Fri., 3/20 Jeffrey Wechsler

[magus]

THEME:   one of double P's removed in phrases   
      
GOOD ONES:       
Soup type {& theme}   SPLIT PEA      
Were shirts may be lost   STRIPOKER      
One sending out bills   ATM      
Field guard   TARP   [I thought umpires, etc.]   
Suddenly inspired   GASPED [I thought by my muse]      
Tao follower?   ISM      
Grey area?   OLD WEST   [Zane Grey wrote western novels]   
Small, made smaller   LIL [the word SMALL is reduced to three letters]      
Late bloomer?   ASTER      
      
BTW:      
Test metaphor  A BEAR   BEAR is the metaphor, not the indefinite article   --- so on my test this would be marked wrong --- those doing poorly on my test would call it a bear; those doing well would call it a breeze   
      
RATING:       
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun      

[Thomps2525]

When I saw that SPLITPEASOUP was a hint to the theme, I assumed the theme answers would start with P or PE and end with EA or E. It turned out that the theme answers are two-word phrases in which the first word ends with P and the second word starts with P. Only one P appears in the answer, though, which means the P is not "split"---rather, it is shared.

Another crossword in today's Times was titled "Cerebral." The theme answers were NOBLEMINDEDNESS, SELFEXAMINATION and PENCILSHARPENER. That last answer may not seem cerebral...but it is. The clue is "Puzzle solver's need."*

*Except for those of us who use a pen. 

[magus]

Split is another term for shared.

[Thomps2525]

In that case, I think I'll go down to Baskin-Robbins and order a banana shared.