Thu., 7/16 Rick Papazian

[magus]

THEME:   phrases contains ROLE spelled backward
   
GOOD ONES:    
Psychodrama technique {& theme}  ROLE REVERSAL   
   
BTW:   
Two clues exhibiting a tin ear:   
   "Oh, I see"   AH SO [I might accept "I see" without the "Oh."  However, "Ah, so" is used in jest suggesting "now I get it."  "Oh, I see" suggests a serious recent understanding.]
   Tick off   INCENSE ["Tick off" suggests to annoy, even up to anger.  "Incense" is used to define intense anger --- the other end of the spectrum.]
   
"Egad!"   ACK [perhaps on some internet word list, but ACK has nothing to do with Egad --- Egads!]   
   
   
RATING:    
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

"Ack!" was often uttered by Cathy in Cathy Guisewite's self-titled comic strip and by Bill the Cat in Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County comic strip, which ended its run in 1989; Breathed re-launched the strip on July 13, 2015, so he could make fun of Donald Trump:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/13/422545636/bloom-county-2015-berkeley-breathed-revives-comic-strip

Today's crossword includes BOLAS, OSA, SIESTA and SOIR. Is it really that difficult to make a puzzle without using foreign words? Or OREO?  And "Low mark" is DEE. I do not like seeing spelled-out letters in crosswords. Teachers who grade students' papers assign grades of A, B, C, D or F. I have never heard of a teacher writing a big red "bee" or "cee" or "dee" on a paper. Each letter of the alphabet is fine just the way it is. We know how to pronounce each one. They do not need to be spelled out. Who ever came up with those spellings anyway? And why?

[Thomps2525]

The Daily News crossword includes this clue: "Cartoonist Bushmiller, creator of Nancy." Ummm.....not quite.  Bushmiller was drawing a comic strip called Mac the Manager. In 1925, he replaced Larry Whittington on the Fritzi Ritz strip. In early 1933, Bushmiller added Fritzi's niece Nancy to the strip. She became more and more popular and eventually the name of the strip was changed to Nancy. The clue should have referred to the character and not to the comic strip.

By the way, in Patrick McDonnell's Mutts strip there is a girl named Bushy. Her name is a tribute to Ernie Bushmiller. Bushy has the same hairstyle as Nancy, with all those little black lines protruding all around. The Nancy strip is still being drawn in 2015. Guy Gilchrist is the current artist.