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Relative difficulty: Easy...? (7:06 on my phone while walking home)
THEME: QUIP — In a classic "Quip Puzzle," the clues are just there to show you where to write each part of the quote. Here, each clue (phrased just like they would be in a Quip Puzzle) is a literal description of the entry. More details below!
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: Apple pan DOWDY —
Hey squad! Happy Malaika MWednesday! Short write-up from me today as I have some work I need to finish :( I wondered what trick they'd throw at me for their April Fools' Day puzzle, and this seemed pretty tame. I think I could see it as a Thursday puzzle if it hadn't been April 1st.
- [Quip, part 1] for QUICK START
- The first part of the term "quip" is the letter Q, so that is circled
- Additionally, the "start" of the word "quick" is the letter Q
- [Quip, part 2] for YOUNG AT HEART
- The first part of the term "quip" is the letter U, so that is circled
- Additionally, the "heart" (or center) or the word "young" is the letter U
- [Quip, part 3] for SECOND IN LINE
- The third part of the term "quip" is the letter I, so that is circled
- Additionally, the "second" in the word "line" is the letter I
- [Quip, part 4] for PAY UP FRONT
- The fourth part of the term "quip" is the letter P, so that is circled
- Additionally, the "front" of the word "pay" is the letter P
Word of the Day: Apple pan DOWDY —
Grunts, pandowdy, and slumps are Canadian Maritimes, New England, and Pennsylvania Dutch varieties of cobbler, typically cooked on the stovetop, or in an iron skillet or pan, with the dough on top in the shape of dumplings. They reportedly take their name from the grunting sound they make while cooking. Another name for the types of biscuits or dumplings used is dough-boys. In the United States, additional varieties of cobbler include the Betty, the buckle (made with yellow batter [like cake batter] with the filling mixed in with the batter), the dump (or dump cake), and the sonker. The sonker is unique to North Carolina: it is a deep-dish version of the American cobbler. [wiki]
• • •
Constructors can be so creative! I could imagine brainstorming aspects of this theme, but no way could I have come up with every part and got them all working together. Quip Puzzles are a very polarizing type of theme. Everyone I know (including me) hates them. (I only say they're polarizing as opposed to hated bc presumably some people must like them if they keep getting published??) So I think it makes a lot of sense to theme a puzzle around making a solver think it's a Quip Puzzle and then pulling the rug out from under them.
I don't solve cryptic crosswords, but I understand that the clues in them are similar to what's going on here. You are plucking letters that will be in the entry from parts of the clue, with words like "start" or "second" giving you hints. We've seen cryptic-esque clues in Sam's April 1st puzzle from several years ago. And even regular puzzles will occasionally employ cryptic techniques like [Enrollment center?] as a clue for ELS.
I wonder how many phrases they brainstormed for each of the letters! I could imagine, e.g. PICK FIRST as an entry for [Quip, part 4], so I think part of the challenge comes from getting everything to have a symmetrical number of letters. With some puzzles, if you have (e.g.) two theme answers that are ten letters and two that are thirteen letters, you can swap the positions of theme answers 1 & 4 and answers 2 & 3. Here, the order matters.
I wonder how many phrases they brainstormed for each of the letters! I could imagine, e.g. PICK FIRST as an entry for [Quip, part 4], so I think part of the challenge comes from getting everything to have a symmetrical number of letters. With some puzzles, if you have (e.g.) two theme answers that are ten letters and two that are thirteen letters, you can swap the positions of theme answers 1 & 4 and answers 2 & 3. Here, the order matters.
On top of the cleverness of the theme, there were some great long entries with I GOTTA SAY, INDIE POP, HOT DATES, WATCH THIS, DOG TOY, and TREE FROG. So impressive! I found the clues throughout to be really easy, which I think made the theme entries fall into place for me. Even though I didn't clock what was going on until the puzzle was fully done (I knew it wasn't a Quip Puzzle, but I didn't get what the theme entries meant), my time was still average.
Bullets:
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Bullets:
- [Go a-courtin'?] for SUE — Cute!
- [Nash who wrote "Who wants my jellyfish? / I'm not sellyfish!"] for OGDEN — I comment on a lot of the older references that are lost on me, but I know and love Ogden Nash. (Because my grandparents had a book of his rhymes at their house lol.)
- [Kind of burger that lacks meat] for SOY — I've heard of VEGGIE burgers, black bean burgers, impossible burgers, beyond burgers.... I have never heard of a soy burger!
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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I came here because I was too lazy to try and figure it out, but still wouldn’t it have been better to not circle the letters. You’d get more early traffic for sure and it would indeed be an april fools quip
ReplyDeleteEasy and easier than yesterday’s for me.
ReplyDeleteNo costly erasures and the QUIP was it for WOEs.
Smooth grid with some entertaining long downs, liked but I had no idea about the QUIP until I read the constructor notes…AHA a CRYPTic! April fool! I doubt that I would have figured it out on my own as I haven’t done many cryptics.
A quip is a
ReplyDelete: a clever usually taunting remark : GIBE
b
: a witty or funny observation or response usually made on the spur of the moment
These “quips” were not. Better than my usual Wednesday but felt let down. Thanks. Without your explanation I’d have no clue what this was supposed to be, if all quip puzzles are like this I’m in the “not a fan” club.
10:27 for me, so I guess that's medium for me on a Wednesday. Tried to look up the phrase online after I finished... I saw that the circled letters spelled QUIP but I still was wondering if this was lyrics to a song or what. So I really missed the gag, until I read Malaika's write-up and the NYT crossword answers page. So.... it's not a QUIP puzzle after all! I get it now. Cute. And Malaika--here I am. A person you interact with who likes (real) QUIP puzzles... I even like this one! Cute concept, well executed. I was just being dense. Enjoyed the double environmental clues, MICKEYDS, the TREEFROGS, and the apple pan dowdy! Making me hungry for some unhealthy food.... I guess I should start with a SOY or VEGGIE burger at the BBQ first! Thanks, Jess and Amie, for a clever QUIP--you certainly fooled me!!!!!
ReplyDeleteToday harkened back to the absolute worst type of crossword puzzle, and while that has fortunately fallen by the wayside, this was only mildly better.
ReplyDeleteVery easy. Didn't understand the theme (still don't), but solved it quickly thanks to a dearth of misdirects in the cluing. One question...How does the letter "I" in IHOP justify its presence throughout the world?
ReplyDeleteINTERNATIONAL House of Pancakes is what the initialism stands for
Delete@Anon 6:09AM. I expect Bob knows this, and that he's questioning whether it's really international. Google AI says there are locations in Canada, Mexico, and "in countries like Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and the UAE".
DeleteMy impression is that it's *I*HOP because the menu offers international versions of pancakes, such as crepes, or has toppings inspired by dishes/ingredients from around the world, like tres leches or lingonberry. Plus other brunch dishes like Belgian waffles, omelettes, etc.
DeleteThis did remind me of an old joke when Bill Clinton, gov of Arkansas, was first surging into national prominence in the '92 primary. The set up assures you that Clinton has what it takes to be president, with plenty of international experience....after all, he eats at IHOP frequently!
(And as scandal hit, there was another brunch adjacent joke where he's a bumpkin who is excited to see quiche Lorraine on the menu, but he mispronounces.it "quickie.")
I remember many decades ago someone did a comedy routine making fun of the International in IHOP. I recall it involved a snooty waiter saying “I'll be your syrup steward for the evening.”
DeleteThe clue literally says it has "locations in more than a dozen countries." What's not to get about international being an apt description of that?
Deletetht - See Bob's subsequent thanks to Anon 6:09 below. Anon told him what he wanted to know. You are always so sure you understand better than anyone else what someone means!
Delete
ReplyDeleteMonday Easy. Solved without reading the theme clues and didn't understand how the theme answers related to each other. So that's it? There's a "Q" in one themer, a "U" in another, and then an "I" and a "P" to make up a QUIP?
Still don't get it.
* * _ _ _
One overwrite, tempt before BLAME at 1A. No WOEs.
They don't relate to each other. Each clue describes where the appropriate letter is. (i.e. Quick start is Q, because Q is the starting letter of the word Quick)
Delete“The New York Times crossword puzzles will no longer feature wordplay,” said Games crossword spokesperson Aria DiOreo. “It has grown out of date, worn, and will be phased out.”
ReplyDeleteThe reaction was swift:
“We’re in treble,” said a chorus teacher.
“It’s about tine,” said a resident of Grand Forks.
“Don’t shout it, please,” said someone, “but I’d like some confirmention.”
“I am in great dis-tress,” said someone else who just shaved their head in protest.
“Don’t know what to think of this,” said a see-saw.
“They never get it right,” snorted Mr. Ed.
“Too busy working my NFL football muscles climbing rungs,” said a ladder-day Saint.
“Poppycock!” said a chick hatchling seeing its daddy for the first time.
(It’s good to start out April foolish…)
"That gets me down" said the puzzle solver
Delete“But I’m not a cross solver,” she finished.
DeleteAs always, Lewis brings me joy in this blog.
Don't understand how the themers are actually quips - phrases, maybe. I was fooled by the rhyming nature of the first two, thinking that the 3rd and 4th would also rhyme, or that somehow all 4 would make sense together. This cost me 3 minutes as I tried to figure out how xxxUPFRONT might fit into the pattern. But, there was no pattern. Just random phrases.
ReplyDeleteCommentariat really whiffing today. The way I went from “ugh a quip puzzle” to “huh?” to “oh… nice one!” Satisfying! Extremely clever. Refreshing. Inventive. The whole POINT of the theme is that the theme answers are not in fact “quips”—it’s the letters in “quip” that we’re dealing with, with each theme answer self-referentially (“letterally”) referring to one of the letters in “quip.” So both the theme clues AND the theme answers involve self-referential wordplay. All in a clean, easy grid. A very nice, non-annoying way to do April Fools. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteTo those who don’t get what the joke is supposed to be:
ReplyDeleteA “quip puzzle” is a crossword whose theme entries aren’t standalone phrases, but when read in sequence, they make up a supposedly funny “quip” or quote.
The first themer is typically clued something like [Start of a quip about XYZ] and the others are clued as [Quip, part 2], [Quip, part 3], etc.
Rex and many other solvers, myself included, hate this kind of “theme”. The “theme answers” are pretty much unclued and a partially filled one might look like total gibberish until you actually parse it correctly. And most of the time, the payoff isn’t even worth it.
See https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2021/07/summery-quip-mon-7-19-21-large-cat-you.html? for an example (an especially bad one IMO, the “joke” is pretty contrived and not even a pun).
I was very disappointed to get a quip puzzle instead of a clever April Fools trick. And I initially thought that “YOU” at the start of the second themer was a full word. I could see that as part of the “quip”. So the joke worked really well for me, once I saw what was actually going on with the theme. I agree that it would’ve been better without the circles.
Many people clearly aren’t seeing the theme even *with* the circles. I think they’re necessary. And since they don’t really affect the solve, I don’t know why it matters
DeleteThanks for a clear explanation. I saw that the first two " themers" rhymed and third one didn't, so I was expecting last phrase to rhyme in an AABA pattern. Now that would be quite a feat.
DeleteFor Anonymous 6:09" Thanks. I shouldn't ask questions on the blog before having my morning coffee.
ReplyDeleteOh well. I take back what I said earlier, then. (But a little more information won't hurt anyone.)
DeleteATTN is nothing special, not better than the partial A TEN anyway. And the cost is ROUST, when ROUSE is the obviously correct word. Coulda done something like FLEX / X TEN / ROUSE. Clue "X TEN" as, I dunno, "decuple"? Otherwise I liked the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteATTN is a common abbreviation. XTEN is completely meaningless.
DeleteROUSe doesn't imply the rudeness part, but ROUST does. (From Merriam-Webster: to drive (as from bed) roughly or unceremoniously.)
Delete"Rouse" lacks the rudeness connotation of "roust" and therefore doesn't fit the clue. Sure, if you're gonna suggest changing the answers, you could also change the clues. But as Anon729 notes, "ATTN" is common parlance and "roust" isn't in any way performing acrobatics to accommodate "ATTN". "Roust" is a great (and as clued, entirely apt) answer in its own right.
Deleteenjoyed this much more after reading your post Malaika! i totally missed the details of the quip theme! that said imo this was way too easy for a Wednesday— 5:48 for me.
ReplyDeleteI don’t mind a puzzle with a dumb bit of doggerel, but I really dislike puzzles constructed around some torturous post hoc conceit. This puzzle was boringly easy, & once I was done I labored through the explanations about why it was actually clever. No, a clever puzzle is one that forces me to be clever to solve it.
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteThat's my response, too. This went twice as fast as yesterday's puzzle for me but didn't feel fun at all. Reading explanations of the theme after the fact is just a big "OK, whatever."
DeleteHand up for 'would have been better without the circles'.
ReplyDeleteASHE and ASHY.
Nice avoidance of modern pop culture. Even Julia LOUIS Dreyfus first became famous more than thirty years ago.
Curious decision to go DOWDY/DENS rather than howdy/hens.
FLEA and PEST.
Without the circles there would be no joke. Everyone would just be like "It said it was a quip puzzle, but there was no quip!". It's the circles that give us the quip we otherwise would have missed.
DeleteI appreciate everyone’s explanations, and see that this was a very clever puzzle. Good April Fool! I didn’t get it while I solved and thought it was too easy. But I see it was well done.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that this puzzle shouldn’t have had circles is preposterous. What would you gain, exactly? You’d leave so many readers wondering wtf. Good editorial decision by Will to leave them in.
ReplyDeleteA nice , easy Monday- like puzzle. For 30 down, I thought it should be testing .”Test” seems off to me.🎈🎈🎊🎊
ReplyDeleteProps to Jess and Amie for sticking with this for two years to get it right. The rebel in me likes how it parodies quip puzzles because the theme answers don’t form a cogent saying or punchline.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked SECOND IN LINE. The other theme answers directly tell where the circled letter is in that answer, but SECOND IN LINE is more subtle. You gotta think a little harder to figure it out, as it’s not the second letter in that answer.
I liked seeing the sing-song BOGIE / DOWDY / INDIE / ASHY / VEGGIE – try saying that five times fast. I loved [Bone that squeaks, maybe], which had me cataloging human bones (and I think I actually have one that squeaks) – lovely misdirect. Also, after filling in CASH for [Alternative to check or card], lovely to see VISA as the next answer.
CRYPT, ROUST, and TACIT are words I love.
So, much to like for me. This puzzle had a sweet feel, and that’s a lovely way to start the day. Thank you, Jess and Amie!
Well, they fooled me! I tried a search for "QUICK START, YOUNG AT HEART," got nothing, and turned to Wordplay. D'oh! Great theme, from hindsight.
ReplyDeleteAnd they really set you up--the first two themers rhyme, and you can sort of imagine the third one relating--but then you finally get PAY UP FRONT from the crosses, and it's like hitting a brick wall. Well played!
Maybe it would be better if there was only one I in the third themer, and only one P in the fourth. But if you just treat them as cryptic clues (that is, clues from the CRYPT--and what are those mummies doing down there in a church basement?) then they are perfectly fine.
8:47. Personal best for a Wednesday. Never heard of a quip puzzle before. Didn’t get the trick. But the phrases fell into place pretty easily.
ReplyDeleteNever heard the word ROUST before, thought it was ROUSE. Learned something new.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteThanks Malaika for uncovering the other aspect of the Theme that completely whooshed over my head. Did not catch the letter placements as where they were description things, just thought they were circled letters that spelt QUIP.
Elevated the puz quite a bit after that. Really didn't have a good feeling about this puz while solving. Was trying to get the "Quips" as one complete saying, but turns out, they are four different stand-alone phrases. Must be the April Fools aspect of messing with the solver.
To further my disdain, there were a lot of Abbrvs., -ese, and some repeated clues. I really thought Rex would tear this apart. Wonder what he would've said.
But, after Malaika explained the actual double meaning Theme, it hits all the right notes. Got an appreciation for it after the fact.
Hope y'all don't get too tricked today! Have a great Wednesday, and Happy April Fools Day.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I kept wanting the four theme answers to make sense together as some sort of saying. Like, y’know, as a quip. The first two rhymed, then…. Pffft. The theme was lost on me.
ReplyDeleteThe crossword puzzle part wasn’t too bad. Hopefully quite a few of us will get the joke, as there are not many things in CrossWorld that are more of a boring slog than a quip puzzle where the quip doesn’t mean anything to the solver, as was the case for me today.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, even having Malaika explain the stunt/gimmick/joke to me didn’t result in much more than a shrug. Apparently, nature must have a use for these types of grids since they keep showing up.
Had the same annoyance as others at seeing QUIP 1, QUIP 2, etc. Solved it like I always do… completely ignore the theme answers and hope I can get the puzzle 90% done on just fill and then the themers might make sense.
ReplyDeleteEven after getting all four themers from crosses I kept trying to read it and find some stupid pun/joke. It took several tries before I noticed that QUICK and QUIP both START the same. Only then did I notice the circled squares, and even then it took a while to get the “joke” of each themer.
Solved it like a themeless... came here to find out if there was more to the theme than I was seeing, since the answers all felt unrelated. I do appreciate the extra layer that the phrases describe the position of their letters, now that it's been pointed out...
ReplyDeleteRelatively Easy. The thing that held me up the most was really, Really wanting it to be Apple Brown "betty", but that wasn't meshing with MICKEY D'S coming down (which felt like that had to be right), and so DOWDY had to await every cross. And I wasn't cluing in to the love emoji (EYES), because I wasn't imagining a face but some other (indeterminate) emoji thing. And I wasn't expecting Beverly Cleary to be writing about a PEST either (I picture cute mice on motorbikes or some such).
ReplyDeleteI GOTTA SAY, "gussied up" sounds like such an old-fashioned phrase, from an era where I don't think of HOT DATES as common parlance. So that felt like a tonal mismatch.
But the entries themselves, and the grid itself, were pleasing to the EYES, and the needle scratch moment of PAY UP FRONT was a nice touch for this April Fool's puzzle. OH NEAT, I say. Good one.
Speaking of which: have a good one!
See, now's I wish I had tried a little harder to see what the circles were doing as they justified the whole puzzle. Rats.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise Monday-easy . Liked MICKEYDS and IGOTTASAY but was expecting HOLDMYBEER for WATCHTHIS, which is fine. I never like ASHY but it was somewhat corrected by ASHE. And for those of you wondering (nobody) what Como ESTA usted means, you don't have far to go to get the translation--How ARE you.
ATEN? Really? I remember when this was clued as "sun disc". And what happened to ATTN?
Nice theme and execution, JS and AW. I Just Should have noticed A Work of art sooner, and thanks for some puzzling fun.
But it is ATTN, and it crosses ROUST.
DeleteAha! I'm even slower than I thought this morning. Thanks.
DeleteEasy puzzle. Didn't "get" the theme. Still don't, really. Doesn't matter. not going to spend any more time on it.
ReplyDeleteWhen will mr. Shortz dig up the initial upside down question mark? I’ve seen it in the Times.
ReplyDeleteSkews very old
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the puzzle and have to say that my understanding of the theme was a conglomeration of @Roo, @jberg, and @pabloinnh. At the end of the puzzle I read out the quip(s) my first thought was it sounded like the kind of thing we might chant while jumping rope in grade school. Very clever April Fool’s Day theme with a cryptic subtext that I didn’t glean until I read Malaika.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fun and all the work you put into this Jess Shulman and Amie Walker!
A little LASS SASS in a puzzle goes a long way in my book.
ReplyDeleteI always pictured IKEAS a guy who'd avoid Snödrottning pillow cases. Who knew?
Imagine that! Three different things you can make a non-meat burger out of: SOY, VEGGIEs and HOTDATES. Of course the TREEFROG eats at IHOP.
I got really mad at a fella in the library the other day, but not wanting to make a scene I LOCUST.
I note the slightly dupey appearance of ASH in both ASHY and ASHE. The problem is, though, if you take it out of either one, you're staring at a big ASH hole.
I like paintings hot off the easel. The YOUNGATHEART the better.
OHNEAT puzzle. Got me into the April Fools mood. Thanks, Jess Shulman and Amie Walker.
P.S. I will no longer engage in bad puns and worse wordplay. On Sunday through Thursday puzzles I'll simply relate that I solved it as a themeless. Fridays and Saturdays my comments will be something akin to "worst puzzle ever".
I’ve been well trained here to go “ugh, quip puzzle” even though I don’t mind them every once in a while, particularly on relevant occasions. Nice April Fool’s diversion.
ReplyDeleteI like the early commenter who didn’t get the conceit, then proclaimed that they shouldn’t have had the circles:)
I initially thought there might be some kind of rebus, assuming LOUIS had an E on the end. Then MACDONALDS didn’t fit. Like pabloinnh, I wish I would have spent more time trying to figure this out, but a nice AHA to come here and discover it.
I wanted an Apple BETTY, and still do:)
Funny comments here about IHOP!!
I suspect the constructors had a good time creating this puzzle. They were challenged to form the idea. They were entertained by coming up with the pretend QUIP and then figuring out how to add the real trick by inserting the four gotcha letters. Then they smiled with satisfaction while thinking what a fun joke this would be. That’s the thing about April Fool pranks … they should be funny. And a Wednesday crossword should be challenging and satisfying. This was a well put together puzzle with good intentions but for me, those qualities didn’t fully translate to the solve.
ReplyDeleteAgree. And what's worse, I just did the LA Times puzzle, thinking, this one will be more fun, and I didn't get the joke at all and had to ask AI for an explanation, which referred to something I've never heard of. So now I feel even older than I felt yesterday! Sigh.
Deleteso easy that i successfully completed it as s downs-only and didn't have to suffer the pain of the theme.
ReplyDeleteI like Cryptic puzzles so I'm ashamed that I didn't get the significance of the "quip" answers until Malaika explained all. Now it seems so obvious!
ReplyDeleteWithout confirming with crosses, I splatzed in Free at 54A and wondered what kind of collar was Free. Later, it became clear that Free was wrong. Others can't hear if you say something ArOUD.
Thanks, Jess and Amie, nice theme, too bad it went over my head.
I only hope @egs does not follow through on his promise to stop making bad puns. Thought the puzzle was some silly fun and didn’t appreciate the full idea until reading Malaika’s review. Agree it was one of the easiest Wednesdays ever.
ReplyDelete#TeamLewis 😉
ReplyDeletePretty easy for me but it was a kinda boring puzzle. i was clueless about the quip theme until I read Malaika’s write up and even then I got bored figuring it out. A few write overs here and there starting at 1 Across and ROUST.
ReplyDeleteNo me culpes.
ReplyDeleteWell, the Times has made it reasonably clear humor isn't their strong suit, and if this is their April Fools "joke," we should be glad NPR exists for "comedy" backup. Congrats to the judge out there who decided one deranged cult leader shouldn't decide weather national broadcasting is funded. Doesn't seem like a hard conclusion to reach, but our judiciary seems like they're trying to make me look smart these days.
I kid of course. Nothing is ever gonna make me look smart and this is a wonderful puzzle. And in last year's April fooler they dropped AITCH on us, so, ya know, baby steps.
Never heard of an apple pan dowdy, but Golly GOSH they look delicious.
EEK, big fan of mummies and crypts, so the rest of the puzzle gets a free pass.
It's not AHAS, it's OHOS.
And most people say TESTING when trying out a microphone, or they sing Danny Boy like Moira Rose. I'm teaching Danny Boy on ukulele this session. Word after jumping: FLEA. Danny Boy barely fits on the instrument. How about that high note singers?
People: 8
Places: 1
Products: 6
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 76 (30%)
Funny Factor: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: RUMP.
Uniclues:
1 Apology note to my credit card.
2 Epitaph on four royal tombs. (Really great job Hank.)
3 Where you go when she's pretty, but not prettier than French toast.
4 The credo of the old white man.
5 How a meh patoot feels in a world of fabulous fannies.
1 BLAME CASH, VISA
2 NOT-ANNE CRYPT
3 I-HOP HOT DATES (~)
4 "I GOTTA SAY ALOUD..."
5 SOSO RUMP TENSE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: I think you should be furious the space ship was made by Tillamook. MAC UFO? GET MAD..
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I solved pretty quickly without having any idea what this was about - Quip? April Fool's theme? I'll read the comments now & find out.
ReplyDeleteHappy April Fool's Day, Ladies :)
To me this puzzle was a bait and switch. They make you think that the solve will unearth some wise or witty saying. And then in the end all you have is instructions for how to spell the word quip. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked this more as a themeless with real clues for 17,27,43,57. The trick was sort of a nothing burger.
ReplyDeleteShoo fly pie and apple pan DOWDY.
ReplyDelete