Sun., 3/15 Ellerin & Chen

[magus]

THEME:   doubling an F in ordinary phrases yields odd phrases   
      
GOOD ONES:        
Complex airline route map?   THOUSAND POINTS OF (F)LIGHT      
What measures one's ability to endure traveling inconvenience?   DEGREE OF (F)RISK TOLERANCE      
Spirits that come in bottles   GENII [singular = genius]      
Sumatran swinger   ORANG [is there a Sumatran Sinatra?]      
Wise guy   SOLON [just the opposite of what it most often means]      
Johns of Scotland   IANS [I thought LOOS]      
Mag wheels  EDS [not the larger wheels on some cars]      
Dictator's assistant   STENO [I thought some bad guy; does anyone take dictation anymore, and if so, why?]      
Two masked men may be behind it   HOME [that is home plate: ump and catcher]      
      
BTW:      
They have heads   LAGER [needs "sometimes"]      
      
Grub   FARE [only barely are they the same]      
      
"Honest!"   IT IS [it is not, honest]      
      
IDEE and TOI   Nous ne parlons pas français ici
      
      
RATING:       
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun      

[Thomps2525]

SPOILER ALERT: Anyone who has access to today's crossword by Merl Reagle and has not yet solved it should stop reading now.

And now I started thinking about an old joke by Soupy Sales: "Be alert---the world needs more lerts." Anyway, Reagle's crossword grid today is difficult to describe but I shall try. The entire row of squares second from the bottom is black. The squares on the bottom row are not numbered. Each of twenty specific vertical answers is one letter too long to fit. The across clues have to be solved first because the letter that has to be removed from the vertical words is not consistent. Sometimes the first letter has to be removed, sometimes the second, et cetera. The letter that has to be removed is to be placed in the bottom square directly below. The grid can be seen at http://www.sundaycrosswords.com/ccpuz/MPuz.php

The title is "Book Notes" and the theme answers are puns involving names of authors who were members of a rock group from 1992 to 2012. They promoted literacy and are reuniting this month for a performance at the Tucson Festival of Books. The rock group's name, which is also the unclued answer on the bottom row of today's crossword, is Rock Bottom Remainders. (I gave Merl Reagle a plug on the band's Wikipedia page.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Bottom_Remainders