Su., 10/18 Kathleen Fay O'Brien

[magus]

THEME:   CH added to the sound of a phrase changes its meaning
   
GOOD ONES:    
Vacant seat you only thought you saw?   CHAIR APPARENT ["heir apparent"]   
What Alice's adventures began with?   CHASE IN THE HOLE ["ace in the hole"]   
Old story   MYTH   
Driven drove   HERD   
   
BTW:   
Stereotypical pooch   FIDO [yes, and it's one of the rarest dog names]   

ENDE is German only.   
   
Louis XV furniture style   ROCOCO [UGLY didn't fit]   
   
Jefferson Airplane genre   ACID ROCK [it's debatable, but not in my book --- Jimi Hendrix is acid:   
   "Acid rock is a subgenre of psychedelic rock, which is characterized by long instrumental solos, few (if any) lyrics, and musical improvisation."
   Neither the Airplane nor The Doors fits this description, but Hendrix does]
   
Thing south of the border   COSA [exactly!  Why not go with what is actually used in our language as in Cosa Nostra?]   
   
You don't have to turn its pages   E-BOOK [Speaking of such things, (abashed plug  ) I have one on Kindle/Amazon called A Second Encyclical, which is not  everybody's cup of tea, but a few liked it. (It's free if you're an Amazon premium member, otherwise it's a costly $1.99.)]   
   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[rbe]

We named our dog Fido, and always got a lot of comments on that.
You're too modest, your book has a 5 star rating on Amazon.

[Thomps2525]

"Louis XV furniture style   ROCOCO [UGLY didn't fit]"

If anyone ever claims that Mister magus has no sense of humor, I will disagree and cite the above.

David Kahn's crossword in today's Daily News is titled "For Variety's Sake." It includes SNL and the program's intro LIVEFROMNEWYORK/ITSSATURDAYNIGHT plus the names of two people who have frequently served as guest host, STEVEMARTIN and ALECBALDWIN. But wait---there's more! Circled letters within each of eight answers form the last names of former Saturday Night Live stars:

CARROTCAKE - ROCK
PORTABLESHELTERS - POEHLER
EASTERPARADE - SPADE
HANDWARMER - HADER
GRANDSTANDER - RADNER
SAFELY ("One way to get home") - FEY
WINING ("Dining partner?") - WIIG
MYAUTOBIOGRAPHY ("Charlie Chaplin book") - MURPHY

"Cockeyed" is ALOP. "Alop" is not in my dictionary. I did a Google search for the word. Neither the word nor its definition is listed on any website or online reference book. Is it a real word or did David Kahn make it up?

"In the, in Italy" is NEI, which is not used in English.
"Padre's hermano" is TIO, which is not used in English.
"Those girls, in French" is ELLES, which is not used in English.
"All-inclusive, in edspeak" is ELHI, which I have never seen anywhere except in crossword puzzles. I'm not sure "edspeak" is used in English either! Perhaps ELHI and "edspeak" are crosswordpuzzlespeak.