letters long.

1. OAK     DAG
2. AIL       OOT
3. GAR     PIC
4. LIG       HUN
5. MEO     LIE
6. MAN    PLY
7. RID       ROO
8. ARG      MAL
9. PEC       UNT
10. RIC      ORT
11. CTI      ACT
12. OSS     OFI
13. LOR     AUN
14. OTH     THE
15. IFE       USB
16. TRE     RAI
17. LOO    LES
18. LIV      CKI
19. RUI      EGE
20. ERT      STI

Answers:

1. Cloak and dagger
2. Tooth and nail
3. Sugar and spice
4. Thunder and lightning
5. Romeo and Juliet
6. Supply and demand
7. Bride and groom
8. Large and small
9. Hunt and peck
10. Brick and mortar
11. Fact and fiction
12. Profit and loss
13. Flora and fauna
14. Mother and father
15. Husband and wife
16. Stress and strain
17. Flesh and blood 
18. Alive and kicking
19. Fruits and vegetables
20. Liberty and justice

Note from JA: This puzzle could be extended to any of the hundreds of English expressions in the form of _____ and _____. As the expressions become longer, the puzzle becomes more challenging. This could be addressed through longer clue sets.