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Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: ELMER FUDD (64A: Archenemy of Bugs Bunny ... who might say things like 17-, 24-, 32-, 42- and 51-Across) — we've got themers where R- and L-sounds in first word are changed to W-sounds, with resulting spelling changes and resulting wackiness
Theme answers:
- TWEE HOUSE (17A: Small, cute residence?)
- SWAT MACHINE (24A: Device for killing mosquitoes?)
- WHISKEY MOVE (32A: Pouring into a shot glass, e.g.?)
- WOWED MOUTHS (42A: Relatives of slack jaws?)
- QUACK OF DAWN (51A: What wakes everyone up in the morning at the duck pond?)
Dominik Hašek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈdomɪnɪk ˈɦaʃɛk]; born January 29, 1965) is a retired Czech ice hockey goaltender. In his 16-season National Hockey League (NHL) career, he played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators. During his years in Buffalo, he became one of the league's finest goaltenders, earning him the nickname "The Dominator". His strong play has been credited with establishing European goaltenders in a league previously dominated by North Americans. He is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, both with the Red Wings. On January 27, 2017, in a ceremony during the All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, Hasek was part of the second group of players to be named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. (wikipedia)
• • •
["That's it, hold it right there! ... [aside] pronoun trouble..."]
The fill needs a lot of work, though, again, it's pretty Tuesday-average. It's a very easy puzzle and you've dropped HASEK in the middle of it? He's very famous as goalies go, but even I, knowing his name well, couldn't spell it at first pass (wanted a "C" where the "S" is). And his name will be the least generally known thing in the puzzle by a country mile. HASEK isn't bad. It's just not really Tuesday, and kind of sore-thumby in this grid. But looking over everything else, honestly, this is better than some bafflingly oft-published NYT constructors are capable of, so I'm gonna end on a high note and say that this is Very promising work.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. AW, GOON! Happy Valentine's Day!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Lucky I'm a Wings fan w/r/t the Hasek answer.
ReplyDeleteNice to see the Dominator in a puzzle. Congrats to Daniel Larsen.
ReplyDeleteSome random points:
ReplyDelete1. For GRIT, the clue ("Moral toughness") doesn't need the word "Moral".
2. For SAUNA, steam is more an option than a feature, IMO. There are many saunas that have no steam, and saunas are generally meant to be dry.
3. There is a mini-theme of double E's (4).
4. Two crosses I like: MARINE/GRIT and MAW/WOWEDMOUTHS.
5. AWGOON is a DOOK!
6. To anyone who has had significant experience with 30D (LSD) in the past, I imagine, a good exercise would be this: Stare at that O in the middle square for a while.
Congratulations, 13-year-old Daniel. Today you are a man! Please keep making these. It was fun to watch Davied Steinberg progress, and I can't wait to see what you come up with. This ought to be a special Valentine's Day for you. Sending you heart and cruciverbial love.
@Rex Totally agree. A fine Tuesday puzzle with very little "professional crossword fill." In some cases (like today's puzzle), an outsider can be a breath of fresh air. In other cases (like politics), not so much. Between Daniel and The Donald, I think Daniel has a much brighter future. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteZippy
Wye yew cue, pro Moe?
ReplyDeleteLSD. Maw kin bug.
ReplyDeleteAgree with @Lewis on the STEAM In saunas thing. You gotta pour water on the coals to make the STEAM.
ReplyDeleteMan, that HASEK could play.
Didn't realize @ElmerFudd also had trouble with his L's.
Heaven help us if the kid creates a Daffy Duck or Sylvester Cat puzzle....
ReplyDeleteOr Astro!
DeleteWell done Mr Larsen. I whizzed through it and then went back to enjoy things I hadn't seen or thought about. With a SACRED MANTRA and MARINE ESPRIT, YEW wouldn't think this was a debut. Keep the puzzles coming.
ReplyDeleteI watched a lot of Looney Tunes as a kid.(1) I heard taunts and slurs about race, ethnicity, gender, and faith then too. Mental and physical difficulties were the common stuff of jokes. Among my friends and associates none of those things seems decent and acceptable any more. I don't think that a crossword puzzle of ELMER FUDDisms rises to the level of taunt or slur, but it is "making fun" of a speech impediment, and I felt a little uncomfortable about that.
(1) Think how many of the Looney Tunes characters have speech problems. Funny at the time ... I guess.
Too bad 27a wasn't clued as MSG Ban.
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable, but very very easy.
ReplyDeleteOn Valentine's day, I thought the theme was going to be how icky lovebirds talk (I wuv yew, etc.).
NE and SW stacks are excellent.
HASEK a gimme - my Woe was LAURA.
Ugly partial INS rescued by proximity to UPSET.
We dick, you wuss. We still can't seem to get rid of ARTS. Otherwise, I'm with Zippy 0630, MWAH AUSSIE.
ReplyDeleteI SEES A BIG HEADY SINE that Daneel L can WOK the WOK
Can somebody explain how MARV is "just wonderful" to me?
ReplyDeleteWhen Rex says a puzzle is "absolutely, 100% credible as a Tuesday NYT offering," that's not damning with faint praise -- it's a rave review. Congratulations, Daniel!
ReplyDeleteMarvelous
ReplyDeleteI. Neawwy wost it when I weawized this was by a thirteen yeaw owed boy. And a debut. On top of that, accowding to xwowdinfo, his dad wote the softwaw. So, y'all, be vewwy vewwy quiet, wew finding new constwuctows.
ReplyDeleteCONGWATUWATIONS Mr. Larson. Congratulations on a sweetheart of a debut on a sweetheart of a day with a sweetheart of a puzzle.
I was at first mystified by TWEE HOUSE followed by SWAT MACHINE. When I got to WHISKEY MOVES the DAWN QUACKED on me that it must be some sort of lisp. I did not dissolve into giggles when I got to ELMER FUDD but the actual surprise put a big smile on my face.
My second summer in Hollywood, I worked for Warner Bros. cartoons and spent a full week in a theater by myself quality checking WB cartoons for syndication to television. Just try watching cartoons for eight hours a day without falling asleep. That was my favorite off-season job.
I hope to see more from @Daniel. He has a good eye for croswordese and avoiding it. He was also wise to get his father and sister to help with the cluing though I'd love to see a puzzle clued entirely by him. It might be more appropriate for the PTA newsletter than the NYT but I'd still like it to appear.
After yesterday's ENNUI, this happy discovery perked me right up. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Daniel Lewis!!!!!!!!!!*
*Wondering if I've out "loved" Tita and Kitschef.
As someone who had a (very minor) speech impediment but never was teased about it, I must confess to never really noticing that the Looney Tunes characters had speech "impediments." At least partly, I think, because I don't recall any of them being teased about how they spoke, either. If anything, the Looney Tunes I grew up with tended to be little morality plays, don't be greedy, don't be obsessive, don't be stupid, don't buy things from Acme Products, turn left in Albuquerque. Maybe if I looked at them today with a critical eye I might be able to tease out insulting subtexts. Or maybe I was just fortunate enough to grow up in a town where needing help with my speech was no different than needing help learning my ABCs, so speaking differently was never an indicator of who one was as a person, let alone something to laugh at.
ReplyDelete@Rex - damning with faint praise is never as effective if you point out that you're damning with faint praise. I thought this was an above average Tuesday puzzle. The short fill, especially, was pretty good (okay, not that EOE/MOE central cross, but "above average" isn't the same as calling it "perfect"). I was pretty put off by WordPlay's tweet. Being surprised by the intellectual capabilities of young people is one thing I find insulting. This is a good debut for any constructor, far better than I could do.
I felt guilty when I saw the consructor's picture because once I got the theme while solving I was thinking what would it be like being stuck in an elevator with this guy. It all becomes much cuter when a kid does it. @Nancy,how was SUPRA?
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun puzzle!!! Never heard of Sydneysider!!!...but all fell into place. Now to go see what the constructor looks like.
ReplyDeleteHappy valentines day to all
Very fast solve using a lot of downs and scratching my head at the theme entries until the reveal. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this puzzle before. It was my downfall at the Westport Tournament because along with LAO, I don't speak ELMERFUDD. I'm sure some will find it adorable, but I didn't appreciate Looney Tunes as a child and I'm even more disinterested now. Bugs just bored me. In defense of the genre, my husband has been know to howl at Mel Blanc's cartoons, so I accept that it's just me.
ReplyDeleteI soldiered along and got TWEEHOUSE easily but I couldn't figure out SWAT for "slot" machine (thank you @Tita! She's so good with foreign language I bet she speaks LAO) and crossed by a hockey player it became impossible. I had to submit my entry knowing full well that two letters were wrong.
It was a cinch to complete the second time around, but I'd have to label it a challenging Tuesday.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteWow. 6 themers shoved in here, by a 13 year old. Really deflates the old ego. Big Congrats to Daniel.
Lots of threes, all Downs except the middle EOE, but with the constraints of the large amount of themers, definitely easy to let pass. Plus, nice open corners in NE and SW.
Smiled at the AWGOON entry! Certifiable DOOK. Daniel, if you don't know what a DOOK is, it's when two words like your GO ON are together and look like (and can be pronounced like) one word. Originated from a puz that had DO O.K. as an answer.
ROUE and RHO. You know... :-)
So, great debut, again Congrats Daniel. I'm a fan of lots of theme.
A BIG MARV
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Z, 'far better than I could do'...
ReplyDeleteIs that an example of the unspecified damning with faint praise? Almost seems that preys on a damn feint.
[teehee]
Very easy and pleasurable Tuesday for me. Tried the solving pattern someone suggested in yesterday's comments if you suspect an easy puzzle - go 1A across then get all the downs, do the next across get all those downs, etc. I got quite a ways using that method, and TWEEHOUSE emerged. The back of my mind tickled with cartoon memories, but when I got to the ELMERFUDD revealer, and realized that yes, this is a Looney Tunes puzzle, I truly did laugh out loud with delight!
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the three letter fill was especially clean. Lots of actual three letter words such as WOK, KIN, OWL, BUG.
Never ever ever thought that Looney Tunes characters were making fun of speech impediments. Now I have something else to worry about in life.
Congratulations to Mr. Larsen on a truly amazing debut. This was a great Tuesday puzzle, and if he follows Rex's column at all, he will realize that Rex gave it a rave review as well. I am excited to see more puzzles from this constructor!
I was so glad @Rex liked this. I wove Looney Tunes and ELMER and Daffy and Bugs. When I was pregnant and watching the Road Runner, I remember bursting into tears when Wile E. fell off a cliff. I also cried when an ACME box fell on his head or when he got squished by an anvil. Those were special times.
ReplyDeleteDr. LAURA Schlessinger "Ten Stupid Things Women Do To Mess Up Their Lives." If you come across it don't read it.
30 years ago today I said "YES!"
Happy Valentines to all....
Youthful theme; youthful constructor. Very impressive. Also wondered about SWAT MACHINE for a bit but ELMER made it okay. Also glad I knew OED because EOE looked ODD. My congrats to Daniel as well.
ReplyDeleteDid the mini puzzle on my iPad in 15 seconds today which is as fast as my fat fingers can type. First time I have broken 20 seconds. While only a mini-rush, gave me a mini taste of what speed solvers do on the real puzzles.
Now that I've read Rex today, I realize THIS is the puzzle created by the very young constructor who WS referred to at Westport. I am astonished by his ability and sincerely congratulate him with a round of applause! Wow!
ReplyDelete@Roomie,
ReplyDeletere your ROUE and RHO. You know... :-)
RHO is row but ROUE isn't rue; ROUE is rue-eh, eh? The rue (or roo) would be ROUX. So your blog-handle could be RueMonster or RouxMonster but not RoueMonster.
Unless you've keeping something from us, eh, DarrinV?
L. Finger
Excellent review by Rex.
ReplyDeleteOnly writeover was A BIG for A Bad. Enjoyed cluing for MAW, AUSSIE, and MANTRA.
Impressive debut by DANIEL . I enjoyed it.
Thanks.
Nothing says "Vawentine's Day" like Elmer Fudd. [Hope everybody's heart-felt wish comes true, with chocolate (and whipped cream?) on it, today.]
ReplyDeleteCongratz to young Mr. Larsen, on his 9-U debUt. M&A is dUly impressed. Nice quad 6-stacks, in the NE and SW. The kid's got game.
staff weeject picks: WYE and WOK. WYE WOOK further?
YEW sounds like real neat wood.
non-themer debut entry: AWGOON. This looks like an M&A fave format idea: grunt + flexibly-parsable closer. Primo stuff. {"Go ahead and sign that there bar tab; just make yer mark!"} = BRRUPEXIT, and soon … er … and so on.
Thanx, Daniel. Keep up the good work. Hey, bigtime NYTimes crossword dude … high school chick magnet!
Masked & Anonymo9Us
**gruntz**
Congwatuwations, Daniel. This was a lot of FUDD.
ReplyDelete@Leapy,
ReplyDeleteHa! Rue-eh! Might change my handle...
Knew pronunciations were different, but hey, as they say in Crossworld, close enough!
Oh, and started (a while ago) putting my name, Darrin V, in closing in case I ever get a puz published in the NYT. Then everyone would know it was me. Yes I know, ego big enough? :-)
RooMonster, eh?
p.s.
ReplyDeleteTwin four-barrel weeject stacks, too boot! Primo. What the heck … go ABIG or go AHOME.
Didn't know HASEK or LAURA, like so many other nice non-hockey-playin, non-radio-advice-gettin Elmer Fudd fans, out there in the Comment Gallery. Didn't slow us down a lick, tho. (Me and the PuzEatinSpouse worked this pup together, usin the recommended kamasutra solvequest pose.) [don't ask, in front of the 13-yearold.]
M&Also
Me likey this Tuesday offering Daniel Larsen, "How TWEE and MARV it was!"
ReplyDeleteWhen I solved this at Westport last Saturday, I got snagged at the WHISKEYMOVE/HASKEK cross and DNF. Nice puzzle otherwise.
ReplyDelete@Hartley - LOL, no, I don't speak LAO.
ReplyDeleteHmm...am I insensitive? I think of this kind of mis-talking not really as a speech impediment, but as a very common stage that so many kids (including me) go through.
I loved Looney Tunes (Hi @Rog). I guess I still do. So I liked this puzzle.
At the Westport tournament, this was one of the puzzles. ABut 3 minutes in or so, Will announced a mistake in a clue... He said that the at 44D should be "Gaping opening", and not "Sound from a kitten" (or some such kitten reference).
That was fine for me - I was nowhere near clue 44 a mere 3 minutes in. But when I asked Glen Ryan about it, he said - "What?? I was out of the room already - I heard no announcement!!!"
Thankfully for him, and the other speed solvers, the judged the puzzle correct with either the A or E in place.
(Glen took 2nd prize in the tournament!!)
I wonder if the original clue 50A was "Cry upon encountering a gross bully", for EWGOON.
Anyone else notice the triple at 50? Aww.....
ReplyDeleteThe conversation around insensitivity to speech impediments, a real affliction for many adults, got me wondering about kiddie mis-speech.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that I need the mom to do simultaneous translation for me when their toddlers speak. Until you learn their particular style, at least.
But I know of a few exceptions, and they are all kids who grew up 100% bilingual.
Their pronunciation was always correct - none of the very common difficulties. In both of the languages they spoke.
So you linguists out there - what's up? Do we induce it by talking baby talk? (I never talk babytalk to kids - always felt stupid doing so.)
Is it lack of physical dexterity? Poor eyesight or hearing?? (In how they percieve what they are imitating?
...
One of my niece's impediments was swapping hard G for D. So Doggie was Goggie, Duck was Guck. When she finally learned, she overcorrected. Goggie became Doddie for a while.
Anyhow, congratulations Mr. Larsen. Really fun puzzle. I too look forward to more.
Sorry, I'll be the fourth one now to note having done this puzzle at Westport ten days ago. One of the downsides of doing something for time is that I almost didn't recognize it when I saw it, having rushed through the first time.
ReplyDeleteBut since I mistakenly raised the question of the constructor's age in an earlier puzz, thought I would stop in today and add my congratulations to Daniel Larsen. Maybe I'll do more of his when/if he starts his own blog!
Definitely better than some bafflingly oft-published NYT constructors are capable of - very pwomising work!
ReplyDelete@No 1 fan - You weren't supposed to notice.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Larsen, OWL say,has truly earned a 58 Down MFAS, and gets ABIG a-PLUS from me,for this highly creative and HEADY Tuesday offering!
ReplyDeleteI have difficulty pronouncing my ls even today. If I don't focus, I pronounce them like ws. However, I was never made fun of for this, except by one woman I dated who had very poor self-esteem. I don't take any offense at Elmer Fudd's pronunciation. As a linguist, I would say that kids mispronounce because they are learning the right mouth configuration for saying a letter the proper way. Kids can't pronounce all letters at once. Some letters are easier to say than others---ever wonder why 'mama' and 'papa' are very similar in most languages? Bilabial consonants are easier to form. I am not a speech therapist so possibly they would have deeper insights in this.
ReplyDeleteCongwats to the 13-year-old constwucta -- I'm impwessed. Is crossword puzzle cweation a youthful pwodigy kind of talent -- like musical composition and chess? Anyway, the puns -- puns being ware to see on a Tuesday -- gave this puzzle what cwunch it had. They were cute. The west of the puzzle was too easy. But I think Daniel has a future.
ReplyDeleteSolved this with Across clues hidden. Got the theme but 22D {Man's nickname that's just wonderful?} MARV made me reveal the Across clues. I had _A_ _. The first blank was filled in by the M of 21A {500 sheets of paper} REAM but all I had was REA_ which meant the _ could have been D,L,M,P, or R. The second blank was filled in by the R of 31A {Like a well-worn dirt road} RUTTED but all I had was _UTTED which meant the _ could have been B, G, J, P, R, or T.
ReplyDeleteDetails are here.
My wife was a speech therapist and there was no baby talk used by her or me. Didn't stop one of my girls from calling her big sister Sarah "Hawa" for a while. S came out as H. R came out as W, just like old ELMER FUDD.
ReplyDeleteCute puzzle,
Very fine Tuesday puzzle! I returned home from South America last week, and Tuesday, was my first Times puzzle in two weeks. DNF. I was surprised, not that many others also DNF, but that so many actually defended crossing NSFW with TXSW ! In general, acronyms should not cross acronyms. I have never seen NSFW except in the puzzle, and had no idea what TXSW was even once I saw the answer. It's a major music festival? I'll take your word for it...but this was a TUESDAY! I DNF on Thursday also, ( Quo or Qua?) but the down clue was obscure only to me. (Aziz Ansari??)
ReplyDeleteSince then, though very pleased with the run of Times puzzles! ( and Patagonia is magnificent...)
@Z, I ROUE the day-ay.
ReplyDeleteWhile quick and easy, even for a Tuesday, enjoyable. And for us pun-lovers, just gotta love "QUACK OF DAWN"!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDaniel Larsen, YEW wascally wabbit!
Although I have watched many a hockey game in which the goalie was Dominik, my main go-to HAŠEK guy is Jaroslav, the creator of The Good Soldier Švejk.
Sitting by the lagoon,
Let us ONOR AWGOON,
The old Dook of Rangoon.
One Dominik HAŠEK
And the good soldier Švejk,
Both of them native Czech.
One was quite often "checked"
In quaint hockey jargoon,
And Švejk was a dragoon.
A little exotic SAMSON and Delilah music should brighten your day.
Easy for me too. Pretty nice debut for anyone let alone a 13 year old. Liked it.
ReplyDeleteNo howts and fwowers on Vawentine's Day? AW GO ON!
ReplyDeleteI loved TWEE HOUSE. The "tiny house" is a (now aging) trend but it is something my nephew has vowed to do someday. They are very cute but surprisingly expensive to build, for their size, at least those I've checked out.
A rather Zen puzzle with the DALAI Lama and MANTRAs. ESPRIT de corps next to the MARINE corps, very nice.
And to @Evil Doug's Astro suggestion, ruh RHO!
Congrats on your debut, Daniel Larsen, and please continue in your efforts.
I was convinced that something was amiss with SWAT MACHINE and WOWED MOUTHS as ELMER FUDDisms. After watching a few clips of Warner Bros. cartoons featuring him, I was astounded to see that he, indeed, had trouble with both "R" and "L." In recent years, I have had the pleasure of tutoring adult English learners. My guys are native Spanish speakers, so the L/R transposition is no problem, but the text materials we use consistently address that issue typical of native Asian speakers.
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a horrific crash at an Asian airport involving a jumbo jet hitting construction equipment on a closed runway? Something about pilot error involving "L" and "R"?
Only a neophyte and already the constructor knows what to do if a possible theme entry is ten letters long and its symmetrically matching themers are all eleven letters long. POC to the rescue. And why not, no one will notice. Well, almost no one.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, I'm not sure how "wide" and "WOWED" (42A) fit the R & L sounds changed to W sounds pattern.
The gym I use has a STEAM room and a sauna. The sauna has a very low humidity that results in rapid evaporation of perspiration, and that allows for much higher temperatures in the sauna than would be possible in the STEAM room.
@Oisk, it was SXSW. Just sayin'. Nevertheless, welcome back, nice to hear from you.
ReplyDelete@AliasZ, for a second there I thought you meant Jaroslav HAlaK
@Tita A - My knowledge is second hand from working with special ed departments, but I think it is fair to say that there are a wide range of reasons for speech impediments. I recall signing off on plans dealing with hearing issues and developmental issues (both physical and mental), but those are broad categories with lots of different specifics. I've never heard anyone suggest that "baby talk" had any influence. I suppose if all one was exposed to were baby talk it could matter, but kids often pick up all kinds of non-baby talk language from near by adults. There is also the question of what actually constitutes an "impediment." If everyone in some places have rhotacism those of us using the sound would be the odd ones, n'est-ce pas?
ReplyDeleteSolid Tuesday puzzle, especially for a 13 year old! My one specific comment: given recent events, it would have been fun to use a clue such as "Former Knick Charles" for OAKLEY.
ReplyDelete@Z & Tita - my granddaughter had the T instead of hard G/C (tar for car) problem. I mentioned it to a speech therapist from my daughter's elementary school and she recommended having her pronounce the words while gargling because the hard C/G sounds come from the back of the throat. So, the next time we baby sat I had her gargling and spitting water all over the back yard and laughing a lot. Took about 45 minutes to fix it and it never reoccurred.
ReplyDelete@AliasZ - I hoped you would come here with some music (but I was expecting the other famous bit!)
ReplyDeleteBut before Saint-Saens there was Handel. -- @Mac - if you see this, the finale is from a performance in Antonius van Paduakerk Nijmegen. Of course I had to look up the town, it looks absolutely beautiful.
'Let the bright seraphim' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5sOoMcGi6U
Final chorus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwLCqFxhqYE
To even consider that this could be an offensive puzzle aimed at people with speech impediments means that you're just looking for things to be outraged by.
ReplyDelete@all - Я думаю, что пришло время вы начали изучать русский язык и все. Я начинаю урок группы North NJ - позвоните мне по телефону 908-555-1212, если вы находитесь в области. Если вы хотите, чтобы начать занятия в вашем районе, позвоните мне, и я могу вам начать работу с несколько простых уроков.
ReplyDeleteSuffwin' succotash! Dat dang wabbit has gotten me befuddled again. If u dink that the old cartoons were doing something other than having fun and entertaining kids (and adults), take a break and we lax.
ReplyDeletevewy vewy cute heh heh heh heh heh!
ReplyDelete13, eh? I am duly WOWED. Although there's more than one BUG here (ATO, ONOR, MFAS, and four letters as entries--a mini-theme?), most of it is weally vewy good. Wook--okay, I'll stop--look at those wide open NE and SW corners! Especially compared to recent "adult" efforts, this baby shines.
ReplyDeleteNot much in the way of DOD candidates (well, what can one expect from a tween?), but how about the OTHER Dr. Laura--Berman? BTW, young Daniel, just how do you know about 24-across? Anyway, welcome to our fold, and card a birdie on your first hole.
MARINE MANTRA
ReplyDeleteWYE, those WOWEDMOUTHS pwayed the BAR’S SWATMACHINES
at the TWEEHOUSE LAIR, so RAPT they’d say, “AW_GO_ON.”
Those AUSSIES made the WHISKEYMOVE and built up STEAM,
with HEADY GRIT and such ESPRIT, they SEES the QUACKOFDAWN.
--- ELMERFUDD, USNA
13-year old constructor? Give him ABIG ovation.
ReplyDeleteFun to sound out words as ELMERFUDD would; also to conjure up an image of a SWATMACHINE.
Didn't know goalie HASEK, and was tempted to put in HAYEK at first.
Nice work, Daniel Larsen.
Mr. HASEK almost tripped me up on the ice, but the themer saved the day. A little more crunch than yesterday, so perfect for Tuesdayville.
ReplyDeleteBrought back good memories of toons in the afternoon after school. I don't think they were making fun of anyone - they just were who they were. There's a new Sesame Street character - a little girl with autism. She's not making fun, just being included in the gang. Or like the character in Father of the Bride - "how would you like your keek?"
Tomorrow I'm off to ACPT, with a stop in NYC to see Hamilton with two friends, including Teedmn from Futureland. Don't know if I'll post (tho @Teed sent me the puzzles already) - not sure how to access email.
So happy spring! See you Monday, if not before.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting no longer for an adventure
Great job by the kid. His MAW probably FEELS proud; 13 and already a PRO.
ReplyDeleteHASEK was a gimme for me, so not really ANY problems. I must be at least at an eighth grade level.
Know what you say to anyone who can shoot like Annie OAKLEY? “Yeah, baby.” And don’t challenge her to a DUEL.
Daniel: for a first NYT puz, this was a good SINE.
Had me at QUACK OF DAWN. Much fun, right difficulty, nicely done.
ReplyDelete