BLATHER REVIEW

Cycle

Anybody into the Hot Stove League?

I made this crossword a few weeks ago and was so disappointed with it that I never bothered to clue it.

Then I realized that I'd forgotten to post last week.

So I looked at it again and, eh, it ain't as bad as I remember. So I just now finished it off and here 'tis.

Opens with Across Lite, as if you didn't know.
Click to solve.

And if anybody has any better theme ideas, let me know. I'm always in need of a theme idea.

Triangles are for the riff-raff

Djy'ever notice that you'll occassionally spot the same word in several differant crossword puzzles in the span of a few days? I don't mean words like ARIA and OREO -- words that appear in 300 puzzles a year. I mean coming across, say, SNAPDRAGON on Wednesday and then seeing it again on Thursday and twice on Friday.

I can't say that I like or dislike when that happens. Maybe it's just too weird to have a learned opinion about. But, then there are the times when you've just gotta sit back and enjoy the coincidences.

Last Friday, Matt Gaffney wrote about the amazing synchronicity of one of his crosswords with a previous (by a few months) puzzle by Mike Shenk. (Fascinating read. Check it out.)

On Sunday, we had two crosswords with the same theme (to add "QU" to a phrase); one by Peter Wentz (Los Angeles Times) and the other by Will Nediger (New York Times), and they even had one identical entry: "QUAINT MISBEHAVIN".

On Wednesday, Rex Parker left a comment over at Brendan Emmett Quigley's digs about maybe perhaps working on a crossword puzzle that contained some certain names that are currently the news.
I, being always on the lookout for a theme idea, followed the link and made a puzzle based on those names. Apparently, as evidenced by his Friday post, so did BEQ.

Not only do Brendan's four theme entries match four of mine (I have six theme entries total), but this also happens to happen on the day that he runs the photo (taken Wednesday) of me and my BEQ mug. (See above link.)

I was ready to scrap it and post a different puzzle, but... nah.

One advantage I have with posting mine second is that I have the benefit of reading the comments at BEQ's thread. Amy Reynaldo, in particular, hit the nail on the head when she wrote, "They have weirdly spelled first names and/or uncommon last names... This gives today's puzzle the air of a quote puzzle in which half the quote's in Hungarian." So, for those particular theme entries, I decided to employ one of Merl Reagle's favorite devices.

Enjoy. More original content coming soon, I hope. :)

Opens with Across Lite.
Click to solve.