John Lampkin is a composer, musician and piano teacher living in New York. He began creating crosswords in 2008 and more than 100 of his puzzles have appeared in the
New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other publications. Today's is titled "All In Favor" and includes eight familiar phrases altered by the addition of "pro":
Positively charged vehicle? ONEPROTONTRUCK
Competition at the geometry fair? PROTRACTORPULL
Website search response with an attitude: PAGENOTPROFOUND
"I'll give you five bucks for your Egyptian water lily"? LOTUSPROPOSITION
Quality control job at a maraschino factory? PROBINGCHERRIES
"A penny saved is hardly worth the effort"? IRREGULARPROVERB
Miscreant handling letters: MAILINREPROBATE
Feature of Charlie Brown's head? CIRCULARPROFILE
The English word "pro" comes from the Latin
pro, which means "in front of'; in favor of'; on behalf of."
During the first several years of the
Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown's head was ovoid, not round. (And Snoopy walked on all fours like a normal dog.) Here is the first
Peanuts comic from October 2, 1950 -- and yes, Shermy's comment was shockingly mean-spirited:
http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1950/10/02"Writes ths clue, say" is ERRS. "Err" or "errs" appear quite frequently in crosswords. Puzzle makers have a difficult time coming up with different clues for a word that is used so often but today's clue was pretty clever.....or should I say "clevr"?
"
'Scuse Me While __ This Guy' & Other Misheard Lyrics: Gavin Edwards book" is IKISS. In the 1967 song
Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix sings, "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" but it does indeed sound more like "kiss this guy." In Creedence Clearwater Revival's
Bad Moon Rising, John Fogerty sings "There's a bad moon on the rise" but many people hear the line as "There's a bathroom on the right." Another misheard lyric is Queen's "Kickin' your can all over the place" from
We Will Rock You. Many people swear Freddie Mercury was saying "Kickin' your
cat all over the place." Ouch! More than 119,000 misheard lyrics are posted on the KissThisGuy website:
http://www.kissthisguy.comAnd now if you'll excuse me while I, uh, kiss the sky.
