Let's play a game. It's called "Find The Theme":
Potato expert? KINGOFSPUDS
Inept painter? MUCKUPARTIST
Good-natured complaint? SMILEYFUSS
Everything you eat? GUTRECEIPTS
Fashion show photographer? STRUTSHOOTER
Shore breezes caused by flapping wings? GULLFORCEWINDS
Prop for the gravedigger scene in Hamlet? SKULLMODEL
Skilled diver's advantage? JUMPINGOFFPLUS
The title of Nora Pearlstone's crossword in today's Los Angeles Times is "Wait, what?" It took me a while to understand the title. Each of the eight theme answers is a familiar phrase but with the "ay" sound replaced by an "uh" sound, such as what would happen if "wait" changed to "what." One cute clue in the puzzle is "Bee team" for SWARM.
"Computer stylus battery" is AAAA. Yes, there is a battery smaller than AAA.....and a lot harder to find, too. The 1½-volt AAAA battery is also used in laser pointers and glucose meters.
Today's New York Times crossword by Mary Lou Guizzo is titled "All You Need" -- a reference to the Beatles' 1967 hit All You Need Is Love -- and, like the February 14 Los Angeles Times crossword, has a grid which includes black squares in the shape of a heart. Unlike the Los Angeles Times crossword, this one includes several song titles, movie titles and other phrases with the word "love" being replaced by a heart in a single square. Among the answers:
♥MEDO
♥TRIANGLE
♥TAKESTIME
♥LETTER
TOUGH♥
TOSIRWITH♥
CANYOUFEELTHE♥TONIGHT
"When doubled, an old college cry" is BOOLA. Boola Boola, written in 1900 by Yale student Allan Hirsh, is the fight song of the Yale University football team. It was adapted from an 1898 song titled La Hoola Boola. The words do not mean anything, although some historians think "boola" is a reference to a "bowl" or stadium.
"Get back together" is REUNE. That feeble attempt to make a verb from the word "reunion" is not in very many dictionaries. If "reune" becomes more commonly used, other dictionaries may add the word. After all, in the 1920s, the verb "liaise," meaning "to form a liaison," gained popularity and is now in all dictionaries. Fifty years earlier, "burgle" became accepted as a verb referring to the act of a burglar. Other attempts to make verbs out of nouns have failed to gain acceptance, e.g., "buttle" ("to do the work of a butler"). I'm just happy that nobody has tried to use "puzz" as a verb meaning "to solve crossword puzzles."
