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Kate's kisser in classic tongue twister / WED 4-1-15 / 1925 Pulitzer Prize Edna Ferber / Smarter Planet company / Kurtis Mayfield's Move / Region off the Cote d'Azur / Irvin first art director of The New Yorker
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Constructor: Sharon Delorme
Relative difficulty: Wednesdayish
THEME: Hijinks! — A selection of jolly pranks for April Fools' Day.
Word of the Day: INDC [Visiting the Library of Cong., say] —
Hmmm, turns out this isn't a word. My bad. But I'd love to visit the Library of Kong.
• • •
Howdy, puzzlers. Rex is on vacation somewhere, so this is Doug filling in for PuzzleGirl, who is probably asleep right now. And I don't blame her. We had an amazing and utterly exhausting weekend at the ACPT.I considered doing some elaborate April Fools' Day post, but I'm sure Rex would get cranky emails if I posted a fake grid or made up extra theme entries. So let's just dive into today's puzzle.
Theme answers:
- 18A: JOY BUZZER ["Put 'er there, pal!"]
- 24A: DRIBBLE GLASS ["Here, have a drink"]
- 38A: SQUIRTING FLOWER ["Smell my corsage"] — This one sounds weird. I can't imagine someone coming up to me and saying "Smell my corsage." And sticking your nose into a woman's corsage is a good way to get your face slapped.
- 51A: TRICK CANDLES ["Happy birthday! Make a wish and blow"]
- 62A: PRANKSTER [Speaker of the clue for 18-, 24-, 38-, and 51-Across]
I like the old-timey vibe of the pranks, but I bet this puzzle disappointed some solvers, who were hoping for a wacky April Fools' Day-esque gimmick in the grid and/or the clues. Maybe the trick is that there is no trick. Did you ever think of that? So meta.
Bullets:
- 1A: SO BIG! [1925 Pulitzer Prize winner for Edna Ferber] — The actual title doesn't have an exclamation point, but I think it needs one. I'm trying really hard not to type "That's what she said," so let's just move on.
- 32A: ESAU [Kate's kisser in a classic tongue twister] — I have no idea. Let me Google that: "I saw Esau kissing Kate. I saw Esau, he saw me. And she saw I saw Esau." I want to add "... by the seashore" in there somewhere.
- 17A: STIEG [Larsson who wrote "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"] — Good timing on this clue. I read today that a sequel to the late Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy will be published in September. Cool.
- 42D: LOVE/HATE [Kind of relationship] — Nice entry. I also like 9D: COBWEB [Sign of disuse].
- 31A: OEN / 63D: NEO and 57A: OTRO / 2D: ORTO — Two sets of reversed entries. That's kind of weird. And they're all kinda ugly.
- 59D: ABBA [Group with the hit 1978 album "The Album"] — Let's go out on a high note with an ABBA/Van Halen mash-up.
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89 comments:
OKOK, so there was some crosswordese. But also a lot of great big fun entries, so this was a good solve.
Well, I guess it was "Wednesdayish" but it took me considerably longer than my normal time. I could never get in a rhythm, it was kind of herky jerky. Thumbs down from me.
Absolute, perfect timing for this puzzle. My 31/2yo (the 1/2 is very important) grandson just won't go to sleep, so I'm introducing him to crossword puzzles. What a gift today is, as he understands half the vocabulary here SO BIG! OWIE WAWA ABOO (He spit up at that one. Literally) DADA BAA. He just loved IBM.
Will, I can't thank you enough for this one.
@Benko
By the way, congrats on your ACPT finish!
The old-timey hokeyness of the theme gags is kind of cute, but the puzzle as a whole was just there. For every GAG ORDER and LOVE/HATE, there's an OK OK and an IN DC to cancel it out.
A fine Apr. 1 puzzle. Easy for me. Liked it.
Diane WIEST hasn't been on L & O in over a decade.
Why not a Tar Heel clue? It's that time of year.
Why not a film noir clue?
This was a cliff hanger for me as our internet server was down and I almost freaked thinking I wasn't going to get my Wednesday puzzle. I guess I could have worse addictions. Finally got up an hour later and I could finally breath. WOW, good thing I never got into drugs or I'd be a real chocolate mess.
Very easy one for me, zipped right through it. One hiccup, I've been with Jon since I was a sophomore in high school and filled in Long term before LOVE HATE, which I think is a better relationship to be in.
@wreck
Same here, took considerably longer than a typical Wednesday for me.
Hey, Doug – if you stretch it, you can add to your pairs GIRD in the grid. You made me laugh with the "by the seashore" comment. Actually that ESAU/WIEST cross did me in. I forgot to go back and guess, but I probably would have guessed S.
@jae. I know, right? Go Heels.
An incorrigible PRANKSTER, I liked this theme, though I've never tried out any of the themers. My go-to prank is always the paper clip/rubber band wound tight inside an envelope that prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrps like a big ole angry bug when you part the sides of the envelope. Good times.
I also worked out once with three middle school students to get this teacher, Mr. Sutton. I started it off in the morning by simply greeting him and briefly looking at his mouth and just walking on. Then 2nd, 5th, and 6th periods, each student asked him if he was wearing lip gloss. He came to me, concerned, asking if I had a mirror.
Just FYI, a lot of those spiffy travel coffee mugs become DRIBBLE GLASSES if you try to drink from them sans spiffy screw-on top. I'd say when you throw one of these mugs in your cart, swing around and grab a Tide pen, too.
I hated this puzzle and hated the words and hated the clues and hate what everyone has said so far. (of course, except @Zeke's IBM). Happy April Fools' day! Fool's. Fools.
In the spirit of our gracious substitute reviewer, @Doug Peterson (who I had the pleasure of seeing again at the ACPT this past weekend), I will play it straight on this post.
Within experimental error, one 365th of the world's population has a birthday today, and there is no reason their special event has to become a gagfest. Please try The Mighty Duck Scores 60 by @Marcia Brott and myself, which can be characterized as tricky but fair (no specialized knowledge required). We hope you like it as much as did the birthday person, a friend and fellow cruciverbalist whose identity emerges as the puzzle is solved.
This was worth finishing - just to come here and read @Zeke's post....
I had the hardest time getting into this thing and damn, where is the X??
Started off with Ferber's GIANT and did the same @chefwen LONG TERM and when I expand I ENLARGE....This was fast becoming a BUZZ kill.
I was so wanting to find some funny person whose last name was STER...
OKOK, it's April fools day. SO THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT....!
I've never quite understood much about this day although I will admit to buying those TRICK CANDLES once. I also bought some candypants for my sister.
Medium and needed the reveal to finish.
Dynamite cluing A ONE was a stretch.
Liked cluing----ABBOT, GAG ORDER, IDEAS and LOVE/ HATE.
CrosswordEASE--ERMA, B'NAI and OTRO.
Thanks SD and DP
Easy *for a wednesday.*
It's a good thing I wasn't here to review this puzzle today, because my review would have been: "nice concept for April fools' day, but the constraints of the theme answers proved too much for this grid and forced some of the worst fill I've ever seen. Ever. Seen. SOBIG, AMIE, DADA, ABOO, OEN, DOA (at least come up with a "dead on arrival" clue...), OKOK, INDC, NEBR, UNC (go with "tar heels" maybe?), ORTO, REA. No. No. No. Just. No. When you see this much dreck in your grid, start over. Any editor who would allow this past his eraser needs to be fired, and replaced with, well, me.
Wednesday Writeover Madness: Awl to ADZ; WIESs to WIEST (@jae - and for only one season, Michael Moriarty was on longer); Yep to YUP; Flunk to FAILS; arcS to LOBS. Closest to an Outhouse puzzle I've had on a Wednesday in awhile.
"SO BIG" is what she said. Of course, my height puts me three standard deviations taller than the mean so I hear that all the time.
"Region off the Côte d'Azur" gave, and is still giving, me a problem. Here is the first sentence in the Wiki article on the French RIVERIA, "Côte d'Azur" redirects here." What am I not seeing? How does "off" work here? It's almost like someone looked at the map in that Wiki article and misunderstood the labeling. Or are "côte" (and "coast") equally valid for the water as for the land? Anyone care to tell me how I'm wrong, and not the clue?
Got stuck on PUSSY (as one often does) at 68a.
evil
Another cool video of the ACPT:
Stamford ACPT 3/28/15
A nice clean Wednesday - good fun if not terribly scintillating. Showbiz types might have come up with something more current for poor Dianne Wiest, who's most recently been in the news for talking about her money troubles (marvelous actress, but apparently not much of a saver)...
Relatively easy Wednesday. I was looking for some kind of wild April's Fool theme too. But just this. I agree with DP, maybe it's some kind of meta un-funny joke thing. For example:
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Me.
Me who?
It's just me.
Uproarious.
Is GAGORDER a themer?
Nice to see my growing up state got a shout out after Utah got an entire grid/theme devoted to them. Yay team!
Otherwise, moving on to Thursday.
@Evil Doug: I'm not sure I know what you mean about "often" getting stuck on pussY. Care to post a link or a picture? I'm having a..er...difficult time understanding what you mean.
LALO/BAA got me.
Should have taken a crosswordese class in colleg.
Fun prankster puzzle!! Didn't know Diane Weist.
Happy April Fools day all.
@NCA Pres -
Knock Knock
Who's there?
To
To who?
Nope. It's "to whom."
Well NCA Pres I'll leave it to your imagination, but here's a nice song on the subject for you:
pussycat song
evil
Big DNF here. I have no idea what the them answers were. I did not get the pranks. Too much trivia related entries.
With only 1/3 of the blanks filled in I gave up.
Jeez, I wish the fake Evil Doug would just go away!
I thought the theme was delightful and most appropriate for April Fools' Day.
Great write-up, @Doug, and maybe you should think about changing your moniker from Laughing Boy to Eagle Eye. Loved your catch of the reversed answers ORTO/OTRO and NEO/OEN. I share your sentiment!
AUGUSTA yesterday and RIVIERA today. I'll be looking for another classic golf course tomorrow ...
PRANKSTER is a fun reveal and a fun word. Here's hoping I don't run into one today ... whoops! I already did ... you got me @George B!)
Thank you, Sharon Delorme!
Fake @evil at 7:30 and 7:55, Fake @George Barany at 7:42. It's easy to tell: Just click their names (in blue). Real posters have real profiles; trolls have private or hidden profiles.
Et voila.
Aw shucks, golly gee. And I was looking forward to an April 1 Wednesday, too! Next year, the Thursday theme will presumably be phrases in which the circled letters "A", "F", and "D" appear in order.
I agree with Doug that this was Wednesdayish; normal solve time with some fun along the way. I never heard of ESAU kissing Kate. "I saw ESAU on the seesaw."
@John Child, I didn't think to check on the fake George B post, thanks!
I think the April Fool's joke was the missing X; I spent a lot of time trying to find it. Other than that, a fun puzzle, not at all DOA. Pretty easy once you get the theme.
Thanks for the fun write-up, Doug!
I enjoyed the Van Halen / ABBA mashup video. Was that a coincidence? Van Halen appeared on Jimmy Kimmel last night and David Lee Roth's antics led to him getting 14 stitches in his nose!
I liked the puzzle. As many have said, a good theme makes up for dreary fill. JOYBUZZER and DRIBBLEGLASS were fun throwbacks. Also, the theme clues were not at first obvious, adding to the challenge.
Loved the clue for AROMA.
Referring to yesterday's puzzle, SAE is on the label of every can of oil, for Society of Automotive Engineers, a well-known and not bigoted group (I assume).
@Z - I paused too at RIVIERA.
An Irish cousin wrote down that she wanted to do her US study abroad semester in NE - New England. She was (correctly) sent to NEBR.
I always get a smile out of BAA in the grid, as it reminds me of our family favorite wrong answer...
My mom, who retains her beautiful accent, asked the grandkids - 3 letter word for sheep's cry of distress. BAA, they said. Of course, the real answer was SOS.
Puzzle was a trifle disappointing for April 1. But I don't know how Will could top my all time favorite, (which I would love to find again) that broke all the puzzle rules.
But I did like the GAGORDER theme.
Thanks Ms. DeLorme.
FAST fun for April One!
Enjoyed all of STIEG Larsson but now I'm into Asa Larsson's Swedish crime novels.
🌕🌕🌕 (3 mOOOns)
Had roil for BOIL and could not recall a Ferber novel titled Sorig but I did remember SOBIG it only took 5 minutes for me to discover my error. I am returning my MENSA card.
Alas no Whoopie Cushion or teeth blackening gum. Old neighborhood in NYC had a joke store. I suppose these days fake or stink bombs are not big sellers. Boring story ahead….
One April 1 a few merry PRANKSTERs acquired plenty-o-jokes and went to CBGB (circa 1974ish). The dribble glass and dry ice were a big hit. The stink bomb in the mens room went unnoticed as some of you old timers may appreciate.
To Evil and George, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
To the imitators, have a seat, no take this chair… plaaaaaaaaattttttt (or whatever sound those cushions made).
Ha! My captcha returns with a dancing robot.
@joho is a perfect example of how this board works. If you think a post was made by one of the "regulars," regardless of how stupid, mean, or incorrect it is, you tell them what a brilliant comment it was. If you think it was made by an "outsider," a measly anonymous with no coveted blue name, then it's "I wish those losers would stop posting."
Fun and easy for April 1. What most said. I've no nits today.
Dammit Barany, you got me.
As @GILL has already said: Don't miss @Zeke's comment. It's very funny.
The puzzle? Very April 1-ish. I count myself lucky that no one has ever foisted any of the trick answers on me at any time. In fact, the only one I'd ever heard of by name was DRIBBLE GLASS. I've seen videos of people shocking other people with a handshake, but didn't know the device was called a JOY BUZZER. An OK, OK solving experience for me.
YUP, once again (@0931), gender bias rears its ugly head.
[Dang, @dk, I got a dancing robot also. Some people have too much time on their hands...]
A nice enough puzzle, but gets no applause from this seventy-year-old because of the NW corner. Not much fresh stuff overall.
Nearly a century ago, Wittgenstein figured out today's meta-theme:
"When I came home I expected a surprise and there was no surprise for me, so of course I was surprised."
Good old Ludwig!
Thank you, Ms Nancy, for your critical back-up recommendations -- totally invaluable to those among us who get into an absolute swit of indecision about how to read our way through a blog. The approach of starting at the beginning and wending through a temporo-linear sequence to the [current] end has escaped so many of our mentally challenged band.
Have you any other recommenfations on whom to read, whom to avoid?
I think I love you.
Hey All !
SO, BIG deal, this puz was a JOY BUZZER, A BOMB of a puz that had COBWEBs for IDEAS, and should just ERASE the grid to NO END and refill ON UP.
April Fool! :-)) :-D. :-P. :-} >:)
This was a cool little puz! Different in the way the theme clues were statements, but the answers weren't. G rated gags, which are fun. I hate mean gags! Wanted tricKSTER for revealer, but already had TRICK CANDLES, thought maybe that was the Fool? But figured it out. SE corner has Killer B's! Actually, there are 12 B's in this puz. Not sure why they stung me today...
Writeovers! mAmA>-DADA, arcS>-LOBS, Tense>-TYPEA.
Speaking of Birthdays, today is my mothers'! Makes it easy to remember!
Also disappointed on the non-pangram! Surely coulda shoved an X somewhere in the grid! Oh well, better luck next time.
YUP
RooMonster
DarrinV
Roo,
How many mothers do you have?
What a pleasure -- PuzzleGirl's comments yesterday and Laughing Boy's cheerfulness today. No crankiness for a change! Enjoyed the Van Halen-ABBA mash-up, too. My best Wednesday ever, after a bit of trouble in southeast corner. Loved the oldtimey April Fool jokes.
@ad hominem - Your point might be worth considering if @joho had actually said any of those things. Since she didn't I am left to wonder why you insist on posting petty libels. None of my working hypothesis are particular flattering. I'd ask you to explain yourself, but I suspect anything you offered would be resplendent with yet more petty libels, so, please don't try to explain yourself.
Damn apostrophe's's!
I take it there shouldn't be one? English class /high school seems so long ago...
RooMonster
@Z, your willful ignorance is tiresome.
Easy breezy Northern Hemisphere, but the Southern Hemisphere was tougher - took twice as long for me to finish that half. Enjoyed this puzzle - a nice mix of LOBS and, uh, OWIEs. Would never have come up with ISOBAR without crosses, but otherwise the answers clicked.
Do not think SOBIG is dreck as clued, and really didn't find any groan-worthy clues at all - unlike YEARZERO or SEALER of recent memory.
Fun theme and fun solve.
I thought about pussy. Let me change that. I wanted pussy. Oh dear! Let's say I *almost wrote* pussy but decided "kitty" was more acceptable. Turned out to be TABBY, but not all meowers are tabbies, only the stripedy ones.
Some of the words were too crosswordy, but one good thing was that whenever I did not know a name, like WIEST, I was able to get it on the crosses.
I knew 1925 was too early for "Giant", and SOBIG has become an xword staple in Ferberland. My only mistake was "Sari" for SASH, easily solved,and "longterm" for LOVEHATE, but TABBY and RIVIERA pointed me right.
There is a difference between tht Riviera and the particular stretches of shore that the Riviera is on, I think. The Cote d'Azur is the "Azure Coast", translated, and refers to the water, the immediate seashore, and the harbors. The Riviera (or any riviera) refers to the region that is on the coast, including the various resort areas, hotels, cities and villages. One phrase is looking from the sea to the shore, the other looking at the sea from the shore.
Although some people think of the Cote d'Azur as comprising all of the French Riviera, I think of the Cote as beginning at Hyeres and ending at Nice. Until 1860, Nice and everything east of there was part of Savoy, and therefore part of greater Italy.
One write-over, 51 D, TENSE before TYPE A.
Thank you, @old timer, for the RIVIERA explanation.
Had the TV while solving and, as I was staring at the partially filled 18A, a voice on TV said "joy buzzer." After that, the whole puzzle fell instantly.
Interesting how it is considered fun to give people electric shocks and spray them with water. Though I confess to having a JOY BUZZER and DRIBBLE GLASS as a kid.
Enjoyed the puzzle, but would have liked a little more challenge for a Wednesday and a little less dreck. INDC? OKOK? OEN?
@Faux Rex, you have never been so...You
Based upon the forensics of psychopathology, I believe that there is only one person at work here both in stealing other people's blog identities and daily making additional insulting comments to everyone he can think of. His deep antisocial tendencies must be apparent to everyone, but his overwhelming self-loathing may not be. This guy hates everyone he comes in contact with, but he hates himself much, much more. Get help, friend. It's out there if only you seek it.
@old timer - To me the "coast" stops at the water. There is the "Lake Michigan Coast" and "Lake Michigan." The "coastline" is where the two meet. How common is it that "coast" is taken to mean the land and the adjacent water? I'm wondering, too, if landlubbers and seafarers have different usages. I'm still not convinced that the clue is ok.
I put in mAmA without even thinking of DADA, a reverse sexism!
I liked GAGORDER and LOVEHATE, it felt a bit easy for Wednesday, but had spark. I did enjoy solving it, and Doug, great writeup!
My father was a prankster. Once when I was very young I saw a jar of barley in the pantry, and asked him what it was. Without skipping a beat, he said it was a special type of instant coffee that had instant cream in it. I loved making my parents coffee in the morning and asked if I could make it. He said no, but I begged and begged over the days until one day he finally said yes, and told me to bring it to him in the bedroom. While I was stirring and stirring, with no result, and getting more and more upset, I head laughter coming from the bedroom (he and my mom), and I knew he got me.
There is a long tradition of truly whacky April Fools' puzzles, and the day particularly lends itself to Monday (easy beyond easy) and Thursday (tricky beyond tricky). The straightforwardness of today's New York Times Wednesday offering has already been noted, with the wistful thought that maybe that itself was the joke. To those looking forward to 2016, keep in mind that the Leap Year takes us directly to a Friday, almost always reserved for lively, low word count, fewer black squares themeless puzzles.
I should note that today's Los Angeles Times puzzle does pull of an unexpected day-appropriate stunt that made me laugh; it involves 4 consecutive circled letters within each of the first 3 theme answers.
The puzzle that I mentioned can easily be found in any search engine, like google.com. However, just for today, you may want to try com.google. And thanks whoever for the dancing robot that came with the CAPTCHA certification.
Loved this April Fool puzzle by Sharon Delorme, despite ABOO, a BAA, DOA, OEN, ORTO, OTRO, ONUP, UNC, and O'KOK (the new DOOK). There was a shout-out to DAN Feyer too. Nice touch.
- Since 1A wasn't "Giant," it had to be something equally large.
- I still miss Mariano RIVIERA. The Yankees are not the same without him.
- This classic quote from "Airplane II: The Sequel": "He's carrying ABOMB." "A BAA...?" "Not a BAA..., ABOMB!"
- When a PRANKSTER is issued direct instructions by his parole officer to perform an April's Fool trick, it's called a GAG ORDER. I checked it in my copy of OEN (Oxford English Nictionary).
-------------------
There once was a jolly old gangster
Who fancied himself as a PRANKSTER.
When GAG ORDER came
To fine tune his game,
He tried, but he gagged on a hamster.
-------------------
To celebrate Édouard LALO (1823-1892) becoming the new LEO of puzzledom, here is his Cello Concerto in D minor performed by the one and only, and still sorely missed, Jacqueline du Pré.
Happy birthday 'OWIE, PRANKSTER King of Quincy!
Factoid: The name is ARTOO D-2 is said to derive from when George Lucas was making one of his earlier films, American Graffiti. Sound editor Walter Murch asked for Reel 2, Dialog Track 2, in the abbreviated form "R-2-D-2". Lucas, who was in the room and had dozed off while working on the script for Star Wars, momentarily woke when he heard the request and, after asking for clarification, stated that it was a "great name" before falling immediately back to sleep. (Wikipedia)
Quotoid: "America believes in education: the average professor EARNS more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week." -- Evan Esar
Dianne WIEST was fairly clued, as she was on "Law & Order" for two seasons. But she is more often associated w/ Woody Allen films, winning 2 Best Supporting Actress Oscars and starring in several others by this director. So that might have made some solvers more apt to recall her name. At age 66, despite her illustrious career in film, on tv and the B-Way stage, it is sad to read about her current financial woes. Too bad her predicament is not just an April Fool's PRANK.
I expected an 4/1 theme, and this puzz. did not disappoint.
Only ESAU I am familiar w/ is biblical, so I relied on crosses to get it. Same for REA Irvin. Speaking of The New Yorker, there's a nice article in today's NYT Arts section about Marry Norris, longtime copy editor there.
Thanks, guest Rex, SD and WS.
CIAO, all. Happy AFD.
No writeovers or ERASures, here, but it took a bit longer than my typical Wed.
I'm still recovering from the ACPT - and crazily timing myself!
I enjoyed this puzzle - not just for the theme, which was cute for April 1 - but for 15A and 16A - which I realized my 21-month-old granddaughter could answer. I just played Peek-a-boo on FaceTime with her - quite a 21st century experience!
Ah - and her regular tippy cup is a de facto DRIBBLE GLASS.
Liked the theme. Would have liked more crunch, though.
I still remember Diane Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway saying to the young man, "Don't speak."
@LWCS @1115: are you so sure it's the same person because it's YOU?!! "the forensics of psychopathology" almost sounds like a real thing. Fascinating theory.
I was chuckling to myself over @LMS; knock, knock joke when my wife Anne came into the room. So I tried it on her: Me: "knock, knock." She: "who's there?" Me: "To." She: "To...[pause]." The high school English teacher in her just wouldn't let her say "To who."
So I called my daughter Ellen (whose birthday just happens to be today) and tried again. She fell for it, which just goes to prove that English teachers are better grammarians than [are? (help me out here, Lauren)] patent lawyers.
All of this led me to consider what I should say when I'm writing a check to someone. Is it, "Who should I make it out to"? (in which case I feel stupid); or is it, "To whom should I make it out"? (in which case I feel pretentious); or "Whom should I make it out to"? (in which case I feel both stupid and pretentious).
Sharon Delorme, PRANKSTER indeed. This puzzle played all kinds of TRICKs on me before I saw the theme. Like some others, I fell for the obvious Ferber giant and got my cooper confused with my cobbler with Awl. Also went wrong with enlarge, kittY, and MiatA. "True" for me meant LeveL. Not to mention the fact that I didn't realize what day it is. April Fool? YUP!
Anyway, loved it - the challenge, the theme, plus GAG ORDER, COBWEB, RIVIERA, SHOALS, LOVE HATE, and "OK OK!" after yesterday's "NOW WHAT?!"
@George baranay I printed out the LAtimes puzzle. there are no circles!!!
@Lawprof - pay in cash.
@Lawprof - Better yet, say "Who should I make it out to"?. If you get corrected, simply ask if they want your damned money or not, and tell them to please keep their grammar lessons to themselves.
I'm not sure if I want to be called a "whom". Who knew? And to whom mayhap care. ;-)
RooMonster
Glad you're on the case, John. Keep those lower castes out of our upscale blog.
@Roo: Yes, there should be an apostrophe: "mother's." Just giving you a hard time. It's what I do. With a name like "grammar nazi," what choice do I have?
Old timer@10:46: It seems that we both had pussy in the same place. Pussy was wrong, but it felt so right, as often is the case. Pussy fit so nicely. Tabby was a weak substitute for pussy.
@AliasZ. Thank you for the Lalo, both the Cello Concerto this week and the Symphonie espagnole last. Agree entirely about Jacqueline DuPre. If Lalo appears one more time you will have to do Le Roi d'Ys, and then basically you are Laloed out.
Fun puzzle. Nice fit for both a Wednesday and AFD. I too started with kittY and had trouble coming up with TRICK to go with the CANDLES.
I communicated with @chefbea off-Rex, and she subsequently confirmed that the on-line version of the April 1, 2015 Los Angeles Times puzzle has circles. The only other thing that I can contribute to today's conversation is that a certain 5-letter answer word was once clued (not in the New York Times, though) as "Pussy Clinton had while in the White House."
Thanks, @wreck! Unfortunately, I made a mistake on puzzle 5. But there's always next year!
There was an April Fools Day puzzle a couple of years ago that completely defeated me. The clues to the left of center read down, but those to the right read up, and there were also suggestions of a "highway" among the answers. Nothing has come close to that since! This was a perfectly fine puzzle, about average for a Wednesday (for me). Lalo fell last; I know Edouard, but not "Schifrin." ( I like the ballet "Namouna") Never heard of "Rea" Irvin, but I fear that one will come up again...
@Lawprof, if you really want to confuse/amaze/piss off the check recipient, you could ask, "who is the payee?" You'd get to use legalese and avoid the grammar issue simultaneously.
Doug, thank you so much for the ABBA/VH mashup. I always enjoy strange takes on crossword grids, and that hit the mark. Bravo!
@grammar nazi - May I suggest seppuku?
If a commenter on a geeky crossword blog makes the last comment of the day, and there's no one there to read it, did s/he really make a sound?
nope
Anon 9:28, as a former "syndicated solver" I have heard many, many "last" comments five weeks after they hit the blog.
Ah yes, I forgot about the elusive but contradictorily ubiquitous syndicated solver. Silly me.
And then there are those of us who never sleep because of FOMO
I don’t want any of my ex- lovers, spouse/significant others, co-workers, bosses or anyone or anything back that have caused me any trouble. That’s why they are gone!!! No spell in the universe would be strong enough to make me take them back. They are gone for a reason. Enough already!!
And enough of that. I did this puz with EASE, but far too drecky for my taste. OKOK, is it one of the REQS to DOA certain thing while INDC or NEBR to NOEND, ORTO see your UNC with an OWIE or ABOO boo? YUP. And OEN, c’mon. BAA.
Usual dislike of abbr.s tempered with USGA and ESPN.
DAN Rowan and Laugh-In, brings back memories of a certain era. OFL would say it skews old. Dust off the COBWEB then. I guess I’ll live with it.
IMHO this puz was ABOMB. CIAO.
ARTOO ORTO OTRO
EASE ONUP to the ISOBAR and order a SODA.
If the PRANKSTER who ACTSAS a barkeep FAILS to serve you your quota
get one for your TYPEA UNC, but in a DRIBBLEGLASS,
but maybe my IDEAS better, CIAO. YUP, IPASS.
--- ABBOT ABBA ABOO ABOMB BAA DADA
Biggest laugh: @grammar nazi's retort to @roo: "How many mothers do you have?" Iconic line from "The Birdcage," in which Ms. WIEST was so brilliantly cast. I'll never forget "Barbie. Ra." What a hoot!
Several writeovers today, including one that almost tripped me up. 5-letter car ending in -DA = HONDA, right? Sure. I had absolutely no idea about 18a, having never heard the term JOYBUZZER. Yeah, I know what it is, I just never heard the nomenclature. I agree with our substitute leader: what "JOY" is in that? Okay (my next w/o), it's good for a laugh; that's not the same as JOY. Beats me how these things get their "names." At any rate, it took me quite a few head-scratches before aha!ing MAZDA.
Note the two black-square figures in the center. The Z's of "BUZZER," maybe?
YeP to YUP was another ink mess, and so was--well, let me explain. Doing the west box, I had ONU_ going down at 29, so I just put in the obvious S without bothering to read the clue. Uh, no. It was YAP--Yet Another Partial--of which there are already too many here. Let us hope that Ms. Delorme's next effort will be "movin' ONUP" from this C-.
Kinda fun, reminding me of my friend Urban (YUP, that was his name) who always had some kind of pranky device, including the fart cushion and 3 of the ones in the puzzle. Joy? I found it annoying. However, the puzzle wasn't.
963 Hey, I hope that isn't April Fools
JOYBUZZER BAA
The LONG awaited spring comes and goes as if a TRICKCANDLE,
the AROMA of spring fills air, like TALC in the locker room.
AMIE RIVIERA EASEs the news of more rain on the BROADENed horizon,
As if mother nature has drank from the DRIBBLEGLASS.
That glass is only SOBIG, and must empty at some time,
Like a SQUIRTINGFLOWER runs dry from the clown’s lapel.
IBM happy If I had ESPN – psychically I would have known to bring an umbrella.
--- DAN MAWS-HOLLOW
This poem as DOA, for the record.
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