Yes, today's crossword by Kevin Salat is indeed where it's at – or where it is
not at, depending upon which answer you're looking at. This is Salat's second published crossword. His first appeared April 4 in the
Los Angeles Times, [/i]Washington Post[/i] and several other newspapers and included APPELLATEJUDGE, INSURANCEAGENT and UNDERWEARMODEL, each of which is a nine-letter word followed by a five-letter word. The puzzle's theme was NINETOFIVEJOBS. Today he outdid himself in the categories of "clever" and "creative":
Play part for a giant god? TITANLINES
Musician evoking compassion? PITIEDPIPER
For-display-only Greek deli items? FAUXPITAS
Alien with high heat tolearnce? SUNVISITOR
Bachelor's pad? SINGLEDIGS
Einstein's asset? GREATBRAIN
Twenty minutes of juggling and acrobatics? SHORTCIRCUS
Resist extra calories at Thanksgiving? DENYGRAVY
Four answers are familiar terms – tan lines, pied piper, faux pas, sun visor – with IT added. Four answers are familiar terms – single digits, Great Britain, short circuits, deny gravity – with IT removed. The puzzle's title is "Abracadabra!" The central answer, clued with "Magic words," is NOWYOUSEEITNOWYOUDONT. Each of the four pairs of IT-added and IT-removed answers share a horizontal row. "Now you see IT, now you don't."
If you're interested in learning how to do do
real "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" magic, here are two helpful videos:
"How to make something disappear":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YweCSmsH_e0"How to make any small object vanish":
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Any-Small-Object-Vanish/"Ear piece" is COB. Cute. "Aussie college" is UNI. I first thought the answer would be the initials of a university. I was wrong. Apparently Australian college students have a difficult time pronouncing the five-letter word "university" so they shorten it to "uni."
"Grammar best-seller" is WOEISI.
Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide To Better English In Plain English was written by former
New York Times Book Review editor Patricia O'Conner. An expanded fourth edition of the book was published in February 2019. And no, she does not say "Woe is me" should be "Woe is I" or "Woe am I." It is indeed a grammatically correct expression. The dative case is not used in modern English but it was common in Old English. In the phrase "Woe is me," "me" is a dative pronoun and the word "to" or "unto" is implied: "Woe is unto me." Grammar expert Jonathan Owen explains further:
http://www.arrantpedantry.com/2015/02/11/why-is-it-woe-is-me/I will now make myself disappear. Now you see me, now you don't. *Poof!*
