Fri., 12/4 Craig Stowe

[magus]

THEME:   the corners of the grid have the names of fictional cats
   
GOOD ONES:     
Diagonal {& theme}   KITTYCORNER   
Leftovers   OTHERS   

   
BTW:   
"Yoo-Hoo"   HERE I AM [possible, but mostly it's "Hello there" or "Hey"]   
   
Pebby Lee specialty   TORCH SONG [they were sad love songs named from the expression "burning a torch for" meaning mourning a loss of a lover]   
   
   
Pulls a Charmin shenanigan, briefly   TPS [TPS=toilet papers, meaning to deface property with toilet paper, a brand of which is Charmin]   

   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

Today's crossword has a cute theme but the word "kittycorner" really has nothing to do with cats. The Grammarist.com website explains that "Catty-corner, kitty-corner and cater-cornered all derive from the Middle English catre-corner, literally meaning four-cornered. All three forms are used throughout the English-speaking world. They usually mean positioned diagonally across a four-way intersection but they can work in other contexts relating to one thing being diagonal from another. Most dictionaries recommend cater-cornered but kitty-corner and catty-corner are more common in actual usage. The past-participial forms—i.e., kitty-cornered and catty-cornered—might be more grammatically correct but the uninflected forms are more common."

http://grammarist.com/usage/catty-corner-kitty-corner/