Cat Lady Margaret

At last! The proof that when various commenters say NO NO! to rebuses, they are actually saying YES!

I expect I’ll wake up tomorrow morning to find out I haven’t done the puzzle yet.

Step one: pick two three letter names. Let’s say DEB and GUS. Step two: find actual words that contain those names: guiDEBook and disGUSt. That was easy! Step three: check that when you trade names you still get actual words: guiGUSook and disDEBt. Uhoh. Step four: return to step one. This is why we admire our constructors for what they do!

Unhappy comments on a twisty Thursday? CROSSCROSSWORDSWORDS (Does not apply to fun Sundays!)

“Wee sleeken cowrin ogreish beastie” Thus reads the first line of “To a Mouse II” by Robert Burns.

Alas, poor Reykjavik. Always excluded from themes like this!

Oh, anagrams. I was waiting for zany hybrid products, like so: Merger of HOSTESS and PETCO: they sell catnip twinkies. EPSON and CHASE: financing for ink cartridges. FORD and WALGREENS: antifreeze mouthwash. But I guess I’m just in a mood.

For approximately 3 nanoseconds I wanted ORIGAMI to be “from the Greek”, ha.

OK, I tried my hand at this theme idea. It took 10 minutes to type on my phone, so you only get the one: | X | | Y | | X | | Y | | X Y | | X Y | ZIPPER MERGE

And the gold medal goes to… Paolo! How often does one gasp “oh wow” when first opening the puzzle? The BLUEPRINT gave the blueprint for how this would work, so it wasn’t the hardest thing ever, but it was fun to zip around the rings filling them in. The hardest thing was navigating the colors to know which entry I was on. Got a little dizzy- just like I would if attempting any of the amazing physical feats the Olympians perform. Oh well we all have our talents. Today I won a gold medal in raspberry picking.

Well, some say we are living in a post-truth world now. But we here in Crosslandia still know the difference between 20 & 21, 14 & 15, Wednesday and Thursday. We cannot be fooled! Thanks to this puzzle for making sure we’ve still got what it takes, and have a little fun too.

Okay, I tried it out, below, but many of Caryn’s really made me laugh! Bagels! Eleven! Hee hee! “I’ve got two imaginary aunts who help me avoid boring social events” EMERGENCY RELATIONS “Request to the only competent person around the campfire” DO THE RELIGHT THING “Mom’s calling for us to come in for dinner, again” THAR SHE BELLOWS

A guard, a barber, a chef, and a miner walk into a puzzle. The barber is thrilled to find the MOHAWKS right away. The chef leaves in a huff because RAMSAY was already sitting there. The guard MAKES PEACE among some tipsy patrons. The miner looks around for the ORE - it’s almost always there - and, not finding it, says “What is this, a joke?” (Hi, Steve L, you read my mind!)

I especially appreciate the image that the mom and dad in this story might be “uncool”, what with their mom jeans and dad bods, but still as cool as it gets when loving their child for who they are. Happy Pride to all.

I misread 16A as “Catcalls of the insurance industry.” “Hey baby, check out my copay!” “Let me help explain your benefits!” “We might have to deny a claim that cute!” I’ll stop now.

This puzzle: Another example of how OCCAM always leads to the simplest and correct solution!

DELINT: activity that follows yesterday’s HERDING CATS. I speak from experience.

I enjoy how often a “pithy quote fill in the blank” clue can have several possible words that make for just as pithy a quote. “STYLE is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a da(rn)”, but so is: POWER NERVE CLASS CHAOS TRUTH BEING GLORY FAITH YOUTH GRACE HEART PEACE TASTE This concludes my poem, “Thirteen ways of looking at Gore Vidal”

At last! A puzzle in which *every single entry* is a Spoonerism!

Some people have a rhyming friend called GAL PAL - they pass the time playing rhyme games. Me, I have a POTATO BUD. We compare good storage varieties, discuss leaf hopper control, and exchange recipes.

Finished, glancing over the clues and answers. That’s when I wondered: how come no ice cream truck uses Dies Irae for a jingle? Day of wrath, day of doom, Ice cream truck! Out we zoom! How much can we all consume? Eat too much: be my guest! Grant us all eternal rest.

These were fun! Did you know?! Many people mistakenly use “kilowatt” and “kilowatt-hour” interchangeably. POWER POINT I’m sure the other folks on our wordplay pub trivia team will have some more.

At long last, this puzzle reveals the reason behind one of the incomprehensible irritating features of some store-bought clothing: LADIES’ PANTS: no pockets!!!

Note to self: don’t call my sweetie “PORKCHOP” by mistake.

Hey, this SET of all SETS was fun! When I got to the second SET I briefly wondered if I was wrong, but then by the third I was all SET! and ready to SET down the remaining ones in the grid. Complaints about this puzzle = empty SET.

How to eat the pizza: Open the box and see the unusual shape. Frisson of wondering what’s ahead. Start in bite by bite. After three or six or eight bites, realize most things don’t fit. Realize it has to be a stuffed crust! Stop trying to make the stuffing special. Just do what needs to be done. Whoa, are those the pepperonis?! Finish off the enjoyable meal with a dessert of delicious constructor notes.

Hope no one grew B(alder) scratching their head over this, nor had to S(oak) in a cool tub to calm down, nor suffered any spasms of the S(pine) from crouching over their device.

I read “Hallmark of a typical Greek tragedy” a little too fast, and it conjured some possible greeting cards: “Jocasta, Happy Mother’s Day! from Oedipus” “Jason, Happy Anniversary, love Medea” “Feel better soon, Prometheus!”

Hey, what about these entries in the puzzle that turn the other corners? FUNKS SANKA: the drink you need when even coffee won’t cheer you up. TACOS SEER: they will tell your future in exchange for two carne asada. IRATE EDITH: she really doesn’t like your new adaptation of Ethan Frome. PIBB BULLET: latest trend in energy drinks.

Noice! It’s only missing an inflatable frog somewhere in the grid.

Haha, kept me guessing and laughing right up to the giddyup. Because we had the other Frost poem a few days ago, I tried my hand at this: THERE’RE TWO ROADS HOW I HATE CHOICES ONE HAS MORE GRASS DO NOT INVITE FOMO Anyone want to try turning Ozymandias or Hamlet into four lines of 15? Let’s hear ‘em!

Anyone else have a kitchen drawer like this: Six Phillips screwdrivers but not a single flat one; Ten year old useless rubber bands; Little plywood marker showing “1” and “2” for remembering which side of the waffle is cooking; Laser pointer cat toy; Loose paper clips and thumbtacks (ow); Batteries, dead or alive; Large thing wedged back there that prevents drawer from opening fully; Possibly a few actual misplaced UTENSILS; And, oh yes: the shears for cutting a bouquet from the garden. Here, have some daffodils, everybody.

My ongoing series of interesting wrong answers: Caitlin Clark is a SHENOM. I guess I made that up, but it seemed apt. A Good Samaritan is an ALIEN. As in, a person from another land who was able to treat a stranger with humanity. Most of my wrong answers make me laugh, but this one made me sigh.

I think the block saying HOLY SMOKES! UPSET ALERT: MEAT SWEATS makes a vivid image of a BBQ gone horribly wrong. Fill in your own particulars.

XOXO to this fun puzzle! And now… If you want to DO WELL in life, DWELL on the positives. The victorious sportsball team got many SHOUT OUTS for their back to back SHUT OUTS. Our Captain Q always CLAMS UP (shudder) whenever any kind of CLAM SOUP is mentioned. The FLAMINGO has a FLAMING color, seems obvious now that you point it out.

Tonight, tonight, It’s Sam Ezersky, right? It might befog, but it won’t be cliche. Tonight, tonight, We’ll all feel heard tonight, Eres mía, on the rez, anyway! Today, all day my knee caps had a feeling, Some errata could happen, But I know “mice” is right! Big cheese with bread, And through the grid we sped, Tonight!

This one brought to you by tomorrow’s weather: “Aaargh! I’ve lost my glasses again!! Why is the world against me?! I can’t bear it!” SQUINTER STORM

This puzzle was certainly not “Waldorf/Dressed”. On second thought, maybe all crossword puzzles are - WORD SALAD. In the best way - yummy.

“Mariana trench, still waters, the meaning of life, Death Valley, Chicago pizza, Lake Baikal.” After their escapades with my Shakespeare, I hope the emus don’t DEEP SIX this one.

Here it comes…my usual game: (Hi Barry!) Someday a solution will be found to balance the people with OODLES of wealth with those who are FOODLESS. An OMANI felt included when he had to relocate to ROMANIA. IF AT ALL possible, work on your FATAL flaws in therapy. The girl scout troop had to create a new rank, EMERITA, for scouts who had earned every single MERIT badge and had nothing more to aim for. Fans of Mel TORME STORMED the stage to experience the Velvet Fog up close.

In tonight’s category of Word Immediately Supplied by Brain That Is Almost Certainly Wrong But Hey It Could Be Right: “they act as one” = BLOBS

We haven’t had a nit about parasites lately (ever?) so I’m here to point out that the *cause* of sleeping sickness is Trypanosoma brucei, rather than the tsetse fly which is just the vector. Yeah, I know, the clue is still okay. Just need to nit a nit once or twice a year! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Tell Mr Holmes to use his indoors voice? Top of the line product at the plumbing supply store? NO SHOUT, SHERLOCK TRUE GROUT And if you’d like a laugh about the USES of a cell phone, check this from 2005: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/05/getting-started" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/05/getting-started</a>

AIR KISSES to Deb, our Wordplay ENERGY BAR. WHAT IS ART? Her ability to elucidate, encourage, and amuse. THEY SAY she’ll be a hard act to follow!

Have you ever done a traffic rotary going around twice before you figured out where to exit? Yeah no, me neither. But if I ever do, I’ll know what to cry out to the other confused motorists: RAMA LAMA LAMA DING DONG DONG! (P.S. adding this puzzle to my faves of 2024 list!)

(Across): length of pole some solvers wouldn’t touch this kind of puzzle with (Across): how many of this kind of puzzle other solvers might feel you could get for a dime (Down): the number of minutes of fame you might get from helping your kid with their multiplication facts (Down): which ball the math-phobic solvers might be behind when they saw what was going on here 5 x 2 x x 3 x 4 As for me, I loved it! Using the crosses still works great for numbers.

“Weird are clues these” I thought as I looked over the first few acrosses. “Downs to switch better!” “Verbs as masquerading nouns!” “List Griddies to add!”

Hey, one of these could’ve been an entry in yesterday’s puzzle too: “Drab green hidey hole for pointy jawed fish” OLIVE GAR DEN Yes, this was an OG clue you’ve never seen before and never will again!

The appearance of Zeno makes me think of some lesser known corollaries to his famous paradox: Zeno’s paradox of the Mochi Donut: since you always have to eat half of what remains, do you ever finish it? Zeno’s Slomo paradox: you still never get there, but now five times slower. Zeno’s Free Advice paradox: the harder you try to give it, the less the recipient hears.